Buyer Persona vs. Ideal Customer Profile: How They Help Your Sales
Though sometimes used interchangeably, Buyer Persona and Ideal Customer Profile are distinct terms that represent different notions. For your sales and marketing efforts to succeed, you need both. In this blog post, we’ll study Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Buyer Persona (BP) in detail — the peanut butter and jelly of your sales process. We’ll also determine the differences between them and provide clear guidelines on how to create them.
But first… let us tell you a short and illuminating fairy tale!
The king’s order is a perfect example of super-ineffective management. And when applied to lead generation and selling process it can cost millions to companies that dare to apply it.
Obviously, the guy in our tale succeeded. However, apart from being extremely motivated (he wanted his happy life with his beloved wife) and almost unattainably high on an ambiguity tolerance scale, he won because of magic and lucky coincidences. After all, fairytales should all end well to motivate children to pursue their happiness.
On the flipside, for the grown-ups, this story could be told in a manner of Kafka’s Judgement. The real life, however, is somewhere in-between these 2 extremes. Oh! BTW, have you spotted our logo in the comics? Have another look!
If you don’t have a plan and purpose for your sales team, don’t demand them to go on an epic quest for you. It’ll never happen. Don’t expect your salespeople to look for unparticular leads in undecided places. And don’t delve into survival bias hoping for unprecedented lucky coincidences that helped others. It’s not something to build growth on.
Finally, if you don’t provide clear guidelines to your salespeople on what companies you hope to win and whom to approach to win them, you will most likely get high attrition rates. Because, unlike the servant in the tale, they do have choices and aren’t that high on an ambiguity tolerance scale (BTW, prospecting is still hard, even with a clear roadmap).
So what organizations does your business need to seek? Whom and how should your salespeople reach out to? What information will your potential customers want to obtain from you?
Your Buyer Persona and Ideal Customer Profile clearly define that.
Our blog post provides comprehensive information on the most focal questions related to ICP and BP:
