An ideal customer profile (ICP) describes the type of company that gets the most value from your product and gives you the most value back. It is about accounts, not individuals — that is what buyer personas are for.
ICP vs buyer persona
- ICP: the company — industry, size, location, tech, problems.
- Persona: the person inside it — role, goals, objections.
ICP template
| Criterion | Example | |---|---| | Industries | B2B SaaS, IT services | | Excluded industries | Government, education | | Employees | 20–500 | | Revenue | $2M–$100M | | Countries | US, UK, Portugal, Spain | | Personas | Head of Sales, Founder, RevOps | | Compatible tech | HubSpot, Salesforce | | Problems solved | Slow research, low reply rates |
How to build your ICP
- List your ten best customers by revenue, retention and speed to close.
- Find the shared traits.
- Write down exclusions from deals that churned or stalled.
- Review quarterly.
ICP scoring examples
Turn criteria into points: industry match, size within range, location, compatible tech. An account matching 4 of 5 criteria is Tier A; 2 of 5 is a "later" account. The key is consistency — every rep scores the same way.
Make your ICP operational
In Brief Source you can Structure my ICP from your website in one click, edit every criterion, and every brief gets a Fit score against it automatically.
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