1Stage 01 of 06 · Sales strategy & structure
We help you decide where your sales effort will earn the most, and where to stop spending it.
Where this sits in the model
See the full modelWhat this is
Most sales teams spread themselves across every market that might buy. The effort goes everywhere, so it counts for little anywhere: margins thin out, every pitch starts from zero, and the team chases whatever comes in.
We bring two views together. Your business as it is today, measured through your customers and your pipeline. And your market as it really is: how it segments, where it is growing and who you are up against. Where the two overlap is where you can win. Where they do not, you are on the back foot, and it is usually cheaper to step back than to keep pushing.
The question
Where do we play, and where do we deliberately not?
Signs you need this
How we choose where to play
We choose where to play in three steps.
Your business today
Start with your current customers and your current pipeline.
Sales velocity brings the pipeline measures together: number of opportunities × average deal size × win rate ÷ sales cycle length.
Your market
How the market segments, where the growth is, and who you compete against.
Where you can win
Putting the two together shows where you are strong, and where you are on the back foot.
The outcome
Future revenue and profit pools
A clear choice of where to play, and where not to:
What it covers
A clear description of the customers you win most often, keep longest and serve most profitably, so the team can recognise a good prospect before the first meeting.
You get
An ideal customer profile that sales and marketing both use to say yes, or no.
Revenue tells you who buys. Profitability tells you who is worth winning. We look at what each segment really costs to win and to serve, against what it returns.
You get
A view of profit by segment, including the customers who cost more than they are worth.
How your market divides, where the growth is coming from, and who you meet in each segment, so you know where you have a genuine right to win.
You get
A market map showing each segment, its growth and the competition you face in it.
How it runs
Your business today
We analyse your current customers and pipeline, including sales velocity: number of opportunities × average deal size × win rate ÷ sales cycle length.
Your market
We research how the market segments, where the growth is and who you compete against in each segment.
Where you can win
A working session with your leadership team brings the two together: where you are strong, and where you are on the back foot.
The choice
Target segments, an ideal customer profile and the markets to step back from, agreed and written down so the whole team works to them.
Who’s involved
Every engagement is shaped around your business. We agree the scope, timing and people with you at the start.
What you get
What changes
Your team spends its time on the customers it can win and keep, instead of starting from zero in markets it cannot.
In short
Where do we play, and where do we deliberately not? We bring your business and your market together to find where you can win, and set the target segments, ideal customer profile and markets to step back from.
In practice
Further reading
Where it fits
Each stage of the model builds on the one before it, and the figure of eight means what you learn at the end feeds straight back into the start.
Bring us one live deal and we will look at it together. No pitch, no obligation.
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