How to Identify Your Ideal Customer Profile for a B2B SaaS Product
Defining your B2B SaaS ideal customer profile is one of the most important steps when building a lead generation strategy. If you know exactly which businesses are most likely to need your software, you can concentrate your sales and marketing activity on prospects with a genuine reason to buy.
For SaaS companies, an ideal customer profile can be built around factors including:
- Industry
- Employee numbers
- Turnover
- Geographic location
- Business type
- Number of locations
- Technology requirements
- Relevant departments
- Decision-maker roles
- Problems your software solves
The objective is not necessarily to create the largest possible prospect audience. It is to identify the businesses where your SaaS product has the strongest commercial fit.
Table of contents:
What Is an Ideal Customer Profile?
An ideal customer profile, commonly shortened to ICP, describes the type of company most likely to become a valuable customer.
For a B2B SaaS company, this could be something relatively broad, such as:
- UK businesses
- 50 to 250 employees
- �5 million+ turnover
- Professional services
- HR decision-makers
Or it could be highly specific:
- UK recruitment agencies
- 20 to 100 employees
- Multiple consultants
- Sales-led business model
- Managing Director or Sales Director as the decision-maker
Your ICP provides a framework for deciding which businesses your sales and marketing teams should prioritise.
Start with the Problem Your SaaS Product Solves
Before deciding which companies to target, define the problem your software addresses.
Ask:
- What does our software help businesses do?
- Which departments use it?
- What problems does it remove?
- Which businesses experience those problems most frequently?
- What happens if the business doesn’t solve the problem?
- Which organisations gain the most value from our platform?
For example, field service management software is naturally more relevant to companies employing mobile engineers than businesses where everyone works from a single office.
Understanding the underlying problem makes it easier to identify the companies most likely to need the solution.
Analyse Your Existing SaaS Customers
If you already have customers, start by looking at the companies producing the best results.
Consider:
- Industry
- Employee size
- Turnover
- Location
- Contract value
- Subscription level
- Length of customer relationship
- Product usage
- Renewal history
- Additional products or features purchased
You may discover that your strongest customers share several characteristics.
These patterns can form the foundation of your ideal customer profile.
Don’t Base Your ICP on Every Customer
Not every existing customer represents the type of business you should target more aggressively.
Some customers may:
- Require significant support
- Generate relatively little revenue
- Use only a small part of the product
- Be difficult to retain
- Have limited expansion potential
Your ICP should be based primarily on the organisations that represent a strong fit for both your product and your commercial model.
Identify Your Best Industries
Industry can be one of the strongest indicators of SaaS suitability.
Depending on your product, potential target sectors could include:
- Professional services
- Recruitment
- Construction
- Manufacturing
- Logistics
- Financial services
- Insurance
- Technology
- Healthcare
- Facilities management
- Retail
- Hospitality
However, the best industries should be determined by what your software actually does.
Construction management software, for example, has a much narrower natural audience than general CRM software.
Use Employee Numbers
Company size can significantly affect whether a business needs your software.
A company with five employees may have very different requirements from one employing 500 people.
Employee numbers can indicate:
- Organisational complexity
- Number of potential users
- Size of departments
- Likely software requirements
- Potential contract value
You might therefore define your ICP around companies with:
- 10 to 49 employees
- 50 to 99 employees
- 100 to 249 employees
- 250 to 499 employees
- 500+ employees
The correct range depends on your product and pricing model.
Consider Turnover
Turnover can provide another useful indication of company scale.
This can be particularly helpful when your software represents a significant investment or is designed for more established organisations.
Employee numbers and turnover can also be used together.
For example, you might target:
- Companies with 50+ employees
- �10 million+ turnover
- Selected industries
- Specific UK regions
Combining several criteria can create a much more focused prospect audience.
Consider Geography
Some SaaS products can be sold internationally, while others are more closely tied to a particular market.
Your ICP might therefore include:
- UK businesses
- Republic of Ireland businesses
- Specific UK regions
- Particular countries
- Companies operating internationally
Geography may be especially important where your software is influenced by local regulations, integrations, languages, tax systems or business practices.
Identify the Departments That Use Your Software
Understanding which department will use your product can help refine both company targeting and decision-maker selection.
Your SaaS product might primarily support:
- Sales
- Marketing
- HR
- Finance
- Operations
- IT
- Customer service
- Compliance
- Procurement
- Field service teams
This helps you move from simply identifying suitable companies to identifying the people within those companies who may care about your solution.
Identify the Right Decision-Makers
Once you’ve defined the companies you want to target, determine who is likely to influence the purchase.
Potential SaaS decision-makers can include:
- Managing Directors
- Business Owners
- CEOs
- Operations Directors
- IT Directors
- CTOs
- Finance Directors
- HR Directors
- Sales Directors
- Marketing Directors
- Department Managers
The appropriate contact depends on the software.
For example, HR software may be purchased by an HR Director, while field service software could involve an Operations Director.
Separate Users from Buyers
The person using your SaaS product isn’t necessarily the person approving the purchase.
A sales platform might be used daily by Sales Executives but purchased by a Sales Director.
Similarly, an HR system may be used by an HR team but require approval from a Finance Director or Managing Director.
When developing your ICP and prospecting strategy, consider:
- End users
- Department managers
- Budget holders
- Senior decision-makers
- Technical influencers
For larger SaaS purchases, several people may influence the final decision.
Identify Buying Triggers
Your ideal customer profile can become even stronger when you understand what might cause a company to start looking for software.
Potential triggers include:
- Rapid growth
- Increasing employee numbers
- Opening new locations
- Recruitment
- New regulatory requirements
- Outgrowing spreadsheets
- Replacing legacy software
- Introducing new services
- Digital transformation
- Operational inefficiencies
These factors can help explain why one company might be ready to buy while another apparently similar organisation isn’t.
Build Different ICPs for Different SaaS Products
If your company provides several products, modules or subscription levels, you may need more than one ideal customer profile.
For example:
Small Business Product
You might target:
- 10 to 50 employees
- Business owners
- Managing Directors
- Lower-complexity requirements
Mid-Market Product
You might target:
- 50 to 500 employees
- Department heads
- Operations Directors
- More complex workflows
Enterprise Product
You might target:
- 500+ employees
- Multiple locations
- Senior directors
- Procurement teams
- Larger user requirements
Separating these audiences helps you create more relevant campaigns.
Build a Prospect List Around Your ICP
Once your B2B SaaS ideal customer profile has been defined, it can be translated into actual prospecting criteria.
Your database could be filtered by:
- Industry
- Employee numbers
- Turnover
- Geography
- Job role
- Seniority
Useful information might include:
- Business name
- Contact name
- Job title
- Telephone
- Postal address
- Website
- Industry
- Employee size
- Turnover
You can then use the resulting audience across your outbound campaigns.
Create Different Messages for Different ICP Segments
Even within your ideal customer profile, different businesses may require different messaging.
For example, the same SaaS product might help:
- Small businesses save administrative time
- Mid-sized companies improve processes
- Larger organisations gain greater visibility across teams
Similarly, different industries may experience different problems.
Creating separate campaigns for important segments allows you to explain why your product is relevant to each audience.
Use Your ICP Across Multiple Lead Generation Channels
Once you’ve identified your ideal customers, the same targeting strategy can support:
- Cold email
- Telemarketing
- LinkedIn outreach
- Account-based marketing
- Direct mail
- Paid advertising
- SEO and content marketing
Your ICP should provide a common definition of the businesses your sales and marketing teams are trying to reach.
Score Prospects Against Your ICP
Not every company will match your ideal profile equally well.
Consider creating a simple scoring system.
For example:
High Priority
Matches your preferred:
- Industry
- Employee size
- Turnover
- Geography
- Decision-maker criteria
Medium Priority
Matches most criteria but falls outside one preferred area.
Lower Priority
Could use the product but doesn’t closely resemble your strongest customers.
This can help sales teams prioritise the accounts most likely to represent valuable opportunities.
Review Your ICP Regularly
Your ideal customer profile shouldn’t remain unchanged indefinitely.
As your SaaS company wins more customers, review:
- Which industries convert
- Which company sizes generate the most revenue
- Which customers renew
- Which accounts expand
- Which decision-makers respond
- Which customers are easiest to onboard
- Which segments have the strongest retention
Your actual sales and customer data should gradually make your ICP more accurate.
You may discover that the market you initially thought was ideal isn’t the one producing your strongest customers.
You can learn more about our Lead Generation for SaaS Companies services.
Summary
Building a strong B2B SaaS ideal customer profile starts with understanding exactly which businesses gain the most value from your software.
Consider industry, employee numbers, turnover, geography, departments, decision-makers and the specific problems your platform solves. Existing customer data can then help identify the characteristics associated with your strongest accounts.
Once your ICP has been defined, use it to build targeted prospect lists, prioritise accounts and create more relevant email, telephone and LinkedIn campaigns.
The objective isn’t simply to generate more SaaS leads. It’s to generate more opportunities with the businesses most likely to become valuable customers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a B2B SaaS ideal customer profile?
A B2B SaaS ideal customer profile describes the type of company most likely to need, buy and gain value from your software.
What should a SaaS ICP include?
Useful criteria include industry, employee numbers, turnover, location, business type, relevant departments, decision-makers and the problems the software solves.
Should SaaS companies target businesses by employee size?
Yes. Employee numbers can help indicate organisational complexity, potential user numbers and likely software requirements.
How can existing customers help define an ICP?
Analyse your strongest customers to identify common industries, company sizes, contract values, product usage and other characteristics.
Is an ICP the same as a buyer persona?
No. An ICP describes the type of company you want to sell to, while buyer personas focus on the individual people involved in purchasing or using your software.
Can a SaaS company have more than one ICP?
Yes. Different products, subscription levels, industries or customer sizes may require separate ideal customer profiles.
How can SaaS companies find businesses matching their ICP?
Targeted B2B data can help identify companies using criteria such as industry, employee numbers, turnover and geography, alongside relevant decision-maker roles.
Data & Lead Generation Services
RD Marketing provides bespoke B2B data lists and fully managed lead generation services to help businesses build pipeline and drive revenue growth. These include:
- Automated Email Campaigns
- LinkedIn Automation
- Industry Databases
- Job Role Databases
- Email Lists
- Telemarketing Data
- Direct Mail Data
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