What is your Ideal Customer Profile? What is your Buyer Persona? What is the difference between an Ideal Customer Profile and a Buyer Persona?

In short, an ideal customer profile is a description of the perfect type of customer you should sell to because you bring significant value from your product/service. Additionally, the ideal customer will have low costs of goods and services to acquire, be long lasting and sticky, with a suitable lifetime value score. 

A buyer persona is a detailed analysis of the people who buy from you - generally within a company or organization. Buyer personas help define the different buying patterns of companies within your ideal customer profile.

Describe your target customers. Ideally, who is the perfect customer for your organization? We want to define their demographic profile, psycho graphic profile, and their precise wants and needs as they relate to the products and/or services you offer.

The ICP and Buyer Persona should dictate the wording your sales and marketing teams use with prospects, opportunities, and customers. It also provides focus on when, how and where your team hunts new business. The ICP and Buyer Persona of your business drives the sales and marketing teams!

First, to create an ICP and Buyer Persona, let’s start with compiling data from your current market (use real data and do not guess or estimate). Gather it from online and offline sources and note its origin. For example,
• an existing CRM
• Google Analytics
• customer surveys
• your competitor’s customers
• other professionals in your industry
• 3rd party data bases
• current customers, assuming you have an existing book of business, are a wonderful source too
• internal staff: hold 1-on-1 meetings to discuss the customer service experience

Talk to your potential market as well. If you have a product/service which could be consumed just the same across multiple markets call on the untapped markets. When talking with people don’t be sales oriented. Be brief and friendly. Also, be careful not to push the conversation too far. However, dig and get as much specific info and feedback as possible.

Use this (ICP worksheet) to help pull the right data together and create the Ideal Customer Profile and Buyer Persona.

Being able to more clearly identify your target customers and their needs will help you both pinpoint your marketing and better serve the consumer.

Furthermore, keep interviewing until you see patterns in the responses to your questions. Remember you have 2 ears and 1 mouth - listen twice as much as you talk. Be attentive to product/service and market trends. Watch where they are going and not where they are at the present time. Timeframe differs depending on your type of business.

Now, let’s assume that you’ve gathered your data to review it as a competitive analysis. Import all the data into 1 spreadsheet. The resulting patterns will tell you important data about your most desired target customers. It is likely you’ll see trends and common traits as well. What are the data patterns you see? What are the major pain points and how can you (1) solve the problem (2) ease the pain for your customer?

It might be a good idea to create a “non-ideal customer profile” as well. It is almost as important to disqualify a prospect as it is to qualify a prospect.

Once you identify and create your ICP Ideal Customer Profile it will be a long lasting building block to your business and organization. It is a very valuable asset. Here are some uses of the ICP:
• Better qualification of prospects when doing outreach
• Attracting the right prospects and inbound opportunities
• Write copy for a blog
• Write copy for a case study
• Write sales and marketing scripts
• Update your business plan
• Update your marketing plan
• Update your Unique Selling Proposition
• Better target prospective markets and industry verticals
• Learn which networks to focus time into for best results
• Drill down deeper and filter out data lists for marketing/advertising
• Set pricing to better align with your business model

As you create your ICP and Buyer Persona, think of sales and the sales process. Spend lots of your time focusing on who is making the purchase (list and describe the decision makers), who are your gatekeepers (so you can plan to get around them), and how your product/service can solve their problem or bring them value.

Prospecting buyers can take up a lot of a time, energy, and resources. Build an ICP and a Buyer Persona before putting your efforts into finding new business. Your team will waste less on none qualified appointments, show much higher sales closing ratios, and be overall more effective if you figure out exactly who to market to and contact.

Get excited! Your business is really close to hyper growth sales mode!

Unique Selling Proposition (USP):
What sets you apart from your competition? How are you different from your competitor?
Having a strong Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is of critical importance as it distinguishes your company from competitors.

A value proposition is a statement of how your product or service will benefit your customer. It clearly defines what you will do for your ideal customer and why you’re better than your competitors.

Let’s start by looking at this from the view of Drew Eric Whitman. Then, I’ll show you a couple different ways to work up your own USP. From his perspective, think of your product/service offering and your buyer’s desires. These are the 9 learned desires:
1. To be informed
2. Curiosity
3. Cleanliness of body and surroundings
4. Efficiency
5. Convenience
6. Dependability / quality
7. Expression of beauty and style
8. Economy / profit
9. Bargains

If you have a product or service which will allow you to tap into a buyer’s human desires consider Whitman’s 8 basic human desires:
1. Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension
2. Enjoyment of food and beverages
3. Freedom from fear, pain, and danger
4. Sexual companionship
5. Comfortable living conditions
6. To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Jones
7. Care and protection of loved ones
8. Social approval

Your product/service will have one desire that will speak to the buyer most powerfully. The development and creation of your Unique Selling Proposition should focus on that desire and buyer interest.

A quick add-in, provide statistics or case study information to add more credibility to your brand’s product/service. Specific numbers and percentages are a great way to show they buyer how you will help them. Will you help them increase sales by 125% year over year? Will you help them save 20 hours per week? I don’t recall who said it but, “Concrete numbers provide concrete value.” This is one phrase has stuck with me over time.

Don’t be overwhelmed with all the “desires”. It’s simpler than you might imagine and I’ll walk you through it.
(1) For the purpose of application, let’s work on a USP for your website. This is my basic standard formula for a Unique Value Proposition:

A headline – This is viewed by prospects on websites more than anything else. It is also viewed first. So, be impactful. Be short with your words and sum up the benefit of your product/service offer. Catch the reader’s attention so you peek their interest in your sub-headline.

A sub-headline – This is where you can provide a more specific explanation of your product/service and how you’ll help them. Tell about your key FBV - Features, Benefits, and Value. Be short with your words in this section as well (keep it to 3-4 key words or phrases). However, depending on your offering, more details can be good.

An image - An image will pull together your message and should be used with intent. Someone using your product or service in the backdrop would emphasize your FBV proposition. Pictures speak a thousand words.

Who are you calling out to? Ask yourself these 4 simple questions when building your website’s USP. Look back on your ICP as a reference to simplify and condense your message.
• What is it I am selling?
• What are the features, benefits, and value offered to my buyer?
• Who is the target customer for this product or service?
• What makes the offering unique and different from competitors?

For example:

(2) Another way to break down a USP with a formula is to create a statement of an Action along with a Contextual Identifier.

For example: Easily File Your Taxes Electronically with ABC TAX OFFICE and We Will Increase Your Refund Amount By $500.

The USP and ICP are a very important part of streamlining your business. It helps put time back into your day because, when completed, you have a clear picture on which audience, networks, businesses, industries, prospects and/or opportunities to focus on. It prevents you from wasted time on those that will never buy from you.

(3) Here is another way to break down a USP with a formula. Try to rewrite and complete this template.
“We help _______________do_______________by doing____________________.”

For example, “ProducingSales helps your company sell and win more business by filling your sales pipeline with qualified buyers.

Put some thought into it. Work on this for a while and walk away. Then, review it again. Take a break and come back for another review. This exercise may be a little challenging for some but really easy for others.

If failure is not acceptable, it really is worth the effort and time in the beginning. Pull your USP together properly, along with your ICP, and the likelihood of a faster growing successful business will be in near sight.

Keep taking steps forward. As little or big as possible. Just keep moving forward. The business you are building is a long term investment that will continue to grow - as long as you grow it.

A quick “sales” note: Qualifying buyers is among the highest and most important priorities in sales. Assuming you are selling something in your business, my suggestion is to qualify and disqualify prospects and opportunities as early and often as possible. ICP and USP pinpoint your targets.