Strategy call
Thirty minutes · free
Book a thirty-minute strategy call
A conversation with the strategist who would actually run your account, about the one thing most likely to be holding your revenue down. No slide deck, no discovery questionnaire, no second call to meet the real team. You get a written summary afterwards whether or not anything follows.
LENGTH
Thirty minutes
WHO YOU MEET
A senior strategist
COST
Free
SLIDES
None
One strategist, one call, and a written summary you keep — including the parts where we tell you not to hire us.
- The call
What it is, and what it is not
Most agency “discovery calls” are qualification interviews with a demo at the end. This is not that, and it is worth being specific about the difference.
What it is
- A working conversation about your numbers, not about us
- Run by the strategist who would own your account
- An honest read on what we think your constraint is
- A place to argue with that read and change our mind
What it is not
- A slide deck about our methodology and client logos
- A qualification call that hands you to somebody senior later
- A pricing negotiation — the numbers are already published
- A commitment to anything, including a second call
If thirty minutes is not enough for your situation, we will say so on the call and tell you which of the free routes fits better.
- The half hour
How the thirty minutes is actually spent
Roughly this shape, though we will follow whatever turns out to matter.
01
Where you are — about ten minutes
Revenue, channels, margin shape, what changed recently and what you have already tried. We listen more than we talk here, and we will not read your answers back to you from the form.
02
What we think is wrong — about ten minutes
A view on the constraint, formed from your store and whatever you have shared. Sometimes we are wrong, and the useful part of the call is you explaining why.
03
What we would do about it — about five minutes
The first thing we would change, the order after that, and roughly what it would cost in time and money. Including when the answer is that you should do it in-house.
04
What happens next — about five minutes
Which of the free routes fits: the audit, a proposal, or nothing at all. We will tell you if we think you do not need an agency yet.
You will get a written summary within one business day, with the constraint we named and the reasoning behind it. It is yours to use with or without us.
- The other side
Who you will actually be speaking to
The person on the call is the person who would run the work. This is the whole point.
Depending on what your form says, you will be booked with the strategist whose discipline matches your likely constraint — search, paid, retention, conversion or marketplace. If the constraint is unclear from the form, you get the strategist who covers management across all of them.
There is no business development layer to get through. Nobody on the call will need to “check with the team and come back to you” about whether something is possible, because the person answering is the person who would do it. You can read how we work for what happens if you go further, and it is an accurate description rather than a brochure.
- One person, not a panel of four on a grid
- Matched to your likely constraint, not to your revenue band
- The same person you would work with if you went ahead
- Preparation
What to have open, and what not to bother with
Thirty minutes goes quickly. Five minutes of preparation roughly doubles what you get out of it.
None of this is required. If you turn up with nothing we will still have a useful conversation from what is publicly visible on your store.
- Your last three months of revenue, by channel if you have it
- Roughly what you spend on marketing, and where
- A rough gross margin band for your main categories
- The one thing that has been bothering you for months
What not to prepare: a brief, a deck, a list of agency questions, or a tidied-up version of your numbers. Messy and real is more useful to us than clean and approximate.
If you would like to arrive already knowing your constraint, the growth assessment takes about forty minutes and is published in full.
- Our commitments
Six things we will not do on this call
Each of these costs us conversions. They are on the page because the alternative is a worse conversation.
Present slides at you
Nobody has ever bought an agency because of slide fourteen. If we send anything afterwards it is a written summary, not a deck.
Create artificial urgency
No expiring discounts, no “we only take two clients a quarter”, no pressure to decide on the call. The pricing is published and does not move because you hesitated.
Run a qualification script
You will not be asked to rate your pain out of ten, or which of four personas you identify with. It is a conversation between two people who know eCommerce.
Hand you to somebody else afterwards
The strategist on the call is the strategist on the account. There is no transition to an implementation team you have not met.
Quote numbers we cannot stand behind
No promised percentages, no guaranteed rankings, no case study that happens to match your category exactly. Our case studies carry their methodology.
Put you into a nurture sequence
One follow-up after the call. If you do not reply, we stop. You will not receive a monthly newsletter you did not ask for.
If any of that happens on your call, reply to the summary email and tell us. It would be a failure of ours, not a tactic.
- Book it
Nine fields, five of them required
We use the answers to pick which strategist you speak to and to prepare, so the first ten minutes is not spent on basics.
One inbox, one reply, one follow-up if we do not hear back. No sequence, no newsletter, no third parties.
- Afterwards
What you get, whether or not you hire us
The summary is the deliverable. Everything else is optional.
01
WITHIN A DAY
The constraint we named, the reasoning behind it, and the first thing we would change. Written so you can forward it internally without explaining the call.
02
IF YOU WANT MORE
Five working days, six disciplines, a ranked constraint list and a ninety-day sequence. Still nothing owed.
03
IF YOU ARE CLOSE
Price, sequence and named people, five working days after you ask. Usually much sharper for having had the call first.
04
IF NOT NOW
One follow-up, then we leave you alone. The checklists and the assessment stay free and ungated for whenever you want them.
- Timing
Three times a call is the wrong first step
Not a refusal — just a better use of your half hour.
You have never measured the basics
If you do not know your conversion rate, your abandonment rate or your margin by category, the call becomes us asking questions you cannot answer. Run the growth assessment first — forty minutes, free, and it makes this call twice as useful.
You need evidence, not an opinion
A thirty-minute conversation produces a view. If you need something defensible enough to take to a board or to settle an internal argument, ask for the free audit instead.
You have already decided and need a number
If you know what you want built and just need scope and price, skip the conversation and request a proposal. We will call you if something in it needs discussing.
All four routes are free and none of them requires the others. Pick whichever matches where you actually are.
- Questions
Strategy call FAQs
What people ask before booking.
Is it really free, and is there a catch?
It is free and there is no catch beyond the obvious one: we hope the conversation is good enough that you consider working with us. Nothing is invoiced, nothing is owed, and the written summary is yours regardless.
Will I be speaking to a salesperson?
No. You will be booked with the strategist whose discipline matches your likely constraint, and that is the same person who would run the work. We do not have a business development layer for you to get through.
What if thirty minutes is not enough?
It often is not, and that is fine. We will either run over a little or tell you which of the free routes suits your situation better — usually the audit. We will not book a second call purely to keep the conversation going.
Do I need to share analytics access?
No. Bring whatever numbers you are comfortable with, or none. We prepare from what is publicly visible on your store, which is usually enough to form a view worth arguing with.
How soon can we speak?
We reply within one business day with two or three times that fit your timezone. Most calls happen within the same week.
Can other people from my team join?
Yes, and it usually helps if the person who owns the budget is there. Beyond about four people it stops being a conversation and starts being a presentation, which is the thing we are trying to avoid.
What happens if I do not want to go further?
Nothing. You keep the summary, we send one follow-up, and if you do not reply we stop. You are welcome to come back months later; the resources stay free and ungated in the meantime.
Will you tell me if we do not need an agency?
Yes, and it happens regularly. The most common version is that the constraint is something your own team can fix faster and cheaper than we could, in which case we will say so and point you at the relevant checklist.
- Other routes in
Three alternatives to a call
All free, all ungated, none of them requiring this one.
FORTY MINUTES
Twelve points with every threshold published, so you can find your constraint without speaking to anybody.
FIVE DAYS
Six disciplines reviewed by the specialists who run them, ranked into one constraint and a ninety-day sequence.
FIVE DAYS
Scope, sequence, price and named people, if you already know what you want and need the document.
Half an hour, and you keep the summary either way
Tell us what has been bothering you for months. We will tell you what we think is causing it, in writing, whether or not anything follows.