Does this ICP respond?

Find the ICP that actually responds

You have three segments that could plausibly buy. Pick one, test it against a target you set before sending, and get a yes or a no in weeks.

Start your first experiment Read the playbook

An example hypothesis

Bootstrapped B2B SaaS founders, 2–20 people, no sales hire, reply to our offer at 10% or more.

How it's usually answered, and why that misleads

Ask around

Friendly calls and founder communities tell you who is polite, not who buys. The people easiest to reach are rarely a fair sample of the market.

Email a big, loose list

A broad list mixes segments with opposite problems. A 2% average can hide one group replying at 10% and another at zero, and describes neither.

Decide after a few dozen emails

Forty emails without a reply feels decisive and isn't. Against a 10% target it takes about 180 sends to show a segment is really below it.

How it works in Sellvance

1

Narrow the segment

Until the problem is the same for every company in it. Search the database by what companies say they do, not only by industry codes.
2

Set the target

The reply rate below which you'd move on, saved in the workspace before the first email.
3

Qualify before sending

Enrichment and an AI fit check run on every company, so only the segment you described gets the email.
4

Send and watch delivery

Autopilot keeps fresh companies flowing. The Signal Check blocks the reply verdict until delivery is proven.

What you get

✓ A pass, a fail or a grey zone for this segment, with the reply rate and its confidence interval
✓ Delivery and unsubscribe verdicts, so a no can't be a spam folder in disguise
✓ The qualified companies and every reply, ready for the next experiment

If it doesn't respond

Change one thing, a narrower segment or a different role at the same companies, and test again on companies you haven't emailed. Changing two at once leaves you unable to say which one mattered.

When to stop, decided before you send

Outcome	When	What to do
Works	Delivery passes and replies are conclusively above your target.	Scale it: start a separate campaign with a bigger daily limit and more mailboxes.
Doesn't work	Delivery passes and replies are conclusively below your target.	Change one thing and run a new experiment on fresh companies.
Grey zone	The planned sample is sent and the verdict is still open.	Extend once, by at most half the sample. Still open? Treat it as a no.
Invalid	Delivery fails, so replies can't be read.	Fix the channel and restart. Nothing was learned about the market.