Leadership · Phase 2: proving
Proving: how do you make it repeatable?
You measure whether customers would really miss you, pick the segment that responds most strongly and put your time there this month.
Worth reading first: The five growth phases
Does this sound familiar?
- Your first customers renew or reorder, without you chasing them.
- Someone rings because a customer sent them. You hadn't asked for that.
- You see a pattern in your sales: the same questions, the same objections, roughly the same number of conversations.
- One kind of customer buys faster and stays longer than the rest.
- And yet you still say yes to almost every customer, because revenue is revenue.
Who it's for, and when
For founders whose customers come back and refer others, but where every sale is still done by hand. You've just entered this phase when your first customer renews or reorders without you ringing them. You're nearly through it when you can predict what a new customer costs and brings in, and the question shifts from 'does this sell?' to 'can this be delivered without me?'.
The model
The question for the market now is: do customers buy this again and tell others about it, without you having to push hard? And with which kind of customer does that happen? You can measure whether you have that fit. Sean Ellis asks customers: how would you feel if you could no longer use this? If at least 40% say 'very disappointed', you've got something the market wants. Rahul Vohra asked that question at Superhuman every month, and looked above all at who was very disappointed.
What you do: you pick the segment that responds most strongly and do more of what works there. You let the rest go. If the solution is right but it's hard to sell, look at your business model first: the price, project or subscription, who pays. That's where most pivots happen in this phase. And you do the sums per customer: does a customer bring in more than it costs to win and serve them? Only when that adds up do you start to scale.
What holds you back now is the habit from Searching. Back then it was right to listen widely, try everything and take every customer request seriously. Now it costs you the repetition you need: every customer turns into custom work again, and you don't learn which sale works.
Boldcaster, the growth phase model (2026), boldcaster.com/groeifasen. The 40% question comes from Sean Ellis; Rahul Vohra turned it into a regular measure at Superhuman (First Round Review, 2018).
Your strategy
Become the best for one kind of customer. One segment, one offer, one way of selling. If the business model doesn't fit, change it; that's normal in this phase and it isn't a failure.
You as a leader
You're the amplifier. Every month you look at which deals went easily and why, and you do more of that. What doesn't work, you cut, even if you've already put time into it.
The people around you
This is where the first sales and operations roles come in. Hire someone for what's already repeatable: the sales conversation you've had twenty times, the delivery that goes the same way every time. Don't hire them to work out what works; you still do that yourself.
Your system and AI
Write down what you keep doing by hand: the quote, the first conversation, onboarding a new customer. Let AI draft the first reply to an enquiry and a first version of the proposal. Start with a few KPIs and your first quarterly priorities.
Pitfalls
Staying too broad, or clinging to a model that doesn't fit
If you stay open to everyone, you sell something different every time and learn nothing. And if you keep pushing a business model that doesn't fit, you stay stuck in this phase. A business model pivot is part of this phase.
Mistaking happy customers from your network for proof
Your first customers know you. They're partly buying because of you. It's only repeatable when customers who don't know you come in, buy and come back in the same way.
Watch and read
What product-market fit looks like when you really have it, and why you listen to your users for it rather than to your plan.
Watch on YouTubeIn two minutes, how you can tell you've got product-market fit.
Watch on YouTubeTo go further
The man behind the measure explains how he asked the 40% question every month and what he did with the answers. A long conversation, for anyone who wants to go deeper.
Watch on YouTubeRead
Hacking Growth
Sean Ellis en Morgan Brown · 2017 · ISBN 9780451497215
From the person behind the 40% question. How you first check whether your product is a must-have for a group of customers, and then grow with small experiments. Just over three hundred pages.
View the bookApply it
- 1
Ask your customers the 40% question
Email or ring the customers from the past few months who've really used your product. Four questions, the ones Superhuman used: 1. How would you feel if you could no longer use this? (very disappointed, somewhat disappointed, not disappointed) 2. What kind of business or person do you think would benefit most from this? 3. What's the main benefit for you? 4. What would make it better for you? Count what percentage says 'very disappointed'.
- 2
Look at who was very disappointed
Put those customers side by side. What do they have in common: sector, size, the reason they bought? You'll often only reach 40% within that group. If so, that's your segment. Write down where you play and what you say no to.
Your sandbox - 3
Work out the numbers for one customer
What does an average customer bring in for as long as they stay, after direct costs? And what did it cost to win them, your own hours included? A service business: €1,500 a month, eighteen months on average, a 60% margin, that's €16,200. Winning them took twelve of your hours and €2,000 of marketing, together around €3,200. You get more than five times that back, so you can scale. If less comes back than it costs, change your price or business model first.
- 4
Write down the sale that worked
Take your last five deals in your segment. How did they come in, how many conversations did it take, which objection kept coming up? The pattern you see becomes your sales approach, and the number that predicts sales becomes your first driver KPI.
Result KPIs and driver KPIs - 5
Say no to one customer outside your segment
This month, deliberately pick one enquiry that doesn't fit and say no, or refer it on. The time that frees up goes to the segment that responds.
Examples
A software company with a scheduling tool
It sold to hairdressers, beauty salons and physiotherapists. On the 40% question, 52% of the physiotherapists said 'very disappointed', against 18% of the hairdressers. They stopped advertising to hairdressers and rebuilt the demo and the website for physiotherapy practices. Within six months, half of their new customers came in through referrals.
A marketing agency that did everything for everyone
The garden and outdoor living webshops kept coming back and sending others. That's where it chose to focus. The business model changed with it: from one-off projects by the hour to a fixed monthly fee for the whole season. Sales became a conversation that went roughly the same way every time.
A wholesaler in sustainable packaging
Hospitality businesses kept reordering, the shops didn't. But the hospitality orders were small and delivery ate up the margin: every customer lost them money. They brought in a minimum order and a fixed delivery day per region. Only after that did they hire a salesperson for hospitality.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- Go to the Audit. The audit shows which phase you're in. For software and subscriptions it also asks the 40% question, and you measure that again every quarter.
- You look back on a situation from your own work. Only you can read what you write.
- You set a date with yourself, and on that day the app asks how it went.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
6 situations. You need 5 of 6 right. You can try again at any time.
1.You ask thirty customers the 40% question. Across all customers, 25% say 'very disappointed'; among the accountancy firms it's 55%. What do you do?
2.Customers love what you deliver, but many drop out at a quote of €18,000 in one go. Those who do buy come back. What do you try first?
3.A new customer costs you €4,000 in ads and your own hours, and brings in €2,500 of margin before they leave. An investor wants to put money into more marketing. What do you do?
4.Your segment is going well. A large company outside that segment asks for a custom version, worth €40,000. What do you do?
5.Sales still go through you, but there's a pattern: three conversations, the same objections every time. Who do you hire first?
6.Your first ten customers all come from your own network and they're very happy. Have you proved it's repeatable?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
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