In the previous chapter, we chose a good market for your business and a specific niche.
This chapter also reflects a critical strategic and commercial decision. Choosing the perfect target is a follow-up to your previous decision.
At this stage, we become more nuanced about who we serve and, more importantly, who we do not.
Our goal is to define our target precisely so we can help them solve all their specific problems.
In other words, we’ll help one target solve one problem in one clear way while also killing their biggest objections from day one.
First step: gathering relevant information.
To draw up the ultimate profile, we’ll create a form that will help us get the info below and send it to your current customers.
The most crucial point is ensuring they fill out the entire form to get as much helpful information as possible. We’ll ask questions about all the relevant details you want to discover and exploit later.
Protip: You can review it with them live on a call for a stronger engagement.
Here are the data we’ll be collecting:
If you don't have customers yet:
The best way to get started is to choose a target you know well from your professional experiences.
Risk-averse VCs back founders who know their terrain. They bet on experience and focus. Your odds rise when you target what you already know best.
Serving the people you can help best is the key to your company’s success. When your bowl gets too small, you can swim in deeper waters.
Without a customer survey, let’s draw up your avatar based on your field experience.
Of course, you’ll need to carry out this survey as soon as you have a large customer base.
Rank the answers according to the customers you like best, who spent the most, and who stayed the longest.
Focus on the top 20%. Ignore the rest.
We're going to list their 3–5 biggest shared qualifiers.
To do this, make a simple one-column table, a bullet point list, or a list like the following one.
Shared qualifiers: Qualifier X, Qualifier Y, Qualifier Z, …
We only speak the language of our perfect avatar everywhere, all the time.
Re-design the sales process.
Most people mix up ICP and personas.
Sales reps talk about ICPs. Designers talk about personas. Marketers talk about buyer personas.
Let’s cut through their turf wars. The goal isn’t to pick sides — it’s to arm your business with clarity.
So let’s go back to basics and align on what these terms really mean.
What is an ICP?
It’s all in the acronym:
Ideal Customer Profile.
This is where people often get it wrong.
They think of the customer as a person … and often believe that the ICP is the person who has the power over the purchasing decision.
… And that’s not always true.
The “customer” is the natural or legal person who buys from you.
In other words, the “customer” is a company in B2B and an individual in B2C.
The ICP is, therefore, the typical profile of the company or individual who buys from you.
What is a persona?
A persona is the representation of a stereotypical fictional person.
This persona represents a target group of individuals with common characteristics.
Reading these two definitions, we quickly understand that:
Now that the cultural point is made let’s use what we’ve just learned to help your business solve real problems and bring value to your market.
You just need to draw up several profiles:
Your form’s results will help you draw up all these profiles with precision.
Sometimes, a persona can fall into two categories.
A buyer persona can also be a user. If either of these cases occurs, remember that it’s not bad; it’s just reality.
Don’t worry, this won’t be a problem in the future.
Here’s your new ICP template.
It’s pretty straightforward and really useful in day-to-day life.
As usual, you can do this with ease using free tool named Ultimate Avatar in the free tools section.
Here’s your new persona template.
Simple, straightforward, and real-life-proof:
As usual, you can do this with ease using free tool named Ultimate Avatar in the free tools section.
Now that we have established the profiles that form your avatar, we need to articulate each persona’s dream outcome.
It's like catalyzing their deepest desires in a clear, simple sentence.
Fortunately, all humans have deep, persistent, and unshakeable desires.
That’s why people split up, why wars are declared, and why some people are prepared to die for a cause.
Humans are stubborn. It’s a fact of life.
We will use reality to our advantage and capture the attention of your ultimate avatar.
Warning:
Our aim here is not to create desire.
We will channel the desires’ forces that pre-exist in your personae’s heads and hearts. We will then satisfy these desires through your offers and monetization system.
Your avatar’s dream outcome expresses burning feelings and experiences that your leads have already fantasized about. It’s the gap between their current reality and their innermost fantasies.
Our aspiration is to accurately describe their dream so they feel deeply understood. We also want them to know how your solutions will enable them to make that dream a reality.
A lead’s dream outcome is simple.
The customer experience is what increases or decreases its value.
Protip:
In general, the dream outcome a prospect values most is the one that most clearly helps them gain status.
Now, you’re ready to list the different dream outcomes for each of your personae.
The most important dream outcome is your buyer persona’s.
Without it, the others are useless because, to bring value, you first need to sell.
Here’s the classic template for a captivating dream outcome.
Dream Outcome Template:
XX [Specific Outcome] in YY [Time Period] without [Biggest Pain/Fear].
Of course, we can deviate from this and allow ourselves to be creative.
Whatever the means, the result must be as captivating as a liposuction clinic’s dream outcome:
Lose 40kg in 1 hour without any scars or pain.
What makes the difference is making your offers attractive AND, above all, true in every respect.
No lies are allowed because lies make your customers disappointed, and your salespeople look like common rug sellers.
Once again, there's an easy way to articulate your personae' dream outcomes in the free tools section.