your best customers = the companies you've never heard of

In my first enterprise sales role, I’d spend over a year chasing logos.

Maersk. Target. Walmart. Ralph Lauren. Home Depot. 

I’d get so excited about the potential with these companies and what it would mean for my startup to have them as a customer. 

Meanwhile, the deals that were closing every month looked very different. 

Manufacturers of ball bearings. Companies that made flavors and pigments. Really solid businesses that worked out of boring offices in office parks somewhere. 

Not shiny, not well marketed. Brands you’ve never heard of.

But they knew what they needed, they had money, they could make decisions. And they signed contracts. 

These became my favorite companies to sell to and they were the companies I built my whole division on. 

I see this pattern constantly with founders.

Early on, the biggest companies in your space often become some of your first customers. There are always a few who will be early adopters - they are highly problem aware, they tend to employ change agents who are looking for innovative solutions, and they have the budget to experiment.

So founders think: this is the path. If our first customer was United Airlines, imagine where we go from here!!! 

But as your GTM evolves, the story starts to look different. Enter: 

The ego trap 

Big logos feel impressive. They're fun to talk about with investors. They look great on your website. But impressive isn't the same as repeatable.

The capacity problem

You're spending 12+ months and a huge chunk of your team's energy chasing five whales... when you could close 15 mid-market deals in that same time.

The resource drain

Even after you land them, enterprise customers demand customizations, hands-on support, product modifications. They might cost more to serve than you planned for.

THE CASE FOR TIER TWO

One day you realize…the majority of your revenue will come from tier two customers. They are your core ICP. 

These are solid mid-market companies. They buy at your average price point. They close in 3-6 months. They don't need you to rebuild your product for them.

And there are a lot more of them.

They're not exciting to talk about. Nobody's posting on LinkedIn about closing a deal with a ball bearing manufacturer.

But they're the customers that you can build your business on. 

TRY THIS WEEK:

1. Run a lifetime value analysis on your current customers. Not just deal size — include cost to acquire, cost to serve, expansion revenue, and churn.
   
   

2. Segment them into three tiers. Tier one (the whales), tier two (solid mid-market), tier three (smaller/transactional).
   
   

3. Identify what your tier two customers have in common. Industry, company size, buying process, use case — find the pattern.
   
   

That's your core ICP. Build your strategy around them.