When you’re chasing growth, the instinct is to keep your messaging broad to reach more buyers. The real issue is a lack of focus on your ideal customer. The shift comes when your ideal customer profile anchors decisions and message architecture. That’s when relevance improves, pricing power strengthens, and velocity returns.
→ Watch more videos in this playlist on YouTube
What this means for leaders navigating growth, change or transformation in their organisation.
When leaders try to speak to everyone, they make it harder for the right buyer to recognise themselves in the story. The choice isn’t reach versus relevance; it’s signal versus noise. A tight message anchored in a clearly defined ideal customer profile (ICP) does three things at once: it clarifies the problem you’re best placed to solve, it frames outcomes in terms that matter to that buyer, and it sets credible proof on the table. That combination earns attention, shortens consideration, and protects price because your value is now specific, not abstract.
An ICP is not a demographic sketch; it’s a decision lens for the next phase of growth. The point is to choose “who must win next” and, by implication, who won’t. Selection should be grounded in evidence, not intuition, and codified so every team understands the trade-offs.
Most organisations we work with move faster when they commit to one primary ICP for the next two quarters and back it with visible trade-offs.
Once you’ve chosen, build a message architecture that others can use, not just admire. Start with the buyer’s language, then move from problem to proof in a way sales, product, and service can all deploy consistently.
Personalisation isn’t cosmetic; it’s performance. McKinsey notes that well-executed personalisation can cut acquisition costs by up to 50%, lift revenues by 5–15%, and increase return on investment (ROI) by 10–30% when done at scale.
Focused messaging changes deal dynamics. Buyers progress faster because they can map themselves to your story. Discounting pressure eases because differentiation is evidenced, not asserted. Internally, marketing stops fragmenting, sales stops rewriting, and product stops overbuilding to cover every edge case.
Leadership implications worth testing now:
As markets tighten and expectations rise, the organisations that win will be those whose message functions as a decision system—one that helps the right customers say yes for the right reasons.
If today’s topic resonates, we invite you to continue the dialogue — sometimes one conversation reframes the challenge. Start the conversation.