What is the number one piece of practical information I wish I would have known when starting my first startup? That average customer size is the mother of all growth hacks.

Pardon the use of the term ‘hack’; I’ll try and spare you of any gimmicks on here. But seriously: getting customers to pay you a lot for your product or (SAA)service both in relative and absolute terms can be a huge strategic advantage over time.

Part 1: How many buyers buy in a given year?

Consider the market I played in: health systems. You’ve got 600 of them in the country. From the biggest of the big like Cedars-Sinai and The Mayo Clinic down to tiny critical access hospitals in towns with more cows than stop lights. (Side note: US healthcare is not THAT huge of an industry in terms of numbers of accounts to pursue. Interloping VC’s and first-time founders just think it is large because of the gross contributions to GDP they heard about in their AP Econ class. The reality is that across those 600 systems, your business might have only a few thousand (or hundred!!) buyers to call into).

So, 600 accounts. Next: have you ever stopped to consider how many accounts your business could win in a given year if all things went perfectly? Rather: have you stopped to consider how many businesses in your target market actually plan on making a decision on your product or a product like yours in the next 12 months? Throw out a number to yourself – 10%? 20%?

I can guarantee you a one-way trip to monopoly jail if you said anything over 3%. Yep. Sorry. Bring those year end targets in line and cash runway down.

In any given year, for even the best startups with the best products, you can’t – and should not – expect more than 3% of your market to be making a decision on a product like yours. And 3% is for those of you who established and reliable marketing channels.

By that math, out of the 600 accounts in your realm of focus, it is safe to assume that only 18 will be making a decision on a product.

Gee wiz, how am I ever supposed to hit these lofty growth targets I promised my board and VC’s?

See part 2 for more obnoxious suggestions.