Finding Gold Again - Bad Data, Bad Revenue

From Overflow to a Trickle: Adapting to the New Reality of Growth

Five years ago I wouldn't have written this piece. When liquid gold is pouring out of a faucet, you don't try to understand how and why it's happening. You just put a bucket underneath it and hope it lasts a little longer.

When revenue flowed effortlessly, there was no need to ask why—it was just about catching as much as possible. But that era is over. Now, businesses must rediscover how to strike gold the hard way. It's scarce for those who never knew how to find it effectively in the first place, or haven't adapted to the new landscape for finding gold.

Fortunately there are fundamental and proven ways to locate and mine gold. It's not a 100% success rate, it involves investment, and requires expertise. Business is no different. Now that cheap money is drying up, the tide is going out, and some people have been swimming naked. Budgets are tighter, approval and buy-in takes longer, last-minute blockers appear more frequently.

The Current Market

Being inside of the data of multiple accounts lets us see insights that full-time teams cannot (unless you're at an agency/consultancy). The current state is that new logo acquisition is harder than it was 2-5 years ago. You have to actually be exceptional at outbound and demand generation in order to keep the same pace of 2020-2023. The companies that had strong fundamentals—clear positioning, compelling value props, and efficient sales motion—are still winning. Those that relied on easy inbound or market momentum are feeling the squeeze.

But here’s what’s often overlooked: Most businesses don’t actually need more new logos to grow. They need to extract more value from the relationships they’ve already built.

Companies that invest in expansion and referral plays—leveraging their existing customer base instead of chasing net-new—are not just surviving; they’re thriving. The data is clear: high-growth companies systematically unlock revenue from current customers while their competitors chase diminishing returns on new acquisition.

But the companies still winning today also have one thing in common: accurate data. Without it, teams waste time on the wrong plays, targeting the wrong people, and bleeding revenue. We see this time and time again when we step into an account.

Those with accurate data are able to make the correct plays to grow. Those without it make the wrong plays, to the wrong people, and see painful performance of the overall business.

How to Find Gold Again

One of the most under-appreciated approaches to growth is expansion plays. Real, data-driven, formalized expansion plays. This can also be branched off into data-driven, formalized referral plays.

We systematically approach these two motions because they bear fruits repeatedly. Most of our clients are in the $3-$20m/year range in revenue. This means that they're doing something right. Typically it's a consistent channel to generate business and consistent results for clients. From what we've seen, you very rarely get to that size on accident and with bad client results.

But to approach these two motions in the first place, we have to have good data. Data that allows us to generate cohorts, accurately represents revenue, and demonstrates pain points + results driven for the customer.

Good data in these areas leads to good revenue. It leads to some of the most fruitful activities for companies in that revenue range. And it's often the most underutilized.

Bad data in these areas lead to bad revenue and the hamster wheel of only trying grab more new logos.

Run Expansion and Referral Plays

Here's how you can get better data to run these plays successfully:

1. Compare your accounting software data to your CRM data (companies that are missing in each, mislabeled, etc.)
2. Enrich data in your CRM for existing clients (employee count, industry, etc.)
3. Create a way to log pain points addressed, results, and potential future opps as you acquire new clients (and continue to work with existing ones)

Expansion and referral plays aren’t just low-hanging fruit; they’re the orchard most businesses ignore. Start by ensuring your data is clean, structured, and actionable. Without that foundation, every move is a gamble.

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