Segments > Accounts > Buyers
That's what I think an ideal customer profile should consist of.
What segments are you targeting. Could be different industries, size of companies, stage of companies, location, etc. Or a combination of those things.
Segments are created using identifiable firmographic and technographic data.
Accounts are the business that fall into those segments.
Tiering the accounts based on the quality and propensity to buy is important.
Doing account research and assigning the account to the right salespeople is the next step.
Along with educating marketing about why the accounts were selected and informing them about the research and insights discovered.
The final step is to understand the buyers within the accounts. The three most important personas to create are the economic buyer, the champion, and the influencer.
For tier one/strategic accounts, doing an account plan with an org chart is a good idea.
Making sure you understand the emotive attributes of the buyers is key, and where and who they trust for information.
Doing this in collaboration with sales is a must.
Ideal customer profiles are built together and the insights uncovered are shared together.
That's how you win, together.