ICP: WHEN TO RE-EVALUATE

[MarcosBarcelos]

DISCUSSION

How to know when to re-evaluate your icp?

MOTIVATION

During the content marketing course, Hubspot. From this he teaches how to create content based on the golden globe, developing interesting storytelling to really attract and arouse the interest of customers. I thought: "Well, after the pandemic this ICP must have changed because society has changed."

DEEP DIVING

According to a video by winnin’ by design, only in Portuguese, during the pandemic, the ICP of some companies was recalculated on a weekly basis. Using the strategy of reviewing the top 10 customers. So when to define the best time to recalculate this route?

AUTHOR'S RESPONSE

The ICP is an essential tool for any revenue operation. The first point is not to put the metric problem on the shoulders of marketing, they are all part of the same operation, the second point is to propose analysis routines that must be imputed like 1 time a month and it is extremely important that everybody is aware and if anyone notices an inconsistency, then report it. The idea is not to segregate areas, the old fight between marketing and sales does not exist, they are all part of a unique area, revenue.

What do you think @jolle , @danmoyle , @Jnix284 , @LaurenRyan ?

[danmoyle · Accepted solution]

An interesting thought experiment, @MarcosBarcelos. While I'm not sure about reevaluating weekly, or even monthly, I'd be open to testing that theory for sure. In my experience, I'd say quarterly at most, but more like twice a year sounds/feels right. This gives us time to run the experiment and gather data to analyze, without taking us away from our daily work. I'm willing to be wrong though for sure. 

I do think we should consider the ICP a guideline, which evolves, rather than something absolute and unchanging. Small changes (are they in the office everyday or remote, for example) don't necessarily change the overall scope of an ICP. It just helps us think through who the people are behind the ICP. 

I definitely agree that this should not land on the shoulders of just the marketing team. This is a cross-team effort. I'd think of this as a revenue team responsibility, including upper management if they have historical knowledge and expertise. 

[shyannehkr]

This is such valuable and important information! Thanks so much for sharing all!

[jolle · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the tag and great question, @MarcosBarcelos!

Echoing @danmoyle, I agree that the ICP is something that evolves over time. I think the cadence for re-evaluating your ICP depends a ton on your industry, offering, and size, but quarterly makes good sense. If you're actively changing and testing your ICP, you may want to evaluate it more frequently, like on a monthly basis, but you need to be sure to give yourself enough time to gather the data required to draw conclusions.

I also agree that it should be a company-wide effort to describe the ICP, not just marketing. The sales team is a goldmine for additional context — what is the audience mainly trying to accomplish? What are they afraid of? The service team can also give you a ton of insight into how customers are using your product or service, maybe even in ways that you hadn't considered!

Thanks again for including me in the conversation!!

[danmoyle · Accepted solution]

An interesting thought experiment, @MarcosBarcelos. While I'm not sure about reevaluating weekly, or even monthly, I'd be open to testing that theory for sure. In my experience, I'd say quarterly at most, but more like twice a year sounds/feels right. This gives us time to run the experiment and gather data to analyze, without taking us away from our daily work. I'm willing to be wrong though for sure. 

I do think we should consider the ICP a guideline, which evolves, rather than something absolute and unchanging. Small changes (are they in the office everyday or remote, for example) don't necessarily change the overall scope of an ICP. It just helps us think through who the people are behind the ICP. 

I definitely agree that this should not land on the shoulders of just the marketing team. This is a cross-team effort. I'd think of this as a revenue team responsibility, including upper management if they have historical knowledge and expertise.