To find your Ideal Client, focus on the problems you are solving.

Hello there, 👋🏼

Last week, I had a conversation with a start-up founder asking for help on how to define their Ideal Client Profile or ICP.

ICP stands for “Ideal Client Profile”. Some call it “Persona” or “Avatar”. For consistency in this essay, let’s call it ICP.

Aligning your strategies with a well-defined (ICP) is akin to navigating your North Star – it provides direction and focus, leading to more tremendous business success.

When I asked him about the problems his company solves, he was unable to give a clear answer.

And that's a problem.

We need to understand “what problems are we solving” before we can identify “who are we solving them for(ICP)”.

How do you identify your ICP?

The key is in LOTS of meaningful and intentional conversations and unwavering clarity on the problems you solve.

Ex-Twitter VP of Product recommended having at least 30 prospective client conversations before developing a single code.

Get customers on the phone and line up 30 meetings with the point people you will be selling to at each company. Talk to them about their problem and describe what you’re potentially building to solve it. Do this before you write a single line of code. -Michael Sippey

There is a massive difference between finding your ICP for start-ups and more established mid-market and corporate companies.

Establishing your ICP with large global companies is easier, and their products and services are mature and established. Their enterprise value is defined.

In the last two years, working with start-ups and building my own business, this is what the journey looks like.

Here lies the difference between start-ups and large corporates.

The enterprise value of products or services in start-ups are not yet established.

Before you define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), confirming that you’re addressing a real problem is crucial.

Define, discover and validate the pain points that you are solving.

First, defining the specific pain points you aim to address is essential. When interviewing potential clients, ask about their pain points to gather evidence of their impact on their business.

Step One: Define the problem you are solving.

What are the top three problems that would have to exist in your prospect’s company before they would be excited to talk about your solution?

If they do not care about the issues or results of your solution, they will not care about your solution.

No pain, no gain, no opportunity.

Step Two: Define the Evidence.

For each problem, what evidence does, or might, exist that would indicate a potential problem or opportunity?

What data or opinions suggest something needs to change, or is there a compelling event with your client?

Ask your prospective client

What let you know ______ is a problem?

Step Three: Define the impact.

What would success look like?

What might be the financial impact of this issue on your prospective client?

What would the magnitude be if you can’t get the exact number?

How specifically would you measure it?

Step Four: What are the reasons why your prospective clients will not successfully address the problem?

Examples

• They used X solution before and had a bad experience

• The company/teams ended up not using it

• Money is tight. They can’t justify the cost vs value or impact

• And so on…

Step Five: Look at the overall context

Think of the people and functions in your prospective client’s company that would be affected by the issues and the implementation of the solution.

💡This is important; you need to widen your contacts within the organisation and look at other stakeholders.

Various organisational roles might be experiencing the same problems in different contexts.

Remember to focus on the problem you can solve and the results it produces rather than the benefits and features.

Now that you have a clear statement of your problem, you can create your ICP.

Creating Your Ideal Client Profile

There are two levels of ICP.

The Organisational ICP and Human ICP. If you use LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator, this is what you call the Account List, and the Human Persona is the Lead List.

Organisational ICP would be the Industry, Annual Revenue, and Company headcount size, geographical location and industry etc. see below.

Human ICP has demographic and psychographic lists.

In my experience working with start-ups and even mature companies with new products and services, the ICPs evolved.

Here is how to build your ICP template

You can grab the template here:

If you are a founder or find your company evolving here is an action you can kick-off to help you gain clarity on your ICP.

Action Step:

1. Call 10 friends, peers, and ex-colleagues who can be prospective clients and book a meeting with them.

2. During your meeting, ask them:

• Do you have this problem?

• How do you know this problem exists?

• How does this problem impact your business?

• How are you solving this problem today?

• How much are you spending to solve this problem? Or how much do you care about the issue?

Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is not just a static document but a dynamic blueprint that evolves with your business in the ongoing conversation with clients and the iterative refinement process.

As you develop your ICP, you can design and create your UVP, execute your marketing efforts and build your sales materials.

I hope this week’s lesson has been valuable.

What has been your experience in creating your ICP? Do you believe it matters in your business? You got some questions? Send it to me!

Thanks for being here, I appreciate you!🫶🏻😊

Ren