The Growth Audit Framework
Five numbers that tell you whether your problem is leads, conversion, value, retention or capacity.
The five numbers
Revenue is the product of these. Improving the wrong one changes very little.
- Enquiries per month, by source
- Percentage of enquiries that become customers
- Average value per customer
- Percentage who buy again or refer
- Work you could deliver next month without breaking
Find the constraint
If enquiry volume is healthy and conversion is under twenty percent, more marketing spend makes the problem more expensive rather than smaller. If conversion is strong and enquiries are thin, marketing is exactly the right investment.
If capacity is the ceiling, the answer is operational automation or hiring, not advertising.
Sequence the work
Fix conversion and follow-up first, because they improve the return on every future marketing pound. Then generate demand. Then automate delivery so the extra volume doesn't break the business.
Set a review rhythm
Recheck the five numbers monthly. The constraint moves — that's a sign the work is succeeding, not that the plan was wrong.