Key takeaways
- Use only wins you would gladly repeat; outliers teach the wrong pattern.
- Pull the same fields for every deal so the deals can be compared.
- Lost deals and churned customers show where the profile should stop.
- Date the profile and recheck it against new wins each quarter.
Which closed-won deals should you include
Include the closed-won deals you would gladly win again: customers who bought without heavy discounting, got value quickly and are still with you. Those deals show who your product really suits.
Leave out the outliers. A favour to a friend's company, a deal won on a one-off discount or a customer who left within months tells you little about who to look for next, however large the logo.
What should you pull from each won deal
Pull the same short set of facts from every won deal, so you compare like with like. Most of it already sits in your CRM and the deal notes; ask the account owner for the rest while the deal is fresh.
- Company facts: industry, headcount band, headquarters region and business model.
- The trigger: what changed at the company just before it started talking to you.
- The roles: who signed, who championed the purchase and who uses the product daily.
- How the deal started: inbound, outbound, referral or partner.
- How long the deal took and how quickly the customer got value.
How do you spot the pattern across won deals
You spot the pattern by putting the deals in one table and looking for the values most of them share. A trait only counts if it separates wins from the rest, so check each one against deals you lost: an industry that appears in both tells you little.
Give the trigger the most attention. Two companies of the same size in the same sector can be a perfect fit and a poor one, depending on whether they were hiring for the team you serve, entering a new market or outgrowing a manual process when they bought.
What do lost deals and churn add to an ICP
Lost deals and churned customers add the boundaries: they turn repeated problems into exclusions. If deals with companies below a certain headcount keep stalling, or one sector keeps leaving after its first term, write that down as an exclusion with the reason beside it.
Read the loss reasons with care. A deal lost on price or timing may still be a good fit; a deal lost because the company lacked the role you sell to is a sign it never was.
How do you turn the pattern into a profile
Turn the pattern into a one-page profile with a summary line, the company ranges, the trigger, the buyer roles and the exclusions, each backed by the deals it came from. Put a date on it so anyone can see how current it is.
Test the profile on a fresh set of prospects before the whole team works from it, then recheck it each quarter against the deals won and lost since.
How to build an ICP from won deals, step by step
Work from the deals first; add judgement only where the evidence runs out.
- Export your recent closed-won deals and mark the customers you would gladly win again.
- Pull the same fields for each: company facts, the trigger, the roles and how the deal started.
- Put them in one table and note the values most of the wins share.
- Check those values against lost deals and churned customers, and turn repeated problems into exclusions.
- Write the profile on one page, list the deals behind it and date it.
- Test it on a fresh set of prospects and adjust it after the first real conversations.
Where Pebbles Ai fits
- CapabilityProspecting & customer recordsThe Pebbles Ai CRM, in Beta, keeps ICPs beside your contacts and deals, so the profile sits where your team reviews new leads.
- FoundationCompany IntelAdmins can add the profile to Company Intel, whose Brand voice already has an Audience section, so the Marketing and Strategy assistants work from the same description.
Common questions
How many closed-won deals do you need to build an ICP?
There is no fixed number. A handful of strong wins can show a pattern and more deals make it firmer. With only a few, treat the profile as a hypothesis and recheck it as new deals close.
Should churned customers count as won deals for an ICP?
Not as evidence for who to target. Keep them in a separate list, because the reason they left often becomes one of your exclusions.
What if your won deals do not share an obvious pattern?
Look at the trigger and the buying roles rather than the company facts. If there is still no pattern, you may be selling to two groups, each worth its own profile.
About this page. Written by the Pebbles Ai team for people who run sales, marketing and growth. Last updated .
