"We have decided what to build. What we have not decided is who it is for, how it reaches them, or which markets get the money."
Size, sector and geography are how you report. They are rarely how customers behave. The segmentation gets rebuilt around what customers do: how they use the product, what they pay for, and what makes them leave. That is what a product decision has to be aimed at, and it is usually not the segment the roadmap assumes.
Pricing, packaging, channel and motion, tested against how those customers actually buy. Acquisition and retention get conflated constantly, and the distinction is usually where the answer lives: in practice acquisition rates are often broadly uniform across markets. If that holds for you, reach is not the problem and spending more on it will not fix the returns.
Four plays: reassess, harvest, fix retention, grow. Each segment gets one. Not every segment gets investment, and the ones that do are usually the few where a specific capability gap is costing renewals you should be winning. The gaps become the roadmap input.
A segmentation model built on behaviour, a named play against each segment, and a go-to-market approach that follows from how those customers actually buy.
An investment case that says where money goes and, more usefully, where it stops.
The finding is usually that fewer segments deserve investment than anyone expects, and that most of the value is in stopping spend rather than starting it. Stopping is politically harder than starting, so this works best where someone senior has already accepted that the even spread is not working.
Fixed price, not a day rate. The scope is agreed up front and the price does not move with it. If the work takes longer than expected, that is my problem rather than yours, which is the right way round.
Quoted after a short call. Invoiced in line with the phases below rather than in one commitment at the start.
Most engagements end at delivery. Some clients keep me on a light retainer afterwards to keep the model current and to be available when the board asks something new. That is agreed at the end, not the start.
Where AI does part of the work, I say which part. Some of the analysis and model building uses AI tooling. The judgement, the method and the conclusions are mine, and I will tell you which is which if you ask.
You can stop once the behavioural segmentation is built and pay only that portion. The segmentation stands alone as a piece of work. Continue into the go-to-market work and investment case only if the first stage tells you something you did not already know.
It rarely fits exactly, and that is normal. Worth a conversation rather than a form.
martin@scalepointpartners.com