Big Growth Wobble

There’s this inflection point no one warns you about.

Your numbers are slowly growing or maybe a bit flattish.

The new fiscal rolls around and you’re handed a double-digit lead growth target.
(You’re not alone, Sales has a stretch target too.)

And in your gut?

You know the foundation Marketing is built on won’t get you there.

I talk to a lot of marketing leaders in high-growth midmarket companies, in the stage I call “the messy middle.”

And you know what’s fascinating?

It’s the Marketing leaders hitting their KPIs. The ones who look like they’re crushing it.

Who are the most worried about making changes.

They experience what I’d call a wobble in confidence.

Because they know what it took to get here. And they’re not sure it will hold.

And they’re afraid of “under construction” breaking what’s working.

There’s an unspoken fear.

“What if I break what’s working while trying to fix what’s broken?”

You’re supporting the highest revenue the company has ever seen.

But behind the scenes, it’s messy as hell. A Frankenstein mix of manual effort, some but not all the tools you need to be effective, and workarounds that somehow just work well enough.
And if you start pulling it apart?

You risk being the one who “broke the machine” in the middle of a growth surge.

What got you here won’t get you there.

You’re building for the next phase. Not patching the last one.

And let’s be honest:

• You’ve already invested in a rebrand.
• Hired agencies that delivered “campaigns,” not clarity.
• Dabbled in “who touched it last” attribution models and automation platforms that complicated things further.

It’s not that you’re indecisive.

It’s that none of those solutions fixed the underlying structure.

You’ve been carrying the weight ever since.

Here’s what I want you to know:

You’re not the problem.

You’re leading through the problem.

You’re operating a machine while building the infrastructure it should have had 18 months ago.

No wonder you’re tired.

No wonder you haven’t pulled the trigger on another “fix” yet.

Because you’re smart enough to know that what you need isn’t a new tool or shiny tactic… it’s a bridge. One strong enough to take you from where you are to where you need to be.

While the train is still moving.

But there’s a cost to hesitation.

• Your team stays stuck in firefighting mode
• Sales keeps complaining about lead quality
• You never get out of the weeds long enough to lead
• And eventually, marketing leads will hit a wall. Not because you lack skill or drive, but because the structure can’t hold the next stage

So how do you know when it’s time?

When what’s working becomes the reason you’re scared to grow.

When lead generation starts to feel like you’re bouncing on a pogo stick (they’re up, they’re down, they’re flat, they’re down).

When the pace – yours and your team’s – feels unsustainable.

When you stop celebrating the numbers…because you’re bracing for the next plateau.

The best way is to start smart.

Clarify a vision for growth.

Then get down to the business of:

Levelling up your team and vendor partner(s).

Building scalable systems, measurement and campaigns.

Evolving Marketing’s role from service department to professional function.

This is what The Marketing Scale Up Advisory is for.

An executive-level partnership that empowers midmarket Marketing leaders as they transform their overwhelmed, underbuilt function into a strategic growth engine.

Before burning out themselves or their team.

My job is to stack the odds for the (Marketing) house.

By creating a shortcut.

By being a sounding board (because leadership at this stage, when the stakes are this high, gets lonely).

And by saving time and $$. (Yes, you invest in the partnership, but it’s like compounded interest in the long run.)

If you’re ready to stop the triage and start leading growth, let’s connect for a conversation.

The most dangerous time to do nothing is when it looks like everything’s working.