Free B2B ideal customer profile (ICP) template

Copy the six tables below into a document or spreadsheet, one table per part, and fill them in from your own customer list. It is free, and no sign-up is needed.

Write every rule so a colleague could check it on the company’s website, in filings or in the news. For each rule, note whether it is backed by data (your customer list), stated by the team, or an assumption to test. If your first draft is mostly assumptions, that is fine, as long as each one is marked. Work through the parts in order: the offer sets the bar, the criteria and signals decide which companies pass it, and the committee decides who you contact.

Start with one line on what you sell and the bar an account must clear before outreach. These settings apply to every company you research, so agree on them before filling in the rest.

Target groups are segments that share most of the profile but differ in a few rules, such as size, signals or committee roles. Give each a share of research effort that adds up to 100%, and mark new groups as testing until results come in.

List the company facts that separate your best customers from the rest, and mark each as must, prefer or exclude. Use checkable facts only: an industry code, a headcount range or an ownership type, never “innovative” or “growth-minded”.

Pick the five to ten signal types that came before your past wins, and give each a window in days. The default windows below come from SalesOne’s 43-signal library; change them if your sales cycle is very different. The last column keeps out look-alikes, such as an interim CEO.

Name the titles and departments that fill each of the six roles at your customers, and how much each role is needed. The roles marked required set the minimum from Part 1.

List the companies that must never be researched as prospects, however well they fit. Keep each list as company domains, so it can be matched exactly.

Here are two filled-in examples for fictional companies: one selling procurement consulting to mid-sized manufacturers, and one selling fleet software to regional trucking companies. Each fits on one page, and every rule can be checked from outside the company.

Run a small research batch against the template, read the rejects, and change the rules that do not match how you win. Then repeat after every significant run and at least each quarter.

Start with 50 to 100 companies, enough to see patterns without much effort. If one must rule rejects most of them, check whether it reflects your real customers. If most good-fit companies have no live signal, widen the windows or add signal types. Once outreach starts, compare meetings held by target group and by signal type, and move research effort toward the groups that convert. Mark each change with the date and the reason, so the next person can see why the rules look the way they do.