The Growth Advantage Hiding in Plain Sight

Brands spend more than a $1 trillion on advertising every year trying to persuade consumers and businesses to buy stuff, and they do. A question that has always intrigued me - how much product or service is bought vs sold? It's a question I used to ask our team.

Think about it, is your business (or parts of it) bought or sold? Irrespective of the business you're in, by understanding the answer to this single fundamental question, you can accelerate growth. Most leadership teams never explicitly answer that question. The best ones build their commercial growth strategy around it.

'Bought' business is when customers already understand the proposition, feel their need without persuasion, compare and rank you higher against alternatives, actively seek your solution. In these environments, growth is about visibility, accessibility, relationships, trust and frictionless buying. Your sales strategy is all about optimising discovery, clarity and ease. You don't push. You position.

'Sold' business is when customers don't yet recognise their need for your product or service; they don't see or understand your value immediately; they need education or reframing or require belief before budget commitment. Innovation sits here. Transformation sits here. This is where leadership matters most, because 'sold' businesses require narrative, conviction, differentiation, commercial courage. You don't wait for demand, you create it.

The most successful leaders understand and map their business to one or the other and devise a product-focused sales strategy. When leaders treat sold propositions like bought ones, they underinvest in storytelling and belief-building. When they treat bought propositions like sold ones, they overspend on persuasion and create friction.

The strategic shift: The best leaders ask three sharper questions - Which parts of our revenue are naturally bought? Which parts must be actively sold? How do we differentiate our commercial muscle for each?

Bought - optimise, remove friction, scale systems, defend share, drive pricing. Sold - inspire desire, build conviction and proof, elevate narrative, create demand. Clarity here sharpens everything: hiring profiles, incentive structures, customer segmentation, marketing investment, executive focus.

The leaders who win are not those with the best product. They are the ones who understand the buying dynamic of their own business and architect their growth model accordingly.

When I moved my thinking from 'how do we sell more?' to asking 'what part of this business is bought versus sold?' commercial clarity improved overnight. It changed how we set out our sales strategy; how we rewarded and motivated our teams, and it changed how we positioned products. Ultimately it changed how we led. Because leadership is not about pushing harder. It's about understanding the game you're actually playing. And adapting to it.