{"title":"Grow It","description":"\u003cp\u003eYou're already running it. Now you want it to pay properly. Tools for founders running a service business: pricing, positioning, clients and strategy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEach one turns a procedure from The Assignment, my Monday newsletter, into a worksheet you can use that afternoon.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"positioning-statement-template","title":"Say What You Do in One Sentence","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhen someone asks what you do, do you answer with a paragraph? This turns it into one sentence people remember, and repeat.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA four-page fillable PDF that turns positioning from an afternoon of argument into six decisions and one sentence.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA positioning statement is a coherent set of six hard decisions. It is not a tagline. Most companies never finish making the decisions, which is why most positioning statements say nothing. Every clause that got added along the way was a decision being avoided in public, and a sentence nobody objects to is a sentence nobody can act on.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is the instrument that ends that afternoon. The six decisions in the order they have to be made, each with the specific mistake that ruins it. Six tests to mark your own work against. And a worksheet you type straight into, so what you finish with looks like a document rather than a note to yourself.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #9E1B22;\"\u003eWHAT'S INSIDE\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six decisions — who it is for, the problem, the category, the benefit, the proof, the alternative. Each one with the trap underneath it, because a demographic is not a customer and \"trusted\" is not proof.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six tests — substitution, rejection, alternative, proof, one benefit, read aloud. It is finished when it passes all six, and the first test alone disqualifies most of what gets written.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe worksheet — fillable on screen, with the connecting words already set so the finished sheet reads as a sentence. Or print it and use a pen.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA worked example — one finished statement, and a note on what it gives up. A positioning statement is partly a list of things you are prepared to lose.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eInstrument No. 01 of The Assignment, published Monday 28 September 2026. A new task every Monday.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eWho made this\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eI started Sweet Peanut, a Vancouver baby-clothes company, in 2006, grew it into more than 1,500 stores, including Harrods and Nordstrom, across four continents, and sold it. Before that I spent ten years in advertising at BBDO, Cossette and McCann, finishing as VP and General Manager of McCann Vancouver. Since then I've run my own consultancy, taught business school for sixteen years, and written marketing textbooks for Pearson.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEducation, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own business; please don't share or resell. If you coach or teach and want a licence, email me.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HelloitsDanielle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67221430960346,"sku":null,"price":19.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0667\/7767\/8042\/files\/G1-1-cover_942924c0-b283-42f3-9a2d-d7720ae89718.png?v=1793730811"},{"product_id":"service-pricing-ladder","title":"Price Your Services Without Underselling Yourself","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIf you've ever said your rate out loud and then apologised for it, this is for you. Price your services on a rung you can defend, not on what you can say without flinching.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA four-page fillable PDF that moves a service price off the clock and onto a rung you can defend.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMost service prices are set by what the seller can say out loud without flinching. That number measures the seller's nerve. The buyer cannot see any of that, reads the figure as a claim about value, and a low price is a low claim.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is the instrument that replaces it. Six decisions in the order they have to be made, a ladder of six pricing structures with the risk that moves at each rung, and a worksheet you type straight into.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #9E1B22;\"\u003eWHAT'S INSIDE\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six decisions — the unit, the purchase, the ceiling, the rung, the standard, the exclusions. Each one with the trap underneath it, because \"my time\" is an input and \"high quality\" cannot be enforced, so it cannot be sold.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe ladder — hourly through to a share of the result, with the risk that transfers at each step. The gap between two rungs is what you charge for carrying the thing the buyer used to carry.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six tests — unit, ceiling, risk, enforceability, scope, and the flinch test. Say the number out loud. If you add a sentence without being asked, it is probably right.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA worked example — one finished fee structure with a holdback, a written remedy and an exclusions list, and a note on what each of them costs the seller.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eInstrument No. 02 of The Assignment, published Monday 5 October 2026. A new task every Monday.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eWho made this\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eI started Sweet Peanut, a Vancouver baby-clothes company, in 2006, grew it into more than 1,500 stores, including Harrods and Nordstrom, across four continents, and sold it. Before that I spent ten years in advertising at BBDO, Cossette and McCann, finishing as VP and General Manager of McCann Vancouver. Since then I've run my own consultancy, taught business school for sixteen years, and written marketing textbooks for Pearson.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEducation, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own business; please don't share or resell. If you coach or teach and want a licence, email me.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HelloitsDanielle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67221610594522,"sku":null,"price":29.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0667\/7767\/8042\/files\/G2-1-cover_d91d2a0f-3d7f-4764-bdae-e683c62f479f.png?v=1793730811"},{"product_id":"one-page-creative-brief","title":"The Brand Brief: Before You Open Canva","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBefore you spend another evening in Canva, decide what the brand has to do. One page that tells a designer, or you, exactly what good looks like.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA four-page fillable PDF, and the brief itself is one page of it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMost briefs are written by addition. Everyone who will have an opinion later puts their requirement in now, the document swells, and what gets sent grants permission to do almost anything. A brief that forbids nothing has decided nothing, and the decisions it avoided resurface at the presentation, as taste, which is the most expensive place to have them.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is the instrument that ends that. Six fields, each one binding. A rejection list. A judging test written before you have seen any work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #9E1B22;\"\u003eWHAT'S INSIDE\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six fields — what must be true, for whom, the binding constraint, the buildable constraint, already rejected, the test. Each one with the trap underneath it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe rejection list — three solutions named and refused in writing. It is uncomfortable and it is the most useful paragraph in any brief.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six tests — rejection, elimination, failability, the adjective count, the stranger test, one page. Premium and human cannot be failed, which is why they survive every draft.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA worked example — one finished brief and a note on what it rules out on purpose so that the work can finish.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eInstrument No. 03 of The Assignment, published Monday 12 October 2026. A new task every Monday.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eWho made this\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eI started Sweet Peanut, a Vancouver baby-clothes company, in 2006, grew it into more than 1,500 stores, including Harrods and Nordstrom, across four continents, and sold it. Before that I spent ten years in advertising at BBDO, Cossette and McCann, finishing as VP and General Manager of McCann Vancouver. Since then I've run my own consultancy, taught business school for sixteen years, and written marketing textbooks for Pearson.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEducation, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own business; please don't share or resell. If you coach or teach and want a licence, email me.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HelloitsDanielle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67221610627290,"sku":null,"price":19.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0667\/7767\/8042\/files\/G3-1-cover_8a4a8b02-2d65-4939-b28d-872130336f9c.png?v=1793730811"},{"product_id":"one-page-strategy-template","title":"Your Business on One Page","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIf your plan lives in your head, it can't argue with itself. One page makes your priorities collide, so you choose before the year chooses for you.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA four-page fillable PDF, and the strategy itself is one page of it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA long strategy document is arranged so that its own disagreements cannot meet. Two sections contradict each other and there has never been a moment at which both were visible at the same time. The point of a single page is collision, not brevity.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is the instrument that forces it. Six boxes, a contradiction check, and a kill line that has to be filled in before the page is finished.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #9E1B22;\"\u003eWHAT'S INSIDE\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six boxes — winning with a date, where we play, where we do not, how we win, the capability we lack, and what we are cancelling to pay for it. The last one is the assignment. The others are arrangement.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe collision check — find the pair of promises that cannot both be true and settle it on the page, rather than in June, in a room.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six tests — the kill, the loser, collision, the not-list, the alternative, one field of view. Every real strategy has a victim inside the company.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA worked example — one finished page that cancels 18% of current revenue, in writing, with a headcount attached.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eInstrument No. 04 of The Assignment, published Monday 19 October 2026. A new task every Monday.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eWho made this\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eI started Sweet Peanut, a Vancouver baby-clothes company, in 2006, grew it into more than 1,500 stores, including Harrods and Nordstrom, across four continents, and sold it. Before that I spent ten years in advertising at BBDO, Cossette and McCann, finishing as VP and General Manager of McCann Vancouver. Since then I've run my own consultancy, taught business school for sixteen years, and written marketing textbooks for Pearson.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEducation, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own business; please don't share or resell. If you coach or teach and want a licence, email me.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HelloitsDanielle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67221610660058,"sku":null,"price":19.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0667\/7767\/8042\/files\/G4-1-cover_0718fe0f-9197-4263-9349-7b57d4e43917.png?v=1793730811"},{"product_id":"customer-interview-guide","title":"The Client Interview Guide","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eYour clients will tell you what you want to hear, unless you ask differently. Five interviews that tell you something you didn't already believe.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA four-page fillable PDF for running five customer interviews that return something you did not already believe.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe customer will give you back whatever you hand them. A leading question installs an answer, and the customer then believes it, which is why they can say it back to you with complete sincerity in the next session.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is the instrument that stops it. The kill sentence written before the first interview, six rules for not leading anyone, and a findings sheet with the unwelcome-finding line built in so it cannot be skipped.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #9E1B22;\"\u003eWHAT'S INSIDE\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six rules — recruit on behaviour, ask about the last time, withhold your idea, ban your own vocabulary, follow money and effort, close on commitment.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe kill sentence — the finding that would end the idea, written down before anybody is asked anything. If you cannot write it, you are not running research.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six tests — the kill sentence, past tense, vocabulary, behaviour, the unwelcome finding, consequence.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe same question, asked two ways — one leading, one not, and what Coca-Cola's 190,000 taste tests missed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eInstrument No. 05 of The Assignment, published Monday 26 October 2026. A new task every Monday.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eWho made this\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eI started Sweet Peanut, a Vancouver baby-clothes company, in 2006, grew it into more than 1,500 stores, including Harrods and Nordstrom, across four continents, and sold it. Before that I spent ten years in advertising at BBDO, Cossette and McCann, finishing as VP and General Manager of McCann Vancouver. Since then I've run my own consultancy, taught business school for sixteen years, and written marketing textbooks for Pearson.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEducation, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own business; please don't share or resell. If you coach or teach and want a licence, email me.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HelloitsDanielle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67221610692826,"sku":null,"price":19.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0667\/7767\/8042\/files\/G5-1-cover_47fcf0c8-3c08-4662-b02c-7a3a1dd42575.png?v=1793730811"},{"product_id":"value-proposition-test","title":"Will They Choose You? The Value Proposition Test","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLosing work to someone cheaper and not sure why? Usually it's because your value can't be compared. This turns what you promise into something a client can actually check.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA four-page fillable PDF that converts a value proposition into claims a buyer can actually score.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eProcurement takes a proposal apart into claims, and against each one it needs a unit, a number, a method of measurement and a consequence if you miss. Anything that will not convert is moved to the column marked qualitative, differentiators, or nice-to-have. That is where you are not counted, and your bid then gets scored on price and delivery date.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is the instrument that does the conversion before they do.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #9E1B22;\"\u003eWHAT'S INSIDE\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe conversion — claim, unit, number, who measures it, how often, and what happens if you miss. A claim that stops before the last box is a forecast.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six steps — split the claims, name the unit, put custody on it, write the remedy, write the exclusions, price the risk. Each one with the trap underneath it, because an unbounded commitment cannot be priced, and your own finance team will refuse it, correctly.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six tests — units, custody of the number, consequence, exclusions, transferred risk, and the hostile read. Give it to someone paid to say no.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA worked example — one proposition before and after, with a number the seller can fail every month against data the customer controls.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eInstrument No. 06 of The Assignment, published Monday 2 November 2026. A new task every Monday.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eWho made this\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eI started Sweet Peanut, a Vancouver baby-clothes company, in 2006, grew it into more than 1,500 stores, including Harrods and Nordstrom, across four continents, and sold it. Before that I spent ten years in advertising at BBDO, Cossette and McCann, finishing as VP and General Manager of McCann Vancouver. Since then I've run my own consultancy, taught business school for sixteen years, and written marketing textbooks for Pearson.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEducation, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own business; please don't share or resell. If you coach or teach and want a licence, email me.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HelloitsDanielle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67221610725594,"sku":null,"price":19.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0667\/7767\/8042\/files\/G6-1-cover_6fef8d38-2a03-42c0-bfba-52ca1cadf7ba.png?v=1793730811"},{"product_id":"customer-segmentation-sheet","title":"Who It's Actually For: The Customer Segmentation Sheet","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eYou have favourite clients, and clients who drain you. Your own invoices already know which is which. This finds them, without buying any data.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA four-page fillable PDF that segments your customers out of your own invoices. No external data required.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBought segmentation describes your customers the way a government would, by age band and income and occupation, and you cannot act on an age. Your own transaction records show what people are doing, which of them are quietly leaving, and which of them are worth ten of the others.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is the instrument that gets it out. Four behavioural dimensions you already have, plus the one that pays.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #9E1B22;\"\u003eWHAT'S INSIDE\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six steps — export what you have, sort by value and look, segment on behaviour, add direction of travel, name them in your words, test one and hold one back. Each one with the trap underneath it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDirection of travel — growing, flat, declining, gone. No bought segmentation includes this, and it is the reason an account that is quietly halving sits in the same bucket as one that is doubling and gets the same email.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six tests — own data, behaviour, direction, recognisable, holdout, and the unwelcome line.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA worked example — five segments from 1,840 accounts, including the finding nobody wanted.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eInstrument No. 07 of The Assignment, published Monday 9 November 2026. A new task every Monday.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eWho made this\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eI started Sweet Peanut, a Vancouver baby-clothes company, in 2006, grew it into more than 1,500 stores, including Harrods and Nordstrom, across four continents, and sold it. Before that I spent ten years in advertising at BBDO, Cossette and McCann, finishing as VP and General Manager of McCann Vancouver. Since then I've run my own consultancy, taught business school for sixteen years, and written marketing textbooks for Pearson.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEducation, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own business; please don't share or resell. If you coach or teach and want a licence, email me.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HelloitsDanielle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67221610758362,"sku":null,"price":19.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0667\/7767\/8042\/files\/G7-1-cover_8ff3c69b-a59b-41b0-a16a-a5c9cf5447d5.png?v=1793730811"},{"product_id":"win-loss-interview-script","title":"Why They Didn't Buy: The Win\/Loss Script","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLost a client you were sure you'd win? \"It was the price\" is almost never the real reason. This is how to find out what was.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA four-page fillable PDF for finding out why you actually lost, from the buyer, through somebody with nothing riding on the answer.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAsk a sales team why a deal was lost and the answer is price. It is plausible, because price is always a factor in something. It is unfalsifiable inside the company, because nobody is going to phone the buyer and check. And it exonerates everyone in the room, because price is set upstairs. So the loss gets filed under price and the company discounts next time, which is how it teaches itself to solve a problem it does not have.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is the instrument that gets the real reason.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #9E1B22;\"\u003eWHAT'S INSIDE\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six steps — interview the buyer, wait until it is final, send someone neutral, process before verdict, what were we told, write it as a change. Each one with the trap underneath it. People describe a process honestly long after they have stopped being candid about verdicts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe warning-signal question — what you were told during the process, and what you changed as a result. This is the question almost nobody asks and it is the one that pays.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe six tests — source, independence, process, the warning, the winner, owner and date.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA worked example — one lost deal, the reason the team gave, and the two reasons the buyer gave.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe findings sheet — with owner and date fields, so the output is a change rather than a lesson.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eInstrument No. 08 of The Assignment, published Monday 16 November 2026. A new task every Monday.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eWho made this\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eI started Sweet Peanut, a Vancouver baby-clothes company, in 2006, grew it into more than 1,500 stores, including Harrods and Nordstrom, across four continents, and sold it. Before that I spent ten years in advertising at BBDO, Cossette and McCann, finishing as VP and General Manager of McCann Vancouver. Since then I've run my own consultancy, taught business school for sixteen years, and written marketing textbooks for Pearson.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEducation, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own business; please don't share or resell. If you coach or teach and want a licence, email me.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HelloitsDanielle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67221610791130,"sku":null,"price":19.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0667\/7767\/8042\/files\/G8-1-cover_43c4ef70-4580-4e3e-9a8e-ee127e00c61b.png?v=1793730811"}],"url":"https:\/\/helloitsdanielle.com\/collections\/grow-it.oembed","provider":"HelloitsDanielle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}