Ideal customer profile · ICP marketing
The ideal customer profile, written so you can build a list from it
An ideal customer profile (ICP) describes the type of company most likely to buy from you, succeed with what you sell and stay.
This guide covers what goes in one, how it differs from a buyer persona, a template you can copy and how to turn it into named accounts in the UK.
Reviewed by Dan Keegan, GTM Quest · 24 October 2026 · 5 sources linked below
An ICP in four layerscompany first, people second
- 01FirmographicsWHOSECTOR · SIZE · REGION
- 02SituationWHY NOWTRIGGERS · SIGNALS
- 03FitWHY USPROBLEM · STACK · BUDGET OWNER
- 04Buying groupWHO DECIDESROLES · PERSONAS
internal stakeholders in a typical B2B purchase (Forrester, 2026)13
01/ definition
What is an ideal customer profile? the short answer
An ideal customer profile is a written description of the companies you should sell to: their sector, size, location, situation and the problem you solve for them.
It describes an organisation, not a person.
In ICP marketing, the profile decides which accounts get budget and attention, so sales and marketing aim at the same list.
A good ICP is specific enough that two people given it would build roughly the same account list.
02/ compare
Ideal customer profile vs buyer persona company and person
The two are often confused.
You need both, in this order.
→ Write the ICP first. Forrester counts 13 internal stakeholders in a typical purchase, so each ICP account will need several personas.
→ The target market is your TAM; the ICP is the part of it you go after first.
03/ template
Ideal customer profile template copy the columns
One row per criterion.
The example column is an illustrative UK software firm, not a client.
Sector filters use the Standard Industrial Classification: Companies House publishes the condensed SIC list companies file against.
04/ method
How to build an ideal customer profile from your own deals
Start with your best customers
List the customers who bought fastest, pay most and stay longest.
Look for what they share.
- ✓ Sector, size, region
- ✓ What was happening when they bought
Read the losses and churn
The companies that never closed or left early tell you the exclusions.
- ✓ Too small, wrong stack, no owner
- ✓ Write these down as rules
Write it as filters
Turn the pattern into criteria a database can search: SIC codes, employee bands, regions, job titles.
- ✓ Firmographic filters first
- ✓ Signals second
Count the accounts
Run the filters and see how many companies match.
Too many means the ICP is loose; too few means it is narrow.
- ✓ A number, not a feeling
- ✓ Compare with your SOM
Review it every quarter
New wins and losses change the profile.
Date every version.
05/ UK data
Turning an ICP into UK accounts pick a filter
What does your ICP filter on first?
Free
Companies House
The Companies House advanced search filters the register by nature of business, location and company status.
Official
Business population estimates
The Department for Business and Trade counts 38,435 UK businesses with 50 to 249 employees and 8,335 with 250 or more at the start of 2025, a check on how big a size band really is.
Signals
Signals, not lists
Hiring, funding, leadership changes and website visits tell you which ICP accounts are moving now.
See our guide to signal-based selling.
06/ UK rules
An ICP and the UK outreach rules check before you send
Your ICP decides who you contact, and UK law decides how.
The ICO's business-to-business marketing guidance treats sole traders and some partnerships as individual subscribers, so they need consent or the soft opt-in for marketing email; corporate subscribers do not.
If your ICP includes sole traders, plan for that before you build the sequence.
07/ pitfalls
Ideal customer profile mistakes four we see
01
Every company is a fit
An ICP that excludes no one is a target market, not a profile.
02
Personas instead of companies
Job titles belong in the buying group, after the company filters.
03
Written once, never revisited
Wins and losses move the profile; review it each quarter.
04
No count
If nobody has run the filters, nobody knows how many accounts the ICP gives you.
08/ GTM Quest
How we use the ideal customer profile day one
Every engagement at GTM Quest, the London GTM agency, starts the motion on day one from a first version of the ICP and a named account list.
We size the market first with TAM SAM SOM, then qualify the conversations that come back with frameworks such as MEDDIC or BANT.
For the whole plan, see GTM strategy.
15 minutes · video or phone
Have an ICP? Let us build the list.
Book 15 minutes and we will tell you how many named accounts your ICP gives you and how we would reach them.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02Your ICP, sense-checked
- 03No forms, just a call
Pick a day that suits · live availability
09/ questions
Ideal customer profile FAQ
Short answers to what people ask about an ICP.
A written description of the type of company most likely to buy from you, succeed with what you sell and stay: its sector, size, location, situation and problem.
Ideal customer profile.
In ICP marketing, the profile decides which accounts get budget and attention.
An ICP describes a company; a buyer persona describes a person inside it.
Write the ICP first, then the personas for each role in the buying group.
Sector, size, region, a buying trigger, the problem you solve, the systems they run, the budget owner and the companies you exclude.
Review it every quarter against new wins, losses and churn, and date each version.
Enough to keep your sales capacity busy and few enough to research properly.
Run the filters and compare the count with your serviceable obtainable market.
Taking on new clients
An ICP is only useful as a list let us build it
Fifteen minutes is enough to see how many accounts yours gives you.
11/ sources
Every source on this page
Each figure above links to one of these. All were opened and checked on 24 October 2026.
- Forrester, The State of Business Buying, 2026forrester.com
- Department for Business and Trade, Business population estimates for the UK and regions 2025gov.uk
- Companies House, Standard industrial classification of economic activities (SIC)gov.uk
- Companies House, Advanced company searchfind-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
- ICO, Business-to-business marketingico.org.uk