Are we winning customers we can serve profitably?
A prospect may fit the right industry, company size and budget but still require expensive custom work, short-notice visits or extra support. The best customer is not just one who buys. Check the buying reason alongside the cost and capacity needed to serve them.
How customer fit affects delivery economics
A customer who buys quickly and signs a large contract is attractive to Sales. That same account may demand more unpriced customisation, response cover or management time than the delivery model was designed to provide. Customer fit needs evidence from won and lost sales as well as fulfilled contracts.
Historical customer profiles may omit the buying conditions
Industry, headcount and location are useful for filtering records. They do not necessarily describe the circumstance that made a client ready to buy. Three profitable customers in the same sector are not, by themselves, evidence that the sector caused a good fit.
Check what preceded the buying decision: a new requirement, change of ownership, failed supplier, operational pressure, introduction from a trusted contact or expansion into a new market. Compare with similar organisations that did not buy, delayed the decision or required unusually expensive delivery.
Assess both the reason to purchase and the cost of serving the account
Sales may call a client valuable because the contract is large. Delivery may see repeated exceptions or rework. Finance may report attractive gross margin or discover a high cost-to-serve. An operational ICP must not force those observations into one score without defining the management decision it supports.
Start from a small set of won, lost and difficult-to-serve situations. Identify which useful facts were never recorded, rather than creating another list of fields simply because the CRM supports them.
See also where good business comes from and why existing clients do not necessarily expand.
Check whether those customers are still profitable after delivery.
Different teams, different customers
See why Marketing, Sales, Delivery and Finance often optimise around different definitions of a good customer.
Cost-to-serve
Two customers with similar revenue can require very different amounts of work.
Management View
Define which changes in customer value, effort and risk management needs to see.
Which account characteristics predict profitable work?
The answer requires the cost of delivering the work, not just the prospect’s profile.