Every business eventually hits a growth plateau. This is the point where the strategies that got you to where you are today suddenly stop working. You feel stuck, working harder than ever, yet watching your revenue stagnate or your expenses climb faster than your income. At this crossroads, hiring a business growth expert seems like the logical next step, but not all experts are created equal.
Many consultants focus exclusively on “top-line revenue,” which can be a dangerous trap. Chasing growth without prioritizing profitability can lead to a “death spiral” where you lose money on every new customer.
Before you trust your business to an outsider, vet them to see if they offer mere theoretical fluff or field-tested, practical strategies.
The following 20 questions are designed to help you identify a growth partner who prioritizes your bottom line and provides a clear, repeatable playbook for scaling.
- Do you have a simple, repeatable formula for growth?
- Is your focus on gross revenue or actual profitability?
- Do you understand the mathematical danger of discounting?
- Can you teach me how to calculate and forecast my Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)?
- How do you handle churn in a subscription or recurring model?
- Do you have a playbook of field-tested strategies or just abstract ideas?
- Can you help me identify my “unknown unknowns”?
- Do you emphasize marginal gains and the multiplicative effect of small improvements?
- Will you provide a baseline assessment to identify where my business stands today?
- Can you help me transition from a solopreneur to a true business owner?
- Do you understand Sloanism and how to use it to drive repeat sales?
- Can you show me how to work up the supply chain to launch new, profitable divisions?
- Do you incorporate expense reduction as a core lever for increasing my bottom line?
- Do you help me identify and fix leaky funnels quantitatively?
- Do you advocate for value-based pricing over simple hourly rates?
- Can you help me niche down so there is no perceived competition for my services?
- Do you understand the psychology of anchoring and how it affects perceived value?
- Will you help me automate bounceback offers to secure the next sale during the current transaction?
- Do you focus on pragmatic implementation rather than just high-level consulting?
- Do you provide access to a community of like-minded entrepreneurs for ongoing support?
That’s it! Those quick 20 questions can give you a score for your prospective Business Growth Experts.
How did they score?