Industrial targeting · Before account discovery
Define your industrial ideal customer profile
An industrial ideal customer profile should tell a researcher which businesses belong in your brief, which do not, and which questions must stay open. Start with the customer’s activity and role in your market, then define territory, counting unit, exclusions and acceptance evidence.
This is DemandRange’s recommended pre-research workflow, not a buyer-persona exercise or a list of prospects. Its output is a brief you can approve before sourcing begins. The decisions below are wholly fictional.
1. Choose the customer role, not just the sector
Write one sentence: “We supply [range] and want to research businesses that [activity] as [customer role].” Replace broad labels such as “engineering companies” with an activity that evidence could support or contradict.
Use these working labels to frame the question:
- Operator
- Must the business operate the relevant facility itself?
- Original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
- Must it build machines or systems for other businesses?
- Integrator or contractor
- Which assembly, integration or installation activity belongs in scope?
- Distributor
- Is resale the intended route, an excluded activity, or a potential channel conflict?
Select a primary route. If several routes matter, give each its own inclusion rule rather than accepting any company with a shared product word. A role match is not engineering suitability, buying intent or outreach permission. The pump and flow-control guide explores role-specific application questions.
2. Specify where the activity must happen
Separate sales territory from evidence of operations. Does “Ireland” mean the Republic of Ireland or the island? Must the relevant production, assembly or service activity happen there, or is supplying that territory sufficient? State the answer; do not let a headquarters address decide it.
- Company brief: count the company once and attach relevant facilities beneath it.
- Site brief: identify each qualifying facility and its operating company; do not present site totals as company totals.
- Group boundary: define how subsidiaries, trading names and multiple sites should be treated. Hold unresolved relationships rather than assuming a shared brand means one entity.
Specify evidence for the required operation and location. Do not infer a workshop from a sales office or local delivery coverage.
Test the same company under different territory rules
Before approving the brief, test what would change if “Ireland” meant a different relationship. These are alternative instructions, not interchangeable evidence or universal DemandRange requirements. Keep the activity and counting unit fixed while testing the territory choice.
Wholly fictional exercise: every company below makes control panels somewhere; count one company, not its sites. All facts are invented, not researched accounts. Each alternative uses the Republic of Ireland:
- O — operation: the company itself operates a panel-assembly site there.
- S — customers supplied: the company supplies its panels to customers there; local assembly is not required.
- I — incorporation: the company is incorporated there; this is an optional brief condition, not a legal definition or a proxy for local activity.
- Fictional Company T-A: all assembly sites and incorporation outside the Republic; supplies customers in the Republic.
- Operation (O): Out of scope. Customers supplied (S): Match. Incorporation (I): Out of scope.
- Fictional Company T-B: operates assembly in the Republic and is incorporated there; explicitly supplies only customers outside it.
- Operation (O): Match. Customers supplied (S): Out of scope. Incorporation (I): Match.
- Fictional Company T-C: supplies customers in the Republic; assembly-site location and incorporation territory unresolved.
- Operation (O): Hold. Customers supplied (S): Match. Incorporation (I): Hold.
Choose the authorised rule before sourcing. If several conditions are required, write the combination explicitly: T-A matches S alone but fails O AND S. For O AND S, an explicit no in either required condition means out of scope, even if the other is unknown. Otherwise, an unresolved required condition means hold; both yes means match. A missing fact is not a negative finding. A sales office, planned facility or registered address must not silently substitute for the chosen test.
The CSV leaves the overall brief unselected. Its full_account_decision_before_rule_selection holds are pre-selection states, not final O AND S decisions. If O AND S is the authorised brief, T-A and T-B are out of scope; do not keep a supported mandatory failure as a possible match because another check remains open.
No account is accepted by this exercise. Identity attribution, required activity evidence, exclusions, source-use rights, conflicts and duplicate checks remain separate gates. The supplier's ability or permission to serve the account, purchasing responsibility, technical suitability and buying intent remain unassessed. Customer coverage is not supplier reachability or an export permission. No outreach is authorised; an industry-matched brief need not require a project.
Blank territory-rule comparison worksheet (CSV) · Separate wholly fictional comparison (CSV). Record the selected rule in the existing ICP brief; preserve the version and rerun affected decisions after an authorised change.
3. Turn application interests into research questions
Describe the activity you want to investigate, not a technical conclusion you want the researcher to reach. For example: “Does this business assemble control panels for machinery builders?” is a research question. “Our enclosure accessories are suitable for its panels” is an unproven engineering judgement.
- What activity must the account perform, and for whom?
- Which part of your range gives a reason to investigate that activity?
- Which duty conditions, specifications and purchasing responsibilities remain unknown?
Keep technical selection outside this brief. Do not convert a relevant application into confirmed installed equipment, demand or an available supply package.
For a component-to-equipment question, use the Irish industrial OEM account-research guide to map the specific build operation and component-provision boundary. Its fictional examples distinguish equipment branding, assembly, resale and contract-build work without assigning purchasing authority from an OEM label.
4. Write disqualifiers and commercial exclusions separately
A disqualifier contradicts the required activity or territory. An exclusion removes an otherwise relevant account because of your commercial instructions. Keep both explicit:
- Activity disqualifiers: describe the exact unwanted work, such as installation-only when panel building is required. Missing detail means unresolved, not automatically disqualified.
- Existing accounts: decide whether exclusion applies to the named company, a particular site or the whole group, including subsidiaries.
- Channel boundaries: define reserved territories, protected partner accounts or other agreed conflicts without assuming every distributor is excluded.
Use a controlled company-level exclusion reference, its version and the internal role authorised to resolve ambiguous matches. Keep confidential account lists outside a public brief. No supplied list does not mean “no exclusions”.
Separate preferences from must-haves. Add size or revenue limits only when you can explain their purpose and evidence requirements; do not borrow numerical defaults or let a preference override a failed rule.
Test the exclusion boundary before accepting the account
Use this proposed manual check when related companies, sites or trading labels collide. An identity map answers “what is linked?”; the authorised instruction answers “which of those things is excluded?”. Neither substitutes for the other. Compare one candidate with one versioned instruction, then record the bounded outcome—not a whole-account pass.
Wholly fictional counterfactuals: Company X-A operates Sites X-1 and X-2; Trading Label X-T belongs to X-A. Separate Company X-B and X-A are confirmed members of Group X-G. Company X-C has similar wording in its name, but its membership is unresolved. These invented relationships stay fixed while the alternative instructions change:
- Entity only: “Exclude Company X-A, including its trading labels and operations; not other group companies.”
- X-T is a match to the excluded company, not a route around it. X-1 and X-2 fall within that company boundary. X-B is not excluded by this instruction: confirmed group membership does not widen entity-only authority.
- Site only: “Exclude Site X-1; other sites are outside this rule.”
- Exclude X-1, not automatically X-2 or all of X-A. X-T identifies the company but not the relevant site: hold a site-specific decision until the operation is identified. If the handover counts whole companies, ask the authorised role how X-A may be represented with X-1 excluded; do not accept an unrestricted X-A record or silently reject every site.
- Explicit group scope: “Exclude confirmed member companies of X-G and their operations.”
- X-A and X-B match; retain their separate identities while excluding both under this rule. X-C stays held for membership resolution. Similar naming proves neither membership nor non-membership. If X-C is confirmed outside X-G, the result becomes “not this rule”, not account acceptance.
- Ambiguous instruction: “Exclude X.”
- Hold the affected decision even where relationships are confirmed. Ask which exact entity, site or group the instruction identifies and whether it extends to related operations. Evidence of a relationship cannot supply missing commercial authority. Do not choose the broadest interpretation “to be safe”.
For a hold, record the exact missing instruction or identity link and the internal role authorised to resolve it. Keep the candidate outside accepted counts until that answer is recorded and checked against the same identity. A missing exclusion reference is not an empty list. Recheck every applicable instruction before acceptance; one non-match does not cancel another exclusion. Preserve prior instructions, source references and decisions when a version changes.
Use the blank boundary-review worksheet
Get the blank exclusion-boundary worksheet from the resource library. It has headers only, no data rows or automated decisions. One row is one candidate-to-instruction comparison at one review event—not one accepted company. Start a new row for another instruction or a later review; keep earlier rows.
Import as UTF-8 with IDs as text. Use manual reference IDs into your controlled records, not raw client lists, names, contacts or confidential instructions. An ID is a pointer, not evidence. Document every column as follows:
review_id;prior_review_id- Unique event ID; earlier event being revisited, or blank for the first review.
candidate_ref;candidate_unit- Stable candidate ID; company, site or trading_label. Do not silently change the unit after matching.
brief_version- The account brief/version under which this comparison is made.
instruction_ref;instruction_version- Controlled exclusion instruction ID and its exact version. Leave missing values blank and hold.
scope_kind;scope_target_ref- entity, site, group or unresolved; the exact instructed target ID, blank while unresolved. Do not infer the boundary from the candidate type.
identity_evidence_refs- Semicolon-separated references supporting or disputing this exact match, including operator, label or membership links where needed.
boundary_outcome;reason- exclude for a supported match within the authorised scope; not_this_rule for a supported non-match; otherwise hold. Explain the comparison without copying restricted material. None means accepted.
resolution_question;authorised_role- Exact open question and internal role responsible for the instruction or resolution. Leave the question blank only when resolved.
decision_ref;reviewed_at- Reference to the recorded decision/clarification and actual review date. Do not supply a planned date as a completed check.
This is company-level commercial exclusion research, not personal-data suppression or legal clearance. It neither replaces separate outreach, privacy and suppression controls nor authorises contact. Fit and other acceptance checks remain separate; excluded records leave the current candidate view, not the retained source history. The method and cases are original teaching material, not a universal exclusion policy or evidence of service performance.
5. Define evidence and hold rules before searching
For each must-have, specify what observation would support it, acceptable evidence and the consequence of a gap. Keep these checks separate:
- Source use: establish whether the source and item can be used for the intended research and customer output. Public visibility or a link is not permission to reuse content.
- Identity: attribute the activity and site to the company being counted, rather than its customer or group generally.
- Fit: support the required role, activity and territory, recording source references, publication dates where known and actual check dates.
- Exclusions: resolve existing-account and channel matches against the agreed instructions.
Include only when all required checks are satisfied. Hold missing or conflicting material evidence; record the next question without inventing a date or fact. Stop source-content reuse where rights remain unresolved. An industry-matched brief need not require a project; keep “not assessed” separate from “searched, no qualifying signal found”.
6. Test the brief with four fictional decisions
Wholly fictional exercise: a supplier of industrial enclosure accessories seeks control-panel builders with assembly workshops in the Republic of Ireland. Count companies, not workshops. Exclude installation-only businesses, existing-account groups and reserved channel accounts. No project is required. All businesses and evidence below are invented; these are not researched cases.
Include: Fictional Panel Builder A
The stipulated evidence connects two qualifying workshops to one company. Source-use, identity, fit and exclusion checks are separately stipulated as satisfied. Include one company with both sites noted. Component compatibility, purchasing authority and present need remain unknown.
Hold: Fictional Controls Brand B
An invented group description mentions panel assembly, but only a Republic of Ireland sales office is attributed to this brand. Source-use review is stipulated as satisfied; identity and workshop location are not. Hold pending evidence of who operates the qualifying workshop and where. Do not count the brand or infer local assembly.
Hold: Fictional Panel Builder C
Identity, workshop activity, location and source-use checks are stipulated as satisfied. A possible relationship to an excluded customer group remains unresolved. Hold for the authorised exclusion decision; a role match cannot override that gap. Confirmed group membership would place it out of scope under this brief.
Out of scope: Fictional Installation Business D
Permitted invented evidence explicitly establishes installation-only work and no panel assembly. That fails the required activity. Record the failed rule rather than keeping it to meet a target count. This decision says nothing about its relevance to a different supplier brief.
7. Finish the brief, then agree the research scope
Complete one worksheet per profile. Every value cell starts blank; guidance is not evidence. Record unresolved choices explicitly, keep incompatible routes separate and assign a brief version before sourcing. If a must-have changes, record the change rather than quietly widening the search.
Agree requested counts, company-versus-site treatment, deliverable fields, research limits, timing and acceptance terms in writing. Keep held accounts outside accepted counts. The worksheet is not a booked package, coverage promise, legal clearance or authority to collect personal contacts.
Next, use the manufacturing account-discovery guide to apply the brief and the fictional account sample to inspect record-level outputs. This worksheet defines the rules; it is not a batch audit or maintenance log.
Read the industrial account-research service scope, then request a quote with your range, customer role, territory and unresolved scope questions.