Why Early Stage SaaS Companies Need a Market Map

https://youtu.be/Zq5T50UjXHc?si=iouOmMLaybOg5ogE

Here’s a scenario.

A company is looking to accelerate their growth.

Their go-to-market strategy is almost exclusively outbound. And they have a good handle on their metrics from demo to closed won.

They know that with 60 demos per month they’ll hit their new number.

So what do they do?

They look at the target number (60 demos) and divide that by the number of meetings SDRs are currently booking. Let’s say it’s 10 per month.

The company grows their SDR team to 6 people and tries to ramp them to productivity as quickly as possible.

What’s missing from this though is an analysis of the market.

Are there enough target companies (based on current conversion rates) to hit this number.

To calculate this you’ll need to map the market.

That is, build out the list of companies that fit your ideal client profile. Once you know how many companies there are you need to know how many companies you need to reach out to in order to book a meeting (based on current numbers).

This could be a limiting factor on the company's growth. Here’s an example to demonstrate this.

In this example, it’s only possible to book 450 meetings per year.

So if the company is basing their growth assumptions on 720 meetings per year, they’re going to have to improve their conversion rate from 3% to 4.8%

Now the work that's required becomes much clearer.

Not only do they need to hire more reps, but at the same time they need to improve account worked to meeting booked conversion rates by 60%.

So before you commit to a plan that relies on scaling headcount to scale growth. Take some time to consider the market constraints and how you’ll combat them.

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