Strategy Markets and Customers

Ideal customer profile from your best customers

Which customers should get your sales time first?

Works ranks your customers by revenue, retention and how easy they are to serve. It finds the traits your best customers share. You get a one-page ideal customer profile with three lists. Hard criteria are traits a prospect must have. Soft criteria make a good fit more likely. Disqualification criteria rule a prospect out.

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Updated

What you get
Ideal customer profile · Larkhollow Software
Ready for sales
7
criteria in the profile
3 / 3
hard criteria that each take under 5 minutes to check
20 or more commercial buildings Hard
Inspections on paper or in spreadsheets Hard
Two or more site managers Hard
Took on new buildings in the last year Soft
A maintenance lead owns inspections Soft
Buys on price alone, with no urgency Rule out
Will not sign an annual contract Rule out

Your sales team checks each new lead against it before the first call.

See it run

A profile in progress

Customers ranked
62 · From a HubSpot export
Criteria finished 5 / 7
Run log
  1. You
    “Find the customers to sell to first.”
    Your instruction
    ✓
  2. I
    Top 16 customers found ICP Builder
    Kept the top 16 of 62 by revenue, retention and how easy they are to serve. They share 5 traits.
    ✓
  3. You
    Hard and soft criteria chosen You
    You made 3 traits hard criteria and 2 traits soft criteria. 5 of 7 criteria are now set.
    ✓
  4. I
    Testing 2 disqualification criteria ICP Builder
    Checking 2 disqualification criteria against 85 lost deals and 5 customers who left.
    •
  5. You
    Your review needed You
    Check the profile with your sales team. Then test it on one real prospect.
  6. ↓
    Segments used Upstream
    The prioritized segments come from Identify and Prioritize Segments.
    ✓
How it works

Built from the customers you already have

The profile starts from your real customer list, not from a guess. Your customers are ranked by revenue, retention and how easy they are to serve. The traits that the top 25% share become the hard and soft criteria. Each hard criterion takes under 5 minutes to check. The disqualification criteria come from the traits of customers who fit poorly. They are tested against lost deals and customers who left.

What it needs
Customer list with revenue and retention data
Notes on which customers are easiest and most profitable to serve
Win/loss history, if available
Sales team input on which customer types are easiest to win and keep
What you get

A published one-page ICP with the firmographic profile, hard criteria that are quick to check, soft criteria, disqualification criteria, and the buying trigger. It also names three to five example customers and has a one-sentence summary for briefs.

Run sequence

Start to finish

The work starts from your prioritized segments and has four stages that end with a published profile.

  1. 1
    Best-Customer Patterns

    Find what your best customers share

    You choose how to rank customers
    Customers ranked by revenue and retention
    Traits of the top customers found
    You + ICP Builder
  2. 2
    ICP Criteria

    Set the hard and soft criteria

    You sort traits into hard and soft
    Each hard criterion made quick to check
    Criteria tested against lost deals
    You + ICP Builder
  3. 3
    Disqualification Criteria

    Name the disqualification criteria

    You list traits of customers who fit poorly
    Your sales team confirms each one
    Criteria recorded where salespeople use them
    You + ICP Builder
  4. 4
    Published ICP

    Publish the one-page profile

    You choose three to five example customers
    Profile checked with your sales team
    You test it on a real prospect
    You + ICP Builder
Before it starts

What Works asks you

A few questions in plain words. The answers set up the run for your business.

How do you want to rank your best customers?
YouA blend of revenue, retention, and ease, weighted toward retention
Which group of customers counts as the top tier to profile?
YouTop 25% by the blended ranking
Where will your customer data come from?
YouA HubSpot or CRM export with revenue and close dates
Which missing traits almost always mean that a prospect is not a good fit?
YouCompany size 50 to 200 staff in professional services
Which traits best predict a customer who leaves early, barely uses what they bought, or needs heavy support?
YouBuying purely on price with no urgency
Who runs it

The agents behind this workflow

The ICP Builder agent does the analysis in each stage. Three more agents work on segments, customer research and risky assumptions.

Playbook specialist
S

Segmentation Strategist

Owns this area

Defines and prioritizes market segments and the ideal customer profile (ICP) from evidence.

Split a market into distinct segmentsRank segments by fit and potentialBuild an ICP from evidence
C

Customer Researcher

Owns this area

Runs customer and buyer research for personas, needs, the buying process, win/loss, and the customer advisory panel.

Find patterns across customer conversationsMap the buying process and the decision criteriaFind the reasons that deals are won or lost
A

Assumption and Risk Tester

Owns this area

Finds and tests the riskiest strategic assumptions, and runs a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats).

Find unstated assumptionsRank assumptions by risk and by how easy they are to testDesign low-cost tests
On this workflow
I

ICP Builder

Analyzes your best customers and builds an ICP from evidence, with hard criteria that are quick to check and disqualification criteria.

Rank customers by revenue, retention, and ease of working withFind firmographic and buying patterns across the best customersSeparate hard from soft criteria and make them quick to checkDraw disqualification criteria from poor-fit patternsValidate the profile against lost deals and customers who left
Jeanie, your Chief of Staff Works Crew

Jeanie leads a core crew of seven that runs your company day to day. They direct the specialist and workflow agents in each playbook, including the ones on this workflow.

Connections · apps · integrations

Bring what you already run

The apps and accounts this workflow reads from and writes to. Connect them once and Works keeps them in sync.

Google SheetsHubSpotNotion
  • Google Sheets. Your customers are ranked and scored in Google Sheets.
  • HubSpot. Your customer list, revenue and close dates can come from a HubSpot export.
  • Notion. You can keep the published profile in Notion as a one-page document for your sales team.

These are starting points, not a limit. Connect the tools you already use.

Related workflows

Eight Strategy workflows use this profile.

Builds on Identify and Prioritize Segments
This one
Define Ideal Customer Profile
Feeds into 8 workflows
Develop Buyer PersonasResearch Customer Needs
Test Key Assumptions
Define the Value PropositionWrite the Positioning Statement
Run Win/Loss Analysis
Convene a Customer Advisory Panel
Grow Customer Value
Works · AI business OS

One workflow inside your whole business

Strategy covers the choices about your market and your customers, such as your segments and this profile.

Prebuilt playbooks, plus your own
StrategyMarketingSalesCustomer SuccessPartnershipsProducts & ServicesOperationsFinancePeopleLegal & Compliance + Build your own
The Strategy playbook
73
Workflows
19
Specialist agents
42
Workflow agents
238
Templates
You're here
Define Ideal Customer Profile
One of 73 Strategy workflows · run by 1 workflow agent
Templates

What comes with it

Built for this workflow
DOCX
Ideal Customer Profile Canvas
A one-page form for your profile. It opens in Works after you sign up.
XLSX
ICP Fit Scorecard
A table that scores a prospect against each criterion. It opens in Works after you sign up.
XLSX
Best-Customer Analysis Worksheet
A worksheet that ranks your customers and lists the traits they share. It opens in Works after you sign up.
Also included here
XLSX
Segment Prioritization Matrix
A table that scores each segment. It opens in Works after you sign up.
DOCX
Segment Implications Canvas
A one-page form for each segment you choose. It opens in Works after you sign up.

Each template opens inside Works after you sign up.

Questions

What people ask

What do you need before you start?

You need a customer list with revenue and retention data. It also helps to have notes on which customers are easiest and most profitable to serve. Your record of won and lost deals helps too, if you have it. Your sales team tells you which customer types are easiest to win and keep.

What is the difference between hard and soft criteria?

A hard criterion is a trait a prospect must have to qualify. A soft criterion makes a good fit more likely, but a prospect can qualify without it. Each hard criterion takes under 5 minutes to check, for example from LinkedIn and the company website.

What do you get at the end?

You get a one-page ideal customer profile. It describes the size, industry and location of your best customers. It lists the hard, soft and disqualification criteria. It names the event that makes a customer buy and three to five example customers. It ends with a one-sentence summary for marketing briefs.

Who checks the profile before the team uses it?

You and your sales team check it together. Your sales team confirms the disqualification criteria against real deals. Then you test the profile on a real prospect. The profile is ready when a salesperson can qualify or rule out that prospect in under 10 minutes with only the profile.

Build the profile from your own customers

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