Find which segments are working
Some pockets of the market convert far above the activity they get. Find them by conversion against effort, so the next quarter's list is built where the replies already are.
The conversation
Sample accounts and numbers, for illustrationYouFor the last two quarters, place every account we contacted into segments by industry, employee band, stack and region, and for each segment show people contacted, meetings and opportunities, then rank the segments by conversion relative to the activity they received and tell me which pockets we should work more and which to stop.
Unify3 checks · CRM, company data and activity
- Read every person contacted, meeting and opportunity in the last two quarters from Salesforce and matched each to an account.
- Placed each account in segments from company data: industry, employee band, stack from BuiltWith, and region.
- Counted contacted, meetings and opportunities per segment and compared the conversion rate with the share of activity.
Six thousand people contacted across 41 segments. Three pockets convert at more than twice the team rate on under ten percent of the activity. Two large segments convert at half the rate and took a third of it.
- 6,000
- people contacted two quarters
- 41
- segments with 50+ contacted
- 4.6
- meetings per 100 team rate
- 3
- pockets above 2x the rate under 10% of activity
- 1Mid-market logistics · Zendesk stack · Europe11.8 per 100
- 2Healthcare providers · 500 to 2,000 · US9.9 per 100
- 3Mid-market software · Intercom stack9.1 per 100
- 4Enterprise software · US2.3 per 100
Contacted, meetings and opportunities are counts from the CRM. Segments come from company data, not from a picklist. The ranking is arithmetic; why a pocket converts is the reading.
YouWhy do the top three convert, and how much room is left in each?
UnifyThe three winners share a stack or a size band the product fits well, and each has hundreds of untouched accounts. Enterprise software converts poorly and is nearly worked out.
| Segment | Meetings per 100 | Untouched accounts | What the winners had in common |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-market logistics, Zendesk, Europe | 11.8 | 410 | Support teams over 15 on Zendesk; the routing opener landed |
| Healthcare providers, 500 to 2,000, US | 9.9 | 260 | Department-level hiring; the buyer was the department head |
| Mid-market software, Intercom | 9.1 | 530 | Recent round plus an Intercom migration |
| Enterprise software, US | 2.3 | 60 | Long cycles; most accounts already worked twice |
- Room
- The three winning pockets hold about 1,200 untouched accounts between them. Enterprise software has 60 left and has been worked at a third of the team’s effort.
- What to stop
- Enterprise software at 2.3 per 100 and small-business retail at 1.4 per 100 took 41% of activity for 12% of meetings. Both are named with the numbers.
YouNow cut it by stack: which tools in an account’s stack predicted a meeting, and how much activity did each get?
UnifyZendesk and Intercom accounts book at close to twice the team rate and got a fifth of the activity between them. Accounts with no support tool detected took more activity than both and convert at under half the rate.
- 1Zendesk8.7 per 100
- 2Intercom8.1 per 100
- 3Salesforce Service Cloud3.4 per 100
- 4No support tool detected2.0 per 100
Stack is read from BuiltWith as it stood at first contact, so a tool adopted later does not count for the account.
YouWhich segments beat the team rate on less than five percent of activity, and how many untouched accounts sit in each?
UnifyThree do. Mid-market logistics is already a winner, and two smaller pockets have not been tested at volume yet.
11.8 per 100 on 3.7% of activity. 410 untouched accounts.
7.4 per 100 on 1.6% of activity: 95 contacted, 7 meetings. 190 untouched accounts.
6.9 per 100 on 1.2% of activity: 72 contacted, 5 meetings. 140 untouched accounts.
9.9 and 9.1 per 100 on 5.2% and 5.7% of activity. Winners, but not under-worked.
Seven and five meetings are too few to call a trend, which is why the two small pockets are a test and not a plan.
YouBuild next quarter’s list from the winners and hand it out.
UnifyNext quarter’s list is 1,200 untouched accounts across the three pockets, split by territory, with the opener that worked in each.
Next quarter’s list
Mid-market logistics on Zendesk in Europe: 410 accounts, routing opener. US healthcare providers 500 to 2,000: 260 accounts, department-head persona. Mid-market software on Intercom: 530 accounts, migration opener. Enterprise software and small-business retail: paused, with the rates attached.
Set up
- Lists assigned by territory The 1,200 accounts are split across the four reps by territory, each with the segment’s opener and a verified contact.
- Two test pockets added UK fintech on Zendesk and US healthcare payers get 60 accounts each next quarter, enough to say whether the rate holds.
- Quarterly rerun Segment conversion is recomputed at quarter end and the ranking is written to the reporting view, so a pocket that cools drops off the list.
- Paused segments recorded The two paused segments keep their numbers on the view, so the pause is a decision with evidence rather than a filter someone forgets.
A segment that converted well is a place to look, not a guarantee. The quarterly rerun is what says whether it held.
Segment performance, with and without Unify
The segment that converts best is rarely the one that gets the most work. Nobody has looked.
| Without Unify | With Unify |
|---|---|
| Segments are whatever the CRM picklist says, and half the accounts have it blank | Every account is placed in segments from company data: industry, size, stack, region, whatever the CRM says |
| Conversion is read for the team, so a strong pocket is averaged away | Conversion is read per segment against the activity it received, so a pocket with few touches and many meetings stands out |
| The busiest segment is assumed to be the best one, because that is where the meetings are | Segments are ranked by conversion relative to effort, not by raw meeting count |
| Next quarter's list is built from the same filter as this quarter's | The output is the list for next quarter: the pockets to work more, and the ones to stop |
Start from this prompt
Make it your own in Unify, then review the results.
For the last two quarters, place every account we contacted into segments by industry, employee band, stack and region, and for each segment show people contacted, meetings and opportunities, then rank the segments by conversion relative to the activity they received and tell me which pockets we should work more and which to stop.
What else you can ask for
The walkthrough is one path through this workflow. These are the turns people take most often.
- By stackWhich tools in an account's stack predicted a meeting last quarter, and how much activity did each stack pocket get?Try in Unify
- Under-worked winnersWhich segments converted above the team rate while receiving less than five percent of activity, and how many untouched accounts sit in each?Try in Unify
- One regionIn Europe, which industry and size pockets converted best in the last two quarters, and what did we send them?Try in Unify
How it changes by who you sell to
- Software
- Software teams segment by size and miss the stack. Ask for conversion by the tools an account runs, and for the stack pocket where meetings per hundred contacted is highest but activity is lowest.
- Financial services
- Banks, lenders and insurers convert very differently, and the CRM calls them all financial services. Ask for conversion by institution type and asset band, and for the type the team barely works.
- Healthcare
- Providers, payers and health-tech are three markets. Ask for conversion by provider type and system size, and for the department where meetings came easiest relative to touches.
- Manufacturing
- Discrete and process manufacturers respond to different offers. Ask for conversion by sub-industry and plant count, and for the pocket where a few touches produced most of the meetings.
- Professional services
- Firms split by practice and by size band, and one practice usually carries the pipeline. Ask for conversion by practice area and headcount, and for the practice the team under-works relative to its rate.
Next in pipeline intelligence and coaching
+2Activity versus fitCheck whether reps work the right accountsActivity is easy to count. Whether it landed on accounts that fit the ICP and showed intent is the question, and the answer is different for every rep.
+2Coverage gapsFind pipeline coverage gapsCoverage by rep, segment and territory against the number, and the accounts that could fill each gap, so the fix is a list of names rather than a bigger target.- +2Pipeline driversFind what drives outbound pipelinePipeline broken down by signal, persona, segment, channel and rep, from the CRM and the outreach records, so the next quarter is planned on what worked rather than on what felt busy.
Connect what this workflow uses
Each guide covers the connection, what Unify reads and writes, and what to check before the first run.
Questions about this workflow
Where do the segments come from?
From company data included with Unify: industry, employee band, stack from BuiltWith and region, matched to each account by domain. The CRM picklist is not needed, so accounts with a blank field are still placed.
What does conversion relative to effort mean?
Meetings or opportunities per hundred people contacted in the segment, divided by the share of total activity the segment received. A pocket that converts at twice the team rate on three percent of the effort ranks first.
How big does a segment need to be?
Segments with fewer than fifty people contacted are shown but not ranked, so a pocket with three meetings from twenty touches does not become the plan on its own.
How is this different from TAM coverage?
TAM coverage shows which parts of the market have been touched. This page shows which parts converted when they were touched, so the two together say where to go next and how much room is there.