An ICP rubric is the structured definition of your Ideal Customer Profile, expressed as scoreable criteria: firmographics, technographics, behaviors, and disqualifiers. The agent uses it to score every account and decide who to work.
Why a rubric, not a description
A written description of an ICP is interpretation-dependent. A rubric is scoreable: each criterion is a yes/no or scaled value, criteria have weights, the result is a number you can sort and threshold. Agents need rubrics, not descriptions, to make consistent decisions at scale.
The four categories of criteria
- Firmographics — size, industry, geography, ownership.
- Technographics — current tech stack, adoption maturity.
- Behavioral — engagement history, intent signals.
- Disqualifiers — anything that excludes regardless of fit.
Most rubrics start with 10–15 criteria across these four categories.
Weighted vs binary
Binary criteria are simple: passes or doesn't. Weighted criteria contribute differently to the score: industry might be weight 3, size weight 2, technographic weight 1. Weighting matters when you have many criteria — without it, the score becomes meaningless.
Disqualifiers are absolute
A disqualifier overrides all other criteria. "Competitor" disqualifier: even if a competitor's account matches all your fit criteria, the score becomes zero. Use disqualifiers sparingly — they're the asymmetric tool.
Where to start
If you've never built an ICP rubric, start with your top 20 closed-won customers. List what they have in common (firmographics first, then technographics). Those commonalities become your criteria. Test the rubric against your top 20 closed-lost — if your closed-lost accounts score high, the rubric needs more discriminating criteria.
