Where is growth actually being restricted?
When a small business stops growing, the most visible problem is not always the real problem.
Slow sales may appear to be a marketing issue. However, the underlying constraint may involve the offer, customer confidence, follow-through, business capacity, or the experience customers receive after expressing interest.
This guide will help you examine four connected areas of your business. It is a self-guided introduction and is not a substitute for Dr. Pugh’s Personalized Growth Diagnosis.
Answer each statement using: Yes, Partly, No, or Not sure.
Strategy and Positioning
This area examines whether customers can understand the business, recognize its value, and determine why they should choose it.
A new customer can quickly understand what our business provides.
We can clearly identify the customers we are best equipped to serve.
Our offer addresses a problem customers already recognize and want solved.
Customers can understand why our business is different from other available choices.
Our pricing and offer structure are consistent with the value we provide.
Growth Infrastructure
This area examines whether the business has an organized path for receiving, managing, and responding to customer interest.
Prospective customers have a clear way to express interest.
We respond to new inquiries consistently and within a reasonable period.
Customer information and conversations do not depend entirely on the owner's memory.
Prospective customers know what will happen after they contact us.
We have a dependable process for maintaining communication with interested prospects.
Demand Generation
This area examines whether the business is consistently reaching the right people with a relevant message.
We know where our strongest customer inquiries usually originate.
Our marketing is directed toward a clearly defined customer.
Our message explains why the customer should care.
We can distinguish qualified attention from attention that is unlikely to produce business.
We evaluate whether our marketing is creating meaningful opportunities.
Conversion and Customer Experience
This area examines whether interested customers receive enough clarity, trust, and follow-through to make a confident decision.
Interested prospects clearly understand the next step.
Customers receive enough information to evaluate the value of our offer.
We consistently follow up when an interested prospect does not immediately respond.
Our buying process avoids unnecessary confusion or delay.
Customers receive an experience that is consistent with what our marketing promises.