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Startup Library

2. Prioritize customer segments

The “Customer Segments” block is one of the first blocks to focus on the BMC

Most people struggle to effectively characterize and refine their customer segments. And it is difficult to build out the canvas if you haven’t gotten clarity on who cares and why they care — the customer segment and value proposition boxes. And it’s difficult to speak to one without the other.

On the BMC, the most important first step in customer discovery is around the segment and the problem. When you can get some sense of a connection between these 2, you have problem-solution fit. And then you can carry on.

What is Customer Segmentation?

“Customer segmentation is the process of dividing customers into groups based on common characteristics so companies can market to each group effectively and appropriately.”
Source: Shopify.ca

Our goal is to figure out if there is a group of buyers, that we can communicate with that is big enough and interested enough to make it worthwhile for us to make a business!

1. Start by determining whether your customers are B2B or B2C

A good start is to know whether you are selling to a business or to a consumer and then zoom in from there. Here are some ways you can zoom in for each group.

B2B vs B2C

2. Calculate the size of the opportunity

Total global market opportunity does not mean that it is a market you can actually capture. To help breakdown the “size” characteristic, you might try the TAM, SAM, Beach Head approach. The video below explains the concepts of Total Addressable Market (TAM), Sizeable Addressable Market (SAM) and Beach Head Market as a way to identify the size of your potential customer base.

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Template
Market Opportunities Attractiveness template

Of course to size your market, you need some numbers — about numbers of potential customers, about how much customers might pay for your solution. And there is a lot of data out there, easy to access, that can help you to put some facts behind your hypotheses. So search the web and see what you can find.

As members of the District 3 community, you can access the massive databases that Concordia has invested in when you’re on the District 3 WiFi.

screenshot of concordia website

You can access the databases from the links found here.

Please read the following article from Concordia’s Business Librarian on how to use them, and how to best conduct your secondary market research: Researching a business plan using free sources

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Author: Jane Somerville