Ideal customer profile (ICP)
An ideal customer profile describes the type of company most likely to buy, succeed and stay: industry, size, technology, buying behaviour and the problem they have. It defines which companies belong on a target account list, and it describes companies rather than individuals, which is what separates it from a persona.
How is it different from a persona?
An ICP is a company. A persona is a person inside it. You need both, and they answer different questions: the ICP decides which accounts you pursue, the persona decides who you speak to and what you say. Confusing them produces targeting that is precise about job titles and indifferent about whether the company should ever have been on the list.
How do you build one that holds up?
From closed-won data, not aspiration. Take your best customers by retention and expansion rather than by logo, and look for what they share. The uncomfortable output is usually that your best accounts look different from the ones your marketing describes.
What is usually missing?
Negative criteria. An ICP that only says who to pursue leaves sales to discover the disqualifiers one wasted quarter at a time. Write down the attributes that predict a bad fit, and they will save more time than the positive criteria.
How often should it change?
Annually, or when the product changes materially. More often than that and the target account list never stabilises long enough to be measured against.
