What a Growth Partner owns (and what they don’t)

A Growth Partner (in-house or fractional) leads the commercial system end-to-end, determining how demand is created, qualified, converted and forecast, across marketing and sales. Not more activity -  more clarity. Not louder campaigns -  better allocation, rhythm and accountability. Time is capital, use it accordingly.

What must be owned (no exceptions)

1) Focus and priorities
Pick the customer problems and offers that matter most. Fewer bets, finished to standard, beat a buffet of half-done initiatives any day. Use a simple filter: Which move creates qualified meetings fastest without harming brand trust? Then fund that first.

2) Budget as capital allocation
Treat spend like an investment portfolio. Each month: stop / continue / scale with reasons tied to payback and meeting quality  -  not opinion. If a line item can’t show you time-to-impact, park it until the evidence exists.

3) Operating rhythm
 A 30-minute Weekly Business Review turns strategy into behaviour. Same time, same agenda  - always:

• Pipeline health (leading indicators first)
• Decisions with named owners
• Due dates and follow-through

Wrap this in a 90-day sprint so work deploys and learning compounds. Rhythm beats intensity every time.

4) One commercial story
 If leadership can’t repeat the one-liner the same way each time, customers won’t either. Write it simply: Who + Problem + Promised Outcome + Why Us. Carry the same line through your site, decks, outreach and sales calls so every touchpoint compounds the promise.

5) The handoff
Leads don’t die, they leak. Standardise definitions (lead, SQL, opportunity), response times, attempt cadence, first-meeting rate, and next-step discipline. Marketing and Sales operate as one revenue system with shared targets and shared language.

6) The scoreboard
 Seven numbers a leadership team can run the business on:

• Qualified meetings (volume + rate by source)
• Opportunity quality (stage acceptance, ICP fit)
• Win rate

 • Sales cycle length
 • Average deal size
 • CAC (by motion)

• Payback period

 If a metric won’t change a resource decision, it’s decoration. Simple as that.

What can be influenced (but not micromanaged)

• ICP & positioning: who is served, why the business wins, proof that convinces sceptics.
• Offer design: audits, pilots, sprints - credible entry paths that reduce risk.
• Routes to market: outbound, inbound, partner, events -  matched to how the buyer actually buys.
• Agency/vendor performance: clear briefs, success criteria, and that critical monthly stop/continue/scale call.

What shouldn’t be owned

• Content for content’s sake. Fresh feeds ≠ qualified demand.
• Ever-expanding stacks. Tools exist to serve the scoreboard, not the other way around.
• Sales rep management. Set standards with the sales leader - don’t shadow-manage the team.
• Ironically, if everything is owned, nothing gets finished.

Is a Growth Partner right now the right move?

Sometimes the honest answer is not yet:

• No executive time for a weekly 30-minute review
• A need for a full-time exec to build a 20-person team immediately
• No agreement to run on data and staged experiments
• A desire for tasks, not operating change

If any of these ring true, start smaller: align on a one-page mandate, set up that weekly review, define the one-liner, and run a single 90-day sprint. Clarity arrives quickly and shows whether deeper leadership is warranted.

A pattern many businesses recognise (composite)

A mid-market B2B business spread R600k/month across eight channels. Marketing reported MQLs; Sales distrusted them; the board saw noise. After a basic mandate and rhythm:

• Focus narrowed to two ICPs and three entry offers (audit, pilot, executive briefing).
• Budget moved 70/20/10 (proven/emerging/bets) with monthly stop/continue/scale decisions.
• Handoff rules turned first-meeting rate into a weekly number.
• The scoreboard unified language: meetings, accepted opportunities, win rate, cycle, CAC, payback.

Twelve weeks later: channel sprawl halved, first-meeting rate rose from 28% → 43%, CAC fell 21%, and leadership finally trusted the forecast. Same people. Different system.

Speed Read (for scanners)

• Growth accelerates when someone owns the system, not the channels.
• Run a 30-minute WBR + a 90-day sprint -  don’t improvise the week.
• Allocate like an investor: stop/continue/scale each month.
• Measure what changes decisions: meetings, quality, win rate, cycle, CAC, payback.
• Fix the handoff: most losses are leaks.

The first 30 days (light, practical plan)

• Week 1: Adopt a one-page mandate (scope, decision rights, KPIs, cadence). Book the weekly review, publish the agenda.
• Week 2: Align the one-liner and three proofs per ICP. Remove collateral that contradicts it.
• Week 3: Score channels by intent, cost and payback, move funds to the top two motions,  pause the bottom two.
• Week 4: Standardise the handoff. Measure first-meeting rate. Improve one lever (speed-to-lead, attempt cadence, or meeting-quality checklist).

If these checks revealed gaps, start with an online form. Adopt it, run four Weekly Business Reviews, then decide what to scale, or you can let any of our Growth Partners assist you. DM

Author: Loucile Jansen Van Vuuren, CEO of Get Set