Which Fleets Should You Target First?

First, there’s two issues to get out of the way:

1. Who is Not An Ideal Customer?

• Your ideal customer is not necessarily any fleet that buys from you. This could include a lot of inbound leads that came to you, but you might not consider them best customers. If you build an ICP with these, you risk not focusing resources on your future most profitable customers.
• Have you had large closed-won opportunities that result in only one sale ever from that account? We get excited about these. But if you’re SaaS or your business model relies on repeat business, do you want to focus resources on more of those?
• This next point might hit a nerve. But, they are not always the accounts that your sales team is friends with, who go to dinners and sports events. (Our analysis has found that sometimes customers you entertain have a surprising negative sales result.)

2. ICP Shouldn’t Paralyze Your Team

ICP is supposed to help you, not make anyone afraid. When people are told to cut back on accounts they pursue, they tend to not want to leave any account behind. They will resist a change.

Ways you could address this concern:

• Use ICP as a prioritization of accounts. You could prioritize in two groups. Group One is the most important accounts, the true ICP accounts with best return and lifetime value. Put most resources into Group One. Group Two is the next level. They can be pursued, but be mindful that most resources should go to Group One.
• Outbound vs. inbound. Outbound resources could focus on your ICP accounts. But this doesn’t mean don’t respond or sell if a lower priority or non-ICP account comes inbound. No one wants to miss an opportunity.

Okay, now let’s find your ICP …

What is a “Best” Customer?

To start identifying your ICP, we suggest you have a clear idea of your best customer.

The definition of a best customer might differ for each reader here. We have our view. And that is, it’s not as simple as “all prospects that convert to customers.” And often, a best customer is not described only with basic firmographics like number of employees, revenue and industry. Defining an ICP like this, with only a few firmographics and technographics, is the biggest mistake often made.

A best customer can be found by looking at your financials: revenue, profitability, and customer lifetime value.

Also, identify where you struggle by looking at closed-lost and churn. There’s many lessons in the patterns of prospects and customers you lose.

If you use a CRM: If you’re tracking account opportunities through to closed-won revenue, dig into the reports as homework before deciding which variables to choose from the checklist below.

If you don’t use a CRM: List who you think your top customers are. As you review the checklist below, you might think of customers that aren’t on your list, but should be. You might also decide some customers on your list really don’t belong there. Some lessons there. And when you don’t know whether a variable below is important for you, you can learn from interviewing your customers.

Ideal Fleet Customer Checklist

An ICP describes an account – a company or government fleet. Not the contacts. Though people sell to people, that’s true, the account is really your customer. The account is the fleet. So this checklist focuses on company and fleet characteristics.

Which of these are relevant and important for you:

Company Firmographics

It’s important to understand firmographics of your best customers. Though we recommend, don’t stop at firmographics. The firmographics alone can’t describe your ideal customer profile.

• Industries
• Employee count
• Annual revenue
• Years in business
• Technographics (technologies used, “tech stack”)
• Geography
• Headquarters location
• Locations of branches/yards/terminals
• Centralized/decentralized fleet decision-making
• Funding
• Anything else?

Fleet & Vehicle

When you sell to fleets, you have additional criteria. Vehicle and fleet data is a critical part of your ideal customer profile.

• Fleet size
• Fleet increase or decrease rate
• Duty: light, medium, heavy
• Class 1-8
• Make
• Model
• Body type
• Fuel type
• Leased or owned
• FMCSA power unit count
• Private or for hire
• Cargo carried
• Trailers
• Driver types – CDL, non-CDL
• FMC managed
• Inspections
• Violations
• Crashes and other safety indicators
• Insurance variables
• Anything else?

Financial/Business Issues

If you’re a small business, you’re likely close to the financial performance. In larger companies, talk with your CFO or accounting so you can consider the impact of customers on your business after the closed-won moment.

• Conversion and close rates
• Time from lead to a sale (sales velocity)
• Payment terms
• Contract/legal terms
• Discount pressure
• Annual contract value, or annual revenue from customer
• Lifetime value of customer
• Profitability of customer
• Customer service/support needs
• Any other metrics important to you?

Other Factors

• Use cases
• Jobs to be done
• Regulatory/compliance pressure
• Currently in market for your product/service
• Locked in contract with your competitor
• Switching costs from other vendors
• Fleet/freight tech stack

Buyer Persona – Contacts

Of course you need contacts to reach out to. Think about the best champions you’ve worked with at your best customer accounts. And review your CRM data. It’s likely there are common patterns in the people you work with at your best accounts. Beyond job title, consider other things that resulted in a sale and a good, ongoing relationship. What problems did they have? What do they value? Had they just changed jobs to a new employer, or a significant promotion? Who are the decision-makers, and who influences the decision-makers?

• Level – manager, director, VP, etc.
• Function – fleet, maintenance, safety, etc.
• They have the problem you solve – and be honest here, not every fleet has every problem
• New in job – is this an advantage and a sales trigger, or a disadvantage?
• Anything else?

Keep in mind, only a small percentage of fleets have employees with a fleet manager job title.

In addition to demographics, there are behaviors and beliefs:

• Getting value is a two-way street between you and your customers. Will they work to get value from your product?
• Do they agree with your point of view about your approach/solution?
• Are they aware of their problem and searching for a solution?

Don’t Fall for “We Sell to Everyone”

No, an ICP should not be “everyone” and “all of the above.”

It’s tempting to not want to leave anyone out as a potential customer. It could be easy to think any company or government agency with a fleet vehicle is a potential customer. But remember there are costs to not focusing on the customers best for you.

Fleet size is one example. Fleets tend to fall into the same general markets as most B2B: small business, mid-market and enterprise. Selling to a plumbing company with a few cargo vans can be very different than selling to large fleets of 500+ vehicles. You may have the operations to handle selling and delivering to fleets of all sizes. Or you may find you excel with a segment of the fleet market.

You may think of certain customers as best customers, but they should also feel the same about you as a vendor. Your account managers and customer support teams will also have insight into who you can best serve. Their feedback can help shape your ICP.

Marketing & Sales Should Agree

It’s crucial for marketing and sales to agree on the ICP, especially for account-based activities, prospecting, outbound as well as brand building.

And not everyone knows what an ideal customer profile is. So it’s important to do trainings and show how, when you focus on it, you can close sales faster and serve customers better.

It’s possible, if your business sells significantly different products or services, you might have different ICPs for each.

An ICP Can Change

As your business changes and evolves, your ICP can also change. It’s good to regularly revisit the definition of your ICP.