Your business is doing pretty well. You’re adding to your personal savings every month and are more focused on tax strategies than making payroll. But how do you know if you’re leaving opportunities on the table?
Some indicators are obvious. Others, less so.
One of the easiest to spot is stagnation. Businesses are like living organisms—they either grow or they shrink. Flat or declining sales are a warning sign. Stagnation limits opportunities for your top employees and makes it easier for competitors to lure away your customers with newer, more innovative solutions.
How does your growth rate compare to your industry or market? If others are growing and you’re not, standing still is really falling behind.
Customer Feedback
What are your customers saying? Your salespeople are often the first to hear feedback from the field. If you’re hearing things like, “Everyone complains about our new auto attendant,” the right response isn’t “Everyone is doing it—they’ll get used to it.” Instead, track call volumes and see if it’s driving customers away.
When was the last time you ran a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey? The NPS question is simple but telling: “Would you recommend our product or service to another business?” On a ten-point scale, anything below a seven indicates a lack of enthusiasm. Sevens and eights are neutral at best. Only nines and tens are true fans—and every business should aim for a strong percentage of those.
Are you paying attention to buying trends from your top 20% of customers? The Pareto principle holds true in most businesses—that 20% often accounts for the majority of your revenue. Is their total spend declining? Have some of your best customers stopped buying altogether? Has anyone asked why?
Technology: Internal and External
A while back, we wrote about the cost of new technology relative to the value of the people using it. Are you taking advantage of the latest tools? How are you using AI? ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, and Perplexity (along with a growing list of others) can do more than draft emails. They’re a gateway to broader AI solutions. Try asking them about emerging innovations in your industry. How are companies streamlining office work? What AI tools exist for logistics, material handling, workflows, or scheduling?
Are you making the most of trade shows and conferences? Do you attend to look for new ideas, or just to catch up with old friends? Are you attending your customers’ industry events—not to sell, but to see what new products and systems they’re adopting? Understanding their innovations helps you stay relevant as a supplier or partner.
What does your innovation pipeline look like? Are you consistently working on improving your products, customer experience, and internal operations?
Human Resources
How challenging is it to hire new talent? Are people leaving for better opportunities? Are you seeing fewer responses to job postings? Do new hire salary demands creating tension with your existing pay structure? Finding good people is hard—but it’s even harder if you aren’t competitive in the talent marketplace.
You may not have immediate answers to all these questions—but asking them is the first step. They’ll help you identify gaps, spark new ideas, and strengthen your business for the future.
Remember, you don’t have to solve all of this alone. The right advisor helps you ask the right questions, find the right answers, and act on them. Fresh perspective and outside expertise often reveal opportunities you didn’t know you were missing.
