Most outbound campaigns fail at the ICP stage, not the copy stage. Teams target "B2B SaaS, 50–500 employees, USA" and wonder why their reply rate is 1%.
Here's the 30-minute workshop we run with every new client before we send a single email. Eight questions. One whiteboard. The output: a tight ICP statement we can build a real campaign around.
The 8 questions
Run these in order. Each one narrows the previous answer. Don't skip. Most teams want to jump to titles and channels, but the FIRST question always answers itself with new clarity by the end.
- 1. Who are our 5 best customers ever? (by revenue, retention, NPS)
- 2. What did all 5 have in common BEFORE they bought? (trigger, stage, situation)
- 3. Who initiated each deal, and what was their title?
- 4. What did they call the problem in their own words?
- 5. What were they trying to replace, or build internally?
- 6. Why did they pick us over alternatives?
- 7. Who at the company would block this deal, and why?
- 8. If we won 10 more like them, would that be a great quarter?
The 'win them, win the market' test
If you answered yes to question 8, you have your ICP. If you hesitated, the customers you described aren't your ICP. They're your accidents. Real ICP wins compound: each win makes the next one easier.
Common ICP traps
Trap 1, Defining ICP by firmographics alone. "B2B SaaS, 50–500, USA" is a filter, not an ICP. Real ICPs include TRIGGER (what made them ready to buy) and PERSONA (who actually pushed it through).
Trap 2, Picking your biggest deals as your ICP. The biggest deals are often outliers, wrong-sized companies that bought because of a personal relationship. Look at the 80% middle, not the top 1%.
Operationalizing the ICP
Once you have the ICP statement, translate it into operational filters:
- Firmographic filters: industry, size, geography
- Trigger filters: funding, hiring, role-change, tech adoption
- Persona filters: titles, seniority, function
- Disqualifiers: tech stack overlap with competitors, recent purchase from us, etc.
- 8 questions, 30 minutes. The output is a real ICP statement, not a firmographic filter
- Trigger + Persona are what separate ICP from firmographics
- Biggest deals are usually outliers. Look at the 80% middle
- Translate ICP into operational filters: firmographic + trigger + persona + disqualifier
