How do I know my profile is working?

Shorter sales cycles, a higher win rate, best customers who sound alike on calls, and cheaper marketing because you know where to show up.

← All answers

For: Founders selling to everyone and closing too few of them

Who is my ideal customer?

My answer, as of Oct 5, 2026

Your ideal customer is defined by the problem, not demographics: a type of company with an urgent trigger, a person who owns the problem and can sign, a pain that costs them money, time or risk, and a place they already gather. If you can't turn it into a list of 100 names, it isn't specific enough.

Keith Brown · Growth & Leadership

Answered Oct 5, 2026

Where the line actually sits

2 sentences

How long the profile should be

One for the company, one for the person.

100

Companies you should be able to list

If you can't find 100 that match, the profile may be too narrow or too vague to reach.

10,000

The sign it's too broad

If you find 10,000 in an hour, it's probably too broad to give you an edge.

6 months

How often to revisit it

Your best customer at $1M is rarely your best at $10M.

What changed in the last year

Reaching everyone got cheap, so reaching everyone stopped working. The founders who win pick a narrow buyer and show up where that buyer already listens.

What most founders get wrong

“Our customer is mid-sized companies.”
Defining the ICP by demographics instead of by the problem makes it impossible to turn into a list of names.
“We want to sell to enterprises.”
Choosing the buyer you'd like instead of the one who's buying is the most expensive mistake on the list.

When I'd tell you the opposite

Widen it once deals close faster, customers stay longer and they refer people who look just like them. Before that, widening hides the signal.

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