Blog / Paid Media Blog

You Know What You're Selling — But Not Who You're Selling To

September 23, 2026 · Elias Lazaris

Quick answer Most founders know their product or service extremely well — every feature, every detail — but they don't actually know who they're selling to. Answers like “this is for women” or “this is for people who want to be healthier” are far too broad. You need to narrow in and build a proper ICP: spend the hours and days it takes to define exactly who this product is for. That's when real targeting and real growth start.

You know your product. Do you know your customer?

You know what you're selling. But you do not know who you're selling to. Think about this for a second.

I have a lot of one-on-one calls with clients across many, many industries. They know their product or service so well — every single detail, every single feature, why it's so valuable, why it's the best, and why people are going to love it. But most of the time, they do not know who they're selling to.

“This is for women” isn't an ICP

They'll tell you things that are too general — this is for women, or this is for people who want to be healthier, or this is for people who go to the gym. That is not who you're selling to. Those are very, very broad answers.

Nowadays, you have to narrow in

You really have to narrow in. You have to find the proper ICP. You have to spend the time — hours and days — building this out. Then you really narrow in on who this product is for.

That's when real targeting and growth start

And that's when you can really start targeting, and that's when you can really start growing.

FAQ

Why isn't “women” or “people who want to be healthier” a real target audience?

Because those descriptions are too broad. A real ICP narrows down to specific, defined characteristics — not a general category of millions of people.

Why do founders struggle to define who they're selling to?

They usually know their product extremely well — every feature and benefit — but haven't spent the time building out a proper ideal customer profile, so their answer about the audience stays vague.

How much time should go into building an ICP?

Hours and days, not minutes. It takes real time to narrow in on who your product is actually for, and that work is what makes targeting and growth possible.

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