Ideal customer profile decide who goes on your list
Before you collect a single company, decide who belongs on the list. A simple ideal customer profile built on industry, location and size.
- No credits, no data tax
- You own your data
- Map included
- GDPR-first
A profile is a filter, not a persona
An ideal customer profile (ICP) describes the type of company that gets the most value from what you sell and is easiest for you to win. It is about companies, not people: which industry, which place, which size, which situation.
Many teams write an ICP once and file it away. It is far more useful as a working filter: three or four questions that decide, row by row, whether a company enters your list or not.
Once the answers are clear, they become tags and segments. In Riftjaw you can turn those answers into segments and use them as the backbone of your B2B prospect list.
The questions that make up a B2B ideal customer profile
Keep every answer concrete enough that you can check it on a company website in under a minute.
| Question | Example answer | Becomes in your list |
|---|---|---|
| Which industry? | Dental practices and physiotherapists | A niche tag per company |
| Which place? | Cities within an hour of your office | A region or city field |
| Which size? | Two to twenty employees, one location | A size tag or a filter rule |
| Which situation? | Has a website but no online booking | A note or signal tag |
| Who decides? | The owner or practice manager | The contact route you look for |
Where to find the answers
Your best current customers
List the ten customers you would happily clone. What do they share in industry, place and size? That overlap is your first draft.
Deals that went smoothly
Look at which customers bought quickly and stayed. Speed and retention say more about fit than deal size alone.
Deals you should have skipped
Write down the customers that cost too much time. Their traits become your exclusion rules.
Where they are listed
Check whether companies matching the profile can be found in public places such as maps and directories. A profile you cannot find is a profile you cannot prospect.
Keep your ICP useful
- Write the profile in one sentence first; if it takes a paragraph, it is too broad.
- Add at least one exclusion rule, such as chains, or companies outside your region.
- Make one profile per offer if you sell two different services.
- Test the profile on twenty companies by hand before you collect hundreds.
- Revisit it after every campaign: replies tell you which part of the profile was right.
Frequently asked questions
What is an ideal customer profile in B2B?
It is a description of the type of company that fits your offer best: industry, location, size and situation. In B2B the profile is about the company as a buyer, while a buyer persona describes the person inside it.
What is the difference between an ICP and a buyer persona?
The ICP decides which companies go on your list. The buyer persona describes who you write to inside those companies and what they care about. Start with the ICP; the persona follows from it.
How many ideal customer profiles should I have?
Start with one per offer. A small team that targets three profiles at once usually writes three weak messages instead of one strong one.
How do I turn my ICP into a prospect list?
Use each answer as a filter: collect companies from sources that match the industry and place, then tag size and situation per row. Riftjaw lets you import companies from public lists and filter them on those tags.
Do I need credits?
No. There are no credits and no data tax: enrichment runs automatically without a per-row meter.
What is Riftjaw?
Riftjaw is a self-hosted B2B lead pipeline: collect companies from any public list, enrich them for free, put them on the map and reach them - from one dashboard you host yourself.
Put your ideal customer profile to work
Collect companies that match your profile, tag them by industry, place and size, and reach them per segment from one self-hosted dashboard.
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