John Chambers, the legendary long-time CEO of Cisco, once said that Geoffrey Moore is “the master at creating a vocabulary for management strategy”. It’s easy to see the reason when you think about Moore’s illustrative use of language: Crossing The Chasm, The Bowling Alley, and Escape Velocity to list a few of Moore’s famous phrases. One of my favourites is “big enough to matter, small enough to win, and a good fit with your crown jewels”. Here, Moore is describing an important consideration when choosing a new market to target.

Let’s break it down. First, the market obviously needs to be big enough to deliver the growth that you need. But, second, it ideally should be small enough so that you win it quickly and lead it over time. Then, you become the first choice provider to that market. Rivals are more likely to stay clear and focus elsewhere if there is a formidable incumbent. This will help you to maximize your win rate, protect your margins and therefore drive profitability. Marketing ‘Hall of Famer’ Seth Godin agrees with Moore and often writes about focusing on your “smallest viable audience”.

Third, to win the target market, it needs to be a good fit with your ‘crown jewels’. It needs to fully exploit the ‘S’ in a SWOT analysis of your firm. You need to take advantage of what McKinsey & Company, being less liberal with metaphor, call your most valuable resources and capabilities. Jim Collins is another legendary writer, teacher and consultant who loves to use metaphor. In his hugely influential bestselling book, “Good To Great”, he advises that you find your ‘hedgehog’. This is the thing that you can be the best at, that you are passionate about, and that makes money. This is further validation of Moore’s advice about aligning target markets to your ‘crown jewels’.

So, put the three parts together and you have a hugely useful phrase to keep in mind when choosing market segments to target.