All that work to define your ICP for your growing SaaS business won’t create faster and more efficient growth unless you do this:
- Substantially change your message in marketing, pricing, and your products to focus JUST on your ICP–your ideal customer profile.
- Change your marketing, pricing, and product to scare away your CCP — crappy customer profiles.
I call this the Beacon and the Shield.
It’s the power move that creates faster and healthier growth.
If you attract 50 new customers a month, but 20 of them get frustrated and don’t stay long, you’re paying your sales and marketing team to throw away money–and your reputation.
How great would your business be if all 50 customers were happy and stayed for years and years?
You would double your growth rate for the next few years.
But the only way to do that is to double down and attract the type of customer who is very likely to buy for the right reasons, stay a long time, and tell their friends.
You adjust your marketing to send a BEACON that attracts your ideal customer type.
“We’re just for these types of businesses that want this benefit!”
“We’re only for this kind of customer who believes this and needs that!”
Then you scare away your CCPs (bad and expensive customers) with your messaging, pricing, and product features. You don’t pay commissions to salespeople when they knowingly sell to CCPs.
This is the SHIELD.
“We aren’t for you if you’re looking for that at this price.” (Apple)
“We’re not for everyone, just these kinds of customers.”
Why pay your full CAC for a customer who won’t pay it back?
Think of a very successful business that is growing very fast (or grew fast) in a sustainable way. The Beacon and the Shield move is always there.
They make it clear that they are really FOR this kind of customer and NOT for that kind of customer.
The fastest way to grow in SaaS is by increasing the ratio of ICPs to CCPs every month.
Attract twice as many great customers and keep the bad customers out of your funnel.
Which always leads to this question:
“How can we grow big unless we sell to everyone?”
I call that the Target Market Trap. It’s a myth and a costly mistake.
How many ICP customers would you need in the next year to double your growth?
I guarantee that number is reasonable. 15? 50? 100? 1000? Depends on your price point and ACV, of course.
That’s a manageable number for 99% of early-stage SaaS companies.
VCs and PEs love to hear, “We used to sell to everyone in our market, but now we sell to just our ICPs, and we never sell to our CCPs. We have a growing and healthy business. Now our customer churn is very low.”
The Beacon and the Shield is the power move when you are clear about your ICP.
