An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a description of the type of company that gets the most value from what you sell and is the most profitable for you to serve. It is defined by firm-level attributes such as industry, company size, typical order volume, region, and buying process. Unlike a buyer persona, which describes an individual, an ICP describes the account itself, and it guides which leads you prioritize, qualify, and spend real quoting time on.
How you build one
Start with your existing customers, not a guess. Look at the accounts that reorder, pay on time, and need little hand-holding, then find the attributes they share. Common dimensions include industry vertical, employee count or annual revenue, average order value, order frequency, geography, and whether they buy through a formal purchasing process. Write those attributes down as concrete filters so anyone on your team can score an incoming request against them.
Why it matters for quoting
B2B quoting is manual work. Every request a Rep researches, prices, and follows up on has a real cost, so sending detailed quotes to poor-fit accounts drains time you could spend closing good ones. A clear ICP lets you triage fast: high-fit requests get a fast, tailored quote, while low-fit ones get a standard price or a polite pass.
On Shopify
When a quote request comes in through a Request a Quote flow, capture the fields that map to your ICP (company name, industry, order size, region) right on the form. That lets you sort real opportunities from tire-kickers before you build a draft order, and it keeps your follow-up focused on accounts worth the effort. See pricing for how quoting tooling fits different order volumes.