Growth Without Guesswork: A Plain-English Playbook for Founders
Why this matters
Growth keeps your company alive. But “do more marketing” isn’t a plan. You need a simple way to decide where to focus next and what to execute this quarter. The Ansoff Matrix gives you four clear paths. Pick one, fund it, and run it well.
The four paths at a glance
Market Penetration: Sell more of your current offer to your current market.
Market Development: Take your current offer into a new market or segment.
Product Development: Build or add new offerings for your current customers.
Diversification: Launch new offerings into a brand-new market.
You don’t need all four. Choose one primary path for the next 90 days. Let the others wait.
How to choose your path (in three questions)
Time to impact: Do you need results inside 90 days?
Yes → Start with Market Penetration.
Unfair advantage: Is your strength distribution or product?
Strong distribution, loyal customers → Product Development.
Great product, capped market → Market Development.
Risk budget: Can you safely place a higher-risk bet?
Only if you have cash, bandwidth, and a clear edge → Diversification.
Path 1: Market Penetration
Sell more to the customers you already target
Use when: You have product-market fit and steady demand, but you’re leaving revenue on the table.
Goal: Increase win rate, frequency, average order value, and retention—without blowing up acquisition cost.
Moves that work (and why)
Tighten onboarding: Remove steps until a new customer gets value in minutes, not days. Faster “aha” moments boost activation and referrals.
Repackage pricing: Offer bundles or an annual plan that makes the “best” choice obvious. Clear packages reduce decision friction.
Create easy add-ons: Offer small upgrades at checkout or post-purchase. Micro-upsells lift revenue with little risk.
Build a referral loop: Give happy customers a simple way to invite one friend (credit, discount, or donation). Make it easy and specific.
Show up where buyers already are: Join the 2–3 channels your current buyers use (a marketplace, a partner’s newsletter, a niche Slack/Discord). Don’t add 10 channels; double down on the few that pay.
Try this next week
Call 5 recent buyers and ask, “What almost stopped you from purchasing?” Fix the top friction.
Add one checkout upsell that solves a common follow-up need.
Launch a simple referral offer and email it to top customers.
Metrics to watch: Activation rate, repeat purchase/renewal rate, average order value, competitor win-rate.
Path 2: Market Development
Take your current offer to a new group of buyers
Use when: Your home market is crowded or capped, but the product travels well.
Start with one small beachhead
Define one new segment: e.g., “Accountants at 2–10 person firms in Ontario” (narrow beats vague).
Check the buying journey: List how this segment discovers, evaluates, buys, and renews. If it’s different from your current buyers, adjust your sales motion.
Localize only what matters: Update the minimum set—currency, price points, support hours, key messages, and any compliance basics—so the offer feels made for them.
Reduce risk before you spend big
Proof with 10 wins: Aim for the first 10 customers in the new segment before scaling ads or headcount.
Borrow distribution: Use partners, resellers, or associations that already serve this audience.
Test the message: Run a small campaign with 2–3 value props and keep the winner.
Metrics to watch: First 10 logos, partner-sourced pipeline, customer acquisition cost (CAC) within ~20% of your core.
Path 3: Product Development
Create new offerings for customers who already trust you
Use when: You have loyal customers and strong retention, but limited ways to grow wallet share.
Keep it simple and customer-led
Find the adjacent job: Ask your best customers, “What do you do right before or after you use us?” Build for that job.
Pre-sell to a small group: Invite 5–10 customers into a paid pilot so you validate demand early.
Ship a narrow slice: Release one feature or service that solves a full problem end-to-end, not a half-solution.
Price for attachment: Make it an add-on or a clear next tier so adoption is easy.
Partner when speed matters
Buy or bundle: If someone already does it well, partner or white-label to learn quickly before investing in a full build.
Metrics to watch: Attach rate (how often customers add it), expansion revenue, churn reduction.
Path 4: Diversification
New offering + new market (the spiciest option)
Use when: Your core business is healthy and cash-generative—or you’ve found a truly asymmetric opportunity.
Treat it like a startup inside your company
Separate team and budget: Different KPIs and a clear kill switch, so the core business stays focused.
Leverage only real edges: Use your brand, capital, or relationships—but don’t force core systems onto a new market if they don’t fit.
Time-box milestones: For example, “20 qualified pilots in 12 weeks or we stop.”
Questions to answer before you start
What specific unfair advantage do we bring?
Which 20 customers will say “yes” first, and why us over incumbents?
Can we see a path to unit economics that work without wishful thinking?
Metrics to watch: Early adopter count, repeatable pipeline sources, improving unit economics.
Your 90-day plan (steal this)
1) Pick one primary path: (Penetration / Market Dev / Product Dev / Diversification)
2) Core hypothesis: “If we [do X], [metric] will improve by [Y%] by [date].”
3) Who we’re targeting: Segment + channel + simple message.
4) The 4–5 moves we’ll actually do: Owners and due dates on each move.
5) Weekly leading indicators: e.g., activation rate, demos booked, attach rate.
6) Decision gates: Day 45 and Day 90: keep, scale, or kill.
Example (Market Penetration):
Hypothesis: “If we shorten onboarding to <10 minutes, activation will rise from 42% → 60% by Nov 15.”
Moves: (a) Remove 3 sign-up fields (PM, 9/1). (b) Add 90-second setup video (Design, 9/10). (c) Offer “concierge setup” to stuck users (CS, 9/15).
Indicators: Daily activation %, # of concierge calls booked.
Gate: If activation <55% by Day 45, add in-app checklist; if still <55% by Day 90, revert and try pricing bundle test.
Common traps to avoid
Doing everything at once: Four strategies = four different companies. Pick one.
Mistaking tactics for strategy: Ads, SEO, and emails are tools. Strategy decides which bet you’re making.
Ignoring retention: Top-line growth with leaky buckets burns cash and time.
Under-resourcing the bet: A “priority” without people and budget is a wish.
No kill switch: Set clear milestones so weak ideas don’t linger.
Bottom line
Growth gets easier when you stop guessing. Choose the path that fits your stage, make a few moves that clearly support it, and measure week by week. If you want a co-pilot who will challenge your assumptions and keep the plan simple and focused, that’s where a Fractional CMO earns their keep.
