# Ideal Customer Profile: [Product or business unit]

> A business-to-business ideal customer profile (ICP): the kind of
> organisation that gets the most value from the product, buys fastest
> and stays longest, described by firmographics, technology, buying
> triggers and disqualifiers, backed by evidence from won and lost
> deals, and turned into a fit score sales and marketing can apply.
> Based on common business-to-business marketing and sales practice.
> Replace every `[bracketed]` value and every row marked *Example*.

<!--
Guidance: How to use this template
- An ICP describes accounts (organisations). Buyer personas describe
  people inside them; use `product/persona` for those and link them in
  section 6.
- Build it from evidence, not opinion: pull the last 12 to 24 months of
  closed deals and current customers' retention before writing section 2.
- Keep it narrow. An ICP that matches every company tells sales nothing.
- Common pitfall: defining the ICP by deal size alone. Large deals that
  churn in a year or take 9 months to close are not ideal.
- The worked example is Larkspan, a fictional software company selling
  accounts-payable automation. All figures are invented.
-->

## Document control

<!-- Guidance: Owned jointly by marketing and sales. Review twice a year or after a pricing or product change. -->

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Document ID | [ICP-YYYY-01] |
| Product or unit | [Name] |
| Version | [0.1] |
| Status | [Draft / Approved / Superseded] |
| Owners | [@marketing-lead], [@sales-lead] |
| Reviewers | [@customer-success-lead], [@revops] |
| Evidence period | YYYY-MM-DD to YYYY-MM-DD |
| Last updated | YYYY-MM-DD |
| Next review | YYYY-MM-DD |

### Revision history

| Version | Date | Author | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | YYYY-MM-DD | [@owner] | First draft from deal analysis |
| [0.2] *(Example)* | YYYY-MM-DD | [@owner] | Moved 1,000+ employees to "stretch" tier after win-rate review |

## 1. Summary

<!-- Guidance: Two or three sentences a new sales hire can repeat. Name the size, situation and trigger. -->

[*Example:* Larkspan's ideal customer is a company with 200 to 999
employees that already runs a mid-market ERP, processes more than 1,500
supplier invoices a month by hand or by email, and has just added a
finance leader or entities. They feel the pain at month-end close and
can buy within a quarter.]

## 2. Evidence

<!-- Guidance: Show the data the profile is built on. Compare segments on win rate, sales cycle, contract value and retention. State the period and the sample size, and say where the sample is too small to trust. -->

Closed opportunities by segment *(Example, 24 months)*:

| Segment | Opportunities | Won | Win rate | Average contract value | Median cycle (days) | 12-month logo retention |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200 to 999 employees, ERP in use | 60 | 27 | 45.0% | $18,000 | 62 | 94% |
| 50 to 199 employees | 90 | 18 | 20.0% | $7,500 | 48 | 81% |
| 1,000+ employees | 30 | 4 | 13.3% | $42,000 | 140 | Too few to judge |
| **Total** | **180** | **49** | **27.2%** | | | |

Read: the first segment produced $486,000 of the $789,000 new contract
value won (27 x $18,000), with the highest win rate and retention.

Other evidence used:

- [*Example:* 14 interviews with customers in the top retention quartile]
- [*Example:* 22 coded win-loss interviews, see `sales/win-loss-analysis`]
- [*Example:* support ticket volume by segment in the first 90 days]

## 3. Firmographics

<!-- Guidance: Observable facts about the organisation that can be found before the first call. Mark each as must-have or nice-to-have. -->

| Attribute | Ideal | Acceptable | Must-have? | Data source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employees *(Example)* | 200 to 999 | 100 to 199 | Yes | Company data provider, LinkedIn |
| Industry *(Example)* | Wholesale distribution, light manufacturing, multi-site services | Professional services | No | Provider industry code |
| Region *(Example)* | Markets where we invoice in local currency: UK, Ireland, US | EU countries with partner support | Yes | Headquarters address |
| Legal entities *(Example)* | 2 to 10 | 1 | No | Company registry |
| Ownership *(Example)* | Private or private-equity backed | Listed | No | Public sources |
| [attribute] | [ideal] | [acceptable] | [Yes / No] | [source] |

## 4. Technology and operating situation

<!-- Guidance: What they already use and how they work today. Integration fit often decides deals. -->

| Attribute | Ideal | Why it matters | How to detect |
|---|---|---|---|
| ERP *(Example)* | One of our three native integrations | Setup in weeks, not months | Discovery question, job postings |
| Invoice volume *(Example)* | Over 1,500 per month | Enough volume for clear time savings | Discovery question |
| Current process *(Example)* | Email inbox and spreadsheets | Largest gap to close | Discovery question |
| [attribute] | [ideal] | [why] | [how] |

## 5. Buying triggers

<!-- Guidance: Events that make an ideal account likely to buy now. Triggers drive timing for outreach and ads. Name the signal source for each. -->

| Trigger ID | Trigger | Why it creates urgency | Signal source | Typical window |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TRG-01 *(Example)* | New finance leader hired | New leaders review processes in their first 90 days | Job change alerts | 30 to 120 days after start |
| TRG-02 *(Example)* | Acquisition or new entity | Invoice volume and approval chains grow | News, company registry | 0 to 6 months |
| TRG-03 *(Example)* | ERP migration announced | Process redesign is already under way | Job postings, partner referrals | During project planning |
| TRG-04 *(Example)* | Audit finding on payments | Control gap must be fixed | Customer conversation only | Next audit cycle |
| [TRG-05] | [trigger] | [why] | [source] | [window] |

## 6. Buying group

<!-- Guidance: Who is involved in the decision at an ideal account. Link full personas rather than repeating them. -->

| Role | Typical title | Cares about | Persona link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economic buyer *(Example)* | Chief financial officer | Close speed, control, cost | [`product/persona` file] |
| Champion *(Example)* | Accounts-payable manager | Fewer manual steps, fewer late fees | [persona] |
| Technical evaluator *(Example)* | ERP or IT lead | Integration, security review | [persona] |
| [role] | [title] | [cares about] | [link] |

## 7. Disqualifiers

<!-- Guidance: Hard reasons to stop pursuing an account, agreed by sales leadership. Disqualifiers save more time than any other section. -->

| ID | Disqualifier | Reason | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| DQ-01 *(Example)* | ERP with no supported integration and no budget for one | Implementation stalls, churn risk | 5 of 6 churned accounts in this group |
| DQ-02 *(Example)* | Under 300 invoices a month | Value too small to justify price | Win-loss coding |
| DQ-03 *(Example)* | Requires on-premises hosting | Product is cloud only | Product policy |
| [DQ-04] | [disqualifier] | [reason] | [evidence] |

## 8. Fit score

<!-- Guidance: Turn sections 3 to 5 into a simple score for routing and prioritising accounts. Weights should reflect the evidence in section 2. Check the score against past deals before using it. -->

| Criterion | Points | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Employee band *(Example)* | 25 | 25 if 200 to 999; 10 if 100 to 199; 0 otherwise |
| Supported ERP *(Example)* | 20 | 20 if native integration; 0 otherwise |
| Invoice volume *(Example)* | 20 | 20 if over 1,500 a month; 10 if 300 to 1,500 |
| Active trigger *(Example)* | 20 | 20 if any TRG within its window |
| Region *(Example)* | 15 | 15 if UK, Ireland or US; 5 if partner-supported EU |
| **Maximum** | **100** | |

Tiers *(Example)*: A = 75 or more (named account plays), B = 50 to 74
(programmatic marketing), C = under 50 (nurture only). Any disqualifier
overrides the score.

Worked scores *(Example)*: an account with 400 employees, a supported
ERP, 900 invoices a month, a new CFO and a UK head office scores
25 + 20 + 10 + 20 + 15 = 90 (tier A). One with 400 employees, an
unsupported ERP, 2,000 invoices, no trigger and a US head office scores
25 + 0 + 20 + 0 + 15 = 60 (tier B), but DQ-01 applies if there is no
integration budget.

## 9. How teams use the ICP

<!-- Guidance: Name the concrete changes each team makes. An ICP nobody operationalises is a slide. -->

| Team | Use | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing *(Example)* | Target account lists, ad audiences, content topics by trigger | [@demand-gen] |
| Sales development *(Example)* | Prioritise tier A, open with the active trigger | [@sdr-lead] |
| Sales *(Example)* | Qualify out disqualifiers in the first call | [@sales-lead] |
| Product *(Example)* | Integration roadmap follows ICP ERPs | [@pm] |
| [team] | [use] | [@owner] |

Data handling: build account lists from business data sources whose
terms allow this use, and treat contact-level data as personal data
under the privacy rules that apply (see `marketing/email-campaign-brief`
section 3 before mailing any list).

## 10. Review and validation

<!-- Guidance: Test the profile against new data each review. -->

- [ ] Win rate, cycle and retention for tier A beat tiers B and C in the last two quarters.
- [ ] Sales agrees disqualifiers still hold; any exceptions logged with outcome.
- [ ] Sample sizes stated; segments with fewer than [*Example:* 20] opportunities marked as low confidence.

## 11. Related templates

<!-- Guidance: Link the documents that build on or feed this profile. -->

`product/persona`, `marketing/messaging-framework`,
`marketing/go-to-market-plan`, `marketing/marketing-plan`,
`marketing/competitive-battlecard`, `sales/win-loss-analysis`,
`sales/account-plan`, `mba/mba-segmentation-clustering-card`,
`business/market-research-report`.

## Standard and licence note

Based on common business-to-business marketing and sales practice for
ideal customer profiles (firmographic and technographic criteria,
buying triggers, disqualifiers and fit scoring). The structure, text,
scoring method and fictional Larkspan figures are original and are one
possible method. Template licence: MIT.