Revenue growth advisory for founder-led online businesses

Is your sales process quietly leaking revenue?

We find where, and fix it. Our clients typically see 24% to 163% more revenue from the same traffic, proven in A/B tests with paying customers.

  • 2.6× revenue per visitor, 61% lower acquisition cost
  • Work for StoryLearning.com, NP Digital and PearlParadise.com
  • Led by Forbes contributor Michael Maven
As featured in
Selected results

Measured in revenue, tested against the original.

Every change is tested against the client's existing sales process with real, paying customers. These are the numbers from those tests.

61% Lower customer acquisition cost $184 → $71 per customer Site conversions grew more than 2.5× on the same traffic.
2.6× Revenue per website visitor $1.98 → $5.26 per visitor So the client can profitably pay up to 2.6× more to acquire a customer.
+114% Monthly unit sales 369 → 790 units a month Worth millions of dollars a year to the business.
+48.6% Sign-ups for NP Digital Cold paid traffic, 10,000s of visitors Neil Patel's $100m-a-year marketing agency.
Work for
  • StoryLearning.com
  • NP Digital
  • PearlParadise.com
The evidence
A/B test results: original 128 sign-ups from 14,174 visitors, variation 191 from 14,230, an improvement of 48.6% at 95% significance
NP Digital sign-up test: 128 → 191 sign-ups from about 14,200 visitors each. +48.6% at 95% statistical significance.
WhatsApp message from Olly: and a whole bunch of new sales coming in
Olly Richards, StoryLearning.com, messaging Michael on WhatsApp.
Buyer survey: what made you buy from us today? Because the offer is so good that it's hard not to accept
A real buyer's answer to "What made you buy from us today?"
The method

What took you to $5m won't take you to $10m.

At the start, you're only working against the market. By $5m you've built ads, pages, offers and follow-up, and now you're working against the market plus the friction built into all of it. Most businesses respond by adding more.

The old way

Add more

More ad spend, more SEO, more traffic. It's the obvious route, so everyone takes it, and it costs more every year to compete for less.

In 2015, a Google results page showed 19 results, 11 of them ads. By 2023 it showed five, and four were ads.

The new way

Remove what's in the way

Every sales process builds up hidden friction as markets change. We call it revenue threats:

Revenue threats are hidden sticking points that slow down sales. When you remove them, sales go up.

Remove them, and the visitors you already pay for buy more, with no extra budget.

Diagram: with the same pushing force of +10, removing drag raises a car's net speed from +6 to +9, a 50% increase
Same engine, less drag. Removing friction raised net speed by 50% without adding any power. Sales work the same way.
How it works

The Smooth Sales Framework

Three steps, run on your real sales process and judged on real revenue.

  1. Find the friction

    We map the full path from first click to repeat purchase: ads, pages, offer, checkout and follow-up. Then we measure where buyers stall, hesitate or leave, and what each leak costs you.

  2. Remove it

    We fix the specific points that cost the most. That can mean repositioning the product, restructuring the offer, rewriting a sales page or webinar, or rebuilding the follow-up.

  3. Prove it in revenue

    Every change runs against your current version with paying customers. Success is judged on revenue per visitor and acquisition cost, not clicks or opinions.

What we look for

Some revenue threats we find

A few examples of what turns up. Removing even a handful can unlock a step change in sales.

  • Positioning that doesn't make the product stand apart
  • Not enough trust being built with the buyer
  • Mismatches between ad promises and landing page benefits
  • A weak and confusing offer that is easy to skip
  • Benefits buried under features
  • Not enough reasons to buy sooner rather than later
  • Risk being left with the buyer instead of removed
  • Pages that work on desktop and fail on mobile
What's it worth to you?

Every extra dollar of profit is multiplied when you sell.

More sales from the same traffic lift your profit without lifting your costs. And because businesses are valued as a multiple of profit, that lift is worth far more than one year's gain.

An illustration, not a promise. The lift range reflects past client results, and every business is different.

Extra revenue a year$2.4m
Extra profit a year$480k
Added business value$2.4m
What clients say
We ran the end result in front of paying customers and saw just over 100% lift in results. This project alone is projected to be worth seven figures for us.
Olly Richards Founder & CEO, StoryLearning.com. Five-time client. Watch Olly's 40-second testimonial snippet video ↗
Michael Maven is one of my favorite growth experts. His process is effective at boosting growth for any business type.
Neil PatelCo-founder, NP Digital
Their diligent method of increasing company revenue with a scientific approach is both fascinating and educational to watch.
David WhiteGKIC London
You have some fantastic testimonials. Epic.
Jon BuchanFounder, Charm Offensive
Portrait of Michael Maven, founder of Top Growth Experts
Michael Maven
Founder & lead adviser. You work directly with Michael.
Michael Maven speaking at a lectern at Royal Bank of Canada, London
Speaking at Royal Bank of Canada, London
Michael Maven presenting a growth seminar
Leading a business growth seminar
Founder & lead adviser

Michael Maven: twenty-five years of turning attention into revenue.

Michael founded Top Growth Experts and leads every engagement personally. He started in direct response marketing in 2001, where every idea is judged by one thing: did it generate more sales and revenue? That discipline is still the core of the firm's work.

He has helped founders in online education, e-commerce and luxury retail find growth that was already inside their business. He created DAWAL (the Destructive Attention Without Awareness Loop), which Forbes featured, and went on to write for Forbes as a contributor. His work has also appeared in Fortune, Business Insider, Inc., Entrepreneur, HuffPost and SUCCESS. Neil Patel also invited him to write for Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics.

Experience
Worked in direct response since 2001
Writing
Forbes contributor; bylines in Fortune, Business Insider, SUCCESS
Books
Has written two business growth books, one a Gold Award winner
Speaking
Royal Bank of Canada, London; business growth seminars

References available on request from some of the world’s leading, trusted companies, including Cisco, GSK, Haleon, UBS, Accenture and Kenvue.

Read Michael's story: how one twist turned his side project into a full-time income →
Books
The Scientific Marketing Codex and Get Better Customers Now, by Michael Maven
  • Gold Award winner

    Get Better Customers Now

    Tested strategies for measured company growth during hard times. Lotus Oakland Publishing Group.

  • The Scientific Marketing Codex

    The business owner's manual for increasing company profits without expensive strategies. Lotus Oakland Publishing Group.

Ways to work together

Three engagements, each tied to a revenue outcome.

Start here

Revenue Friction Diagnostic

A forensic review of your sales process using the Smooth Sales Framework. You see exactly where revenue is being lost, and what fixing each point is worth.

  • Full funnel audit, from ad to repeat purchase
  • Leaks ranked by revenue impact
  • A prioritised plan your team can act on
Project

Sales Process Rebuild

We redesign and rewrite the parts of your sales process that are costing you, or build a new one from scratch, then test it against what you have now.

  • Positioning, offer, sales pages and webinars
  • Follow-up and upsell sequences
  • A/B tested with paying customers
Ongoing

Advisory Retainer

Michael as your senior growth adviser, on call for founders who want a second pair of eyes on every launch, offer and test before it goes live.

  • Regular strategy sessions with Michael
  • Review of launches, offers and tests
  • Direct access between sessions
  • We're not like traditional consultants. You don't just get a 'report' and a goodbye. We stay to implement the changes, then prove the sales growth with A/B tests.
  • We work with your marketing team, not against it. Your people keep their roles, with a sharper process to run.

Every engagement starts with a conversation to confirm there is a measurable opportunity in your business. If there isn't, we'll tell you.

Grow your sales
Grow your sales

Let's find what your sales process is costing you.

We work with a small number of founder-led online businesses at a time, most of them doing $5m–$30m a year.

  1. You send the short form.
  2. We review your business and reply within two working days.
  3. If there's a clear opportunity, we schedule a call.
Your details are only used to reply to you.