See what’s holding your sales back

Who we take on

We qualify each other.
You go first.

Roughly six in ten completed Sprints end with us not making an offer. That is not a boast, it is the cost of only taking on work we can move. Here is where the line sits, so you can put yourself on one side of it in about a minute.

Sprints that end with no offer
6 in 10
Before either of us commits
Four weeks
The work, whichever way it goes
Yours

Find yourself here

Six situations we hear most weeks

Taken from recorded strategy calls. If one of these is you, the answer next to it is the honest one.

  • Yes

    “You have been through two or three agencies and the number never moved”

    This is the most common person we work with, and the reason we charge for the investigation rather than pitching you a plan. You have already paid for confidence. You are buying evidence this time.

  • Yes

    “You are the creative one and the numbers make your eyes glaze over”

    You do not have to enjoy the spreadsheet. You do have to look at it with us once, because we cannot price a plan around a margin nobody has checked.

  • Yes

    “You are doing all of it yourself, around a job or the kids, on about two hours a day”

    Time is not the blocker, cash is. If the plan needs funding you cannot raise, we will say so in week four rather than take the fee and hope.

  • Maybe

    “You are reselling something people can buy elsewhere, and you compete on price”

    We have to find a reason someone would pay more to buy it from you. Sometimes there is one and it is worth building. Sometimes there is not, and no amount of advertising invents it.

  • Yes

    “You are later in your career and have deliberately decided not to scale”

    Then we are not working on growth, we are working on more profit from what you already have. Say that out loud early so we plan for the ceiling you actually want.

  • Yes

    “Sales happen to you and you could not really explain where they come from”

    Of everything on this list this is the most fixable. You are not short of demand, you are short of control over it.

The floor

Four things that have to be true before we can help

  1. There is a real product and a live checkout

    It does not matter whether it has sold ten units or ten thousand. It matters that something exists to test.

  2. There is ad data, or a budget to go and get some

    If nothing has run yet we buy the data during the Sprint, and the test budget is agreed and capped before anything goes live.

  3. You will hand over the real numbers

    Cost of goods, shipping, returns, what you pay yourself. Including the ones you are not proud of. Without them this is guesswork with a nicer font.

  4. You want telling, not selling

    We are going to say things you will not enjoy in week four. If that is not what you are buying, we are the wrong people.

The other side of the line

When we say no, and what to do instead

Turning someone away without a next step is just a closed door. Each of these has one.

  • You do not have a product yet

    There is nothing to diagnose, and a diagnosis of nothing costs you $4000.

    Instead

    Read the book first. It is the whole argument about what a business has to earn before it spends.

  • You will not share the real numbers

    Every recommendation we make is priced off your margins. Without them we would be guessing, expensively.

    Instead

    Nothing we sell will work for you. That is not a redirect, it is the honest answer.

  • You want the outcome guaranteed before you start

    Nobody honest can give you one, and anyone who does is selling you a feeling.

    Instead

    Run the free Growth Bottleneck. It costs nothing and it will tell you whether your instinct is right.

    Run the free Growth Bottleneck

  • You need the answer this week

    Four weeks of real data does not compress into a call. Week two buys the data, week three tests against it.

    Instead

    Same thing. Start with the free one and come back when the timing works.

    Run the free Growth Bottleneck

  • You cannot fund the work the plan would need

    This is the hardest one to say and the most common reason we walk away from a business we like.

    Instead

    Do it yourself with the same method. The DIY AI Toolkit builds your Growth Plan from your numbers, then gives you the tools to act on it, for $260 a month.

    See the DIY AI Toolkit

The commercial reason

Why we turn work down, which is less noble than it sounds

A client we cannot move costs us more than the fee. The hours go in either way, the result does not arrive, and the account ends badly for both of us. Saying no in week four is cheaper for us than saying yes and finding out in month eight.

It is also the only thing that makes the rest of this page worth reading. An agency that takes everyone has no line, and a page about who we take on would be decoration.

“Thank you for your time last week. Breaking all of the elements down has been incredibly helpful in identifying a potential path forward.”

A prospect who did not become a client

Ready

Not sure which side you are on?

Then do not book anything. The Growth Bottleneck asks a short set of questions and tells you where your business is most likely stuck. On screen, free, no call attached. If it says what you already suspect, you know what the next step is.

See what’s holding your sales back How the Sprint works