Get Set on your 90-day growth sprint for 2026

Below is a field-tested blueprint you can lift as-is for Q1 -including a one-day workshop in Week 1, a 4–6 week strategy build, and a six-week execution sprint that finishes a few select things well.

The 90-day arc (built for real diaries)

• Week 1:Strategic Growth Workshop (80% business, 20% sales & marketing).
  Align leadership on a 24-month direction and break it into a 90-day execution sprint so everyone knows where to start - and why.
• Weeks 2–6:Strategy build (board-ready operating model).
  Turn choices into a runnable system: clear moves to market, handoff standards, a seven-number scoreboard, and explicit budget rules.
• Weeks 7–12:Execution sprint (finish a few things well).
  Ship outcomes, not activity. Protect the weekly review, inspect the numbers, and reallocate budget by evidence.

Week 1: Strategic Growth Workshop (80/20 business → growth)

Purpose: put every leader in the same room, align on the destination (24 months), and convert that into a precise 90-day start.

What gets covered (plain language):

• Business KPIs & outcomes (24 months): revenue, margin, cash/payback, capacity- the specific numbers that define success.
• SWOT & constraints: current strengths/weaknesses, risks, delivery bottlenecks, regulatory factors, enablers.
• Competitive landscape: who you compete with, the “do nothing” alternative, how you win and defend.
• Ideal customers (ICPs): best-fit buyers today and the next best targets (sector, size, trigger, buying context).
• Products & services: core offers, pricing/packaging, attach or cross-sell opportunities, backlog of innovations.
• Company & brand strategy: the one-line promise and three proof points leaders can repeat verbatim.
• Go-to-market overview (supporting role): channels and motions in play, which deserve depth first.
• Operating cadence & decision rights: Weekly Business Review, monthly stop/continue/scale, quarterly review, who decides what.

Outputs (tight & tangible):

• 24-month direction on one page (the KPIs and strategic themes that matter).
• 90-day execution sprint: choose two or three growth moves that best unlock those KPIs, each with one owner, a finish date, and a board-worthy definition of “done”.
• Weekly Business Review installed: a 30-minute meeting booked for the next 12 weeks,fixed agenda: Pipeline → Decisions → Owners → Dates.
• First-pass risk register: top three risks with a single mitigation each.

Big goals become doable when that first 90-day slice is crystal clear.

Weeks 2–6: Strategy - an operating model, not a manifesto

Turn Workshop choices into a short, runnable strategy leaders can inspect and fund.

• Route-to-market choices: select two motions to run to depth (for example, partner co-selling and a referral motion). Write the steps to a finished standard for each motion.
• Handoff (marketing → sales): one page that sets response time ≤ one business hour, a five-touch, five-day follow-up pattern, and a one-line definition of a good first meeting.
• Scoreboard (the seven numbers): reviewed weekly and used to move budget:
  1. qualified meetings
  2. opportunity quality (do deals reach the right stage?)
  3. percentage won
  4. time to close
  5. average deal value
  6. cost to acquire a customer (by motion or channel)
  7. time to recover the spend to win a customer (payback)
     
     
• Execution plan (90-day): owners, milestones, due dates, dependencies and risks — on one page per move.
• Budget & resourcing: amounts by move and month, capacity assumptions, and the rule-set for stop/continue/scale reallocations.
• Strategy pack: 5–7 slides -owners named, one-line “done” per move, KPIs and budget visibly tied to each move.

Start cadence immediately. Run a short Weekly Business Review from Week 1 to prevent strategy drift. Expand to the full 30-minute agenda by Week 5. Cadence builds the habit of decisions over updates.

Weeks 7–12: Execution, finish a few things well

Now ship outcomes, not activity.

• Protect the Weekly Business Review (30 minutes, same slot): agenda never changes - Pipeline → Decisions → Owners → Dates. If it won’t change an outcome or a budget call, it’s not in the meeting.
• Drive the two or three moves to “board-worthy done”:
  
  • Message & market clarity (built Weeks 1–3, shipped Weeks 7–8): finalise the one-line promise and three proofs, update the website hero and first three sales slides, retire off-message assets.
  • Route-to-market depth (built Weeks 3–6, shipped Weeks 7–12): finish the plays and assets for the two chosen motions, run them to depth for six weeks, rather than thin tests across many channels.
  • Handoff discipline (set Week 4, enforced Weeks 7–12): publish the one-pager, measure first-meeting rate weekly, close the loop in the Weekly Business Review.
    
    
• Make the monthly budget call: inspect the seven numbers, decide stop/continue/scale on each move, move money accordingly.

Why this works (and what it prevents)

• Channel roulette → replaced with two motions run to depth for signal strong enough to earn budget.
• The content treadmill → replaced with promise-first execution gated by qualified meetings, not impressions.
• Leaky marketing→sales handoff → replaced with a one-page standard and a measured first-meeting rate.
• Year-long drift → replaced with 90-day cycles that force trade-offs and finish.

The weekly engine room (why 30 minutes is enough)

Most meetings report, this one decides. In half an hour, teams review what advanced, what stalled, and what slipped, make trade-offs and move budget, confirm who owns each outcome, and set dates that hold. Treat it like payroll - it always runs.

Strategy must include a budget and an execution plan (with KPIs)

A strategy without money and milestones is theatre. Tie each move to:

• a visible budget line,
• an owner and finish date,
• and the KPIs it must move (from the seven-number scoreboard).

If a metric won’t change next month’s allocation, it’s decoration - remove it.

Ready to try this without all the heavy lifting?

Run a 2-minute Rhythm Readiness tester. Six quick questions → an instant banded score and a one-page PDF preview (Weekly Business Review agenda, a Sprint-1 sketch you can fill in, and the seven-number scoreboard). Then add the 12-week Weekly Business Review to calendars and start Sprint 1.

Prefer a facilitated start? Book a Strategic Growth Workshop (one day or two half-days, remote-first friendly). You’ll leave with a one-page 24-month direction, a 90-day execution sprint (two or three moves with owners and dates), and the weekly cadence that turns planning into pipeline - fast. DM