What does ‘ICP fit’ actually mean?

Adam Schoenfeld woke up and chose violence with his hot take on this one.

Adam (Keyplay) joins Trinity Nguyen (UserGems) and Jarod Greene (Vivun) to dig into some of the most common misconceptions around TAM, ICP, and ID’ing fit.

What’s working when defining your ICP:

LET DATA LEAD THE WAY Set it up in your CRM. Track your customers. What’s changed? Who’s churned? Why? Is our hypothesis for who’s a fit actually our best fit?

What’s not working when defining your ICP: OBSESSION OVER INTENT SIGNALS Fit > intent. For real.

Key Takeaways:

1. Importance of a Defined ICP: Precisely defining the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is crucial. Adam Schoenfeld stresses the need to establish clear parameters around the ICP to ensure sales and marketing efforts are aligned and focused. Trinity Nguyen's approach of regularly revisiting the ICP at User Gems illustrates the dynamic nature of ICPs and how companies must adapt to shifts in customer fit and market trends.
2. Patience with Strategy Implementation: Give new strategies time to take effect before making changes. Trinity Nguyen points out that particularly in a commercial SaaS context, it's important to allow time for the market to absorb and react to advertising efforts. The pitfall of frequently changing ICPs can be counterproductive and may not provide sufficient data on what works and what doesn’t.
3. Utilization of Multi-Source Feedback: Utilize both wins and losses to refine your ICP. Jarod Greene's insights into Vivint's process of refining their ICP by considering various attributes signal the importance of using diverse feedback channels. This informs a more strategic and adaptable approach to targeting customers.
4. Alignment Across Teams: Ensure alignment across all teams regarding the ICP. The importance of keeping sales, marketing, product development, and customer success teams on the same page regarding the ICP cannot be overstated. This unity ensures a cohesive go-to-market strategy and ensures that all customer-facing teams are targeting and supporting the same customer profile.
5. Focus on Fit Over Intent: Fit should be a priority over intent signals. While intent data platforms can suggest potential customer interest, understanding whether a lead truly fits the ICP is more valuable. The episode discusses the tendency of B2B marketers to over-prioritize intent signals, yet the panel agrees that a deeper understanding of the customer—including their challenges and fit within the ICP—is essential for effective marketing strategies.

Things to Listen for:

00:00 Deeply understand customers for building ideal profiles. 
05:02 Focus on serving the best customers effectively. 
09:46 Tracking customer criteria, part of company DNA. 
12:48 Learning to navigate variance for business success. 
15:07 Set boundaries, focus on strategic growth mindset. 
17:26 Challenges in using limited historical data explained. 
20:36 No's and not nows provide valuable insight. 
25:25 Rely on accurate CRM data for sales. 
27:27 Listening to gong recordings for sales improvement. 
30:59 Implement strategy into operations, test and analyze. 
34:05 Companies expand product offerings due to complexity. 
38:23 Champion needs to handle objections, targeted messaging. 
42:17 Team enjoys memes, aims for brand recognition.