thank you to over 10,000 of you who read this weekly and share with your friends and family.
initially i thought we need to go after a BIG market.
really BIG.
why?
because the bigger the market, the bigger the opportunity.
i was so wrong.
what i have leaned is that we don’t need to go after a total addressable market (TAM) but rather focus on total relevant market (TRM)
we don’t need to close 2000 deals next year.
we simply need to focus on 50.
we are more than half way already there and now it’s a matter of keeping the customers and growing with them.
we first started with events, then ROI study and now yearly contracts to do workshops and competitive analysis that is making the customers WIN even in the current market conditions.
a customer said within the first call, this is already worth the year which reminded me to note that it’s important to know that we should focus on what we need and not what we want, especially in today’s market.
on a personal note:
i did not write during the thanksgiving weekend because i was with my family and off to a tennis tournament out of town.
well, it was well worth it.
not because my son did really well, but because we haven’t really spent as much time with family - just 4 of us.
when you don’t have to worry about breakfast, lunch or dinner and can play games and sit by the fire at the hotel by night talking life… you catch a breath.
we read books, did bible study, eat a lot and thankfully laughed a lot too.
it was a “mini-vacation” which got me thinking.
just like the TAM concept, sometimes we think of BIG vacations as the key to success.
but like the TRM concept, when we slow down and make our weekend our mini-vacation, you realize, you have already won!
leader point: focus on what you need and not what you want is truly key to success.
How do you choose your ideal TAM as an early stage startup with few customers?
Do you rely on hypotheses or is there a better way to focus on those 50 accounts?
What a blessing to work with a great team and make such a great contribution to great customers.