Winning the race to profitability with a dynamic ICP

Your customer base is the single greatest determinant of your future success. In the competitive world of B2B, you’re in a race for profitability. Your technology might give you a temporary edge, but competitors will catch up.

What truly sets you apart is your ideal customer profile (ICP). Done right, it’s your catalyst for sustainable growth, propelling you to long-term profitability and customer success. However, many companies fail to fully understand, define or implement their ICP — and that could cost them the race.

Formula 1: A catalyst only works if you use it

The concept of an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is often misunderstood, poorly defined and rarely implemented effectively. Many companies reduce its use to marketing briefs or orientation materials.

In practice, the ICP is frequently mistaken for a target customer, the total addressable market or the broader universe of potential customers.

These misconceptions are fundamentally flawed and will undermine your potential, jeopardize your profitability and threaten your long-term success.

Dig deeper: How to develop a winning B2B ideal customer profile

Formula 2: The catalyst has to become integral to the way you go to market

Your ICP must also be embedded in every aspect of your go-to-market (GTM) strategy.

In its article “The Framework for Ideal Customer Profile,” Gartner highlights:

“The ideal customer profile (ICP) defines the firmographic, environmental and behavioral attributes of accounts that are expected to become a company’s most valuable customers. It is developed through both qualitative and quantitative analyses and may optionally be informed by predictive analytics software.

The ICP is a foundational concept, not an intellectual exercise, that aligns resources organization-wide – The C-suite, marketing, sales, service and CX. The ICP is integral to the strategy, tactics and implementation of high-growth companies Focused on the highest-value accounts, it is most successful when coupled with ABM or account based marketing deployment.”

SuperOffice, in its article “Stop Wasting Time on Prospects that Don’t Fit Your Ideal Customer Profile,” identifies three key components of an ICP:

• Firmographic: This is information to help categorize different types of organizations. This includes data on industry, size, vertical, revenue, etc.
• Environmental: This gives information on the conditions they’re operating in. For example, the technology they use, regulations they must adhere to, etc.
• Behavioral: How have they interacted with you and how likely are they to buy? Will they download your content? What does the buyer’s journey look like for these organizations?

It also emphasizes the stakes:

“Research indicates that startups or businesses where less than 10% of their customer base fits their ICP are 50% less likely to survive over the next five years. This highlights the critical importance of ensuring that a significant portion of the customer base aligns with the ICP to sustain business growth and longevity.”

From our experiences, I’d add:

• Your ICP must be dynamic, responding to changes in your business and the marketplace to ensure evolving alignment. Fresh data in the mix will make all the difference in keeping the ICP sharp and actionable.
• A consistent focus on prospects that match your ICP yields a high conversion and a shorter sales cycle (we hope) because these prospects are more likely to see and embrace the long-term value you bring.
• The result is greater customer satisfaction and retention and, most importantly, a significantly higher customer lifetime value.

Dig deeper: How to turn your ideal customer’s pain points into entry points

Formula 3: You must expand your thinking and doing to take full advantage of a catalyst

Many times, clients have said to me, “Don’t look at our current customer base; that’s not who we really want.” This reflects short-term, legacy thinking — a trap that perpetuates a cycle of commodity sales barely keeping pace with customer attrition. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, reinforced by compensation structures focused on immediate results.

This short-term focus prioritizes low-hanging fruit to counter attrition, but these customers are rarely aligned with long-term value. The result is circular: efforts to hit quotas discourage meaningful shifts toward targeting the ICP.

For example, a manufacturing company investing heavily in software to transition into the SaaS space faced resistance from its sales team. Sales, compensated solely on immediate unit sales, preferred to avoid introducing the software. Their reasoning? “It complicates the process, involves too many people and makes customers think too hard.”

Similarly, in customer success, performance is often measured by add-on sales and retention metrics that prioritize the company’s short-term gains rather than true customer success. A more fitting name for the department might be “Our success.”

Ultimately, processes like pursuing the ICP fail to take hold if they’re not measured or rewarded. The catalyst becomes ineffective — not because it doesn’t work, but because legacy thinking prevents its proper use.

Dig deeper: The biggest ideal customer profile mistakes businesses make — and how to fix them

The checkered flag

The ICP only gets us to the winners’ circle if we use it and evolve our thinking and doing. It means we need to give these customers what they want. And that is their success, not yours. Aligning your approach around this catalyst is the key to reaping its full benefits. Here are the three recommended steps.

Adopt an ABM mentality

The companies in your ICP have the potential to appreciate what you offer, use it to its fullest extent, incorporate it into their drivetrain, stay longer and buy more. These are the accounts that will generate the most profit over time.

Is it a more complex sale? Absolutely. Focus on ABM campaigns to reach these organizations. Deliver personalized value to decision-makers and influencers, showing them a compelling future vision. Back it up with a human touch.

Dig deeper: How to find your next, best customers with ABM

Put your best athletes in the driver’s seat

B2B is personal — it always has been and always will be. It’s the only way to build real trust. The outdated separation of sales, marketing and CX is ineffective here. We all need to evolve. The differing job descriptions are old-school. They don’t serve our best interests and are certainly not suited for success.

The best examples we’ve seen involve professionals who combine marketing expertise, consultative selling skills and a dedication to their customers’ success. Most importantly, they stay with the customer throughout the relationship — from pre-sale to ongoing service — supported by a talented pit crew. One consistent, trusted point of contact makes all the difference and should be appropriately rewarded.

Build accountability and trust

Customers care about their success, not yours. Align your goals with theirs to build trust and set yourself apart from competitors.

Be accountable to their measures of success. Should you measure and reward sales and retention? Of course. But if you promise that your solution will help achieve their goals, hold yourself to those results.

If you claim domain expertise, prove it. How well will your solution work for a specific customer? Will it increase their performance? By how much? How long will it take? Draw a line in the sand, roll up your sleeves and commit to their success at all costs.

Here are two case examples to chew on:

• Company A: After winning a contract over five competitors, a decision-maker explained why they chose Company A: “Everyone else said, first get on our platform. Company A said, first let’s figure out how we address your challenges.”
• Company B: When asked about the greatest benefit their vendor provided, the CEO of an internationally respected company replied, “Our salesman. He understands us and is part of our team. He knows what we need and goes out and gets it.”

That level of alignment and dedication will earn you the victory lap.

Dig deeper: How to make your ‘ideal customer profile’ more ideal