🔶 Why a vague ICP is killing your growth

Read time: 5 minutes

Hey! Sam here 👋 I’ve spent the last 10+ years leading marketing and growth for early-stage tech startups, helping them scale from 0 to 8 figures. Each week, I share actionable insights to help founders and marketing leaders like you drive sustainable growth.

Hey! Sam here 👋

Last week, a founder proudly showed me their growth strategy: "We're going to be the Salesforce of [industry]!"

When I asked about their ICP, they handed me... a feature list.

Ouch.

This is the $500k+ mistake I keep seeing founders make. Their ICPs so broad they're practically useless for decision-making. They spend months perfecting features while skipping the one question that actually matters: Who are you really building for?

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The real cost of vague ICPs

Most companies stop at surface-level ICPs:

• ❌ We serve B2B SaaS

• ❌ Companies with 50+ employees

• ❌ $5M-10M in revenue

Then they wonder why their CAC keeps climbing, deals keep stalling, and churn keeps rising.

Here's what I've learned helping companies scale to $10M ARR:

Your ICP isn't just about who you serve. It's about who you deliberately choose to ignore.

A Better Framework: The 3-Layer ICP

Let me show you how the fastest-growing companies do it. They break their ICP into three clear layers:

1. Must-have signals 🟢

These are your absolute minimum requirements. No exceptions.

• Tech stack requirements

• Business model indicators

• Core processes that must exist

2. Fit multipliers 🟢🟢

Signals that show a prospect is likely to succeed with your solution:

• Team structures

• Growth indicators

• Operational maturity markers

3. Perfect-fit indicators 🟢🟢🟢

Signs that a prospect will become a power user:

• Specific pain points

• Resource allocation

• Strategic priorities

Real-world example: How Chili Piper does it

First, some context: Chili Piper is a B2B scheduling automation platform that grew from $3M in 2019 to $30M by 2023. Their secret? They didn't try to serve every B2B company that needed scheduling.

Instead, they built an ICP so specific that their sales team could predict with more accuracy which leads would close.

Let's break down how specific you need to get:

Must-have signals 🟢

• Using Salesforce/Hubspot

• B2B business model

• Active 'Contact Us' form or free trial

Fit multipliers 🟢🟢

• 10+ sales reps

• High lead volume

• Multiple sales roles (AM, AE, CSM)

• Marketing automation tools

• Sales engagement stack

Perfect-fit indicators 🟢🟢🟢

• 100+ FT employees

• Dedicated SDR team

• Clear scaling objectives

The Strategy Reset You Need

Your strategy isn't your feature list. It's about making hard choices:

• Which customers will you disappoint?

• Which problems won't you solve?

• Which opportunities will you ignore?

How to Put This Into Practice

1. Map your current customers

• List your longest-tenured customers

• Document their common characteristics

• Look for patterns in team structure and processes

2. Create your scoring system for each new prospect, assess:

• How many must-have signals do they show?

• Which fit multipliers are present?

• Do they display any perfect-fit indicators?

3. Build your filters using these criteria to:

• Guide marketing targeting

• Develop lead scoring

• Focus sales efforts

• Prioritize opportunities

Making Hard Choices

Remember: A good ICP isn't about who you serve - it's about who you deliberately choose not to serve.

Ask yourself:

• Which types of companies will you say no to?

• What size businesses are too small?

• Which industries aren't a good fit?

• What tech stack requirements are non-negotiable?

This Week's Action Items

1. Document your current ICP

• Write down all current criteria

• Sort them into the three layers

• Identify gaps in each category

2. Audit recent deals

• Review your last 5 closed-won deals

• Look for common characteristics

• Note missing criteria

3. Update your qualification process

• Create a simple scoring sheet

• Test it on your current pipeline

• Refine based on results

Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways I can help you:

• Follow me on LinkedIn for content like this during the week.

• Work with me 1:1 to uncover your growth levers and build a defensible growth engine to scale your business to $10MM ARR. Let’s chat.

  If you're a founder who’s reached $1M-$5M ARR and now wants to scale.

• Need help running ads? We’ve built an ads agency for early-stage startups that handles customer research, creatives, and media buying. Let’s chat.

Until next time 👋

Sam

PS. I’m here to help YOU grow. What’s the one thing you’re struggling with in your business that you’d like advice on?