When you describe your customer as “anyone who needs our product”, it is hard to focus your marketing, qualify opportunities, or decide what to build next.
An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) describes the type of customer best suited to your product or service. These customers have a problem you solve well, get value from your offering, and are commercially worthwhile to serve.
For a business selling to other businesses, an ICP typically describes:
An ICP describes the organisation. A buyer persona describes an individual involved in the purchase, such as a CTO or Marketing Manager.
“Any company that needs software.”
❌ Figure: Bad example - Bad example - Too broad to guide marketing or sales decisions
“An organisation with business-critical software that needs modernising, a sponsor who can make decisions, and funding for experienced developers.”
✅ Figure: Good example - Good example - Describes a specific need and the conditions for a successful engagement
SSW is a software consultancy that helps organisations build and improve software. Its services include custom application development, AI, cloud solutions, and .NET modernisation.
An example ICP for SSW’s software consulting services is:
An organisation that depends on software to run or grow its business and needs specialist expertise or extra development capacity. It has a clear business problem, funding for professional development services, and a decision-maker who will work with the delivery team.
Example customer: A logistics company relies on an ageing .NET application. Manual workarounds delay deliveries, and its internal developers need help modernising the system. It has funding and a business sponsor available to prioritise work.
Why it fits: The company has a valuable problem to solve, needs expertise SSW provides, and is ready to collaborate.
Poor-fit example: A business needs a basic brochure website that an off-the-shelf website builder can handle, with no need for custom development.
TinaCMS is an open-source, headless content management system that combines visual editing with content stored in Git. Developers configure the website and editing experience, while content editors can update content without working directly in the repository.
An example ICP for TinaCMS is:
An organisation with a developer-supported website or documentation site, where non-technical editors need to update content regularly. Its developers value keeping content in Git and want control over the website’s code, components, and content structure.
Example customer: A software company’s marketing team raises developer tickets for every website copy change. Its developers want to keep their existing Git-based workflow while letting marketers edit and preview content themselves.
Why it fits: The editors need more independence, the developers value Git, and the organisation has technical support to set up and maintain TinaCMS.
Poor-fit example: A business wants a fully managed drag-and-drop website builder and has no access to developer support.