# Refining Your Icp

> Sharpens an Earth Care Network workspace's ideal customer profile into a specific, testable beachhead using disciplined-entrepreneurship framing. Use when someone wants to define, tighten, or re-target who they sell to, when lead quality is poor, or when discovery returns off-target companies.

- Skill: `giving-back-studio/refining-your-icp` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add giving-back-studio/refining-your-icp`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/giving-back-studio/refining-your-icp/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Product & Planning
- Author: Giving-Back-Studio (https://skillmd.com/u/giving-back-studio)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/giving-back-studio/refining-your-icp

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# Refining your ICP

A vague ICP is the single biggest cause of junk leads downstream. Everything —
watchlist keywords, prospect scoring, outreach angles — inherits from it.

## Read what exists first

1. `get_gtm_status` — existing profiles, lead counts, email activity. If leads
   are already flowing against an old ICP, changing it changes their results;
   say so before you rewrite anything.
2. `get_business_context_private` — the current `ideal_customers` module.
3. `get_growth_plan` — whether the `icp` module is confirmed.

Extend what's there. Do not silently overwrite a definition someone confirmed.

## Narrow to one beachhead

Pick ONE reachable segment, not everyone who could benefit. Push until they can
name three real companies that fit. If they cannot, it is still too broad.

Interrogate each axis, and accept "I don't know" as an answer worth recording
rather than a blank to invent:

- **Who decides** — actual job titles that sign, not departments
- **Where** — country, region, or metro if it constrains
- **Size** — headcount or revenue band
- **What's true right now** — the trigger that makes them buy *this quarter*
- **What they already tried** — what failed tells you the pitch

The trigger matters most. "Regenerative businesses" is an identity; "just hired
their first salesperson and their spreadsheet broke" is a buying moment.

## Write it

`update_gtm_icp` — `definition`, `job_titles`, `geo_include` /
`geo_subdivision` / `geo_city`, `size`, `revenue_annual`, `industries`, `focus`
(people vs companies), `criteria`. Use `business_slug` to target a specific
workspace when the account has several.

If the Growth Plan's `icp` module is open, write the same definition there via
`update_growth_plan_module` so the plan and the live GTM profile agree.

## Prove it before trusting it

An ICP is a hypothesis until it surfaces real fits. Run `discover_prospects`
and read the reasons, not the count:

- Reasons that restate the ICP back at you → too generic; add a trigger.
- Results that are all one company type when you wanted several → a criterion
  is dominating; loosen it.
- Institutions when you wanted small businesses → the title list is pulling
  enterprise procurement roles; tighten `job_titles`.

Two or three tightening passes is normal. Say that up front so a mediocre first
run doesn't read as failure.