Hi,

I haven’t sold my Spring Performance Workshop even once.

Instead, I sold my Architecture Discovery Workshop four times . In 6 months.

And I don’t even promote it 🤷

What does this mean for me?

My positioning as a performance expert has failed.

But not because I can’t deliver.
There’s simply no demand from my customers.

In hindsight, it makes sense. But let me explain:

Ever since I’ve been developing software, I’ve been working in small and medium-sized enterprises, known as SMEs. These companies have between 5 and 50 developers, occasionally a few more.

I know my way around these companies. I feel comfortable there.

There’s already a business model. And it has proven itself.

But, there are also many challenges. And at the same time, an individual can achieve and influence a lot.

I feel comfortable in this dynamic.

And since I’ve been self-employed, I continue to move in these circles. That’s logical. My entire network consists of contacts in such companies.

When I positioned myself last year, it was based on two customer conversations. I had them at the very beginning of my journey.

Both were initial conversations.

Random ones.

They didn’t actively seek me out.

In both, the CEOs complained about the performance of their application. And reported on the problems for their customers.

And so I thought: Perfect.

The market for “performance experts” is small. I see hardly any competition.

I’ll do that!

After all, I’ve worked on applications with more than 220 million users. I know what to do.

And since I was at the beginning, I had a lot of time. So:

• I came up with a product: The Spring Performance Workshop.
• Wrote articles on the topic.
• Built my brand around the theme.
• And delivered the keynote “The Performance Mindset”.

And it resulted in…

…nothing.

Not a single customer.

Instead, my network was working in parallel.

I had orders.

More than I could handle.

But they had nothing to do with performance.

They had another common pattern.

So, I will reposition myself.

No… I’m already repositioned.

I just need to “communicate” it now!

What I plan to do in the next few weeks and how I will position myself: More on that in the next newsletter.

But just so much: Performance is just a symptom of the challenges faced by SMEs. The real challenges go deeper. And that’s exactly where I’m already with my customers today.

The rest next time!

Rule the Backend,

~ Marcus