The call came on a Tuesday afternoon. A founder I'd worked with years earlier, voice cracking: "We've got 90 days of runway left. Revenue's flat. Team's panicking. Board's lost faith. Can you help?"
I get these calls more often than you'd think. Not because I'm special, but because revenue crises follow predictable patterns. And after turning around dozens of dying revenue engines, I've developed a blueprint that works.
Not might work. Not should work. Actually works.
Here's exactly how to transform your revenue in 90 days when everything's on fire.
Before touching anything, I spend 48 hours in pure diagnosis mode. No solutions. No opinions. Just truth-gathering.
The first time I did this, I wanted to jump straight to fixing things. Now I know: prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.
Here's my Day 0 checklist:
The Money Map:
The Pipeline Autopsy:
The People Reality:
The Message Test:
I once discovered a £2M ARR company where no two people described the product the same way. Including the founders. That's your first problem right there.
Week one is triage. You're not building for the future—you're stopping the crisis.
The Revenue Leaks: I pulled transaction logs for a struggling SaaS company. Found £47K monthly disappearing through:
Fixed in 3 days. That's 6 weeks of runway recovered instantly.
The False Pipeline: In every dying company, the pipeline is lying. I make sales teams verify every opportunity over £10K:
One company's £2M pipeline became £400K of reality. Painful but essential. You can't fix what you won't acknowledge.
The Activity Reality: I track what really happens vs what people claim:
Usually find 60-70% inflation between reported and reality. Install basic tracking. Not to punish—to understand.
Week two onwards, I hunt for quick wins that fund the transformation.
The Pricing Archaeology: I dig through every pricing decision. Recent client discoveries:
One afternoon of price corrections = £30K monthly revenue increase.
The Zombie Hunt: These are customers who stopped using but haven't cancelled. They're pre-churn. I call every single one:
"Hi Sarah, I noticed you haven't logged in for 45 days. What's broken?"
50% re-engage. 30% pay to cancel early (better than month-to-month churn). 20% give invaluable feedback. All better than silent losses.
The Expansion Extraction: I look for customers using 10x their plan limits:
One call: "Looks like you've outgrown your plan. Let's get you sorted."
80% upgrade immediately. They knew they were taking advantage. They're often relieved you finally called.
Month two is about systems that compound.
The ICP Laser Focus: I force radical focus. A cybersecurity startup was selling to everyone. I made them pick:
Leads dropped 80%. Conversions increased 400%. Do the maths.
The Message Simplification: I create one elevator pitch everyone must use: "We help [specific customer] achieve [specific outcome] by [unique method] unlike [alternative] which [problem with alternative]."
Example: "We help UK fintechs achieve PCI compliance in 30 days by automating documentation unlike consultants which take 6 months and cost 5x more."
Suddenly, referrals increase. Prospects understand. Sales cycles shrink.
The Process Purge: I map the actual sales process. Then cut:
Speed is revenue. Complexity is cost.
The final month separates survivors from thrivers.
The Ruthless Prioritisation: I implement "Revenue Rocks":
A team focused on 3 things achieves more than one juggling 30.
The Channel Concentration: I analyse where revenue actually originates:
Stop doing what doesn't work. Sounds obvious. Nobody does it.
The People Decision: By day 60, it's clear who's helping and who's hoping. I've learned:
One great rep beats three average ones. Make the hard calls.
The Martech Meltdown:
Sold for £8M eighteen months later.
The Fintech Phoenix:
Now doing £500K MRR profitably.
The Logistics Lifeline:
Still growing 15% monthly.
The hardest part isn't the tactics. It's the psychology.
Days 1-30: Panic and resistance. "This won't work." "You don't understand our business." "Our customers are different." Push through.
Days 31-60: Cautious optimism. Small wins build belief. Team starts believing. Energy shifts. Maintain momentum.
Days 61-90: Acceleration anxiety. "What if it's temporary?" "Can we sustain this?" "Should we hire?" Stay disciplined.
The companies that succeed trust the process even when it's uncomfortable. Especially when it's uncomfortable.
If you're reading this in crisis, here's your week one checklist:
Day 1:
Day 2:
Day 3:
Days 4-7:
After dozens of turnarounds, here's what I know:
Most revenue problems are self-inflicted. Complexity you added. Focus you lost. Basics you ignored.
The team that got you here might not get you there. Crisis reveals character. Not everyone rises.
Simple beats sophisticated. In crisis, boring fundamentals beat clever strategies.
Speed is survival. Perfect plans executed slowly fail. Good plans executed fast succeed.
Cash is oxygen. Revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. Cash is reality.
You're 90 days from transformation or termination. The blueprint works—I've proven it dozens of times. But it requires:
Most companies won't do this. They'll tweak around the edges. Hope things improve. Blame the market.
Don't be most companies.
Your revenue can transform in 90 days. The question is: Will you do what it takes?
The clock starts now.
Need hands-on help with your turnaround?
I work with 2-3 companies per quarter on intensive revenue transformations. If you're serious about change—not just worried about it—let's talk.
Fair warning: I only work with founders ready to move fast and make hard decisions. If that's you, we should talk this week.