Seminar Strategy & ICP Skill
Purpose
Turn a seminar idea and available customer evidence into a focused business campaign strategy. Define who is most likely to realize value, retain, expand, attend for a relevant reason, and progress to a commercial next step.
Do not create an event plan or a generic persona. Connect customer evidence to this system:
Research → Value Cohorts → ICP → JTBD/Pain → Campaign Priority → Invitation Angle → KPI → Learning
Do Not Use This Skill For
Do not use this skill as the primary skill when the user mainly needs:
- list cleaning or deduplication: use
seminar-list-cleaning - invitation copy: use
seminar-outreach-content - call execution or transcript analysis: use
seminar-outbound-call - opportunity qualification from interaction evidence: use
seminar-sales-qualification - reminders, live capture, or post-event execution: use the corresponding stage skill
This skill may define qualification assumptions, but it must not claim an account is opportunity-ready without interaction evidence.
Shared Pipeline Contract
Before processing inputs, read the shared pipeline contract. Use canonical names in structured output, keep stage-specific detail in stage_payload or artifacts, and append one contract-compliant handoff envelope after the required output sections.
Seminar Buyer Journey Requirement
For every seminar strategy or ICP task, read and apply the Seminar Buyer Journey Map.
Map the target buyer across Issue Awareness → Seminar Consideration → Registration Decision → Pre-event Commitment → Live Engagement → Post-event Follow-up → Internal Advocacy.
Use the journey to improve persona and JTBD, ICP segmentation, campaign angle, title and agenda, outreach and call direction, reminder logic, live intent capture, follow-up priority, and playbook learning. Do not stop at an event plan; connect every stage to pipeline conversion.
Research Depth
Choose one mode and state it:
- Evidence-rich: Customer research, survey, usage, retention, expansion, support, or win/loss data is available. Synthesize patterns and quantify evidence coverage.
- Evidence-light: Only product, market, and seminar context is available. Produce an ICP hypothesis and validation plan; label unverified claims as hypotheses.
For evidence-rich work, read ICP research framework. Do not delay a useful evidence-light output merely because every research source is unavailable.
Required Inputs
Use the user prompt, attachments, connected data, and prior verified context. Do not require a special $ARGUMENTS wrapper.
Campaign Context
- seminar topic and event date or rough timing
- solution or product focus
- business objective and expected commercial outcome
- campaign type
- target market or current customer hypothesis
- list source and owner team, if known
Customer Evidence
Use any available combination:
- PMF or customer survey responses
- customer interview transcripts
- product usage, activation, and time-to-value data
- retention, churn, LTV, expansion, and upsell data
- customer feedback and support tickets
- sales activity, win/loss analysis, and objection data
- customer lifecycle, success, and reference data
- competitor customer and market intelligence
If sources are missing, list them under research gaps. Never invent customer metrics, budgets, firmographics, behaviors, or quotes.
Campaign Type Classification
Choose one primary type and, when useful, one secondary type:
- New customer acquisition
- Existing customer expansion
- Dormant customer reactivation
- Product education
- Pipeline acceleration
- Executive awareness
- Partner co-marketing
- Solution demand generation
Explain how the type changes ICP evidence, invitation angle, and KPI.
Method
Step 1: Define the Business Job of the Seminar
Define:
- why the seminar should exist
- what customer behavior should change
- which pipeline stage it should influence
- what measurable commercial outcome would make it worthwhile
Do not accept “increase awareness” without a measurable next behavior.
Step 2: Build an Evidence Inventory
For each source, record:
- source and date or period
- customer cohort and sample coverage
- metric or qualitative signal
- verified fact, inference, hypothesis, or unknown
- limitations, bias, and conflicting evidence
Combine quantitative and qualitative evidence. Do not treat a small sample, loud customer, or isolated outlier as a general pattern. Ten or more high-value interviews can improve pattern discovery, but sample size alone does not establish representativeness.
Step 3: Segment by Customer Value
Compare cohorts using available evidence:
- realized outcome and time-to-value
- retention and churn
- LTV or revenue contribution
- expansion and upsell
- adoption breadth and usage frequency
- enthusiasm, advocacy, and reference potential
- support burden and implementation fit
- alignment with product and solution strategy
Separate observed high-value cohorts from hypothesized segments. Explain tradeoffs; the highest-revenue cohort is not automatically the best ICP if adoption, retention, or delivery fit is weak.
Step 4: Build the ICP Profile
Describe patterns that materially affect fit and conversion:
- firmographics: size, revenue band, industry, geography, company stage
- technographics: installed base, architecture, maturity, integration constraints
- roles: user, influencer, champion, approver, economic buyer, blocker
- buying behavior: discovery channel, evaluation process, timeline, committee structure
- adoption behavior: technical literacy, change style, onboarding needs, switching frequency
- organizational context: reporting structure, culture, competing priorities
Do not include demographics that do not change targeting, messaging, qualification, or delivery.
Step 5: Define Jobs to Be Done and Pain
Map:
- primary functional job
- secondary supporting jobs
- emotional job
- social or stakeholder job
- jobs or friction they want to eliminate
- context, constraints, frequency, and importance
- success metrics used by the customer
For each priority pain, describe:
- before state and current workaround
- cost, time, risk, or outcome burden
- emotional or organizational impact
- barrier to solving it
- desired after state
- solution success criterion
Quantify impact only when evidence exists. Otherwise specify the measurement needed.
Step 6: Map the Buying and Customer Journey
Use references/seminar-buyer-journey-map.md to map all seven stages. For each stage identify touchpoints, buyer action, questions, emotion, pain, conversion risk, opportunity, next action, and relevant stakeholder evidence.
Identify the aha moment, moments of truth, commit and abandon signals, drop-off triggers, and points where the seminar can credibly move the buyer toward a conversation, meeting, evaluation, opportunity, or internal recommendation.
Keep unknown budget or authority fields unknown; do not infer them from title alone.
Step 7: Define ICP and Secondary Segments
Produce:
- Ideal-of-the-ideal: the narrow high-value segment with the strongest evidence
- Primary ICP: customers most likely to realize, retain, and expand value
- Acceptable secondary segments: useful but lower-confidence or lower-value cohorts
- Disqualification criteria: structural mismatch, weak pain, poor delivery fit, or missing trigger
ICP should drive focus, not imply that all customers outside it must be rejected.
Step 8: Score ICP Fit and Campaign Priority
Keep two scores separate.
ICP Fit Score — 0 to 100
- Value realization and time-to-value: 20
- Retention and expansion evidence: 20
- JTBD and pain intensity: 20
- Firmographic and technographic fit: 15
- Buying and adoption behavior fit: 15
- Strategic, advocacy, and delivery fit: 10
Seminar Campaign Priority Score — 0 to 100
- ICP Fit Score: 40
- Trigger and timing relevance: 20
- Stakeholder and role relevance: 15
- Seminar topic relevance: 15
- Plausible follow-up meeting potential: 10
Do not assign unsupported points. Show evidence coverage and unknown dimensions separately. Translate campaign priority into:
- A-tier: 70–100, with a verified relevant trigger and stakeholder role
- B-tier: 40–69, or a score above 69 when trigger or stakeholder access is unverified
- C-tier: 0–39, nurture, low fit, or insufficient data
- Exclude: explicit disqualification criterion is met
Step 9: Define Segment-specific Invitation Angles
For each priority segment, define:
- core JTBD and pain
- business hook and credible value promise
- proof required
- likely objection
- call to action
- recommended channel
Do not use one generic product-led message for every segment.
Step 10: Define KPI and Learning Plan
Separate:
- activity KPI: valid contacts, reach, registration, attendance
- quality KPI: A-tier attendance, relevant stakeholders, high-intent evidence
- business KPI: meetings, qualified opportunities, pipeline amount, conversion
- learning KPI: hypotheses confirmed, rejected, or unresolved
Define what post-event evidence should trigger a quarterly ICP review. Revisit sooner when product, market, pricing, or customer evidence changes materially.
Required Output Format
Always produce these sections.
1. Evidence and Data Sufficiency
- Research mode
- Sources used
- Cohort and sample coverage
- Verified patterns
- Conflicts and limitations
- Confidence by conclusion
- Research gaps
2. Campaign Brief
- Campaign name and type
- Topic and solution focus
- Business objective
- Primary audience
- Why now
- Expected commercial outcome
3. High-value Cohort Analysis
Compare cohorts across value realization, time-to-value, retention, expansion, advocacy, and delivery fit. Clearly distinguish observed data from hypotheses.
4. ICP Definition
Include:
- ideal-of-the-ideal
- primary ICP
- acceptable secondary segments
- firmographic and technographic profile
- behavioral and adoption profile
- roles and decision process
- disqualification criteria
5. JTBD and Pain Map
Create a table with:
- Segment
- Functional Job
- Emotional/Social Job
- Before State
- Pain and Impact
- Desired Outcome
- Success Metric
- Evidence
Prioritize five to seven pains when evidence supports that many; do not pad the list.
6. Customer Journey and Stakeholder Map
Use the seven-stage table defined in references/seminar-buyer-journey-map.md. Add the primary persona, JTBD, stakeholder evidence, aha moment, moments of truth, drop-off triggers, and implications for title, agenda, outreach, calls, reminders, live capture, follow-up, and playbook learning.
7. Scoring and Account Segmentation Rule
Show ICP Fit and Seminar Campaign Priority separately, including weights, evidence coverage, A/B/C/Exclude thresholds, and missing-data treatment.
8. Invitation Angle by Segment
Create a table with segment, JTBD/pain, hook, proof, CTA, channel, and likely objection.
9. KPI and Learning Dashboard
Include the funnel:
Target Accounts → Valid Contacts → Reached → Registered → Attended → High-intent → Meetings → Qualified Opportunities → Pipeline
Add hypothesis, evidence needed, owner, review date, and decision rule.
10. Handoff to Next Skill
End with:
- canonical ICP fields and data gaps for
seminar-list-cleaning - segment, JTBD, pain, proof, and objection inputs for
seminar-outreach-content - qualification assumptions and evidence gaps for
seminar-sales-qualification - one contract-compliant handoff envelope
Guardrails
- Do not define ICP only by company size, industry, or title.
- Do not turn a persona description into an ICP without value and fit evidence.
- Do not confuse high LTV, product enthusiasm, seminar attendance, and opportunity readiness.
- Do not present correlation, outliers, or small samples as causal or representative.
- Do not fabricate quantified impact, budget, authority, retention, expansion, or customer quotes.
- Do not assign score for unknown evidence; show coverage separately.
- Do not let registration count become the main success metric.
- Do not make disqualification so broad that it prevents learning from adjacent segments.
Quality Standard
A strong output lets marketing, sales, product, and customer success agree on:
- which evidence supports the ICP
- which high-value segment to prioritize first
- what job and pain make the seminar relevant
- which accounts deserve human follow-up
- which message and proof each segment needs
- what must be measured before revising the ICP
- what data and decisions move the campaign to the next stage