The Complete Guide to Defining Your ICP

Most B2B teams think they have an ICP. What they actually have is a vague description of a job title and an industry. "We sell to VP of Sales at mid-market SaaS companies" is not an ICP. It is a starting point that describes roughly 40,000 people in the United States alone.

A real ICP is specific enough that your outbound feels relevant to every person who receives it. Here is how to build one.

Start With Your Best Customers

The fastest path to a good ICP is to reverse-engineer your existing wins. Look at your 10 best customers and answer these questions:

• What industry are they in? Not just "SaaS" -- what kind of SaaS? What do they sell? Who do they sell to?
• How big are they? Employee count, revenue range, number of offices.
• What stage are they at? Bootstrapped? Seed? Series B? PE-backed?
• Who was the buyer? Exact title, seniority, reporting structure.
• What triggered the purchase? What was happening at the company when they decided to buy?
• What did they try before you? What alternatives did they evaluate?

The patterns that emerge from these questions are your ICP.

The Specificity Framework

A strong ICP has five layers:

Layer 1: Industry. Not "technology" -- that is a sector. Your industry should be specific enough that the companies in it share common problems. "Developer tools for enterprise engineering teams" is an industry. "Technology" is not.

Layer 2: Company profile. Size (employee count and/or revenue), stage (funding, maturity), geography, and growth trajectory. A company that just raised Series B and is growing 100% year-over-year is very different from a company at the same revenue that has been flat for three years.

Layer 3: Buyer profile. The specific person who makes or influences the purchasing decision. Title, seniority, department, and common career path. "VP of Sales who previously ran SDR teams" is a buyer profile. "Decision makers" is not.

Layer 4: Trigger events. The circumstances that make a company ready to buy. New funding, leadership changes, product launches, competitive pressure, regulatory changes, or growth milestones. Trigger events separate "could buy someday" from "is likely to buy now."

Layer 5: Disqualification criteria. Who explicitly does NOT fit? Competitors, companies that are too small or too large, companies in industries you cannot serve, companies already using a solution they will not switch from. Disqualification criteria are as important as qualification criteria.

Common Mistakes

Too broad. If your ICP describes more than 5,000 companies, it is too broad. Narrow it until it describes 500-2,000 companies. You can always expand later. You cannot fix the damage from sending irrelevant outreach to a too-broad list.

No trigger events. Targeting companies that fit your profile but have no current reason to buy is a recipe for low reply rates. Always include at least one trigger event layer.

Ignoring disqualification. Every lead that does not fit your ICP wastes a sending slot, dilutes your reply rate data, and costs you money. Define who you do NOT want as clearly as who you do want.

Confusing ICP with TAM. Your Total Addressable Market is everyone who could theoretically buy your product. Your ICP is the subset most likely to buy it right now. They are not the same thing.

How VerifiedByTed Uses Your ICP

When you define your ICP with VerifiedByTed, every criterion becomes a filter and a scoring input. Ted does not just match on industry and title. Ted scores every lead against every layer of your ICP, giving you a ranked list that starts with your highest-probability prospects.

The more specific your ICP, the better your leads. Every time.