89: 3 Steps to Building Your Dream ICP

The foundation of a successful outbound motion

Picture of the week.

Read on jed.substack.com

Read time: 6min

Welcome back to The Practical Prospecting Newsletter! Today we’re discussing one of the most important, yet overlooked parts of outbound sales: ICP.

I’ll be walking through the exact process I use when working with clients to build out their ICP. Plus, I’ll share the templates I use so you can steal it for yourself.

Agenda:

• The Turning Point in My Career

• Step 1: Account Research

• Step 2: Persona Research

• Step 3: Competitor Research

• Step 4: Creating Your Dream ICP

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Common Room! They give you access to hard-to-see buyer data in a single view so you can prospect with relevance.

It’s a perfect fit for today’s topic as we’re talking about narrowing your ICP based on buying triggers.

Check out their free SDR playbook for building quality pipeline using relevant signals:

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The Turning Point in My Career

I vividly remember the turning point in my SDR career.

I went from struggling to hit quota to having my first 150%+ quota month.

And it all stemmed from one piece of advice...

My manager Troy Barter, told me "Every inbound lead was an outbound lead yesterday".

Once I internalized this, my process changed completely.

I would study our inbound leads and current customers, then look back to see what was happening at that account 1-3 months before they came inbound.

- Were there new hires?
- What tech were they using?
- What was happening internally?

These questions helped me develop, what I like to call, my "Dream ICP".

Everyone knows TAM: the overall size of the market you're operating in.

Everyone knows ICP: the sub-category of accounts that are most likely to convert to paying customers.

But most stop there.

It's not until you go several layers deeper by incorporating technographic data, buying triggers, and more, that you create your "Dream ICP".

These are the types of accounts that are such a perfect fit, you could close them in your sleep.

The good news is, with the amount of data and insight available on the internet and via data tools, it's easier than ever to identify these accounts.

There are three steps to developing your Dream ICP

1. Account Research

2. Persona Research

3. Competitor Research

Once you do, you’ll have a rock-solid foundation for your outbound process.

It will make everything easier.

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Step 1: Account Research

The purpose of this step is to look at your current customers, inbound leads, and all the data you have available to determine every last detail that would make an account a good fit for you to reach out to. 

We want our Dream ICP to be based on REAL data (not anecdotal evidence). And the most real data you can find is by looking at the people who are already paying you.

When I do this exercise with clients, we find the last 10 customers they won (or more) and document the data points on this spreadsheet:

Note: these are only some of the questions you should ask, get creative and think bigger.

Grab the spreadsheet for yourself here (please make a copy).

Remember, this document will evolve as markets change, your product changes, and you get more data. I recommend refreshing it once per month by reviewing every meeting booked, deal won, and inbound lead from the previous month, then using that data to make updates. 

I created this short video to add more context to the exercise:

P.S. Click here to learn how Common Room can help you access relevant buying signals

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Step 2: Persona Research

Now it’s time to determine which personas at these accounts fit your Dream ICP criteria.

Beyond that, we need to truly understand WHY they are the best people to reach out to. By knowing their current processes, challenges, and desires. 

Again, look at the last 10+ customers you close and document who was involved in the buying process and at what stage.

That last part is important because, oftentimes, certain personas are involved in the buying process but not until the later stages. For that reason, it doesn’t make sense to prospect them - I see a lot of teams doing this and it ends up being a big waste of activity.

Once you’ve determined your Dream ICP persona(s), answer the questions on this spreadsheet:

Grab the spreadsheet for yourself here (please make a copy).

It’s important to think hard about each question. Don’t guess or make any assumptions. Because this will be the foundation you use to create your messaging.

I recommend finding the answers to these questions by (a) listening to demo recordings, (b) talking to your Customer Success or Account Management team, or (c) by actually interviewing customers.

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Step 3: Competitor Research

One of the biggest reasons our messaging gets ignored is because our prospects are already getting the job done without us. 

I like to call this the “hidden objection”.

Most outbound messaging assumes the prospect is incompetent and doesn’t have any solution in place for the problem they solve.

Case in point: every lead gen email that says, “Are you interested in 20+ meetings per month?”.

Sigh…

Unless you’re selling an entirely new solution (which isn’t likely), your buyers are almost certainly using some sort of competitor. 

And keep in mind, when I say “competitor”, I don’t only mean the typical idea of a competitor (i.e. Salesforce vs HubSpot). For example, if you’re selling a CRM, your competitor may be spreadsheets. 

In other words, your competitors are not only the competing vendors/service providers in your market, but also the “status quo” processes that your prospects are using. 

It’s your job to figure out what the most common competitors are. So you can highlight its gaps, and position your value proposition around how you fill in those gaps. 

This will drastically increase response rates because your prospects will feel understood. 

Document your top competitors on this spreadsheet and answer the questions:

Grab the spreadsheet for yourself here (please make a copy).

Again, validate with REAL data which competitors are most common for your Dream ICP.

If you aren’t sure how to answer each question, here are a few ideas: 

• Read reviews on G2 Crowd, Capterra, and other sites

• Visit their website, watch their demos, and start a free trial (assuming your competitors are software companies).

Bonus Idea: Interview people using your competitor. 

Here’s the template I used when I started at Mailshake: 

Hey [name],

Let me preface this by saying I’m not trying to sell you anything or book a meeting haha.

I was hoping to get some feedback from you as a persona I would normally sell to…

I’ve started to build the outbound motion at [company]. We’re a competitor of tools like X, Y, and Z - I’m sure your team uses one of those.

I’m genuinely curious what - if anything - would it take to for you to consider an alternative?

Any feedback would be massively appreciated.

Cheers,

Side note: this is actually a great prospecting strategy. I quite literally booked 3 meetings with this template by accident. You can read about it here.

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Step 4: Creating Your Dream ICP

Once you’ve thoroughly collected REAL data on who your Dream ICP is, document it in this ICP Matrix document:

Grab the spreadsheet for yourself here (please make a copy).

This should be the master document that you (and your team, if you’re a manager) use as their guide for building new lists.

Thanks for reading,

Jed

P.S. If you want my help building out your outbound process, check out my website for more info.