Template
ICP — Ideal Customer Profile
Define your perfect customer. Use this template to guide prospect list building and email personalization. Fill in every field before launching a campaign.
Industry Targeting
Primary Industries
List 1-3 industries you serve best. Be specific — "B2B SaaS" beats "tech".
| Industry | Why they buy | Avg deal size | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| e.g. B2B SaaS, 10–200 employees | Need to book demos to close Series A | $2k–$8k/mo | Primary |
| e.g. Professional Services, law/consulting | Lead gen is their bottleneck | $1k–$4k/mo | Secondary |
| e.g. E-commerce brands doing $1M+ revenue | Want to own their traffic source | $1.5k–$5k/mo | Explore |
Firmographics
Company Size & Stage
Employee Count
- Primary: 10–100 employees (SMB — decision-maker is founder or VP)
- Mid-market: 100–500 (Director + VP + Head of)
- Enterprise: 500+ (longer cycles, needs multi-threading)
Revenue Stage
- Bootstrapped: <$1M ARR (budget-conscious, need ROI proof)
- Seed: $1M–$5M ARR (hiring fast, willing to spend)
- Series A/B: $5M–$50M ARR (aggressive growth mode)
- Growth/PE: $50M+ ARR (process-driven, RFP style)
Decision Makers
Roles to Target
| Role | Why they respond | Best channel | Pain point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founder / CEO | Owns the problem, fast decision, budget available | Email + LinkedIn | No pipeline, growth stalled |
| VP of Sales / Head of Sales | Responsible for hitting numbers, desperate for lead flow | Email (work) | Reps not hitting quota, cold pipeline |
| Head of Marketing / Growth | Owns lead gen, measured on MQLs | Email + LinkedIn | Paid CAC too high, inbound slow |
| Director of Operations | Process-driven, skeptical but responds to data | Manual outreach killing bandwidth |
Psychographics
Pain Points & Triggers
Job-to-be-done
- Book more sales meetings with decision-makers
- Reduce cost per qualified meeting
- Scale outbound without hiring more SDRs
- Get predictable pipeline from cold outreach
- Own their lead gen instead of relying on inbound
Fears
- "We're burning through budget with nothing to show"
- "Our close rate is dropping as market gets saturated"
- "We can't afford to keep hiring SDRs at this rate"
- "The board wants to see pipeline growth by Q3"
- "Our competitors are moving faster with AI tools"
Qualification
BANT-M Framework
Score prospects against these criteria. Only pursue those hitting 3+ of 4.
| Criteria | Question to ask | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | "What's your monthly budget for lead gen / sales tools?" | "We don't have budget right now" |
| Authority | "Who makes the final decision on this?" | Passes you to admin or vendor mgmt |
| Need | "What's the cost of not solving this problem?" | "It would be nice but it's not urgent" |
| Timeline | "When do you need this to be working?" | "We're evaluating for next year" |
Tip: ICPs that are too broad = emails that resonate with no one. Pick one primary persona (e.g., "Series A SaaS founders with 20-50 employees who are actively hiring sales reps") and go deep before expanding.