Most founders think they have
a marketing problem.

What happens to a lead between the moment they first hear about you and the moment they pay?

Sugarman's Slippery Slide — every step must pull the prospect to the next one. Most funnels have gaps where leads silently disappear.

If your best prospect landed on your website right now, would they immediately understand why you're different from every alternative?

Ogilvy: "Differentiate your product or perish." Generic positioning forces you to compete on price. Specific positioning lets you command a premium.

How predictable is your inbound lead flow right now?

Sugarman's specificity trigger: the difference between "we get leads" and "we get 47 qualified leads per month from three predictable channels" is the difference between a business and a guessing game.

When you spend money on marketing, how clearly can you trace which spend produced which revenue?

Ogilvy built his empire on data: "I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too heavily on research." Know your numbers or someone else will spend them for you.

Once someone becomes a customer, how deliberately do you extend their lifetime value?

Sugarman's value trigger: the most expensive customer is the one you already acquired — and then lost. Retention is the fastest lever on LTV:CAC without spending a single dollar more on acquisition.

How would you honestly rate your ability to execute marketing strategy consistently, week after week?

The best GTM strategy executed inconsistently loses to a mediocre strategy executed relentlessly. Sugarman's buying process trigger: every purchase is emotional, justified by logic — but execution is what makes the emotion available to justify.