Build an ICP that researchers and sales can actually use

Start with service fit rather than an industry list

Review work your business can deliver well. Look for similarities in the initial need, operating environment, service requirements, and vendor evaluation process. Compare these with projects that were less suitable. The purpose is to identify conditions that make your offer relevant, rather than copying the size or sector of an attractive customer.

Planning example: an Indonesian operations consultancy finds that its service suits organisations with several branches and inconsistent working procedures. Those companies may operate in different industries, but share an operating condition. That criterion gives researchers a more useful direction than simply targeting large businesses across the country.

• Which problems match your expertise and capacity?
• What operating conditions make those problems relevant?
• Which requirements make an account difficult to serve?

Separate requirements from supporting signals

Required criteria must be met for an account to proceed, such as a serviceable location or a relevant business need. Supporting signals strengthen the reason to investigate, such as an announced branch opening. Exclusions identify unsuitable conditions. Keeping these separate prevents an interesting signal from outweighing a fundamental delivery mismatch.

State how each criterion can be checked. If it relies on information that is not public, turn it into a question for the first conversation. Do not ask researchers to guess so the spreadsheet looks complete. An unknown status makes it possible to decide whether further investigation is worth the effort.

Create an account card that carries the reasoning

A concise card can include the company, fit rationale, supporting evidence, relevant roles, and open questions. Add sources and check dates so the next person can assess freshness. If a company announces expansion, record what it actually announced without converting that fact into a claim that it needs your service.

Select details that help explain your offer. A large collection of unrelated facts creates reading work without improving the message. For the buying map, treat user, evaluator, and approver as provisional roles. Confirm the structure as the conversation develops instead of assuming one senior title carries all purchasing authority.

• Fact: what can another person verify?
• Hypothesis: how might that fact relate to the offer?
• Question: what does the buyer still need to confirm?

Test the rules before expanding the list

Ask two people to assess the same sample accounts using the profile. When their decisions differ, find the vague wording or missing evidence. Refine the rules until the rationale is understandable. This small check helps prevent a large list from being built using several incompatible ideas of what makes an account suitable.

Once outreach begins, bring response and rejection reasons back into the profile. Distinguish poor account fit from unclear messaging or later buying timing. Revise when there is a pattern worth acting on, and keep the reason for the change. Otherwise the team may switch audiences without retaining what the earlier work taught them.