If you’re in B2B sales, marketing, or growth, you’ve heard “ideal customer profile” (ICP) a million times. But let’s be honest: most ICPs are built on gut feelings, old CRM data, or a spreadsheet you haven’t updated in a year. You need a way to cut through the noise and actually find companies who look like your best customers—without spending all week on LinkedIn or paying for overpriced lists.
That’s where Lonescale comes in. It promises to automate the messy work of finding and researching companies that fit your ICP. But does it actually help you get there, or is it just another tool with a fancy dashboard?
This guide walks you through using Lonescale—step by step—to identify and refine your ideal customer profile. I’ll point out what’s genuinely useful, what’s just fluff, and where you’ll still need to use your brain.
Step 1: Get Clear on What “Ideal” Means for You
Before touching any software, nail down what “ideal” really means for your business. No tool can do this part for you. If your team can’t agree on what makes a great customer, Lonescale will just spit out a bunch of data you’ll ignore.
Ask yourself: - Who are your best existing customers? (Not the loudest, but the ones who get value and stick around) - What traits do they share? (Industry, size, tech stack, geography, funding, pain points) - Who do you not want as customers? (Churners, time-wasters, folks with edge-case needs)
Jot this down somewhere. You’ll use these criteria to set up Lonescale, and you’ll need it as a gut-check later.
Pro tip: Don’t get lost in theory. Pick 3-5 must-have traits. You can refine later.
Step 2: Plug Your Criteria into Lonescale
Now, open up Lonescale and start translating your traits into filters. This is where the tool actually helps—no more guessing based on vague LinkedIn tags.
What Lonescale Lets You Filter
- Industry: Slice by precise sectors, not just “SaaS” or “Retail.”
- Company size: Headcount or revenue bands.
- Technologies used: See what’s installed on their site, which is a big deal if you sell to specific tech stacks.
- Location: Country, city, or even region.
- Funding stage: Useful if you only want bootstrapped companies or Series B and up.
- Hiring signals: See if they’re growing, shrinking, or hiring for roles that match your product.
What to Ignore
- “Intent” data: Most of this is vapor. If someone visited a random blog post, it doesn’t mean they’re ready for your pitch.
- Generic firmographics: If you can get it from a business directory, it’s not adding much.
Set up your filters, but don’t overthink it. The goal is to get a list of companies that roughly fit. You’ll tighten up later.
Step 3: Pull a List and Actually Look at It
Click “search” and let Lonescale spit out a list. But don’t just export it and call it a day. This is where most people get lazy.
What to Do:
- Sample 10-20 companies from the list.
- Check their websites. Do they feel like the kinds of customers who succeed with your product?
- Look for weird outliers. If you’re getting a bunch of companies that don’t make sense, tweak your filters.
- Check for “lookalikes.” Are your best customers showing up? Are there companies you’ve never heard of but that match your profile?
Pro tip: If your list is full of companies you’d never sell to in a million years, your filters are off. Don’t blame Lonescale—fix your inputs.
Step 4: Use Advanced Filters (But Don’t Go Overboard)
Lonescale has a bunch of advanced filters and data points. Some are useful. Others are just there to make the product demo look cool.
Worth Trying:
- Tech install data: If your product only works with Salesforce, you can filter for companies using Salesforce.
- Job postings: If you sell HR tech and companies are hiring recruiters, that’s a good signal.
- Recent funding or news: Great if you want to catch companies in a growth spurt.
Usually Not Worth It:
- Social media signals: Most are noise.
- Random “trend” scores: These are usually black boxes. Don’t bet your pipeline on it.
Test one or two advanced filters at a time. See if the list quality goes up, not just the quantity.
Step 5: Save Your ICP as a Segment
Once your filters are dialed in and your sample checks out, save this as a segment in Lonescale. This lets you:
- Refresh the list whenever you want, without redoing filters
- Share the segment with your team (so everyone’s not reinventing the wheel)
- Track how your ICP evolves over time
Pro tip: Give your segment a name that actually means something (e.g., “US SaaS, 50-200 employees, uses HubSpot”), not just “ICP v3.”
Step 6: Refine with Real-World Feedback
No ICP survives first contact with reality. Export your Lonescale list, run a small outbound test, and see what happens:
- Are you getting replies?
- Are the conversations any better than your old lists?
- Did you find a new type of company that’s a great fit, or spot a pattern you missed?
Go back to Lonescale, tweak your filters, and repeat. The best teams treat their ICP as a living thing, not a one-time project.
Step 7: Keep It Simple—Don’t Fall for “AI Magic”
Lonescale has started adding AI features that promise to “auto-suggest” your ICP or “predict” your next best customer. Here’s the truth: these are fine for a starting point, but they’re not a shortcut. If you take their word for it and stop thinking, you’ll end up with a generic list that everyone else is using.
- Use AI suggestions as a sanity check, not your main source of truth.
- Your best edge is still your own understanding of your market, not some black-box algorithm.
Pro tip: If a filter or AI suggestion doesn’t make sense, trust your gut. The best sales teams are skeptical.
What Actually Works (and What Doesn’t)
What Lonescale Does Well
- Saves time: Automates all the boring data gathering.
- Pulls in tech stack info: You won’t get this from most list tools.
- Easy to tweak and iterate: You can quickly rerun searches as you learn.
Where It Falls Short
- Quality in = quality out: If you’re unclear on your ICP, it won’t fix that.
- Some data is noisy: Especially around intent and social signals.
- Not a magic bullet: Still need to do the hard work of talking to customers and testing.
Keep It Real—and Keep It Simple
Here’s the bottom line: Lonescale is a solid tool if you want to shortcut the grunt work of building and refreshing your ICP. But don’t fall for the idea that software will do all the thinking for you. Spend 80% of your effort getting clear on who you want (and don’t want), and 20% using the tool to scale up your research.
Start simple. Test your segment with real outreach. Adjust as you go. The perfect ICP is a myth, but a good-enough one—kept fresh—is a real advantage.