An ideal customer profile (ICP) describes the businesses you want as customers; Waving's approach also includes the decision-maker's role, their recurring problems and signals that the timing may be right.
What belongs in your ideal customer profile?
Waving's ICP guide groups the work into six questions covering the business, the decision-maker, their problems, timing, research sources and exclusions.
For your own draft, answer these prompts in plain English:
- Company fit: specify the sector, size, location and legal form you want to target.
- Decision-maker: identify the role you need to speak to, rather than stopping at a company name.
- Problems: write down the business problem you propose to address.
- Timing: look for a specific reason to approach the business now.
- Research: decide where you will look for businesses matching your description.
- Exclusions: state which businesses to leave out, even if they meet some of your criteria.
How should you organise company and contact notes?
Before building a separate buyer persona, try splitting your working notes into two parts. Under company fit, record why the business belongs on your list. Under contact relevance, record whom you want to approach, what you know about their responsibilities and what you still need to check.
Keep assumptions separate from verified details. If you have not established who makes the decision, mark that as a research task. Before drafting an email, ask: why this business, why this person and why now? Use any unanswered question to guide your next piece of research.
Where can you start your company profile?
Waving's free ICP generator uses six short questions to produce a plain text profile for use with Claude, Copilot or ChatGPT. Build your ideal customer profile, then review the company criteria and decision-maker notes before researching prospects.
Not your trade?
Build your own ICP in a few minutes. Free, no sign up, nothing leaves your browser.
Open the ICP generator