Three M Growth Strategy
Grow a proven business through markets, marketing, and measurement
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 99%
The Three M Growth Strategy audits a business through markets, marketing, and measurements. Markets asks which customer types, products, or locations the existing capability could serve next: a toddler daycare might add newborn care, preschool, or another location. Marketing asks which channels are absent, such as review generation, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, or cold outreach. Measurements asks which internal activity is not tracked even though visibility could improve performance. The owner establishes a baseline, chooses bounded tests, and evaluates incremental profit rather than celebrating activity or revenue alone. The framework is especially useful after buying a profitable but technologically neglected company, because it turns obvious omissions into controlled value creation instead of relying on speculative transformation.
Origin
Sanchez applies the Three M strategy across acquired businesses to organize practical post-purchase growth opportunities.
Core principles
- 01New markets can unlock revenue without changing the core capability
- 02Neglected channels create practical marketing upside
- 03Measured operations tend to improve
- 04Growth levers should be tested against existing profitability
How to run it
- 1
Audit markets
List customer segments, related services, and locations the existing operation could serve but currently does not.
Pro tip Prefer adjacencies that reuse staff, assets, or reputation.
- 2
Audit marketing
Identify channels, review systems, and outreach methods the company has never used consistently.
Pro tip A profitable business with no active review process may contain simple upside.
Watch out A missing channel is an opportunity to test, not proof it will work.
- 3
Audit measurements
Find important operating behaviours and results that the business does not currently track.
Pro tip Choose metrics employees can influence through concrete action.
- 4
Set baselines
Record current volume, conversion, cost, and profit before changing anything.
Watch out Without a baseline, normal variation can look like improvement.
- 5
Run bounded tests
Test one or a small number of high-confidence changes with a clear duration and success measure.
Pro tip Keep tests small enough that failure does not destabilize the proven core.
- 6
Scale profitable gains
Retain and expand changes that improve profit, then repeat the audit for the next constraint.
Watch out More revenue is not a win if acquisition or delivery costs rise faster.
In the wild
A toddler daycare evaluates newborn care, a preschool room, and a second location as market options. It tests review generation and local outreach as marketing options, while beginning to measure inquiry-to-enrolment conversion. Management scales only the changes that improve profit without weakening care quality.
→ Growth comes from structured experiments across all three levers rather than a vague plan to advertise more.
Common mistakes
Changing everything at once
Simultaneous market, channel, and operating changes make attribution impossible and can destabilize the company.
Measuring activity, not economics
More posts, leads, or locations matter only when they improve a meaningful business result.
Is it for you?
Best for
Profitable established businesses with clear service capability but limited market reach, marketing, or operational measurement.
Not ideal for
Companies whose core unit economics are broken or whose immediate priority is operational stabilization.
From the transcript
“we have something called the three M which basically talks about it talks about markets, marketing and um measurements”
“what are all the different markets we're not serving that we could get revenue lines on”
“what inside the business are we not actually measuring right now where if we measured something then we actually usually outperform in it”
From the episode
Codie Sanchez: How to Get Rich Buying a Business No One Wants
Codie Sanchez