icp

# Ideal Customer Profile An ICP describes the *accounts* worth winning — the firmographic and behavioral shape of companies that extract the most value, convert efficiently, and stick. It is a filter, not a wish list. The job is to point everyone (sales, marketing, product, success) at the same narrow target and give them the signals to recognize it and the anti-signals to walk away. A real ICP is grounded in your own retention and conversion data, not aspiration. The sharpest move is naming who to *avoid*: the accounts that close fast, churn faster, and poison your metrics and your roadmap. An ICP that excludes nobody isn't an ICP — it's a market description. **Grounded in:** *Crossing the Chasm* — Geoffrey Moore: define the best-fit account by who gets the most value and retains. **Go deeper (The Product Channel):** [How to Create a Customer Persona](https://sidsaladi.substack.com/p/week-21-how-to-create-a-customer) ## When to use this - Sales is closing logos that churn in two quarters, or win rates are sliding and you suspect mis-targeting. - Marketing spend is spraying — high lead volume, low qualified-pipeline, rising CAC. - You're entering a new segment and need to define who you're actually going after. - Success is drowning because too many low-fit accounts need hand-holding to get any value. - Annual planning: you need one shared definition of "good customer" to align GTM and roadmap. ## Before you start (gather these) - **Customer outcome data** — your best an...