Knowing your customer is essential to any successful marketing strategy. According to Richard Walton—founder of Outsell Sales, professional speaker, and all-round sales and marketing expert—having a tight Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is key to customer profiling for business success. In today’s highly competitive markets, being crystal clear on who you serve can help you stand out, sell more effectively, and build a stronger team.
Richard has worked on sales strategies with hundreds of businesses and says, “In today’s world of everyone seemingly offering everything for everyone, and everything being quite similar, it’s surprisingly rare that you come across a business that says, “We do this for these types of people and that’s all we do, and we’re damn good at it!”’
It’s hugely helpful for salespeople to have a deep understanding of who their customers are and what their problems are.
“In my experience, the best people like working for experts, they like working for a company that’s focused on doing one thing really well,” says Richard.
Focus on a market segment with the distinct customer set you want to attract. Consider niching as a process of pruning a tree to foster healthy new growth.
Don’t be afraid to say no to customers who don’t fit your ICP. “You think you’re going to put customers off,” says Richard, “but actually, the opposite often happens – you’re seen as an expert.”
Try to identify a set of potential customers you can meet with three times over nine months to really get to know them and understand their pain points – and do it face-to-face. “In today’s virtual world, there is nothing, nothing, more powerful than personal interaction,” says Richard.
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