When Was the Last Time You Took Your Growth Engine to the Garage?

Miguel Medrano
May 26
2 min read

In my work as a sales advisor, I meet many business owners frustrated with their revenue generation.

They’ve invested heavily—sometimes as much as 15–20% of their revenue—across marketing, business development, sales, and customer service. Yet the returns feel underwhelming.

Often, they’ve tackled problems one department at a time—outsourcing marketing here, hiring a sales rep there—without stepping back to look at the big picture. The result? Disjointed efforts, no clear path to repeatable growth, and a team running hard without going far.

Let me offer a different approach. One that borrows from my early training in mechanical engineering and applies it to something every business has (or should have): a Growth Engine.

Think of your business like a machine.

A powerful, efficient Growth Engine runs on four cylinders:

Brand Awareness
Lead Generation
Sales (Inside and Outside)
Customer Service

If any one of those cylinders is weak or misfiring, your whole engine struggles. You burn fuel (aka budget) but don’t get far down the road.

And speaking of fuel—even the best-designed engine won’t run without it. In this case, your fuel includes:

Clear strategy
Aligned leadership
Motivated talent
Customer insights
Consistent execution

This is what turns a well-built system into a machine that actually moves.

Here's a real-world example.

We were brought in to help a service firm ramp up new client acquisition. But during our initial assessment, we discovered a bigger issue: existing clients were leaving faster than new ones were coming in.

The “Customer Service” cylinder was broken. Yet the only investment on the table was “more leads, now!”

That’s like fixing a leaky bucket by pouring in more water. Instead, we convinced the owner to rebuild her Growth Engine—starting with retention.

We:

Investigated client churn and fixed root causes.
Turned positive client feedback into marketing fuel.
Equipped sales with better messaging and tools.
Upskilled the customer service team for retention and upsell.
Installed a scalable client journey with clear handoffs.
Brought in fractional specialists to handle each cylinder efficiently.

The result? Within two quarters, the investment paid for itself. Today, that company has a high-functioning Growth Engine—and a much higher valuation.

Growth Engines are not just for startups.

Whether you're an SMB in your second growth phase or a mid-size firm looking to scale, your Growth Engine must evolve with you. And if it’s been a while since you gave yours a tune-up, it might be time for a look under the hood.

A few key takeaways:

Growth doesn't live in silos: It’s the output of a connected system—Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service working as one.
A good Growth Engine feeds itself: One sale creates ripple effects—referrals, repeat business, content shares, and upsells.
Scalability is key: Growth should accelerate as your system matures—not drain more time and money.
Fuel matters: Strategy, talent, and execution are what make the engine run. No fuel, no movement.
Optimization is ongoing: The best engines are fine-tuned constantly—driven by data, feedback, and experimentation.