Today’s Daily is inspired by NEARBOUND and the Rise of the Who Economy by Jared Fuller. Get your copy on Amazon today.

What’s the big deal with ICP?

Every motion (sales, marketing, success, product, partnerships) is stronger when you surround your buyers with influence.

But most companies don’t know who influences their buyers because they haven’t properly identified their ICP.

When it comes to ICP, most companies start too broad. They land on something like, “Our customers are manufacturers in North America with 100 to 1,000 employees.”

That’s a start, but it’s not enough.

If you want to surround your audience with influence you need to include more characteristics to define and niche down your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). 

Your ICP needs to answer not only what accounts, but also what partners and vendors they trust. You’re missing the ‘who’ that surrounds your ICP.

If you don’t know who your audience is, you can’t know whom they trust, leaving you with zero power of influence. 

To help you with that, in today’s email we’ll share everything you need to know about building your ICP, including:

• Getting the basics right
• Why ICP is important
• How your partners can help you build your ICP

Let’s get started!

Getting the basics right

ICP = Ideal Customer Profile.

In a sentence, your ICP is a description of the “perfect” customer you want to target for your business. 

Companies that fit your ICP are vital for revenue generation as they are more likely to buy, stay loyal to your product, and refer you to others. 

But your ICP should niche down further than demographics like company size or market, it should include some (or all) of the following characteristics too: 

• Industry vertical: Identify sectors where collaboration is common, such as technology, finance, marketing, or professional services (etc).
• Challenges and pain points: Address specific pain points such as partner onboarding, communication, or collaboration metrics.
• Decision-making authority: Identify key decision-makers, whether partnership managers, business development executives, or C-suite leaders, to tailor your approach.
• Customer success criteria: Align your value proposition with your customer KPIs, such as partner engagement, time-to-market, or revenue maximization from partnerships.
• Tech stack: Understand the tools and software prevalent in the tech stacks of your top accounts to effectively bridge partnerships with other technology companies and to be able to offer complementary solutions.

Action: Use that list to build out a new ICP or to test your current ICP.

Why ICP is important

The ICP helps you identify who buys the quickest, stays the longest, and becomes the biggest advocate.

Your ICP is essential for driving growth because it provides a roadmap for your business to attract, engage, and retain the most valuable customers.

The narrower your niche, the better your GTM approach will be, and the more value your audience will receive. 

Some other benefits are: 

• Targeted marketing: Define your ideal customer to tailor marketing efforts, ensuring resonance and lead generation.
• Efficient sales process: Focus sales efforts on prospects likely to convert, streamlining processes and improving conversion rates.
• Product development alignment: Understand customer needs to develop features that resonate, or enhancing product value.
• Maximized customer success: Personalize support for ideal customers, driving satisfaction, retention, and long-term success.
• Resource optimization: Allocate resources efficiently for marketing, sales, and customer success, achieving better results with less investment.

Action: Evaluate how your company leverages intel from the market and partners on your ICP. Do they work it into their existing motions?

How partners can help you

Most companies build an ICP lacking intel which results in a generic one-size-fits-all approach, lower engagement, lower conversions, and lower customer satisfaction.

The best companies use their existing customers and partners to learn about their ICP.

For example, you can have conversations with your partners to help you understand the pain points of your potential and existing customers. 

You can start these conversations with questions as simple as: 

• What is our customers’ / common prospects’ biggest win to date?
• What is our customers’ / common prospects’ main challenge / pain point?
• What are our customers’ / common prospects’ goals for the next quarter? The next year? What is the biggest blocker for reaching those goals?
• Who in the industry are our customers’ / common prospects’ looking to for advice, or as an example of success?
• Who is helping our customers / common prospects execute their vision that’s not on their team? What service providers, communities, or tech do our customers’ / common prospects’ turn to to make the calls they need to make?

To be able to surround your audience with influence, you need to answer not just, “Who is my ideal customer,” but also, “Who does my ideal customer trust?”

Action: Evaluate how partners are being layered into existing motions. Do they make the experience easier and faster for your ICP?

If this meme rings a bell, you’re defining your ICP on the right foot.

More resources to help with ICP and IPP

• Howdy Partners #3: Ideal Partner Profile (IPP)
• Dave Gerhardt’s Nearbound Marketing Strategy (Become Your ICP’s Top Resource)
• The Nearbound Email Template Hub
• Four Primary Focuses of Any Good Partner Strategy
• Use the Value Chain To Determine Your IPP

Here’s how CMOs need to think about nearbound

Last week, Isaac Morehouse and Jessica Fewless, Director of Partnerships at Inverta, broke down how CMOs should align their teams to execute a successful nearbound marketing motion.

Catch the replay here.

Nearbound = your best path to your ICP

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