A 100-day marketing plan for a portfolio company

01

Before day one: translate the deal thesis into questions

Start with the growth assumptions that made the acquisition attractive. Turn each one into a question the operating team can answer. If the thesis says geographic expansion will drive demand, ask which locations can serve new customers, what capacity exists, and how a local test will measure qualified demand.

Keep the inherited customer pipeline running while you establish who controls the accounts and data. A new dashboard, agency change or website redesign can wait if it puts continuity at risk. Give one executive responsibility for the whole path from demand to fulfilment.

• Name the executive sponsor, daily growth owner, sales or intake owner, and finance reviewer.
• Secure company-controlled administrator access to advertising, analytics, CRM, domains and the website.
• Record the definition of a qualified enquiry, acquired customer and realised revenue.
• List the three growth assumptions that most need evidence, plus what would disprove each.

02

Use four gates across the 100 days

Treat these as decision gates, not an instruction to spend more every month. If tracking fails or sales capacity is full, repair that problem before funding a larger test. A long sales cycle can require leading indicators at day 100 and a later customer-outcome review.

03

Build one baseline that finance can reconcile

Use the same date range, company boundary and customer definition across the review. Separate existing customers from new customers. Keep booked work, delivered work and collected revenue distinct. Record attribution settings instead of silently combining different channel reports.

Google Analytics describes attribution as assigning credit to touchpoints. A channel's assigned credit is a useful reporting input; it does not, by itself, prove the extra demand caused by a new budget. Keep the operating decision tied to customer records and the limits of the test.

• Reconcile media and partner costs to invoices for the review period.
• Sample records from enquiry through customer outcome, including lost and duplicate enquiries.
• Record capacity, margin differences and follow-up delays that can change the economics.
• Keep missing data visible. Assign a repair owner and due date instead of filling the gap with an estimate.

04

Illustrative decision: more enquiries, limited follow-up capacity

Imagine a business that receives enquiries but cannot show which ones became customers. Sales reports missed follow-ups. The first test should repair routing and outcome capture for one location or product. Define an owner, a response process and the customer-quality measure before changing acquisition spend.

If the pilot shows a reliable handoff and usable outcome data, the next test can assess acquisition. If staff still cannot handle the work, address capacity first. This sequence makes a board request specific: fund the constraint with evidence, then revisit the expansion assumption.

Illustrative scenario. It is not a Tenth client result or a performance forecast.

05

Take this six-line record to the first board review

A 100-day plan is an operating agenda, not a promise that all outcomes mature in 100 days. Close the period by handing over the decision records, account access and recurring review. Keep the next budget linked to what the team learned.