The Bullseye Approach: How to Prioritize Your Customers

Apr 25, 2023

Focus is key to build a great business.

But how do you focus when…

you’re exploring authentic demand?
it’s your job to grow sales?
the company is still figuring out product market fit?
your entrepreneurial brain can’t help looking around corners?

The very nature of those activities means many ideas pulling you in different directions!!

I often get questions from entrepreneurs like:

“Which customer group should I focus on?”
“Our tool could work here OR here. How do I decide?”
“This segment/industry/trend is an opportunity for us. What do you think?”

The “bullseye” is a great framework to provide clarity and focus.

I’ll explain how to use it when you have customers or in the early stages!

The Bullseye Framework for Customers

Picture a good ole fashioned archery target, dart board, or business stock photo. Now, think about your customer base.

1. Inner Circle → Focus Here 💪

Your ideal customers!
They get value, pay you, upgrade, tell their friends, easily renew.
Focus outbound marketing (and product development) efforts here.

2. Middle Circle → Small Effort 😅

Customers get some value; e.g. B2C customers who buy your B2B product or someone using only one feature.
Let your inbound marketing work on these folks.
If they find you, great! Don’t spend much money or time to get them though. No Sales Development Reps proactively calling, no targeted ad campaigns, and no one-off features.

3. Outer Circle → Avoid 🛑

High churn, hard to get value, low conversion rate.
These customers may not even be worth signing up.
Square pegs in round holes take up valuable support, engineering, and sales resources — usually resulting in churn.

What If I Don’t Know My Ideal Customer?

If you’re testing authentic demand or figuring out product market fit, you can still use a bullseye framework.

Inner Circle → Start Here 💪

Highest value tests.
Your best guess on what’s most likely to work.
The customer, market, or problem you’re most passionate about.

Middle Circle → Small, Controlled Effort 😅

Keep the time and money spent to a minimum.
These are “worth a try” but don’t let it take away from higher probability efforts.
No more than 15-20% of your time.

Outer Circle → Not Now 🛑

Make a deliberate choice to NOT spend time or brain power here.
Distractions, small ROI, too expensive, or time consuming.
Add “outer circle” ideas to a list for later or use these tips to say no.

You Know Your Target

When I get a question like, “Should I focus on XYZ…?”, I share the bullseye framework. It almost always results in an "aha” moment.

Why?

Because founders know their priorities, market, and highest potential options.

The bullseye is a quick, actionable framework to pull the info out of their big, creative brains!

What’s your favorite framework for getting clarity? How did you figure out who your target customers were?