The Segment Scorecard

Score up to eight market segments on pain, willingness to pay, reachability, competition, fit and size, then pick the first market your startup can win.

Excel + Google Sheets · Free

What this resource helps you do

Score up to eight market segments on six weighted criteria, with the evidence and confidence behind every score, then rank them and commit to the first market to win.

Get the scorecard from AAJ's free marketing templates library.

What the Segment Scorecard does

The Segment Scorecard helps you compare up to eight candidate market segments and choose the one to win first. You score each on six criteria you weight yourself (pain, willingness to pay, reachability, competition, fit today, size), with the evidence and a confidence level behind every score. The sheet calculates a weighted score out of 5 (sum of score times weight, divided by the sum of weights), ranks the segments, flags a close call when the top two are less than 0.3 apart, and shows the number of low-confidence scores per segment.

The worked example uses Example Co., a fictional EdTech company: tutoring centers 4.0, district leaders 3.3, teachers 3.1, homeschool parents 3.1. All Example Co. scores, evidence and targets are illustrative; the only real figure is the NCES count of 13,335 regular school districts (2023-24).

Read the Customer Segmentation Playbook, size each segment with the Bottom-Up Market Sizer, score named accounts with the ICP Fit Scorer and describe the buyers with the Three-Lens Persona Brief.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many segments should I score?

I suggest three to six. Fewer than three and you may be missing a better option; the sheet holds up to eight.

What if two segments score almost the same?

Look at the confidence column first; check the lower-confidence scores with a few customer conversations. If they still tie, choose the one you can reach more cheaply.

Why does a higher competition score mean less competition?

So that 5 is always good on every criterion. Score competition as "how open is this segment to us": 5 means no strong incumbent, 1 means an entrenched supplier owns the relationship.

Does the template include benchmarks?

No. Every number in it is yours. The playbook explains the criteria.

How often should I update it?

Review it every quarter, or when a win rate or sales cycle surprises you.