Hey, it's Christina,

Most founders I speak to can name their best-fit customers in seconds, but far fewer could hand that judgement to someone else tomorrow, This week's newsletter is about that gap.

Got a commercial growth question? Comment and I'll cover it in a future edition.

In this week's edition:

• The Headlines

• 96% of buyers keep watching between purchases

• LinkedIn's five-point B2B campaign checklist

• Why your best deals still land on your desk

  
  

Christina Gough

The Headlines

Turnover confidence improves, but investment is still struggling 47% of firms expect turnover to rise next year, yet only 17% plan to invest more, a post-pandemic low. Growth that nobody funds tends to stall.

Sponsorship pays when it's plugged into the brand.Only 45% of brands are confident sponsorship delivers results. Those who set commercial goals and tie it into wider brand activity are almost six times more confident, and Sage's EFL deal shows how.

Google just put a price on lazy content.Updated guidance rewards effort, originality and accuracy, and flags unreviewed AI content and fake author bios. Unchecked AI thought leadership is now a ranking risk.

96% of buyers keep watching between purchases

6sense surveyed more than 4,600 B2B buyers across the UK, Ireland, EMEA, APAC and North America for its upcoming Buyer Experience report. The first finding it has released is a useful one for anyone who goes quiet between campaigns.

96% of buyers stay current on relevant vendors between buying cycles, and 71% say their view of who is worth considering changes during that time.

The shortlist is being edited while you're out of the room. Brands that keep showing up between buying windows are the ones still on it when the budget lands.

Source: 6sense Buyer Experience research, first findings released 8 October 2026. Full report due 3 November.

See the 6sense finding

LinkedIn's five-point B2B campaign checklist

Before your next campaign brief goes out, run it past LinkedIn's new B2B performance checklist. It's free and takes about five minutes.

The core of it: research your audience properly, reach everyone who shapes the purchase decision (the whole buying group, beyond your main contact), give each stage of the purchase its own content, and set a measure for each stage so the lead form isn't carrying the entire report.

Most briefs we see fail on the second point. Use the checklist to find out which members of your buying group have never heard from you.

Get the LinkedIn checklist 

Why your best deals still land on your desk

If you stepped away from your business for three months, who would know which deals were worth chasing?

A. You, because nobody else really understands which prospects convert and which ones will eat six months of sales time

B. Your sales lead, although they'd still ring you to check on anything significant

C. Whoever shouts loudest in the pipeline meeting

D. The whole team, because it's written down and they all sell to the same profile

For the first several years of building Formation, my answer was A.

Every key relationship ran through me personally. I knew which conversations were worth having, which prospects would convert and which ones would drag on for months and go nowhere. None of that knowledge existed anywhere outside my own head. The business looked successful but was held together by my availability.

Most founder-led businesses I work with at the growth stage are in the same place, even with a sales team, a CRM and a process in place. The founder's judgement about which deals matter has never been written down or shared, so every important conversation finds its way back to their desk.

That caps growth, and it shows up very clearly when you're thinking about investment or exit, because a buyer sees founder-dependent revenue as a risk they'll price in.

D is achievable, but it starts with getting what's in your head into a shared definition of the customer the whole team can sell to without needing you in the room.

Which letter are you right now, and what would need to change first? Comment with your letter and I'll tell you where I'd start.

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