Are Ideal Client Profiles the Missing Piece In Your Growth Strategy?

Travis Davis
Jun 16
3 min read

Does your firm still take a wide-net approach to growth, saying yes to every inbound request or prospect? If so, it may be time to revisit your definition of an ideal client. Accounting firms have made tremendous progress in areas like advisory services, automation and client experience, but many still lack a formal Ideal Client Profile (ICP) strategy.

That gap isn’t just a marketing issue. It’s a growth bottleneck.

Without clear ICPs, you waste time pursuing mismatched leads, struggle to articulate your value proposition and dilute your efforts across too many service areas. An ICP can act as a compass that guides your marketing, business development, hiring and product or service innovation.

How to define your ideal client

An Ideal Client Profile is more than a list of top-revenue accounts. It’s a strategic tool that segments clients based on profitability, service needs, growth potential and industry alignment. A well-developed ICP might include:

Quantitative data like average annual revenues or the number of services used
Qualitative data like being collaborative, valuing your expertise, respectful to team members and open to technology
Strategic alignment around growing industries you want to target (e.g., healthcare, construction, SaaS) or niche service offerings (e.g., outsourced CFO, ESG reporting)

If you’re not sure where to start, take a look at your top 20% of clients—those who generate 80% of your margin and cause 0% of your team’s burnout. Then layer in market trends and future-fit assessments.

Overcoming internal resistance to a narrow focus

If you’ve ever tried narrowing your firm’s focus, you likely heard pushback along the lines of, “But what if we lose out on work?” One of the biggest hurdles to implementing an ICP strategy is internal resistance from legacy partners who grew the firm by saying yes to everything.

You can work through it.

Start with data, not opinions Present a profitability analysis that ranks clients by revenue and margin. Show where staff spend the most time and which clients generate revenue from multiple service lines.

Pilot, don’t overhaul Start with a single niche or service line. For example, create an ICP for fractional CFO services in the healthcare space and test targeted campaigns there.

Align with firm strategy If leaders are focused on scaling CAAS or expanding into more advisory service lines, frame ICPs as a way to support those goals.

Use the voice of the client At Boomer Consulting, we’ve been working on building out content for the Boomer Knowledge Network (BKN). To do that, we’re talking directly to our members—power users and those who aren’t active users—to uncover gaps, validate assumptions and point to future opportunities.

Through these conversations, we discovered specific topics our members (and potential members) wanted content and other resources on, not because we assumed it, but because they told us.

Using ICPs to fuel growth

Once you define your ICPs, here is how they can become a growth engine across the firm:

Targeted marketing and business development. Craft campaigns around client personas with real pain points. Focus your paid advertising, webinars and event sponsorships on specific industries or buyer roles.
Content strategy. Develop thought leadership and lead magnets that speak directly to your ICP’s concerns. For example, instead of generic “year-end tax tips,” produce an article on “5 Things Manufacturing Firms Should Do Before Year-End to Minimize Tax Liability.”
Cross-selling and upselling. Use ICPs to identify service gaps. If your ideal client typically uses four services but one client only uses two, train your relationship team to suggest adjacent offerings.
Client experience and retention. Design onboarding workflows, account management protocols and communications around the needs and preferences of your ICPs.

As we’ve done with the BKN, you can even use ICP frameworks to refine your product strategy by creating new services, adjusting delivery methods or choosing which events to host based on the specific needs of defined client groups.

Making growth decisions without defined client profiles is like auditing without a checklist: it invites assumptions and inefficiencies. The solution to your growth goals isn’t more leads; it’s better-fit clients. So define and activate your Ideal Client Profiles. Then you can stop chasing everything and start building a pipeline filled with clients who want what you’re great at delivering. That’s a smarter, more sustainable growth strategy.

Do you want to fast-track your firm’s success in the areas of marketing and business development?

The Boomer Marketing & Business Development Circle is a peer group of top marketing and business development leaders in the accounting profession who are committed to aligning marketing and business development initiatives with firm strategy. Apply now to get plugged into the Circle and start growing your firm.

Travis Davis is a Product Strategist at Boomer Consulting, Inc., where he leads the development of the Boomer Knowledge Network (BKN) and other digital products. With a background in UX/UI design and product development at startups and Yahoo!, he brings deep experience in building user-centered tools. Travis is passionate about delivering practical, digital solutions that enhance outcomes for accounting firm leaders.