ICP & Prospect List (Account Plan)

What you'll produce

A one-page Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) plus a researched list of 10 target accounts — each with named contacts, a specific "why now" trigger, and the buying-committee role (champion, economic buyer, user) you'd open with. This is the artifact an SDR builds on day one of a new territory and rebuilds every quarter: it's the difference between spraying 200 generic emails and landing 10 relevant conversations. It proves the core Topic 5 skill — prospecting the right people, not everyone — and it feeds your entire capstone: every later artifact (outreach sequence, discovery call, demo, forecast) is run against accounts on this list. Get this wrong and you spend the rest of the program selling to companies that were never going to buy.

Instructions

You are the new SDR at Lumadesk (AI-powered support helpdesk — shared inbox, ticketing, AI reply drafting, ~$40/agent/month, ~$18k–$60k ARR per deal). Your territory: mid-market (50–500 employees) e-commerce and online-services companies whose support teams are drowning in tickets. Build the account plan you'd actually hand your manager.

1. Write the one-page ICP — define fit before you build any list. Capture, in tight bullets: firmographics (industry, employee count, geography, business model — e.g., DTC e-commerce, 50–500 staff); the team you sell into (support / customer-experience org, typically 5–40 agents); the problem you solve (ticket volume outpacing headcount → slow response times → churn and bad reviews); and 3–4 observable "qualifying signals" that mean a company likely has this pain right now (hiring support agents, order-volume spikes, public complaints about response time, no modern helpdesk).
2. Write 2–3 disqualifiers (the anti-ICP). Be explicit about who you'll qualify out before wasting a touch — e.g., under 50 employees (no budget/no team), no support function, or already on a strong incumbent they just bought. This is Topic 4's "qualifying out" applied at the top of the funnel.
3. Name the buying committee for this product. Map the three roles from Topic 3 to real job titles at your accounts: the champion (feels the pain daily — Head of Support / CX Manager), the economic buyer (controls budget — VP Customer Experience / COO / CFO at smaller orgs), and the user (support agents / team leads). Note who you open with and why.
4. Build the list of 10 accounts. Lead with GearGrid (your named target), then 9 look-alike accounts that fit the ICP. For each: company name, employee count, why it fits the ICP in one line, and a specific, evidenced "why now" trigger — a hiring post, a funding round, a season, a public review complaint, a tooling gap. "They're growing" is not a trigger; "posted 3 support-agent roles last week and Trustpilot reviews cite 48-hour reply times" is.
5. Add a target contact + role for each account — sourced the way a real SDR sources. For every account, identify the person you'd open with: their title, which buying-committee role they play, and the one-line opener angle tied to their trigger, not your features (Topic 5: lead with their problem). Find the actual human the way an SDR does — search the company on LinkedIn (filter the company's people by titles like "Head of Support," "CX Manager," "Customer Experience"), or check the team/about page. When you find them, use their real name. When you can't confirm a real name, do not invent one — write a placeholder title instead (e.g., "Head of Customer Support (name TBD — confirm on LinkedIn)"). A real, specific title and angle on a real account is worth far more than a made-up full name: the title tells you who to find, the fake name just creates a person who will bounce the moment you actually hit send.
6. Prioritize the list into tiers. Rank the 10 into Tier A (work first — strongest fit + hottest trigger), Tier B, Tier C. A real SDR doesn't work 10 accounts equally; they sequence them. State the one-sentence logic for your Tier A picks.
7. Keep it honest and specific. Use real companies and triggers you could actually find on LinkedIn / a company careers page / Trustpilot — no "Company X," no generic stand-ins for accounts or triggers. Contacts are the one place a placeholder is correct, not lazy: when you can't verify a real name, a placeholder title ("Head of CX — confirm on LinkedIn") is the honest, usable answer; a fabricated full name on a real-named company is the one thing that looks polished and fails in the field. Never pair a made-up person's name with a real company you'd actually email.

Rubric

The app's AI scores your submission against these criteria and gives feedback. Levels: Needs work (1) / Solid (2) / Excellent (3). Passing = every criterion at Solid or above; revise and resubmit until it passes.

• ICP fit & qualifying signals — 1: vague ("any company that needs support software") or missing observable signals · 2: clear firmographics plus the problem and 2–3 signals · 3: sharp ICP with 3–4 observable qualifying signals an SDR could actually find, and a stated sweet spot/reason it matters.
• Disqualifiers (anti-ICP / qualify-out) — 1: none, or only restates the ICP · 2: 2–3 real disqualifiers · 3: precise disqualifiers tied to why each kills the deal (no budget, no pain, wrong timing), reflecting Topic 4 qualifying-out.
• Buying committee mapped to real titles — 1: roles missing or generic · 2: champion/economic buyer/user mapped to plausible titles · 3: roles mapped to specific titles and a clear, justified "who I open with" decision.
• 10 accounts with specific, evidenced "why now" triggers — 1: fewer than 10, or triggers are generic ("they're growing") · 2: 10 ICP-fit accounts each with a real trigger · 3: 10 tight-fit accounts with specific, evidenced triggers (a hiring post, a review, a raise, a season) you could verify, GearGrid clearly led.
• Sourced contacts (right title + role) + opener that leads with the problem — 1: no contact target, openers pitch the product, or invented full names pinned to real-named accounts (a fabricated person on a company you'd actually email — the habit this artifact exists to break) · 2: each account has a realistic title mapped to the right committee role, an honest placeholder ("name TBD — confirm on LinkedIn") wherever the name isn't verified, and a relevant angle · 3: every account names the right title and committee role, shows real sourcing discipline — a confirmed name where one was findable, an honest title-placeholder elsewhere, never a made-up name on a real account — and a one-line opener that leads with their trigger/problem, never Lumadesk's features.
• Prioritization (tiering) — 1: list is undifferentiated · 2: accounts grouped into tiers · 3: A/B/C tiers with explicit logic for the Tier A picks (fit × trigger strength × reachable champion).