Free tool · From Book 2, The Compounding Cycle
The Compounding Audit
You cannot fix what you cannot see. Score your business across the twelve areas every sales machine leaks, in about 15 minutes. Anything you score below 5 is a bottleneck, and a bottleneck is your fastest money.
Twelve areas · About 15 minutes · Repeat every quarter
Score your machine, part by part.
For each of the twelve areas you get three plain statements. Tick the ones that are true in your business and tell us how it actually happens, and the score works itself out using the book's own rule. At the end you get your total out of 120, the bottleneck that is costing you most, and a 30-day plan built from your answers.
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What is the Compounding Audit?
The Compounding Audit is the twelve-area diagnostic from Chapter 2 of our client book The Compounding Cycle. You read three plain statements for each area, say which are true in your business, and the score follows. Twelve scores out of 10 each, 120 in total. It works for any business that talks to customers in chat: retail, F&B, clinics, education, B2B, services.
Every business that sells anything runs on the same machine, whether you built it on purpose or not. A is Attract: a stranger finds out you exist and becomes someone you can message. B is Buy: that person becomes a paying customer. C is Compound: that customer buys again, and the quiet ones come back. Two more areas sit over the whole machine and tell you where to look next.
| Part | What it does | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| A | Attract | How do new people find out you exist, and do you own them after? |
| B | Buy | What happens between the first enquiry and the money? |
| C | Compound | What happens after the sale, and to the ones who went quiet? |
| + | Over the machine | Do you know your numbers, and does what you learn reach anyone? |
Prefer paper? The full worksheet
The same twelve areas as a read-through worksheet: the three statements for each, and space to write your score. Print it and score by hand, exactly like the scorecard page in the book.
And how does this actually happen?
- All three true, and they happen without you chasing anyone: 8 to 10
- Two true: 6 or 7
- One true: 4 or 5
- None true, or it only happens when you personally remember: 0 to 3
A1. Lead Generation
Do you have a system that brings new people in?
Doing this well means:
- New enquiries arrive every week because of something you switched on deliberately: an ad, a post, a referral ask, a partner. Not because of luck, and not because someone happened to walk past.
- You know which ad, post or channel brought each lead in, and you know which of them bring the good ones, not just the cheap ones.
- You make more of what already works. New ads and new content get written from what your best leads actually asked, and the platforms get told which leads turned into real buyers, so they go and find you more of the same.
My Lead Generation score: ______ / 10
A2. Capture
Do you own your audience?
Doing this well means:
- Every buyer, walk-in and enquiry ends up as a contact in your WhatsApp that you can message again.
- If a platform banned your account tonight, you could still reach your customers tomorrow morning.
- There is a compelling reason for people to text you first: a voucher, a guide, a quiz, a warranty, and it is on every surface you already own: your packaging, your bios, your ads, and a form on your website that actually goes somewhere.
My Capture score: ______ / 10
B1. Handling
Does every enquiry actually get resolved?
Doing this well means:
- Nothing is left hanging. You could not name a single enquiry this week that got no reply, or one where a question was asked and never properly answered.
- Every conversation gets labelled while it is happening: what they want, roughly what they can spend, how urgent it is. The hot ones get flagged to a human while they are still hot.
- You ask before you recommend. What a customer is shown is matched to what they just told you, not the same generic list everybody gets.
My Handling score: ______ / 10
B2. Follow-up
What happens when someone goes quiet?
Doing this well means:
- When a lead asks the price and then goes silent, more messages go out over the next few days, without anyone having to remember.
- The messages vary in shape and each one has a job: a photo, a single-line question, a customer's result, a deadline. Between them they build trust, answer the objection nobody said out loud, and give a reason to decide now. Not three rounds of “any update?”
- They stop the moment the person replies, and a human is told when the conversation turns serious.
My Follow-up score: ______ / 10
B3. The next step
What happens either side of the appointment?
If you do not take bookings, read this one as your carts and your quotes. The moment is the same: they said yes to something, and it has not happened yet.
Doing this well means:
- Anyone who takes a next step, books a slot, registers for a session, leaves a full cart, asks for a quote, hears from you before it goes cold. The reminders go out on their own, and you know your show-up or completion rate.
- Whoever handles them next walks in briefed: what they asked, what they were worried about, what they were quoted. Nobody starts from zero, and nobody makes the customer repeat themselves.
- What the customer said during the call or the session gets written down where the whole team can see it, and the follow-up afterwards refers to it. Not the same long message to everyone who attended.
My The next step score: ______ / 10
B4. The offer
If you were the customer, would you buy it?
Doing this well means:
- People who understood the offer completely still buy, and when someone says no it is about timing or money, not because they could not see why it was worth it.
- There is a real reason to decide now rather than later: a batch, an intake, a price change, a season. Not a countdown you invented.
- You have changed the offer at least once because of what the market told you, and sales moved when you did.
My The offer score: ______ / 10
C1. The first week
Does a new customer feel like they won?
Doing this well means:
- Something reaches them within a day of buying: a welcome, what happens next, how to get the most out of it. Nobody is left wondering whether the order even went through.
- It is personal to them. It refers to what they bought and what they told you they wanted, so it reads like you remember the conversation instead of like a receipt.
- You check in while they are still new, ask how it is going, and somebody actually reads the answers. The unhappy ones get dealt with before they turn into a refund or a one-star review.
My The first week score: ______ / 10
C2. Repeat and upsell
Do they buy again, and do they buy more?
Doing this well means:
- You know roughly when each customer finishes, uses up, or needs your thing again, and something goes out just before that moment without anyone having to remember.
- There is a natural next step to offer them: the bigger version, the add-on, the thing that goes with it. It gets offered at the moment it makes sense, instead of never.
- A decent share of this year's sales came from people who had bought before.
My Repeat and upsell score: ______ / 10
C3. Waking the quiet ones
What happens to old leads?
Doing this well means:
- Someone deliberately messages the people who enquired but never bought, at least every few months.
- Different groups get different messages. You are not blasting everyone the same thing.
- Every round has a real reason behind it: something new, a story worth telling, an offer good enough that you would take it yourself. Not just a reminder that you exist. And the last time you did it, it made sales.
My Waking the quiet ones score: ______ / 10
C4. Advocacy
Do happy customers bring you more customers?
Doing this well means:
- When somebody tells you they are happy, they get asked for a review or a testimonial right then, while they still mean it. Not three months later when the feeling has faded.
- There is a simple, specific way for a customer to send you a friend, and your customers know it exists. Not a vague hope that word gets around.
- You could say roughly how many of this year's customers arrived through a review, a referral or a recommendation. It is a number, not a feeling.
My Advocacy score: ______ / 10
The Scoreboard
Do you know your numbers?
Doing this well means:
- You know how many out of every 10 leads end up buying.
- You know your average sale value, and roughly what one customer is worth to you over the years.
- You could pull those numbers up this week without a fight.
If you scored low here, do not feel bad. Most owners have never measured this.
My The Scoreboard score: ______ / 10
The Feedback Loop
Does what you learn reach the people who can use it?
Doing this well means:
- Somebody collects the objections and the questions that actually came up this month, from the chats, the calls and the sessions. They are written down somewhere, not carried around in three people's heads.
- That list reaches the people who can do something with it: whoever sets the price, whoever writes the ads, whoever does the selling.
- Something actually changed last quarter because of it. A line in the sales script, a slide in the presentation, a page on the website, a part of the product itself.
My The Feedback Loop score: ______ / 10
Compounding Audit FAQ
How long does the Compounding Audit take?
About 15 minutes. There are twelve areas, and for each one you read three statements and say which are true. No forms to fill in and no numbers to dig for.
What do the twelve areas cover?
Two under A (lead generation and capture), four under B (handling, follow-up, the next step and the offer), four under C (the first week, repeat and upsell, waking the quiet ones, and advocacy), and two that sit over the whole machine: the scoreboard and the feedback loop.
How is my score worked out?
By the book's own rule. All three statements true and it happens without you chasing anyone is 8 to 10. Two true is 6 or 7. One true is 4 or 5. None true, or it only happens when you personally remember, is 0 to 3.
What does my total mean?
0 to 48 means the machine leaks everywhere, which also means you are sitting on the most untapped money of anyone reading. 49 to 88 means a real business with real holes. 89 to 120 means you run a tight ship and your growth now comes from compounding.
Which problem should I fix first?
Anything you scored below 5. A bottleneck is the narrow part of the pipe, and the machine only runs as fast as its narrowest part. When several are low, the usual order is B first to protect the money you are already spending, then A, then C.
Is this audit really free?
Yes, and so are the playbooks it links to. Plenty of our clients run all twelve areas themselves and never ask us for anything. Our business is installing and running these systems for the ones who would rather have it built with them.
How often should I redo the audit?
Every quarter. The bottleneck moves once you fix one, and that is a good sign. Beating your last scores is the whole game.
What happens on a strategy call?
It is a free conversation, around half an hour, with an AI Solution Expert. You bring your twelve scores, we look at your business together, and we tell you honestly what we would do next. If it is something you can do yourself, we tell you how. No obligation, and no pressure on the call.