Product Marketing
Ideal Customer Profile and Segmentation
Choose which customer situations to prioritize using the evidence you have and the questions you still need to answer. Turn the research into a practical ICP and segmentation brief for product, sales and marketing.
Make customer fit a decision the team can explain
I research the customer situations and evidence behind your prioritization decision. A company can match a demographic profile without having a reason to buy. Start with the situation that creates the problem, the change the buyer is considering and the product capabilities needed to support the proposed fit.
This is a focused research engagement around customer prioritization. It can sit within broader customer and market research, but has its own decision, evidence inputs and handoff. The aim is a usable choice and visible uncertainty, rather than a longer list of desirable accounts.
What the agreed work can cover
Customer situations and segments
Compare the buying circumstances, problems, constraints and alternatives that distinguish potential customer groups. Use company characteristics where they help explain a real difference.
Fit, readiness and commercial relevance
Assess product fit, reasons to act and potential commercial relevance separately. A good product fit is not proof of current purchase readiness.
Evidence and contradictory cases
Connect observations to their sources. Include customers or opportunities that challenge the preferred profile, and show where the sample is selective or incomplete.
Prioritization and activation brief
Translate the chosen segments into agreed criteria, working exclusions and open questions. Explain how the relevant product, sales and marketing owners can use the brief.
How the engagement comes together
Frame the prioritization decision
Identify the product, commercial question, current customer assumptions and available records. Agree who can provide evidence and invite participants.
Compare the evidence
Review permitted customer and sales information, with agreed research where needed. Keep observed behavior, participant statements and interpretation distinguishable.
Agree the working profile
Produce the scoped ICP and segmentation handoff. Record why a group is prioritized, what remains uncertain and the conditions that should trigger a review.
A focused output, with a clear relationship to other work
An ICP brief can inform positioning, account selection, content or launch choices. Those workstreams still need their own inputs and owners; this engagement does not silently include prospecting, a supplied sales team or an entire go-to-market launch.
The research uses the access and participant groups agreed for the question. A small or selective sample is not presented as a market census. The resulting profile is a supported working decision, with limits and a route to learning rather than a guaranteed source of revenue.
Questions about the service
How is this different from customer and market research?
Customer and market research can address several buying and product questions. This scope concentrates on which customer situations to prioritize and the ICP or segmentation brief that supports that choice.
Is an ICP just company size and industry?
No. Those characteristics can be useful, but the research also considers the buying situation, problem, alternatives, product fit and readiness to act.
Can you work with the evidence we already have?
Yes. Start with the permitted customer, product and sales evidence available. Agree whether additional research is needed and show the limitations of the resulting sample.
Does this include finding and contacting every target account?
No. The handoff can inform account-selection and outreach criteria. Prospecting execution and any separate SDR programme have their own responsibilities and scope.
How are the work and terms agreed?
Scope, outputs, responsibilities and review points are agreed per engagement. Continuing engagements are month-to-month with no minimum term; either side can end with 30 days notice.
Related scopes and evidence
Next step
Discuss your customer prioritization
Bring the business question, existing evidence and people who will use the work. Agree the outputs, responsibilities and review points before starting.
An account decision that keeps evidence and intent separate
Bring permitted customer and opportunity records, your current fit criteria and the owners who know why deals progressed or stopped. I personally research the agreed customer situations and build the ICP or segmentation handoff. When the scope includes GTM implementation, I connect the reviewed criteria to the agreed CRM workflow.
Hypothetical example: the CRM contains renewal and expansion opportunities for the same company. Counting every deal as an independent customer could overstate a segment. An enrichment source also lists a technology match; that observation does not establish that the company is currently buying.
An illustrative account evidence review
| Evidence item | Interpretation | Next action |
|---|---|---|
| Repeated company records | Separate opportunities may describe one customer relationship. | Link records to the company and state the aggregation rule. |
| Relevant technology listed | Possible product fit; source accuracy still needs checking. | Keep the source and date; do not label the account ready to buy. |
| A prior loss cites missing functionality | A contradiction to a simple firmographic match. | Ask the product and sales owners whether the limitation still applies. |
What the account handoff records
Use the fields to make prioritization explainable and revisable:
- Company identity: the stable company identifier used across source systems.
- Analysis unit: company, buying group or opportunity; do not silently mix them.
- Source and date: where the observation came from and when it applied.
- Observed fit: supported match to the agreed customer situation.
- Readiness status: actual reason to act, or explicitly unknown readiness.
- Duplicate and contradiction: linked duplicate records and contrary evidence.
- Review owner: person responsible for accepting the account decision.
- Next action: investigation, client-SDR review or deferred action with a reason.
Download the blank CSV worksheet. This header-only file has no sample rows or results. Save your own copy in a spreadsheet app and complete it with permitted evidence.
Start with a disputed segment or account list. We will agree the analysis unit, exclusions and review process before activating it. Your assigned SDRs conduct prospecting and conversations; I can lead the programme, train and manage them and implement the supporting automation within the agreed scope.