As simple as life would be, you can't just try to sell anything to anyone and expect to make a profit. To be successful in sales, you must know your audience. 

Welcome to the blog. 

Lately, we’ve been thinking about what it takes to sell. Since it’s common knowledge that you need to know your target buyers to create content and sell most effectively, today we’re looking at taking things one step further.

We’re talking about your actual ideal buyers. 

Like the top 1% of buyers out of your target audience.

Let's be honest; not all customers are equal.

Some people will say they love what you offer, but they're not engaged nor have any real intention of investing. But others are ready to purchase. They just need a little nudge in the right direction.

These are your ideal customers. 

Those who need a little effort to turn into profitable clients. The highly engaged ones just need you to look their way. 

To highlight these prospects, you need what is known as an ideal customer profile, or ICP.

Here's how it works and how to make the most out of your ICPs.

What is an ideal customer profile and its benefits?

Every successful sales strategy revolves around the fundamental concept of understanding your customers' needs and addressing them. 

You might be selling trainers suitable for single 30-year-old moms and 18-year-old students. There’s a huge difference in how you identify pain points, use of language, tone, and style.

The needs and expectations of each market are different; depending on your product, there's an audience likelier to buy from you.

This could depend on any number of considerations, including;

- The price of your product

- Your brand image, values, and reputation

- How easy onboarding and ease of use is

- The level of support you provide

- The results you generate

- The concept of your USP

Some people won't be interested in what you offer, and some are. Those who are classified as your ideal customers should be your sales efforts' main focus.

Using ideal customer profiles, you can define what this ideal customer looks like. 

It's simple stuff! 

Of course, in the world of B2B sales, the criteria and demographics you’d use to define your ideal customers will be a little different from your B2C customers, but we’ll cover that shortly.

An ideal customer profile is defined as a detailed description that pinpoints the type of customer most likely to become a loyal customer. It’s very similar to a buyer persona, but instead of focusing on the buyer as an individual, you’re focusing more on the company they represent.

With this approach, you can begin to identify nearly identical demographics and purchase behaviors, reducing guesswork from targeting prospects. 

There are plenty of benefits that come with taking the time to do this, including;

- Saving time by prioritizing qualified leads

- Gaining a competitive advantage

- Reducing expenses

- Increasing productivity and morale

- Helping your teams better serve your customers

- Improving ROI through understanding your target market segments better

- Making more profit

Long story short, it's worth building your own ICPs, figuring out who your highest opportunity prospects are, and then hyper-focusing your sales team on engaging them.

How to get started creating your own ideal customer profile

So, actually creating an ICP, how do you go about that?

An effective ICP goes beyond basic demographics like age, income bracket, or job industry; it's a comprehensive inventory of what kind of people are most likely to make use of your product and who would generate the most revenue from it.

In the B2B world, you build your ICPs using demographics known as “firmographics.” Some of these could include criteria like;

- Budget

- Department or company size

- What job titles do they have?

- Company age

- Do they have partnerships?

- Do they sell B2B, B2C, or both?

- What technology and systems do they rely on?

- Funding status

- Industry and niche

- Specific pain points

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By discovering which traits, features, and pain points are common among potential customers, you can create tailored campaigns that will be sure to land those juicy deals. 

Your best bet to get started with all this is to use a sales enablement tool like Dealintent.

With Dealintent, you can access your digital sales rooms, where you can invite your buyers and your sales team. All your sales content and communications occur within this online space, and the AI monitors everything.

As your data insight grows with every message and buyer interaction, you'll start receiving notifications from the AI that identify your most engaged prospects, their demographics, and who your ICPs are.

All automatically.

The more data fed through your digital sales rooms, the more effectively and precisely the AI can identify sales opportunities. Your sales rep can then use this information to engage these prospects, relieve any remaining pain points, and proactively seal the deal.

How to use Dealintent AI tools to engage buyers

Let's take a moment to really dive into how this works, especially if you're new to AI and platforms like Dealintent.

Dealintent AI tools automatically allow you to access extensive information on your target demographic and track individual customer behaviors. 

Utilizing these metrics gives insights into how your customers interact with you and quickly identifies possible areas of improvement in your funnel. Not only do they provide real-time data that allows you to personalize conversations, but they also offer marketing materials tailored towards each customer's specific needs. 

Take all your sales content, for example. 

You'll typically have a range of blog posts and articles, guides, videos, tutorials, interviews, podcasts, and all the other content you use to draw prospects to your business.

Dealintent integrates with all these CRM platforms to track who's interacting with this content and in what way. That’s everything your sales reps need in one place.

And with sales reps spending as much as 11 hours a week trying to find the content they need and struggling against technology in the process, this is a huge advantage you can't ignore.

Over time (although relatively quickly), the AI creates buyer personas that can identify what type of prospect people are and how likely they are to invest in your service.

With this information, you can really start being proactive.

Dealintent will begin creating templates and content for your sales team. Templates that allow your reps to then engage the prospect in a hyper-personalized way that alleviates any pain points they were struggling with.

Compelling content is absolutely essential.

Salesforce research shows that over 85% of B2B buyers stated that they were more likely to buy from a seller that actively demonstrated that they understood their business goals.

85%. 

Therefore, your content and engagement techniques must showcase your understanding of your buyer and their needs. Fail to do so, and they’ll simply take their business to a company that can.

For example, let's say a prospect is navigating your website and taking in all the information they need to know. Then they get to the pricing section and stop.

The AI recognizes that a reservation the prospect has is with the price of your service and will start to develop ways to counter this.

- Do you showcase why your service is priced this way?

- Do you compare your pricing structure to your competitors?

- Can you offer a small discount?

This happens automatically, but your sales rep will control the following steps. Reaching out to the potential buyer, they can offer guidance at precisely the right moment to convince a buyer who's ready to move on and instead take the plunge and invest.

Repeat this with all your prospects in different ways, and you can see substantial growth in your business. 

Other potential prospect bottlenecks could include issues like;

- A complex UI or experience

- Not offering enough features for the price bracket

- They think a competitor does things better or simpler

- The onboarding process is not helpful enough

- There's a lack of customer support

- The service isn't good value for money

This approach ensures your sales reps spend the optimal amount of time and resources with each prospect while maximizing success rates and converting more clients than ever.

Summary

If you're not using an ICP, you could be wasting your time pursuing dead ends. 

SIntead, create an ICP, and let it guide your sales strategy for increased success in B2B sales. And if you want to make the most out of your efforts, Dealintent can assist you every step of the way. 

With our AI-powered tools, we can help turn your ideal customer profile into reality so your sales team can achieve the desired results. 

Discover Dealintent today to learn how we can help you build a winning foundation for your business. Now with 50% off and a personalized onboarding experience, available for a limited time only!

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