Why do so many outbound efforts stall even when the ICP looks “correct” on paper?

We kept hearing “get your ICP right.”
But what we learned is that who you reach out to first matters just as much as who eventually decides.

In most companies, there isn’t one ICP. There’s a sequence.

• Someone experiences the problem daily.

• Someone else prioritizes it.

• Another person signs off on it.

If you jump straight to the top, you often lack context.
If you stay too low, momentum dies.

Outbound works better when you understand how influence flows inside an org, not just org charts.

So instead of asking “Who’s the buyer?”, we ask:
- Who feels the pain first?
- Who shapes internal conversations?
- Who actually moves decisions forward?

Is your ICP a single role, or the path decisions take inside a company?