We’ve all had that call come in. The one where the prospective sale sounds like a done deal. You get all powered up and set a meeting for the next day.
But when you do have the meeting, you hopes are dashed when you soon realise that there is no way they are going to be able to afford what you are selling.
Moreover, you also realise they’re in an industry that is not well suited to your product. You have a meeting. It’s a complete waste of time.
An ideal customer profile (ICP) provides guidelines for your salespeople that helps them spend their time efficiently on prospects who are most likely to convert and deliver repeat business.
We all have a good idea of who our ICP is, but a good exercise is to run some data and look at your previous sales.
Figure out:
- Who spent the most money?
- What industry are they in?
- Who bought more than one product?
- Who was the easiest to work with?
- Which client had the shortest sales cycle?
For most companies, 80% of revenue comes from 20% of clients.
Dive into the demographics and psychographics of your ideal customer and create a profile for your salespeople.
A good ideal customer profile must:
- Enable your salespeople to identify a good prospect quickly.
- Allow anyone to describe the ICP to someone else in such a way that they can find other ICPs.