Nine questions across your website, social, and pitch. Score whether someone who's never met you could say what you do, who you do it for, and why you're different. Because when they can't — that's why leads "think about it."
It rarely means the price is wrong, or the timing is off. Most of the time it means the prospect couldn't repeat back what you do, who it's for, or why you — so they stalled. You can't buy what you can't explain to yourself.
The fix isn't a louder pitch. It's clarity that survives a stranger — someone landing cold on your site, scrolling your feed, or hearing your 10-second answer at an event. If all three say the same thing, leads move. If they don't, leads "think about it."
This scorecard finds the leak. Two minutes.
Answer honestly — as if you were the stranger, not the founder. Pick the option that's true today, not the one you're working toward. Each question scores 0 to 3.
Same score, two angles. By surface tells you where to fix it. By dimension tells you what to fix. The hotpink bar is your weakest link.
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Nine questions, three each across your website, social, and pitch. Every question targets one of three things a stranger needs to grasp — what you do, who it's for, why you. Each answer is worth 0 to 3 points, so the scorecard tops out at 27.
The two breakdowns matter more than the total. By surface shows which of website, social, or pitch is leaking — that's where the work goes. By dimension shows whether it's your what, your who, or your why that's soft — that's the kind of work it is.
A 14 with a strong website but a vague pitch is a different fix than a 14 that's even-but-soft everywhere. The scorecard tells you which 14 you are.
The scorecard is the same for everyone. What "clear" looks like isn't — here's how to read your result by what you do.
The scorecard only works if you answer as the stranger, not the founder. Here's how people accidentally cheat — and why it costs them.
"Well, if they read the whole About page they'd get it." The stranger won't. Score the 5-second version, the bio as written, the answer you actually gave last time — not the generous interpretation.
"We could help anyone" feels safe, so people score their "who" high. It's the opposite. Broad is the most common reason a stranger can't place you. The scorecard rewards specific.
A long list of services isn't a "why you." Neither is "quality," "experience," or "we care." If your differentiator is something every competitor would also claim, it scores a 1 — be honest about that.
Chasing a higher number misses the point. A 19 that's lopsided — great website, invisible pitch — loses deals the moment you open your mouth. Fix the weakest surface, not the average.
Positioning drifts. New services creep in, the audience widens, the pitch gets mushy again. Rescore every quarter — and any time you catch yourself adding "we also do…" to a sentence.
The scorecard is a proxy. The real test: send your homepage link to someone outside your industry and ask them to tell you what you do, who for, and why you. Their answer is your actual score.
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