What is an Ideal Customer Profile?
An Ideal Customer Profile describes the kind of customer who gets the most value from what you offer, and who you serve best. It describes a group, not a single person.
It's the shared answer to a question every team asks in its own way: who are we for? Marketing uses it to decide what to say and where. Sales uses it to decide who to spend time with. Product uses it to decide what to build next. When the answer lives only in people's heads, each team answers it differently, and the work pulls apart.
The idea comes from business to business selling, but it works for anyone who serves a defined group: consumers, constituents or the media. The builder changes its wording to suit each one.
Ideal Customer Profile vs Persona
An Ideal Customer Profile describes the group you fit best. A Persona describes one person inside it, such as the buyer or the daily user. Most teams need both.
| Ideal Customer Profile | Persona | |
|---|---|---|
| Describes | A group of customers you fit best | One kind of person inside that group |
| Answers | Who are we for, and who aren't we for? | Who are we talking to, and what do they need to hear? |
| Holds | Market, size, triggers, Customer Missions, pain points, near misses | Role, priorities, pain points, Customer Missions, trusted sources |
| Used for | Deciding where to spend time and money | Deciding what to say, where and when |
What to include in an Ideal Customer Profile
Who they are, the market they're in, what they're trying to get done, what gets in their way and how they buy. Leave out anything you can't explain or check.
- A descriptionTwo or three sentences a new hire could read and repeat. If it takes a paragraph, the profile is probably two profiles.
- Industry or categoryWhere they sit. It helps you locate them, though it rarely sets them apart.
- Size and the people involvedHow big they are and who takes part in a purchase. A company of fifty buys differently from a company of five thousand.
- GeographyWhere you can serve them, and where the way they buy changes.
- CompetitorsWho else they consider, including doing nothing or doing it themselves.
- TriggersThe events that make them start looking: a new hire, a missed number, a renewal date, a change in the rules. Triggers tell you when to show up.
- Near missesWho looks like a fit but isn't, and why. This is the part most profiles leave out, and the part that makes yours usable.
- Buying cycleHow long a decision takes and whether it follows a season or a budget year.
- Customer MissionsWhat they're trying to do that you have a solution for, in their words rather than yours.
- Pain points, words and objectionsWhat gets in their way, how they describe it, and what makes them hesitate. The words they use become the words in your copy.
How to create an Ideal Customer Profile
Begin with your best customers, look for what they share and write it down plainly. Then check it against how they actually behave.
- List your best customersThe ones who stay, grow and recommend you. Ten is plenty. Note what they have in common and, just as useful, what they don't.
- List the ones that went wrongCustomers who left early, took the most support or never got going. They become your near misses.
- Talk to bothAsk what was happening when they started looking, what they tried first and what nearly stopped them. Write down the words they use.
- Read what they say in publicReviews, forums and communities show how they describe the problem when you aren't in the room.
- Write it down in one shapeUse the builder, or any template with the same parts. Mark what you don't know yet rather than guessing.
- Share it and test itSend it to sales, product and support. If they can't tell a fit from a near miss after reading it, sharpen the description and the near misses.
How to write a Customer Mission
Use "When I [situation], I want to [motivation], so that I can [outcome]." Keep it about what they're trying to do, not about your product.
The format keeps the profile about their goal, not your product. If your product's name could replace the motivation, rewrite it.
Vague
I want a better scheduling tool.
Specific
When a new client books online and doesn't show, I want to remind them in a way that feels personal, so that I can keep the diary full without hiring more front desk staff.
The first names a product category. The second names the moment, the goal and what success looks like, so it tells you when to show up and what to say.
An example Ideal Customer Profile
- Description
- Owner run practices with two to six vets, in suburbs and small towns, where the practice manager runs the front desk and the books.
- Size and the people involved
- Ten to forty staff. The owner signs; the practice manager chooses and decides whether it sticks.
- Triggers
- A front desk hire leaves
- No shows climb after a quiet season
- The practice opens a second site
- Near misses
- Practices owned by a larger group. They look alike, but buying happens at head office, on a different cycle.
- Customer Mission
- When a client books and doesn't show, I want to remind them in a way that feels personal, so that I can keep the diary full without hiring. Today they ring each one by hand.
- Pain points
- Empty appointments they can't refill
- Reminders that feel like spam
- Staff time lost to the phone
- Words they use
- no shows
- the diary
- front desk
- reminders
Common mistakes
Describing everyone, describing your product instead of the customer, and writing it once and never checking it again.
- Describing everyone. A profile that fits every customer helps you decide nothing.
- Stopping at industry and size. Two companies with the same industry and size can want completely different things.
- Writing it in your words. If the pain points read like your feature list, they came from you, not from them.
- Leaving out the near misses. Knowing who you aren't for is what makes the profile usable.
- Writing it once. Customers change, and so do the words they use. A profile no one has touched in a year describes last year's customer.
- Writing two profiles that are really one. If two profiles want the same things and feel the same pain, they're the same customer.
From belief to evidence
A profile you write is a belief. Metisyne checks it against what your customers search, say and think, and the profile matures as the data does.
Metisyne enriches the profile with five kinds of data: search and keyword data; online communities and reviews; third party market data; third party industry data; and other data sources, ethically sourced. It answers the questions you marked as still open and refreshes every two weeks, so the profile keeps up with the customer.