Pinpoint the right accounts before you craft messages for the humans inside them. Test how well you can separate ICP from buyer personas and apply each in GTM.
What is the core difference between an ICP and a buyer persona?
ICP defines best‑fit accounts; personas describe individual roles within those accounts.
ICP is a creative brief; personas are legal requirements.
ICP describes website visitors; personas describe cookies.
ICP lists sales tactics; personas list discount levels.
Which data is MOST relevant to building an ICP?
The CEO’s personal network map.
Firmographics, technographics, buying triggers, and success criteria from won/lost data.
Color preferences from design surveys.
Emoji usage in customer chats.
Which statement about personas is accurate in complex B2B deals?
Only one persona should be targeted per opportunity.
Personas and ICP are mutually exclusive choices.
Personas are only for B2C.
There are usually multiple personas per ICP account spanning users, champions, and economic buyers.
A marketing team uses persona pain points to build an account list. What’s the flaw?
Personas don’t define fit; accounts should be filtered by ICP criteria first.
Personas must always be psychographic only.
Pain points cannot be used in messaging.
Personas should define discount policy.
Which practice improves ICP quality over time?
Outsourcing ICP entirely to creative agencies.
Re‑validating with retention, ACV, and win‑rate trends; updating excludes as needed.
Locking the ICP for three years to avoid confusion.
Prioritizing social media followers in selection.
How should personas primarily influence sales enablement content?
Standardize a single generic deck for all roles.
Avoid sharing ROI numbers with economic buyers.
Map proofs and objections to each role’s outcomes and risks.
Focus only on features regardless of role.
Which tool helps connect ICP signals to outreach at scale?
A random subject‑line generator.
Propensity models or scoring that weight account‑level intent and fit signals.
A pixel‑based retargeting blacklist.
A brand color contrast checker.
What is an anti‑ICP and why use it?
A banned list of competitors’ customers.
A legal document replacing ICP.
A persona that dislikes your product’s UI.
A list of disqualifying traits that reliably predict poor fit or unit economics.
Which evidence best validates you picked the right ICP?
More booth scans at a conference.
Higher email open rates and likes on posts.
Higher win rates, faster cycles, better NRR versus non‑ICP accounts.
A larger total addressable market figure.
In ABM, when should persona‑level messaging be customized?
After selecting accounts by ICP and identifying in‑account roles and priorities.
Only for post‑sale users, not buyers.
Never—ABM should stay generic for scale.
Before defining ICP to speed execution.
Starter
Start with fit: define accounts before crafting messages for the people inside them.
Solid
Solid ICP foundations—now refine anti‑ICP rules and role‑based proof for each persona.
Expert!
Excellent: you can pick the right accounts and orchestrate multi‑persona consensus with proof.
