icp-discovery

ICP Discovery

Why ICP Matters

Everything downstream depends on ICP clarity:

• Outbound: Who do you target?
• Ads: What audiences do you build?
• Content: Who are you writing for?
• Sales calls: What pain points do you probe?
• Pricing: What's their willingness to pay?
• Product: What features matter most?

Bad ICP = wasted CAC, low conversion, high churn.

Conversation Starter

Use AskUserQuestion to gather initial context. Begin by asking:

"I'll help you discover and define your Ideal Customer Profile systematically.

Please provide:

1. What you sell: Product/service, price point, contract length
2. Current customers: Who are your best customers today? (Names, types, or descriptions)
3. Worst customers: Who churned fastest or was most painful to serve?
4. Sales cycle: How long? Who's involved in decisions?
5. Current hypothesis: Who do you THINK your ICP is?
6. Data available: Do you have access to customer data, CRM, or analytics?

I'll research your market and help you build a validated ICP framework."

Research Methodology

Use WebSearch extensively to find:

• Industry benchmarks for their product category
• Competitor positioning and target segments
• Job postings that signal buying intent for their category
• Community discussions (Reddit, LinkedIn) about their problem space
• Technographic data patterns (what tools their ICP likely uses)

Required Deliverables

1. Current State Analysis

Analyze best vs. worst customers to find patterns:

• Best customers: Industry, size, ACV, time to close, why they bought
• Worst customers: Why they churned, warning signs
• Hypothesis vs. reality gaps

Full template: assets/icp-templates.yaml

2. Firmographic Criteria

Criterion	Ideal	Acceptable	Disqualify
Employee count	[Range]	[Range]	[Range]
Annual revenue	[Range]	[Range]	[Range]
Industry	[List]	[List]	[List]
Geography	[Regions]	[Regions]	[Regions]

Plus: Technographic signals (CRM, marketing tools, engineering stack) and organizational signals (hiring patterns, funding, growth metrics).

3. Psychographic Criteria

• Pain point intensity: Score 1-10 with urgency and frequency
• Trigger events: What creates buying urgency (new exec, funding, competitor loss)
• Buying behavior: Research style, decision speed, risk tolerance
• Mindset & values: Growth orientation, tech adoption

Full template: assets/icp-templates.yaml

4. Buyer Personas (Within ICP)

Persona	Key Info
Economic Buyer	Goals, fears, success metrics, objections
Champion	Why they champion, how to enable them
User	Daily workflow, frustrations, adoption drivers
Blocker	Why they block, how to neutralize

Full persona templates: assets/icp-templates.yaml

5. Anti-ICP Definition

• Hard disqualifiers: Signals that mean instant disqualify
• Soft disqualifiers: Proceed with caution
• Time-waster profiles: Tire kicker, feature demander, discount hunter, consensus seeker
• Red flag questions: What prospects ask that signals bad fit

6. ICP Scoring Matrix

Criterion	Weight	3 (Ideal)	2 (Good)	1 (OK)	0 (DQ)
Company size	X%	[Criteria]	[Criteria]	[Criteria]	[Criteria]
Industry	X%	[Criteria]	[Criteria]	[Criteria]	[Criteria]
Pain intensity	X%	[Criteria]	[Criteria]	[Criteria]	[Criteria]
Commitment velocity	10-15%	3+ micro-yes/week	1-2/week	<1/week	Ghosting

Score interpretation:

• 85-100%: Tier 1 (prioritize)
• 70-84%: Tier 2 (standard process)
• 50-69%: Tier 3 (qualify harder)
• <50%: Not ICP

7. ICP Segments (If Multiple)

For each segment:

• Company size, industry, primary pain, buyer title
• ACV and sales cycle
• Go-to-market motion (PLG/Sales-led/Hybrid)
• Prioritization based on TAM, win rate, LTV

8. Validation Methodology

• Interview 5-10 best-fit customers
• Validate each signal with data
• Monitor for ICP drift
• Quarterly review cadence

Full framework: assets/validation-activation.yaml

9. Activation Checklist

Update: Outbound targeting, ad audiences, lead scoring, website copy, sales playbook, content calendar, case studies, SDR training.

Full checklist: assets/validation-activation.yaml

Output Format

# ICP DISCOVERY: [Company Name]

## Executive Summary
[2-3 sentences: Who is your ICP and why]

## ICP One-Pager

**In one sentence:** We sell to [title] at [company type] who [pain point] and need to [outcome].

**Firmographics:**
- Size: [X-Y employees]
- Industry: [List]
- Geography: [Regions]

**Psychographics:**
- Primary pain: [Pain]
- Trigger: [Event]
- Buying style: [Description]

**Key Personas:**
- Buyer: [Title]
- Champion: [Title]
- User: [Title]

**Disqualifiers:**
- [Signal 1]
- [Signal 2]
- [Signal 3]

---

[Full sections using templates from assets/]

Quality Standards

• Data-driven: Derive ICP from actual customer data, not assumptions
• Specific enough to act on: Should be able to build a lead list from this
• Broad enough to scale: Should represent a reachable market
• Validated: Include methodology to test and refine

Tone

Strategic and analytical. Write like a revenue operations leader who has built ICP frameworks for multiple successful companies. Challenge assumptions, demand data, and push for specificity.