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!  

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

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