A. The "Ideal Customer Profile" Approach

This is the "quality over quantity" method. You may have other prospects that aren't an ICP which you can call Tier 2 or 3 prospects. That's ok, as long as you prioritise the ICP campaigns over the tier 2,3 prospects.

This approach allows you to focus your best efforts on the most promising leads whilst still maintaining a pipeline of potential opportunities.

How it works:

1. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

:

• Look at your best current customers. What do they have in common?
• Consider factors like:
  • Industry: Be as specific as possible (e.g., "FinTech" rather than just "Technology")
  • Company size:
    • Number of employees (e.g., 50-200)
    • Annual revenue (e.g., £5M-£20M)
  • Technology stack:
    • CRM systems (e.g., Hubspot, Salesforce)
    • E-commerce platforms (e.g., Shopify, Magento)
    • Scheduling tools (e.g., Calendly, especially if B2B)
  • Business model:
    • B2B, B2C, or B2B2C (To sort B2B typically has “book a call” and B2C has product pricing and payment processors)
    • Subscription-based, transactional, or hybrid
  • Growth stage:
    • Startup, scale-up, established SME, or enterprise (search for job titles, founder = early stage vs CMO or Marketing Director = a growth stage or scale up company)
    • Recent funding rounds or expansions (typically you want a minimum funding or revenue of $500k-$1m to support paying for your product or service)
  • Geographic location:
    • Specific regions or cities
    • Headquarters location vs. operational locations (Linkedin allows you to search by the decision makers location vs where their head office is e.g U.S HQ and UK or EMEA based general or country manager)
• Prioritise these factors based on their importance to your offering
• Create a detailed profile that includes both firmographic and technographic data

1. Create a "Lookalike" List:
   • Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator or Apollo.io to initially search by broad categories like industry and country.
   • Input your ICP characteristics
   • Generate a list of companies that match this.
2. Prioritise and Refine:
   • Score your list based on how closely they match your ICP.
   • Research each company to confirm they’re a good fit.
   • Start with the highest-scoring prospects.