These days, many B2B companies struggle with low lead generation, not because they aren’t putting in enough effort, but because their ICP foundation is weak or unclear.
To help such businesses, in this blog, we’re sharing the exact approach we use to define ICPs for our B2B clients and how that clarity helps us drive inbound leads for their campaigns, not only through Google but also through AI tools like Gemini, Perplexity and ChatGPT.
But before we dive in, let’s share a quick overview of what we’ll cover:
- Benefits B2B clients see when ICPs are built the right way
- 10 ICP fields we define for every B2B campaign
- 3 proven methods we follow to define ICPs for B2B clients
So, let’s get started!
Here are the Benefits Our Every B2B Client Experience When We Define Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) for Their Business
As a digital marketing company with ICP expertise, we feel glad that till date, we have achieved the above outcomes for many B2B companies across different industries, including SaaS, logistics, B2B fulfillment, manufacturing, and professional consulting firms.
But, it’s not like these results appeared overnight. We defined ICPs, actively used them for our clients, and over time, the clarity helped us compound every growth activity.
To see how we make it all happen, you have to understand first the ICP components. We usually call these as standard fields, as described below.
These are the 10 Standard Fields Our Every B2B ICP Includes
While defining an ICP, we first focus our efforts on determining the right values for Industry, Location and Company Size. The reason behind it is very clear- these components help us define who the ideal customers should be.
Once we figure out these values, next we evaluate the rest of the components and that’s how the identified customers are refined and the final ideal customer profile is built.
Here’s the closer look at each component with a few related examples:
1. Industry
As we’ve already mentioned, this is where we actually begin – here we identify the best market segments of our client.
Like, recently while defining ICP for a cybersecurity company, we got to know their ideal markets are FinTech and Healthcare even when they provide the same services to multiple industries.
2. Location
Next, we determine the location from where the client’s best served customers are. Depending on the industry type, this component automatically varies for every different client.
Like, for logistics, it’s regions with strong eCommerce infrastructures while if we talk about software development agencies, they find their ideal clients in the countries where outsourcing requirements are raised more.
3. Company Size
Here, we define company size of an ideal client and to get its estimate value, we first collect the following data (basically based on the best served client details):
- Revenue
- Employee count
- Operational scale
- Usage capacity
4. Budget
When we set the value of the budget, we always keep a safe range in our mind. This range is genuine and is something that is considered fair enough if you evaluate the service pricing from the end-customers’ perspective.
Like, while defining an ICP for a cloud infrastructure company, we kept the ideal budget as $10,000-$50,000/month because usually end-clients are ok with paying this much amount for hosting.
5. Key Decision-Makers
As we define this component, we see who all approves the purchase decisions in the end client’s business.
For fulfillment service companies, the important roles that make such decisions are Supply Chain Managers, Operations Heads, eCommerce Managers while when we handled a manufacturing company, we came to know Plant Heads, Operations Directors, Factory Managers are the real decision makers.
6. Core Pain Points
When it comes to choosing this component, we become really specific. As these are the actual reasons that compels end-customers to choose our client.
Based on our past experiences, if we talk on a broader level, these are the pain points our team has identified:
- For SaaS: These are automation gaps, manual processes
- For Manufacturing: These are unreliable suppliers, high downtime
- For IT Services: These are security risks, outdated infrastructure
- And for Logistics: These are delays, lack of visibility and compliance issues
7. Prospect’s Current Process
Here we evaluate the processes being followed by prospects who fall into the ideal customers category, like:
- Competitor tools they are using
- Partners they are choosing for outsourcing
- Old systems they rely on
- Manual methods they are following
8. Buying Triggers
Here we look for the events that compel ideal prospects to act, which ultimately play an important role in refining ICP.
For instance: If we see –
- For SaaS: These are scaling operations, adding users, new integrations
- For Manufacturing: These are production expansion, supplier changes
- For IT Services: These are cyber incidents, compliance requirements
- For Logistics: These are new distribution hubs and rapid growth
9. Tech/Operational Maturity
This component helps us shortlist only those companies in ICP who are ready to utilize our client’s products or services and that’s how we filter the ones who will not be able to onboard or become high-churn customers later.
10. Exclusion Criteria (Anti-ICP)
Just like knowing who to target, knowing who not to target is important. Here we identify the companies who will never stay for a long-term with our client.
Like, if there is any manufacturing company, we recommend them never to consider factories that are unwilling to share data or lack minimum baseline processes as their ideal customers.
3 Proven Methods We Always Use While Identifying ICP for B2B Clients (Whether They Run SEO, PPC or ABM Campaigns)
Now, let’s discuss how we do it all:
1. Analyze the Client’s Existing Performance Data
Every client’s existing data is the foundation of ICP and we make sure to analyze it carefully as we know the existing data will help us identify the most profitable, least stressful customers, ultimately.
This is what we study:
- Client’s CRM and lead quality data
- Their high-churn customers
- Average deal sizes they’ve closed
- Revenue and Profitability by high-margin customer segments
- Product or service usage data
- Operational feasibility data
2. Collect Insights From Sales and Customer Success Teams
Internal teams know things better than what dashboards show and it’s 100% true. That’s the reason, we first collect a few details from both the sales and customer success team.
The sales team always knows who buys and why they buy. So, we make sure to ask them:
- Which customers closed faster
- Which industries show the highest buying intent
- Common problems prospects mention before buying
- Objections they hear repeatedly
- Reasons for lost deals
- Buying behaviours they observe
- Which personas are decision-makers vs. influencers
- Characteristics of ideal customers during the sales process
- Which customers are NOT worth pursuing (it helps us identify Anti-ICP signals)
Then, we collect Customer Success team’s feedback on:
- Which customers got the fastest results
- Which customers needed the most or minimum support, like customisation
- Pain points that were actually causing problems (not what they told sales)
- Recurring issues or friction during onboarding
- Which customer segments churned most often
- Which customers expanded or upgraded
- Feature or service usage patterns (for SaaS or service-intensive teams)
- Complaints or dissatisfaction themes
- Customers who are very satisfied and gave testimonials
- Operational maturity patterns
And that’s how we decode the patterns being followed by existing customers.
3. Study User Search Behavior Across AI Tools, Google & Communities
This is a really important step as it helps us learn how existing customers and potential prospects actually find and evaluate solutions in their early research phase.
To figure this out, we use the insights gained from sales and customer success team feedback.
a. Literally our team types the queries in AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and see –
- How phrase problems are searched on the platforms
- What alternatives AI suggests
- What criteria AI tells the searcher to evaluate
- Whether our client’s company category even appears or not
And that’s how we identify what ideal customers learn before they reach Google.
b. Our next step is to check how existing customers have and prospects are searching across Google. To do this, we use tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs and SEMrush.
To get more clarity on how we do this all, choose to read our blog on – how we conduct B2B Keyword Research that increases the flow of high-quality inbound leads by approximately 30% within 90 Days.
c. This is our final step – here we identify the content consumption path of the ideal customers, which are –
- YouTube
- Industry blogs
- Reddit or particular communities
And this is how we identify who they choose to trust.
FAQs
1. What’s the difference between ICP and buyer persona?
Ans. ICP which is also known as Ideal Customer Profile is the company-level description of ideal customers. It depends on many components like industry, company size, location, budget etc.
While if we talk about buyer persona, then it is a detailed, semi-fictional representation of an individual within those companies. It will include demographic information, job responsibilities, challenges and goals. Basically, it focuses on the personal side of the decision-making process.
2. Should startups and enterprises define ICPs differently?
Ans. Honestly, yes because startups and enterprises both have different resources, sales cycles and buyer needs.
3. Can multiple ICPs exist within one B2B company?
Ans. Of course! Whenever a B2B company offers different products or services that cater to distinct customer segments, they have to work on building multiple ICPs.
Conclusion
With this, we’ve shared all the important insights that are required when defining an ICP. If you feel stuck at any point or need our direct support, you can reach out to our team and get an ICP defined specifically for your website.
