How to define your ICP for LinkedIn lead gen (and stop chasing bad fits)
A bad ICP definition is the #1 reason LinkedIn lead gen fails. Here's the framework we use with every new Saava customer.
"Founders" is not an ICP. Neither is "B2B SaaS companies." If your ICP fits in one sentence with no specifics, you're going to chase bad-fit leads and waste your team's time.
Here's the framework.
The five attributes that actually matter
1. Role (title + seniority)
Not "marketers." "Heads of demand gen at companies with 50–500 employees who own a paid budget." Specificity here cuts your list by 90% — which is the goal.
2. Industry (sub-industry, not parent)
Not "tech." "Vertical SaaS for legal/accounting/architecture firms." The sub-industry is where buyers self-identify.
3. Company stage (revenue + headcount + funding)
Not "growth-stage." "$2M–$15M ARR, 20–80 employees, post-Series A but pre-Series B." Stage determines budget authority and decision speed.
4. Geography (timezone, not country)
Not "US." "US/Canada/UK Eastern/Pacific time zones." Timezone affects responsiveness and meeting logistics — country alone doesn't.
5. Trigger event (the "why now")
Not "looking to grow." "Just raised a Series A in the last 6 months." Triggers are what separate fit from in-market.
The exclusion list matters as much
Define what's not your ICP just as crisply:
- Job titles to ignore (e.g., "no recruiters, students, agency owners with <5 people")
- Industries to ignore (e.g., "no nonprofits, no government")
- Company stages to ignore (e.g., "no pre-seed, no public companies")
Saava's exclusion field is one of the most underused features — teams that use it well cut their false-positive rate by 40%.
How to validate your ICP
Take your last 10 closed customers. Do they all match your written ICP? If 7+ of them match, your ICP is real. If 4 match, your ICP is aspirational — go back and rewrite.
How to use it on LinkedIn
In Saava, your ICP becomes the scoring rules. Every engager gets scored 0–100 against it. You set a threshold (we recommend 70+ to start) and only those leads surface.
Tighter ICP = fewer leads, but each one is gold. That's the right tradeoff.