Entering Criteria Directly in the Builder
Manual entry is the default way to fill out the ICP builder. Every text field in every step accepts free-text input — you describe what you know about your ideal accounts, contacts, and signals, and the builder turns those descriptions into a structured scoring model.
No CRM connection, data export, or prior history is required.
Where you enter criteria
The builder moves through these steps, each with text fields you fill in directly:
| Step | What you describe |
|---|---|
| Eligibility | Which accounts this ICP covers — firmographic rules that assign an account to this ICP |
| Ideal Fit (when individual lead scoring is on) | Company traits and contact personas for the accounts and people you most want to reach |
| Behavior Signals | The activity patterns that indicate buying intent (positive signals) and poor fit (negative signals) |
| Scoring filters (when individual lead scoring is on) | Qualification rules — which covered accounts and leads are worth scoring |
| Buying group roles (when buying group intelligence is on) | The roles that make up the buying group for this ICP |
Steps that are not relevant to your motion preset or toggles are hidden — the step counter renumbers so you never land on a gap.
Writing effective descriptions
Be specific across dimensions. A description like "B2B SaaS companies in North America with 200–1,000 employees, using Salesforce, in technology or professional services" gives the model more to work with than "mid-market tech companies."
Separate positive from negative. Most fields have distinct areas for ideal traits and disqualifiers. Use both — the builder weights each direction separately.
Indicate priority where it matters. "Must be in the technology or healthcare sector" versus "ideally 200+ employees, but 100+ is acceptable" — these distinctions help the scoring model weight criteria correctly.
Signal descriptions work the same way. For Behavior Signals, describe the page visits, actions, or event types that indicate real intent (demo requests, pricing-page visits) and the ones that suggest low fit (blog-only traffic, competitor domains).
Skipping optional steps
Steps marked optional (contact personas within the Ideal Fit step, Behavior Signals, Scoring filters) can be skipped. Skipping them narrows what the model scores against — an ICP with no contact personas focuses entirely on account-level characteristics.
After creation
Every field you type is editable after the ICP is created. See Editing an ICP for how to update criteria, roles, and signals without recreating from scratch.
Next steps
- ICP Overview — the full builder step flow and conditional steps
- Eligibility and Qualification — scope and scoring filters
- Managing multiple ICPs — priority order and scope conflicts
- Editing an ICP — update criteria after creation