GTM: Getting ICP Right
In technology, great products don’t sell themselves, especially in enterprise. The difference between a product that wins and one that stalls often comes down to go-to-market (GTM) execution. And that begins with one of the most misunderstood tools in the GTM toolkit: the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
Too often, teams define ICPs that are vague, surface-level, or overly aspirational. The result? Sales cycles that drag, adoption that fizzles, and growth that plateaus. I’ve made these mistakes. I hope you don’t.
Understanding GTM
Go-to-market is how you bring your product to the people who will buy it, use it, and love it…at scale. That includes everything from defining your target audience to pricing, positioning, channel strategy, and post-sale expansion.
At its best, GTM aligns product, marketing, sales, and customer success around a shared plan to drive revenue. But before you can align, you have to know who you’re aiming at.
The Problem with Most ICPs
Ask five people at a startup who your ICP is, and you might hear:
“Mid-market enterprises”
“Companies that want to use AI”
“Tech-forward decision-makers”
None of these are wrong, but they’re not actionable. They don’t explain:
Why this customer needs you
What makes your solution the best fit
When they’re most likely to buy
A vague ICP leads to wasted time chasing the wrong leads or pitching the right ones the wrong way.
What a Good ICP Looks Like
An actionable ICP tells you who to target, when to reach them, and why they should care. It includes:
1. Firmographic traits: Industry, size, geography, maturity stage
2. Behavioral signals: Hiring patterns, tech stack, recent initiatives, pain point urgency
3. Buyer dynamics: How they buy, who influences the deal, what slows them down
4. Trigger conditions: What signals that they’re ready now — budget cycle, leadership change, compliance shift, etc.
5. Why you: Your unique or comparative advantage for this customer
The Three Types of Differentiation You Should Tie to Your ICP
Once you’ve defined the profile, articulate your defensible differentiation:
Unique: Capabilities your competitors don’t offer
Comparative: Capabilities others offer, but you deliver better
Strategic Fit: How your roadmap aligns with their direction
This is where your GTM team can turn strategy into motion. It informs messaging, sales, and packaging - all built around solving a specific customer’s problem better than anyone else.
From ICP to GTM Motion
Don’t think of ICP as a persona doc, it’s a blueprint for GTM motion.
If your ICP is compliance-heavy buyers in regulated industries, your GTM motion should:
Lead with trust and legal alignment
Provide ready-to-share audit materials
Equip sales to navigate cross-functional buying committees
If your ICP is mid-market tech-forward teams, your GTM motion should:
Offer low-friction onboarding
Enable quick wins and self-serve resources
Expand through product usage and team virality
ICP → Motion → Execution → Feedback → Refinement.
That’s the loop. And it’s never one-and-done.
The Payoff
When you get ICPs and GTM right:
Sales cycles shorten
Conversion rates improve
Churn drops
Product adoption accelerates
Teams stop guessing and start executing
More importantly: You stop being reactive and start being strategic. Don’t treat GTM as the last mile. It’s the difference between potential and performance. Start with a sharp, behaviorally driven ICP. Design motions that fit. And keep refining as the market evolves.
You aren’t conquering the world on day one. Find the segment where your product wins, and scale from there.
