If you’re tired of guessing who your best customers really are—and want a plain-English, practical way to use Rev to figure it out—this guide is for you. Whether you’re a sales leader, a marketer, or just the person who got “volunteered” to wrangle your target accounts, this is your roadmap. No marketing buzzwords. No pie-in-the-sky promises. Just a step-by-step on building an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) in Rev that actually helps you find more of the right people.
Why Bother With an ICP in Rev?
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: an ICP isn’t a silver bullet. But if you don’t know who your best customers are, you’ll waste time chasing the wrong leads. Rev lets you build a customer profile using real data, not just gut feelings or old slide decks. It’s not magic—just a way to get targeted and stop guessing.
Step 1: Gather Your Best Customer Data
Rev is only as good as the data you feed it. So before you even log in, pull together a list of your current customers—especially the ones that make you say, “I wish we had ten more of these.”
What to include:
- Company names (the must-have)
- Website URLs (if handy)
- Industry, company size, and location (if you've got them)
- Any notes on why they’re “ideal” (beyond just revenue)
Pro tip: Don’t overthink it. Ten to twenty solid customers is enough. If you’re new and don’t have real customers, use a wish list of companies you’d kill to land (just be honest about it).
Step 2: Clean Up Your List
Here’s where most people get lazy and pay for it later. Rev can’t read your mind, so make sure your list is tidy.
- Double-check names and domains. Typos = garbage in, garbage out.
- Skip companies you don’t want more of (bad fits, high churn, constant complainers).
- Group by segment if you sell to very different types (e.g., mid-market vs. enterprise).
What to ignore: Don’t bother with data you don’t have or can’t trust. Guessing is worse than leaving a field blank.
Step 3: Upload to Rev and Let It Do Its Thing
Now, log into Rev and look for the “Seed List” or “ICP Builder.” Upload your spreadsheet or paste your list.
- Rev will scan public sources to pull firmographic and technographic data.
- It’ll look for patterns—stuff like industry, tech stack, employee count, even social signals.
Heads up: Rev’s data isn’t perfect. It’s way better than manual research, but always sanity-check what it spits out.
Step 4: Review and Tweak the Suggested Profile
Rev will spit out an initial ICP based on your list. Here’s where you separate the useful from the nonsense.
Look for:
- Core commonalities: Are you seeing the right industries, company sizes, etc.?
- Outliers: If a company on your list is totally different from the others, decide if it belongs.
- Weirdness: Sometimes the “insights” are just noise—ignore anything that doesn’t make sense for your business.
What to do next:
- Edit the ICP fields. If Rev says your best customers have 10,000+ employees but you know that’s a fluke, change it.
- Add or remove criteria until it lines up with reality, not just what the tool found.
Pro tip: Show the draft ICP to a couple of sales reps or CS folks who know your customers. They’ll spot anything off faster than you will.
Step 5: Build Out Your ICP With Real-World Context
Here’s where you make your ICP actually usable. Flesh it out with details that matter to your team:
- Pain points: What problems do these customers have that you solve? Skip the generic stuff (“wants to grow revenue”) and get specific.
- Deal blockers: What makes a “good” customer say no? Budget? Tech stack? Internal politics?
- Red flags: List out traits of companies that seem ideal but flop in reality (e.g., “big logo, but never buys”).
- Buying triggers: Are there events or signals (new funding, hiring, tech change) that make them more likely to buy?
Stick these notes right in Rev or keep them handy in your CRM—just don’t let them live and die in a Word doc.
Step 6: Put Your ICP to Work—Find Lookalike Accounts
Now for the payoff. In Rev, use the ICP to generate a list of lookalike accounts:
- Run the “Find More Like These” or “Lookalike” function.
- Filter results—don’t just take the top 100. Scan for obviously bad fits and toss them.
- Export the list for your sales or marketing team.
What works: Regularly update this list as you close deals or learn more. ICPs aren’t set-and-forget.
What doesn’t: Blindly trusting the algorithm. Automation is great, but your team will always catch things Rev can’t.
Step 7: Test, Learn, and Tweak
No ICP survives first contact with the real world. Treat this like a living document.
- Track how your outreach to lookalike accounts performs. Are you getting higher response rates? Shorter sales cycles?
- Ask the team for feedback. Are the leads closer to your ideal, or are you still seeing duds?
- Update your seed list and ICP every quarter or after big wins/losses.
Ignore: Endless navel-gazing. Don’t hold out for “perfect”—good enough is better than a pretty slide deck collecting dust.
Common Pitfalls (and How to Dodge Them)
- Basing your ICP on wishful thinking. Use real customer data, not just big brands you’d like to land.
- Overcomplicating it. The more filters you add, the less useful your ICP becomes. Focus on what actually matters.
- Ignoring feedback from the field. If sales or CS say the ICP is off, believe them.
- Letting it go stale. Businesses change. So should your ICP.
A Few Final Thoughts
Building an ICP in Rev is about getting more practical, not more theoretical. Start with what you know, use the tool to spot patterns, and then keep tweaking as you learn. Don’t chase perfection. If your ICP helps your team say “no” to the wrong leads and “yes” to the right ones, you’re already ahead of most teams out there.
Keep it simple. Keep it honest. And don’t be afraid to update your ICP as you go—your results will get better, and your sales team will thank you.