🕵🏻‍♂️ Creating an ICP for a new product?

Dear Trencher,

In this newsletter, I'll show you how to create an ICP if you're a start-up with a new product, targeting new market segments, and don't (yet) have enough customer data.

Let’s get right into it.

1. Leverage your network.

A. Make a list of the top 100 customers from this market segment.

At this stage, think about the customers you want to do business with. In other words, the customers who you believe are the best fit for you.

B. Define a buying committee.

Formulate hypotheses about the buying committee and write down the appropriate job roles.

C. Find the buying committee.

Find these people on social media (LinkedIn will probably be your go-to channel) and collect public information about them.

D. Connect with them.

Send these folks a connection request and invite them for lunch (if you are in the same city), or ask if they are available for a quick chat about the problems your product solves.

Mind you, you definitely do not need to pitch or mention your product at all.

But what have I got to say then? Glad you asked.

Here’s a quick example:

E. Follow-ups.

If you don’t get a reply, you can send several follow-up emails and send a private message on social media

F. Interview.

If you got a positive response, try to interview them with some of the following questions.

• What was going on in your business that made you want to seek a solution like ours?

• When looking for a solution like ours, what steps do you usually take?

• What are your current challenges?

• What might happen if these problems aren't solved?

• Why did you choose our product?

• What factors influence your purchasing decision?

• Are you satisfied with everything (quality, service, support, results, etc.), or something that can be improved?

• What features would you like to see in your product?

• Can you give a testimonial or would you recommend our product?

• What social media do you regularly use?

• Which industry blogs, websites, or influencers are you following?

• Who of your colleagues was involved?

• How did you introduce our solution and the proposal to the management?

• Did you get any questions from other colleagues?

2. Leverage communities.

A. Make a list of target communities where this audience might hang out.

Usually, these are Facebook, LinkedIn, or Slack groups. Our Trenches community might also be a good fit for you. 🙂

B. Join these communities and become an active member.

It’s really simple. Introduce yourself, mentioning what you are currently working on, what kind of help you are looking for, and how you can help other community members.

Start answering questions and ask yours. Connect with admins and ask how you can help them.

In two weeks, you’ll be a prominent and well-known member of any online community. Believe me, as a long-time community admin 😊.

C. Reach out to the admins and share your challenge.

Ask them to recommend people to talk to about certain topics, and they can put you in touch with them. Similarly, ask them if you can post a message saying you're looking to talk to ten people about the problems your product solves.

In most cases, you’ll get a positive reply and valuable connections.

One caveat: once you finish your research, don’t leave or forget about the community. You can decrease your engagement but don’t forget to visit it from time to time. Who knows when you might need help again?

Once you've got your first customers, come back to this guide and repeat all the steps one after the other.

Validate your ICP with the 5W technique

One of the most frequent questions we get about ICP is: how can I be sure that everything is in order?

Well, here is a 5W technique that will help you validate your ICP.

1. Who is my best customer?

Not all customers are created equal. So make sure you've analyzed your best customers from a particular market segment and not mixed them up with customers from other segments.

If you have doubts, double-check your CRM and filter it by segments and average deal value or LTV.

2. Why do they buy my product?

Theodore Levitt said it best when he said:

You should apply the same approach when analyzing what problems your product solves. It will help you get more clarity on how to approach and prospect the companies that are similar to your best customers.

3. Who influences my deals?

Don’t forget that in B2B, you usually deal with a group of people called the buying committee. Some of them influence your deal directly, while others (influencers and blockers) can impact it in the latest stages.

You need to think ahead about how to involve the whole buying committee. Likewise, you need to plan strategies to drive all members to move further with your deal.

4. Where can I find them?

Figure out what channels you can use for prospecting and lead generation. The only way to figure this out is to analyze the social media activity of your best customers and run in-depth customer surveys.

Once you obtain this information, you’ll never need to ask yourself what channels you should try.

5. What influences their decision-making process?

This last question will help you understand the typical buying process and the customer journey of your best customers.

You can leverage this information to improve your content strategy, prospecting, lead nurturing cadence, sales enablement, and sales processes.

As well, this information is going to help you understand how to improve your company’s positioning and unique value proposition.

NOTE: If you found this content interesting and insightful, chances are you have 1 or 2 colleagues (well, maybe 03) who’d enjoy it as much as you do. Help them by sharing it and earn some exclusive perks.

BEST SHARES FROM THE TRENCHES COMMUNITY

• Don't ditch MQLs as everybody advises on LinkedIn. Instead, fix the broken lead generation playbook. Here is how. (Andrei Zinkevich)

• B2B Growth-Archetypes - research early findings (+call for more testers): (Daniel Renyi)

QUESTIONS FROM FELLOW TRENCHERS

• Hey team, I’m currently working with a marketing team at a digital agency that does everything from content writing to web design, digital marketing, SEO, branding, and social media management. The issue is the company relies solely on cold emails & referrals that are no longer working, and I need to bring in new customers with zero ads budget. Looking for any cheap or free approach to achieve my marketing objectives.

• Hi. I’m looking for help. I tried to make Google Analytics work for funnel tracking on my websites. But since GA4 it’s a nightmare. What tool do you use for simple funnel tracking that works out of the box? Thanks for your help.

NOTE: If you found this content interesting and insightful, chances are you have 1 or 2 colleagues (well, maybe 03) who’d enjoy it as much as you do. Help them by sharing it and earn some exclusive perks.

See you in Trenches 😉

Adechina D. ODJO