90-day sales cycle to 22. Zero headcount added. 120 to 340 customers.
Post-sprint client. The first sprint had focused on supply-side acquisition with strong results: supplier count up 2.4× in eight weeks. The challenge for the retainer was demand-side: scaling buyer acquisition against a new ICP that had emerged from the supply-side growth, without adding headcount. The founding team wanted to stay lean and weren't ready to build an internal growth function.
4×
Faster sales cycle
35%
New ICP share of new business
120→340
Customers, zero headcount added
6 mo
Retainer duration
The situation
Post-sprint client. The first sprint had focused on supply-side acquisition with strong results: supplier count up 2.4× in eight weeks. The challenge for the retainer was demand-side: scaling buyer acquisition against a new ICP that had emerged from the supply-side growth, without adding headcount. The founding team wanted to stay lean and weren't ready to build an internal growth function.
What we did
Embedded as their growth function for two quarters. Rather than handing off a strategy, we ran it. Ongoing experimentation across paid, content, and partnership channels: weekly cycles, clear test hypotheses, fast kills on what didn't work. Refreshed the signal audit each quarter as new cohort data came in and the ICP shifted. The 90-to-22-day sales cycle compression came from a combination of qualification tightening, better onboarding sequencing, and removing a manual step in the demo-to-trial flow that we identified in month two.
- 1
Quarterly signal audit refresh: re-mapped channel performance as ICP evolved
- 2
Weekly experimentation cycles: structured test-and-kill across paid and content
- 3
New ICP buildout: buyer persona research, intent mapping, messaging framework
- 4
Sales cycle compression audit: mapped every handoff point from lead to close
- 5
Demo-to-trial flow redesign: removed manual qualification step, automated follow-up
- 6
Partnership channel launch: three new distribution partnerships live in Q2
“Most consultants hand you a strategy document and disappear. Ascent was in the weeds with us every week, running the experiments, reading the data, adapting the approach. That's the difference between a recommendation and a result.”
Co-founder & COO
Series B marketplace, EU
Results
4× faster sales cycle (90 days → 22 days)
New ICP segment now 35% of total new business
Zero headcount added to grow from 120 to 340 customers
Results like these start with 30 minutes.
No deck, no pitch. We'll tell you what an audit would surface and whether a sprint is the right move.
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