A Practical Guide to Niche Scoring for B2B SaaS

End-to-end. The 15-minute version that holds up.

Step 1: List Five Candidate ICPs

Specific. Role plus segment. "VP of RevOps at Series A SaaS" not "SaaS companies."

Step 2: Score on Six Criteria

• Reachability (warm channels available now)
• Pain frequency (weekly, monthly, quarterly?)
• Existing spend (paying for what already?)
• Decision speed (days, weeks, quarters?)
• Differentiation (visible to a buyer)
• Crowding (how many incumbents?)

1-10 each. Honest, not aspirational.

Step 3: Sum and Sort

No weights. The ranking will be obvious.

Step 4: Outside Reviewer

Show the matrix to a sales person, an advisor, or a peer. Their numbers will be different. The deltas reveal your blind spots.

Step 5: Top-Pick Validation

Ten interviews with the top niche. Real interviews, not survey forms. If the pain is real and money already moves, build.

Step 6: Re-Score Quarterly

Crowding scores change. Reachability scores change. Re-anchor every 90 days while pre-PMF.