What are ICPs and buyer personas in B2B marketing, and how do they work together?

An Ideal client Profile (ICP) defines the companies most likely to buy your solution, while buyer personas represent the individual decision-makers within those companies. ICPs pick the accounts. Personas win the committee. Your ICP might target SaaS companies with 200 to 500 employees, while personas map the CFO, CTO, and VP of Operations who often comprise the 6 to 10 stakeholders in complex buying committees. Together, they create your segmentation rules and intent-based prioritization system, without both, you either waste spend on wrong-fit accounts or lose winnable deals to generic messaging. Use these firmographic segmentation criteria to build scoring rules that identify high-intent prospects.