Growing the Top Line

CHAPTER 1The Growth Matrix and the Four Key Questions

Growth is an infinite game, with the revenue line limited only by your ability to convince new or existing customers to buy the products or services you currently or will produce.

Ever think about how to bound the question of growth? I’m a growth strategist, so I worry quite a bit about the sources of growth. Where does growth come from?

Turns out the question has a simple answer.

All revenues come from two variables: (1) customers and (2) the goods/services they buy. Full stop. It’s really that simple: who buys and what they buy. Every business, from the first fish seller bartering his daily catch for salt to the world’s biggest consumer goods company, grapples with these two fundamental questions. Let’s talk about customers first.

Customers

There are all kinds of customers and they have different values to companies when considered over a time period.

Kevin Watters is blazing fast in every sense. Physically, he’s a marathoner who is a top competitor for his age group. He processes information quickly and insightfully. He is quick to offer his help, and his fast‐tracked career is an incredible success story. Currently retired and an adjunct professor at Tulane’s Freeman School of Business, Kevin started his career in consumer packaged goods working for Proctor & Gamble, where he received his “MBA on top of an MBA” through their training program. He then went on to dip his toe in entrepreneurial waters, got married to ...