Fonders rush to hire agencies, spin up funnels, and launch ads…
but skip two crucial steps:
They don’t clearly define who their avatar is and where that avatar actually hangs out.
They don’t track their inputs and outputs in a simple, visible way that they and their team can see every day.
Then they sit in marketing meetings listening to promises, nodding along… with no way to hold anyone accountable—not the agency, not the team, and honestly, not themselves.
Let’s fix that.
Step 1: Before You Talk to Any Marketer, Know Your Avatar
Most founders talk to marketers before they talk to their own customers.
That’s backward.
Before you give a dollar to an agency, you should be able to answer:
Who is your best customer?
What is their pain, in their own words?
Where do they already hang out? (online and offline)
What triggers them to start looking for a solution like yours?
What objections do they repeat over and over?
You don’t get this from a brainstorming session with a marketer.
You get this from:
Talking to your team (sales, support, success).
Talking to your customers/clients (wins and losses).
Reviewing calls, emails, chat logs, and DMs.
When you know your avatar, marketing companies become execution partners, not magicians. You stop saying, “Go find me leads,” and start saying:
“Here’s who we’re targeting, here’s where we are, and here’s the offer that’s already converting. Help us amplify this.”
Now you’re in control.
Step 2: Inputs vs Outputs – and Why Most Systems Fail
Here’s where almost everyone drops the ball.
They track either:
Inputs only – activities like:
Cold outreach
Warm outreach / referrals
Content (social, email, YouTube, etc.)
Paid ads
OR
Outputs only – results like:
New leads
Qualified leads
Connected with them
Booked meetings
Showed to the meeting
Signed / Won
Follow-up needed
Lost / Didn’t sign
Almost no one has both in one place where they can see the correlation.
That’s the problem.
If inputs are in one tool, outputs in another, and the revenue numbers in a third?
Your brain never gets the full picture. Your team never sees the game they’re playing.
When your inputs and outputs are divided across tools:
Your sales team doesn’t feel the connection between activities and revenue.
Your marketing team can’t see what’s actually moving the needle.
You, as the founder, end up operating on vibes, not data.
Common symptoms:
“We’re posting a lot but nothing’s happening.”
“We tried ads; they didn’t work.”
“Our leads suck.”
“We just need better closers.”
“We’re busy… but the bank account doesn’t show it.”
These are all scoreboard problems.
You’re playing the game without a visible scoreboard everyone can see.
What Smart Founders Do Instead
The best founders and CEOs keep things way simpler than you think.
They:
Define the few key inputs that matter:
How many cold outreaches today?
How many warm outreaches / referrals?
How many pieces of content posted?
How much ad spend?
Define the few key outputs that matter:
Leads generated
Qualified leads
Conversations/Connections
Meetings booked
Show rates
Deals won
Follow-ups required
Deals lost
Tie it all to one number that matters:
👉 Revenue created from these activities.Put it all in one simple place that:
The team updates daily (usually in minutes, not hours)
Is always visible (so it stays top of mind)
Makes it obvious what’s working and what’s not
That’s not “enterprise software.”
That’s a scoreboard.
Why a Simple Sheet Beats Fancy Dashboards
Most million-dollar businesses are secretly run on:
A simple sheet, plus
A consistent habit of updating it, plus
A visible scoreboard that no one can ignore.
You don’t need 15 tools and a data warehouse.
You need:
A place to log inputs (what you did)
A place to log outputs (what happened)
A way to see the score (revenue) tied to those actions
The magic isn’t the complexity.
The magic is:
Simplicity – your team actually uses it.
Visibility – it’s always in their face.
Consistency – it gets updated every day or week.
That’s exactly the idea behind a tool like scoreboardz.ai:
A simple underlying sheet + a floating scoreboard bar that’s always on your desktop, reminding you:
“Do the inputs. Watch the outputs. Know your score.”
How This Changes Your Relationship With Marketers
Once you have your avatar and your scoreboard:
You stop going to marketing agencies saying,
“Can you get me leads?”
Instead, you say things like:
“Here are the channels that already work. Help us scale these.”
“Here are our current numbers: lead → qualified → meeting → show → close. Help us improve one of these.”
“Here’s our current cost to acquire a customer and our LTV. Let’s make the economics better.”
You’re no longer buying promises.
You’re buying lift on numbers you already track.
And if a marketer can’t speak to those numbers or doesn’t want to be held accountable to them?
That’s your red flag.
Talk to Your Team Before You Talk to Marketers
Before your next agency call, do this:
Talk to your sales team
Ask: What kind of leads close most often?
Ask: Where did those leads come from?
Ask: What do they already know or believe when they show up?
Talk to your customers/clients
Ask: How did you first hear about us?
Ask: What made you decide to reach out?
Ask: Why did you choose us over other options?
Define your key inputs
How many cold outreaches per day?
How many warm outreaches per day?
How many content / ad touches per day?
Define your key outputs
Leads
Qualified leads
Conversations
Meetings
Shows
Wins
Follow-ups
Losses
Put it all into one scoreboard
Make sure your team can see it daily
Make sure it takes minutes, not hours to update
Make sure it shows the revenue score clearly
Now when you talk to marketers, you’re walking in with data, clarity, and power.
The Real “First Step” for Founders
The first step isn’t:
“We need more leads.”
The first step is:
“We need to see the game we’re already playing.”
Know your avatar and where they hang out.
Track your inputs and outputs in one place.
Keep your scoreboard in your face so you can see the correlation and make better decisions.
Do that, and every marketer, every sales rep, and every dollar you spend has a clear job to do.
If you want, next we can map your exact input/output scoreboard based on your current business so you can see where to plug scoreboardz.ai (or even a simple sheet) into your daily workflow.
