The SMB-or-Enterprise Binary (Mid-Market Doesn't Exist)
There is no mid-market — decide which of two distinct games you're playing and don't bleed them.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
A go-to-market decision model that collapses the fuzzy 'mid-market' into a binary: you are either playing the SMB game (marketing-led, high-volume, low-ACV) or the enterprise game (sales-led, low-volume, high-ACV). Use it when deciding target market, pricing, and who to hire, because the two motions require opposite infrastructure.
Origin
Abel argues that if you ask ten people to define mid-market or enterprise, you get ten different answers, and that selling to a 100-person org is a radically different game than a 1,000-person org with no viable hybrid. She reframes any 'mid-market' target as either upper-end SMB or lower-end enterprise.
Core principles
- 01Small business is powered by marketing; enterprise is powered by sales.
- 02'Mid-market' is just upper-end SMB or lower-end enterprise — name which one.
- 03Bleeding the two games together loses both.
- 04Choose the game the founder best understands (marketer vs enterprise-native).
How to run it
- 1
Reclassify 'mid-market' into one bucket
When a target feels mid-market, force the question: are we talking about the upper end of small business or the lower end of enterprise? Most answer lower-end enterprise.
Pro tip Once labeled, adopt that game's full playbook (hires, ACV, motion) instead of a middle-ground compromise.
- 2
Pick the game by founder strength
If the founder is a strong marketer who can win a large audience, go SMB/marketing-led. If they understand how large corporations buy and can deliver $100K+ value, go enterprise/sales-led.
Pro tip Use headcount as a quick proxy, adjusting for whether you price per seat vs usage.
Watch out AI may shrink company headcounts, so don't treat headcount as a permanent boundary.
- 3
Match every downstream choice to the game
Align pricing model, salesperson profile, ACV target, and lead-gen motion (marketing-led inbound vs day-one outbound) to the chosen game.
Pro tip A $5K deal must be marketing-led to work; a $100K deal means outbound from day one.
Watch out A $10M SMB business is a 'zero' in enterprise — treat enterprise as a fresh zero-to-one.
In the wild
A PLG company sells Walmart three seats at small-business pricing. Because that low price is now documented, moving to a $90K contract becomes nearly impossible — the buyer's AI-assisted procurement flags the 10x jump.
→ The company anchors itself to a small-business price and forfeits the enterprise motion.
Common mistakes
Hiring a 'mid-market' rep
There's no such role; you end up with either a low-end enterprise or upper-end SMB seller, and blending expectations sets them up to fail.
Assuming SMB traction equals enterprise readiness
Success at $10M in SMB gives a false sense of product-market fit for enterprise, which is a different value prop, deal structure, target, and risk tolerance.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders at ~$1M ARR deciding whether to move upmarket into enterprise or stay SMB/PLG.
Not ideal for
Companies with a proven, defensible high-win-rate SMB motion in a massive market where the volume math already works.
From the transcript
“you have small business which is typically can be really powered by marketing and then you have enterprise which is typically going to be salesled”
“if you bleed those two games, you're going to lose. They're so distinctly different.”
“I think it's about like what game does the founder best understand”
From the episode
"Sell the alpha, not the feature": The enterprise sales playbook for $1M to $10M ARR
Jen Abel