METHODOLOGY FOR OPTIMIZING IDEAL CUSTOMER PROFILE CRITERIA TO ENHANCE THE SALES PERFORMANCE OF IT COMPANIES IN AN UNCERTAIN MARKET ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

The research is dedicated to exploring the optimisation of Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) formation criteria as a tool for improving the sales performance of IT enterprises that operate under conditions of market instability and growing uncertainty. The study focuses on B2B IT companies that rely on outbound sales and remote interaction with clients and therefore need clear, data-driven rules for prioritising prospects at the pre-sale stage. Existing approaches to ICP formation are summarised and their limitations are highlighted, in particular the excessive reliance on basic firmographic and technographic attributes such as industry, company size, geography, business model and technology stack, which do not reflect the real stability or growth potential of a client. On the basis of analytical interpretation of open-source data on the IT market, an extended set of ICP criteria is proposed. In addition to traditional parameters, the profile includes indicators of reputation and history of cooperation with vendors, diversification of markets and revenue streams, hiring dynamics, product development intensity and investment activity, potential for scaling cooperation, maturity of internal processes and the level of public and professional activity of decision makers in digital networks, primarily LinkedIn. These indicators can be evaluated using publicly available information and interpreted as proxies for the risk level, resilience and strategic value of a client account. Systematic use of the optimised ICP allows IT companies to reduce the share of low-potential leads, allocate sales resources more rationally, shorten the pre-sale cycle and increase the predictability of revenue in an unstable business environment. The findings demonstrate that a revised set of ICP criteria can serve as a practical framework for reconfiguring sales playbooks, refining prospecting strategies and strengthening the competitive position of IT enterprises on international markets, especially for Ukrainian companies operating under economic and geopolitical pressure. The proposed approach can be integrated into existing CRM and analytics tools without significant additional cost, which increases its applicability for small and medium-sized IT vendors.