Overview: Align Your ICP for ABM in 5 Steps
- Pull closed-won and churn data to identify your best-fit customers.
- Co-define your ICP with Sales, Marketing, Success, and Product teams.
- Use HubSpot intent and predictive data to score and prioritize accounts. (State of HubSpot 2025: 85% of top performers say HubSpot improves their ICP understanding.)
- Document buying committees and personas to enable content and plays.
- Review and refine your ICP at least twice a year.
Outcome: Tighter targeting, higher win rates, and lower CPA.
Why ICP Alignment Matters in Modern ABM
I don’t know about you, but the pace of change is faster than ever before, and the type of change is more disruptive than ever as well.
The average number of buyers in a buying committee? According to 6Sense, that number is now 10, which is FOUR TIMES more buyers than five years.
What's more, for each additional member of that buying committee, 21 days are added to the sales cycle. For companies that look at KPIs month-over-month, the trickle-down effect on this can be downright scary.
But here's the silver lining: this shift forces marketers and sellers to get closer to their customers. Understanding your buyers deepy is no longer optional: it is the foundation of sustainable growth.
That's why many organizations are turning to Account-Based Marketing. And every successful ABM strategy starts with three pillars: is leading many organizations to heavily invest in account based marketing, which hinges on three things:
- Your ideal customer profile (ICP)
- Your technology stack
- Your content strategy
In this blog, we'll dive into the first and most critical piece: achieving brutal alignment on your ICP across marketing, sales, and success teams.
At New Breed, we see ABM as a type of go-to-market strategy that combines people, process, data, and technology to surround humans at the accounts that are specifically in the market for your solution. That you know you can help with the most timely, relevant, and personalized content that enables those people to make the best purchasing decision, which, hopefully, is you.
What is an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)?
An Ideal Customer Profile defines the type of company that is the best fit for your product or service. It includes key firmographic, behavioral, and technographic attributes that predict success and retention.
At New Breed, we define an ICP as:
“A data-driven description of the companies most likely to buy, stay, and grow with you.”
Your ICP should include:
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Company size (e.g., number of employees or ARR range)
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Average revenue
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Ideal industries
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Ideal locations (if applicable)
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Product or service adoption patterns
The strongest ICPs come from your own sales data—not assumptions. Ask yourself:
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Which customers bring in the largest deals?
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Who converts fastest?
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Who expands with you over time?
Building a Cross-Functional ICP
Even with data, different teams often have different ideas of who your ideal customer really is. Sales might chase one type of account, while marketing optimizes for another.
That’s where “brutal alignment” comes in. To build a truly cross-functional ICP:
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Collaborate across teams. Involve marketing, sales, success, and product.
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Leverage your CRM and analytics tools. Identify common traits in high-converting or high-value accounts.
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Go beyond MQLs. As revealed in our 2023 State of HubSpot Report, 60% of revenue leaders say MQLs aren’t useful. Look down-funnel at your closed-won data instead.
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Document your ICP. A written profile ensures consistent application across campaigns.
According to our State of HubSpot 3.0 Report, 85% of top-performing companies say HubSpot helps them improve their understanding of their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) or target market.
Top performers use HubSpot not just for automation, but to deepen their customer insight—an essential practice for keeping your ICP accurate, actionable, and aligned across teams.
Your ICP should inform everything from target account selection to content personalization and sales enablement.
Key Questions to Test Your ICP Alignment
Before launching or optimizing your ABM campaign, run through this quick self-audit:
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Have we documented our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)?
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Do we use intent data or predictive analytics to fuel target selection?
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Can we describe the buying committees at our target accounts?
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Do we have complete persona documents for each stakeholder?
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Do we understand where our buyers go to learn and what content they prefer?
You’ll notice some of these overlap with buyer personas, and that’s intentional. The two work together. The ICP defines companies you should target; personas define who within those companies you need to influence.
Keep Your ICP Dynamic
Your ICP is not “one and done.” Markets shift. Buyer behavior evolves.
Schedule regular ICP reviews—at least twice a year—to assess:
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Which customer segments are growing fastest?
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Where are new opportunities emerging?
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How are buyer motivations changing?
Encourage your front-line team members to share insights from calls and customer interactions. They often uncover “golden nuggets” of intelligence that can refine your ICP far beyond what data alone reveals.
Real-World Example: ICP Alignment in Action
One of our clients, a global fraud-prevention leader, partnered with New Breed to expand into a new market.
Together, we:
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Re-defined their Ideal Customer Profile
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Built a marketing and sales playbook
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Created clear KPIs and clean reporting
Then we launched a highly targeted, multi-touch ABM campaign with paid ads and coordinated outreach.
Results:
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Over $300K in new pipeline
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50% lower-than-target CPA
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Complete alignment between marketing and sales teams
That’s the power of an aligned ICP.
Key Takeaways
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ICP alignment is the foundation of ABM success.
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Use closed-won data, not just MQLs, to define your ICP.
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Revisit and refine your ICP regularly.
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Involve every customer-facing team—sales, marketing, success, and product.
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Alignment creates consistency, efficiency, and growth across the buyer journey.
Ready to Strengthen Your ABM Strategy?
If you’re looking to jumpstart your ABM program—or recover from a false start—our ABM Blueprint helps you audit your ICP, tech stack, and go-to-market motion.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What is an Ideal Customer Profile in ABM?
An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a detailed description of the type of company most likely to benefit from your product or service. It helps marketing and sales teams target and prioritize the right accounts in an account-based marketing (ABM) strategy.
Q2: How often should I update my ICP?
Review your ICP at least every six months or after major product, market, or customer shifts.
Q3: How does an ICP differ from buyer personas?
An ICP defines companies you should target, while buyer personas represent the individual people within those companies.
Q4: Why is ICP alignment important for ABM success?
It ensures sales, marketing, and success teams focus on the same high-value targets, improving efficiency, personalization, and revenue performance.
Q5: What data sources help define an accurate ICP?
Use CRM and closed-won data, churn analysis, and intent or predictive analytics. Combine this with insights from front-line sales and customer success teams.
