Grow faster than you are growing today.
Most businesses have more growth in them than their results show. I help leadership teams find the levers that lift revenue, margin and market share, and build a clear pathway to growth in 2027 and beyond.
The gap between the two lines is what Growth Insight measures, and what your Growth Pathway closes.
More growth, healthier margins, and a clear view of what drives both.
- Grow fasterThan you are growing today, from a strong position or a flat one.
- Stronger marginsMore of every pound of revenue kept as profit.
- Understand your marginsWhere profit is made, and where it quietly leaks.
- Know your growth leversThe few things that move revenue, volume and share.
- Pull the right ones firstA clear order of play, so money goes where it counts.
You are working harder for growth that comes more slowly.
You have good people, real experience and the instinct to act. Something is still getting in the way, and it is rarely the thing that looks like the problem.
Growth has levelled off
Revenue still comes in, but the curve has flattened, and each extra pound takes more effort than the last.
Margins are tighter, and it is not clear why
You can see the margin in the accounts. It is harder to see which customers, deals and habits make it, and which wear it away.
Good people are pulling in different directions
Sales, operations and the leadership team each have their own explanation for what is in the way.
What worked before is running out
The familiar playbook got you here. It is getting more expensive, with less to show for it each time.
Uncertainty is making everyone hesitate
Turbulent markets and questions about AI have clouded paths that once looked obvious.
The cost of waiting is rarely dramatic. It shows up as another flat quarter, another initiative that fades, and another year of growth you could have had.
The answer is usually already inside your business. The hard part is seeing it.
When growth stalls, the instinct is to reach for what worked last time.
Each of the familiar fixes has its place. Each is also expensive, slow and chosen before anyone knows for certain what is in the way. Why fund a new sales director when the team is not rewarded for working together? The new person would face the same problem as the last.
Replace the sales leader
Months to recruit and more months to settle in. The new person inherits the same team, the same reward plan and the same habits.
Buy a new CRM or system
Expensive and disruptive. If people do not like sharing information, a new system will not make them.
Retrain the whole sales team
The right answer for some businesses. For others, one or two people need support and the rest are doing well.
Cut costs
Often the first advice when the numbers dip. It protects margin for a while, but cutting on its own rarely creates growth.
Chase a new market
A new sector, a new product or a stand at an exhibition. Worth trying, but if the same habits travel with you, so do the same results.
- Costly
- Slow to pay back
- No guarantee it is the real problem
“Whatever got you to where you are today is not necessarily what will get you to where you need to be.”Stephen Newman
Six levers decide how fast you grow.
Growth rarely stalls for one reason. It is usually a mix of these six, and the mix is different in every business. The skill is knowing which to pull, and in what order.
- 01
Leadership direction
The leadership team agrees on the biggest obstacle, and on where the business is going.
A sign it matters: Targets are demanded loudly, but the team is not convinced.
- 02
How the team is rewarded
Pay and recognition encourage people to win together, rather than compete with each other.
A sign it matters: Colleagues guard their accounts and rarely help each other close.
- 03
Sales capability
The skills to find, win, negotiate and grow the right accounts, through your own team and your channels.
A sign it matters: A wide mix of competence, and some big accounts lost to competitors.
- 04
Individual performance
Focused coaching for the one or two people who hold the team back, or the star who will not follow the process.
A sign it matters: Most of the team performs well, and a few do not.
- 05
Information and pipeline
Accurate, shared information about customers and deals, so decisions rest on facts.
A sign it matters: Forecasts are a surprise, and reports are filled in late or not at all.
- 06
The whole business
Product, operations and delivery that make selling easier, rather than harder.
A sign it matters: Salespeople spend their time with customers apologising for problems elsewhere.
Find out where your growth is stalling, and how much more is possible.
Growth Insight is an AI-powered look inside your business. It brings together your leadership team’s views, your people’s words and your own numbers, finds the patterns, and turns them into your Growth Pathway: the plan for what to do next.
An in-depth, honest assessment from each member of your leadership team.
Confidential, so people can say what is hard to say inside the business.
Revenue, margin, pipeline and customer data you already hold.
Patterns across your whole team and your numbers, tested against thirty years of experience.
The real constraint, which is often somewhere nobody has been looking.
The few that will make the biggest difference, in order of priority.
How much more growth is realistic, and what it depends on.
Three steps, from an honest first look to a plan for 2027.
Start with the free Growth Assessment. If it is worth looking deeper, Growth Insight finds what is really going on, and your Growth Pathway sets out what to do about it. You can stop at any step.
Growth Assessment
Nine honest statements and one reflection on the conditions that decide whether growth efforts stick. Your results appear on screen straight away.
Growth Insight
An AI-powered look inside your business, using your leadership team's views and your own data, to find where growth is stalling and how much more is possible.
Growth Pathway
Your action plan and roadmap for 2027 and beyond, presented to your leadership team. Yours to run with, with my support if you want it.
The same growth question, seen from three chairs.
SME and scale-up leaders
Grow faster than you are growing today. Find the levers, then run the plan yourselves.
Accounting firm partners
Give your clients a growth expert, without becoming one. The relationship stays yours.
PE investors
A growth expert for the board, when a portfolio company will not deliver the return you were hoping for.
What clients say about growing with me.
Stephen was a great mentor of mine for several years. He helped me see past the problems I was facing to the key issues underneath.
Stephen is a consummate sales and marketing coach, helping companies to achieve step-change growth.
I first met Stephen shortly after I opened my business some years ago. Today we have grown considerably.
Your 2027 plan is being written now.
The last quarter of the year is when budgets are set and priorities agreed. What you commit to in the next ninety days will shape the whole of next year.
Turbulent markets are making many leaders hesitate. The businesses that get clear on their growth levers now are the ones best placed to grow in 2027, while others are still deciding.
Thirty years helping leaders grow, from executive search to complex sales to coaching.
I spent eighteen years with Miller Heiman on complex sales with companies such as Atos, Siemens, EY, G4S and Vestas, and founded InterSearch, which grew to 100 offices in 35 countries. Today I combine that with an MSc in Executive Coaching and systemic team coaching.
Read my storyWhat leaders usually ask first.
Still wondering? Book a short conversation, without obligation.
We are doing well already. Is this for us?
Often, yes. Many of the leaders I work with are growing and want to grow faster. Knowing which levers to pull next matters just as much when things are going well.
Is this sales training by another name?
Sales training is one possible answer, and I have ready-to-run programmes if your data says you need them. Often the answer is somewhere else: leadership, reward, information or the product. I will only recommend what your data supports.
What does AI actually do in Growth Insight?
It analyses every leader's scorecard, the conversations and your numbers together, and brings out patterns that are easy to miss: where views agree, where they split, and where the real constraint sits. I then test those findings against my own experience before anything reaches your Growth Pathway.
How much of my team's time will it take?
The Growth Assessment takes about five minutes. Growth Insight usually runs over a few weeks, with a scorecard and a one-to-one conversation for each leader, and a working session at the end.
What does it cost?
The Growth Assessment is free. Growth Insight is agreed after a first conversation, once we know the size of the business and the questions that matter. The Growth Pathway is included.
Do we have to use you to deliver the plan?
No. Many teams take the Growth Pathway and run with it themselves. If you would like support, I can help with coaching, sales programmes or introductions, only where the plan calls for it.
Find out how much faster you could grow.
The Growth Assessment takes about five minutes and your results appear straight away. It shows where to look first, and whether Growth Insight is worth a deeper look.
P.S. The more honest your answers, the more useful your results. I read every set personally, and they stay confidential.