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Building your ICP
As an existing recruitment business, you will have already started to look at this, use the
following as guidelines:
ICP Guidelines
Start with evidence, not assumptions. Your best ICP is already hidden in your existing
placements and clients.
1. Analyse your best placements
Look at the last 12–24 months and isolate:
- Highest fee deals
- Fastest fills
- Longest client relationships
- Lowest friction (fewest revisions, smooth process)
Then ask:
- What type of company were they? (size, sector, growth stage)
- Who was the decision maker?
- What problem were they actually solving?
You are not looking for “who hired you”, but “who got the most value from you”.
2. Identify patterns
Group those clients and look for overlap:
- Industry niche (e.g. renewable EPCs vs general engineering firms)
- Hiring urgency (reactive vs planned growth)
- Role types (leadership, niche technical, revenue roles)
- Geography
- Budget tolerance
You will usually find 2–3 clear clusters. Those are your starting ICP segments.
3. Define the business profile
For each cluster, document:
- Company size (headcount / revenue)
- Growth stage (startup, scale-up, mature)
- Hiring volume and frequency
- Internal recruitment capability (none, small team, established TA)
This filters out companies that look right but behave wrong.
4. Define the trigger events
This is where most ICPs go wrong.
Your ideal clients are not static, they are situational.
Examples:
- Recently funded
- Entering a new market
- Scaling a new division
- Losing key leadership
- Failing to fill roles internally
These triggers tell you when to approach, not just who.
5. Map the buyer
Clarify:
- Job title (FD, CTO, Head of Talent, CEO)
- What they care about (speed, risk reduction, quality, reputation)
- What frustrates them about recruiters
- What makes them say yes quickly
This becomes your messaging backbone.
6. Define the pain you solve
Be specific:
- “Struggling to hire niche engineers” is weak
- “Unable to deliver projects due to unfilled senior design roles” is strong
Tie your service to commercial impact:
- Lost revenue
- Delayed projects
- Investor pressure
- Team burnout
7. Pressure-test it
Before locking it in:
- Can you easily find 100–250 of these companies?
- Do they have budget?
- Do they hire often enough?
- Can you reach the decision maker directly?
If not, refine.
8. Turn it into a usable ICP statement
Example structure:
“We work with [type of company] who are experiencing [trigger], struggling with
[specific hiring problem], and need to achieve [business outcome]. We typically partner
with [decision maker] to deliver [result].”
9. Keep it tight
Avoid broad ICPs like:
- “SMEs in engineering”
- “Growing companies”
Strong ICPs feel narrow:
- “UK-based renewable energy EPC firms (50–250 employees) entering project
scale-up phase after Series A funding”
If you are new to recruitment or pivoting:
If you are new or pivoting sectors, you do not have internal data yet, so you need
to borrow evidence from the market and narrow fast through testing.
The mistake to avoid is choosing a broad ICP and “seeing what happens”. That leads to
slow traction and inconsistent wins.
Here is a practical way to start.
1. Pick a market you understand (or can learn quickly)
Start with:
- An industry you have worked in
- A network you already have access to
- A sector with visible hiring demand
You need context + access, not perfection.
2. Choose a clear niche early
Do not start as:
- “general recruiter”
- “I can fill anything”
Instead define:
- Function: e.g. engineering, finance, sales
- Level: e.g. leadership, mid-level, specialist
- Sector: e.g. renewable energy, SaaS, construction
Example:
- “Mid–senior engineers in UK renewable energy firms”
You can evolve later, but starting narrow accelerates learning.
3. Study existing demand signals
Look externally:
- Job boards (what roles are hard to fill?)
- LinkedIn hiring patterns
- Companies hiring repeatedly
- Roles open for 60+ days
You are looking for:
- Scarcity of talent
- Repeated hiring
- Business-critical roles
That combination usually supports fees.
4. Reverse-engineer other recruiters
Find recruiters already working in your space and analyse:
- What roles they post
- What clients they mention
- How they position themselves
This gives you a “baseline ICP” without guessing.
5. Define a hypothesis ICP (version 1)
You are not aiming for perfect, just testable.
Example:
“UK-based renewable energy companies (20–200 employees) scaling project teams
and struggling to hire experienced design engineers.”
6. Speak to the market quickly
Have 10–20 conversations with:
- Hiring managers
- Founders
- Candidates in that niche
Ask:
- What roles are hardest to fill?
- Why are they hard?
- What happens if they stay unfilled?
- Have they used recruiters before? Why/why not?
This step replaces the “historical data” you do not yet have.
7. Look for commercial pain
You want problems linked to:
- Lost revenue
- Project delays
- Investor pressure
- Capacity bottlenecks
If the pain is weak, the ICP is weak.
8. Run small tests
Instead of committing fully:
- Target 20–50 companies in your ICP
- Send tailored outreach
- Track responses and conversations
Watch for:
- Engagement rates
- Quality of conversations
- Speed of opportunity creation
Refine based on reality, not theory.
9. Tighten quickly
After 4–6 weeks, adjust:
- Industry too broad → narrow it
- Roles too generic → specialise
- Wrong seniority → shift focus
Your first ICP is a working draft, not a final decision.
10. Use candidates as leverage
Early on, candidates can guide your ICP:
- Where are the best people working?
- Which companies are always hiring?
- Who pays well and moves fast?
Follow the talent, it often leads you to the right clients.
In short:
You are not “defining” an ICP at the start, you are testing your way into one.