Narrow Down Your Damn ICP with David Politis - The Transaction - Ep. 34

What would you say if your CEO told you they wanted to speak with 100 customers in 100 days? That’s exactly what our guest, David Politis, did and he still thinks it’s one of the best things he’s done in his career.

David, the Founder and Executive Chairman of BetterCloud and Host of Not Another CEO Podcast, joins co-hosts Craig Rosenberg and Matt Amundson for a must-listen episode for founders, CEOs, and B2B execs. David explains why having a smaller TAM (Total Addressable Market) is actually good for smaller or newer-stage companies. There are also great discussions about when landing a big customer can be a bad thing for your company’s roadmap, why meeting with customers is so critically important for leaders, and how to stand out as a sales rep to book meetings with decision-makers at ideal customers.

Also, Matt gets a very meaningful head nod and Craig is called an inspiration, a high that his ego may be chasing for a long time.

Critical Takeaways

• Narrow down both your ideal customer profile and your ideal buyer persona. While this may seem counterintuitive, the larger your TAM (Total Addressable Market), the slower your company will grow. When you try to go after too many customer profiles and buyer personas, your budget, time, and effort get dispersed across them and it’s harder to gain a real foothold in any niche from which you can later expand beyond.
• When you focus on one key buyer persona within one ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), you can delve deeper into understanding not only how they will use your product, but also what your product actually means to them. For example, when Matt was working in marketing automation, he was able to understand that his product gave buyers a seat at the revenue table and made their jobs easier.
• Especially for early-stage startups, there is nothing that is more valuable than talking with your customers. Those conversations function as critical data points that you can use in every aspect of the company, from writing messaging and crafting sales narratives to building new features and raising funds. 
• Proving to people that you and your email or message aren’t just automated is harder than ever now, so to really cut through the noise and get noticed, you need to do things that can’t be automated. In-person and handwritten things work well for this.

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Chapters

00:00 When Craig Met David, His Forever-23-ish Wunderkind

06:07 Stop Supersizing Your TAM, Narrow Down Your ICP

09:34 The Dangers of Landing a Whale Client & How To Handle Your Big Fish

18:11 Which Comes First, The Product or The Persona?

23:19 Why a CEO Would Want to Meet 100 Customers in 100 Days

30:48 Sales Reps Need To Take The Opposite Approach to Automation

41:50 Creating Memorable Moments for Prospects & Customers Through Events

47:50 Matt Provides His Expert Critique of David’s Art Exhibition

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Epic Quotes

• “In the early stage, every customer conversation is gold.” - David Politis
• “There's nothing that you can do that's as valuable as meeting customers, once you're an executive.” - Matt Amundson

Connect with David

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpolitis/ 
• BetterCloud Website: https://www.bettercloud.com/ 
• Work-Bench Website: https://www.work-bench.com/ 
• Not Another CEO Podcast: https://podcast.notanotherceo.com/ 
• The StartUp Founder Survival Guide: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davidpolitis_startup-founder-survival-guide-david-politis-activity-7158455968194875393-QVdh 

Shoutouts

• Chris Degnan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-degnan-524470/ 
• Nick Mehta: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickmehta/ 
• Phil Fernan