A shared lens, not a report
Every vendor's quoting life can be described with three simple properties. A vendor is three positions on three scales. That's the whole model.
This layer is purely about their quotes: how big, how often, how hard to make. No judgment about us yet.
Two worked profiles
medium · medium · low
Count the windows, the doors, the square metres of wall. The price list does the rest.
low · high · very high
Multiple disciplines, multiple rooms, multiple phases, and custom, every single time.
Only now does the profile become a judgment. Each axis translates into exactly one question about us.
Weekly use builds a habit; a quote a quarter is churn risk however loved the tool. Volume is the retention axis.
A quote is a revenue instrument. Willingness to pay follows what a won deal is worth; pipeline (value × volume) is the ceiling.
Complexity picks the product surface: configurator at the low end, AI drafting in the middle, async proposal at the top.
The test
A lead is ICP when pipeline (value × volume) clears the pricing floor, and at least one acute pain exists: drafting pain from complexity, or follow-up pain from a sales team.
Pipeline decides what they can pay; the pain decides whether they buy now. One sorting question: “who sends your quotes?”
Set the three sliders and a buyer type appears. Three shapes cover almost every lead we meet; each buys a different part of the product, at a different price.
low volume · high value · low complexity
low volume · high value · high complexity
high volume · low value · low complexity
The fourth shape, high complexity but low value, we skip on purpose: cost to serve is highest exactly where the customer can pay least.
Same three scales, fifteen segments. Read any card top to bottom: how often, how big, how hard. The shapes sort themselves into the three archetypes.
Sorted by pipeline, the ceiling on what a segment can pay.
| Segment | Market | Archetype | Value / quote | Quotes / mo | Pipeline / yr | Complexity |
|---|