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Free GTM Skills / Foundation / Playbook 3

ICP and wedge

One page that says who the company sells to first, why that segment, who is in the room when they buy, and how to tell in five minutes whether a lead fits. Everything downstream is written for this one segment.

5 skillsSOP on GitHub

Why it matters

A company that sells to everyone is hard to recommend, hard to find and hard to write for. A specific segment makes the message sharp, the lists buildable and the proof reusable. The segment is a public choice; the company can still take a good deal outside it. Expansion comes after the first segment works, not instead of it.

Order of operations

  1. Pull the evidence: current customers, won and lost deals, where inbound comes from, what customers say the problem is.
  2. List three to six candidate segments, each specific enough to search for.
  3. Score them on the seven questions in the skill. Pain must be clear; existing traction breaks ties.
  4. Pick the wedge. Keep the runner-up as a backup, not a second target.
  5. Write the ICP card, the buying committee and the qualification rules.
  6. Check the segment is big enough for the revenue goal; widen geography before industry.
  7. Set a 30 to 60 day test and a review date.

Skills in this playbook

  • Playbook1
  • Play4
Next playbook · FoundationPositioning and messagingA one-liner a stranger can repeat, and a positioning document the whole company writes from: what it sells, who it is for, what it replaces, why it is better, the problem and solution in plain words, three messaging pillars, what each buying role needs to hear, the objections with answers, and the proof.

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