Where are you now?

This first chapter is all about context. We don’t start with numbers—we start with the story. What has happened so far? What decisions have shaped growth to date? What do you believe is going wrong?

This section is qualitative. It’s the narrative you get from founders, marketing leads, or operators who have lived the last 6–12 months. You’re listening for the gaps between what they think is the problem and what might actually be going on.

I’ve run growth for B2B service companies for over a decade, and this part—listening carefully, asking the right follow-ups, spotting the quiet red flags—almost always tells you more than the dashboards do. Let’s walk through the key prompts.

This is the first question I ask because it frames the rest. Are you adding leads, customers, or revenue every month? And more importantly, do you know why?

Sometimes growth is happening, but it’s accidental. You’ve got one high-performing sales rep or a single SEO page doing heavy lifting. That’s fragile. Other times, growth is attributed to a channel—like paid ads—but no one’s tracking whether those leads actually close.

Ask yourself: is the growth you’re seeing predictable and repeatable? Is it something you could double down on? Or is it spiky, anecdotal, or reliant on one person or tactic?

Has growth stalled or declined? At what point?

Stalled growth looks different depending on your stage. For early-stage teams, it often shows up as leads drying up or conversion rates cratering. For later-stage companies, it’s usually a slowing pipeline or missed targets quarter after quarter.

What you want to identify here is when the slowdown started. Did you lose a key person? Did a channel stop performing? Did the offer become less compelling? Pinpointing the moment gives you a lead on root causes.

Are you losing money, or struggling to deploy budget effectively?

This is where financial and marketing strategy intersect. If you're burning cash with little to show for it, it's often a sign of unclear targeting, broken tracking, or weak follow-through.

On the flip side, some teams have budget but don’t know where to put it. I’ve worked with companies sitting on six figures of marketing spend who feel paralysed—either because past efforts didn’t work or because they’re spread too thin across five initiatives.

Find out: is the problem underperformance or underdeployment?

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You’re listening here for two things: effort and narrative. What has the team done to solve their problems so far? And how do they talk about those efforts?

For example, someone might say, "We tried LinkedIn ads, but they didn’t work." Did they test enough creative? Was the offer compelling? Did they give it three days or three months?

It’s also key to catch what’s off the table. Maybe sales won’t touch outbound, or the founder won’t change the homepage. These constraints shape your options.

What’s off-limits or politically difficult to change?

Every company has its sacred cows. A beloved brand voice that underperforms. A CRM everyone hates but no one dares replace. A founder who writes the landing pages.

Flagging these early is important. You don’t have to fight them right away, but you need to work around them or slowly build the case to change them.

In one case, I worked with a team where the Head of Sales manually updated all leads in a spreadsheet—but insisted the CRM wasn’t necessary. We had to gradually show how automation would save time and improve forecasting.

This is foundational. Do you have a clear ideal customer profile? Do you know what signals—firmographic, behavioural, or channel-based—indicate a good fit?

A surprising number of teams skip this. They chase logos or run ads to anyone who clicks. Then they wonder why the pipeline doesn’t convert.

You should be able to answer: what makes someone a great customer? What patterns show up in your best deals? What disqualifies a lead?

What does success look like in 90 days—qualitatively?

This isn’t a goal-setting exercise yet. We’re not picking metrics here. We’re getting aligned on the shape of success.

Do you want faster feedback loops? A marketing engine that doesn’t rely on founder hustle? A predictable flow of qualified leads?

Think of this as setting direction before picking your vehicle. In one case, a founder told me: “I just want to know that if I spend £10K on something, it won’t be a black box.” That’s a clear ask for visibility and attribution—not necessarily volume.

This chapter sets the tone for everything else. Before we dig into the numbers, this gives you the human, messy, often emotional context that your data lives inside of. Write it all down. If you get this part right, the rest falls into place faster.

This first step isn’t about fixing anything yet—it’s about understanding what you’re working with. You’re not here to impress anyone or sugarcoat the numbers. You’re here to get clear on what’s actually happening across the business.

The best growth strategies aren’t built from scratch—they’re built from context. From what’s already in motion, what’s been tried, what’s politically possible, and where the gaps are hiding. This chapter gives you the honest foundation you need before running off to plan campaigns or install new tools.

So don’t skip it. Ask the uncomfortable questions. Sit with the tension in the answers. And write it all down, because everything that comes next depends on how well you’ve mapped the reality of today.