NAIL A NICHE.
Create an Ideal Customer Profile by analyzing the customers you already have.
(1) Ideal Customer Profiles are the first step to “Nailing a Niche” - building a sales motion around your best-fit customers
(2) This is not an abstract brainstorming exercise - the best ICPs are built using the customer data you already have
(3) To start building your ICP, focus on your best customers - the ones that bought happily, lucratively, and quickly
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An Ideal Customer Profile paints a picture of your “best-fit customers.” These are the people you love doing business with - for three reasons.
They buy QUICKLY - Ideal Customers understand the value your product brings because they feel the specific pain you can help them. They buy quickly because the pain they’re feeling is impacting their work, their lives, and their business. They don’t waste time in the buying process because they need what you’re selling - and they need it NOW.
They buy LUCRATIVELY - Ideal Customers buy more because the pain they feel is intense and far-reaching. They’re big enough to care and successful enough to pay up for a solution that helps their business move forward. As a result, they ask for fewer discounts and relationships with them are easier to maintain (and expand!) over time.
They buy HAPPILY - Ideal Customer Profiles can quickly become your biggest fans. And why wouldn’t they? Your product just solved a huge pain point for them! They’re happy to work with you because you make their business (and their lives) better.
HOW CAN YOU BUILD YOUR OWN ICP? And how can you improve what you already have?
Here’s a simple workshop agenda we use to help our teams build and refresh their Ideal Customer Profile.
MAKE A LIST USING YOUR OWN HISTORICAL CUSTOMER DATA. Pull all of the customers you’ve added in the last 6-12 months. Analyze the list and highlight the customers that bought the most, bought the quickest, and are the happiest. Create a shorter list of those 'best-fit' customers.
INVOLVE THE RIGHT PEOPLE. This is not a sales-only, leadership-only, or marketing-only exercise. You need the people involved in the deals, and the people who are struggling to create the opportunities you need, in the room and bought into the conversation. They will help you sort through everyone you could sell to and pull out who you should sell to.
ASK SOME GOOD QUESTIONS ABOUT THE LIST. Let everyone in the group review and reflect on the list. What's true about those "good-fit customers?" What are their sources of pain? What was the "trigger" for them to buy? What results did they want? What else sets them apart?
CREATE A LIST OF “RED FLAGS.” Salespeople also need explicit permission on when to walk away.
SANITY-CHECK THE RESULTS. Does this list of factors enable you to build a list of prospects you could go and call tomorrow? Does it create clear guardrails about who you shouldn't sell to? If not, how do you make the factors real, usable, and something that can help you generate a list you can give to your sales and marketing teams?
SUMMARIZE YOUR ICP ON A SINGLE PAGE. A one-page list of the factors and red flags you discussed is a great place to start. You’re going for something that people actually use when talking to customers, so it pays to keep things simple.