When selling anything, it’s vital you know who you are selling to. If you just open the phone book and start dialing random businesses, you probably won’t achieve much success. However, if you build an ideal customer profile (ICP), you can narrow the range and identify people most likely to need your product or service. From there, you can dig deeper into their problems and business operations because they match your ICP. The best in-person and virtual sales training programs can teach you how to build and implement an ICP. Here are a few things to know about building an ICP.
Building an ICP Starts with Identifying Problems
Before you have created your ICP, you should know what kind of problems your product can solve. For instance, let’s say there’s a new surfboard company in town that specializes in surfboards that are easy to handle and perfectly balanced. The problems they solve, balance and handling, are common among beginners, more so than professionals. So their ICP is a rookie surfboarder struggling to stay on the board. Similarly, your ICP should be a client who suffers significantly from all the problems your product is best positioned to solve. Take this profile and dive deeper into the details of their business. Describe what industry they are in, how many employees they have, how they operate, and how widespread their problems are. Now you can define your ICP in greater detail.
Use Your ICP to Organize and Rank Potential Clients
Once you have built your ICP, you can use it to organize and rank your prospects. The closer a client is to your ICP, the higher they should rank on your list. This list is important in deciding how much impact you can have on a client. If you can solve significant widespread problems in their company, you will have a considerable impact, and they should rank high on your list.
If the surfboard company sells surfboards that help beginners balance better, their ICP will be rookie surfboarders struggling to stay on the board. They solve many problems and offer a lot of value to these rookies. Veterans might still buy their boards, but they are far down on their priority list because they aren’t experiencing the same problems. With this ICP, the surfboard company can focus all of their sales efforts on beginners, improving their odds of success.
Focus on the Buyers Who Closely Match Your ICP
Now that you used your ICP to organize your clients, you can focus your energy accordingly. The best B2B and SaaS sales training will teach you how to show a client you can identify the root cause of their problems and solve them. By doing this, you will generate tons of interest in your product. Customers toward the top of your list experience a lot of problems that you can solve, and they should be your primary targets. You can spend your time and effort on buyers who are more likely to want to work with you.
If our surfboard company spent time selling surfboards to veterans who never fall, they wouldn’t make many sales. These buyers aren’t interested in something that helps them balance—they’re probably in the market for quicker, flashier boards. However, if they spend their time and money marketing towards beginners who fall a lot, they will make a huge impact and become a huge hit. Your ICP is all about learning who you should target and using this approach to sell to your prospect’s problems and their ideal future state.
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