3 Questions to Ask About Box 10 — Marketing Moat
1. You have identified the exact 2–3 word phrase your customers use to describe you to others
What does "The 2–3 Words — Your Marketing Moat" mean?
The short phrase your customers use when they describe you to a peer — and the category you own in their memory.
It is almost never your product name.
Word of mouth runs on category, not brand. When a customer refers you they rarely remember your company name, but they do remember what you do in two or three words — and that phrase is what the referred person types into Google.
If you do not own the search results for that phrase, your word of mouth is sending traffic to someone else.
1. Ask every Won Sales Analysis customer: "If you described us in 2–3 words to a peer, what would you say?"
2. Write down exact phrasing across at least 5 customers.
3. Find the phrase that repeats most. That is your category — not the one you wish they used.
Example: Three Won Sales Analysis interviews in a row produced the same two words: "shift coverage." The founder had been calling it a "workforce visibility platform" — nobody was searching for that.
2. You own the .com and all social handles for that phrase
What does "Owning Your 2–3 Words" mean?
Registering the .com domain and matching handles on every major social platform for the exact 2–3 word phrase your customers use to describe you.
Once you know the phrase, anyone who hears about you by word of mouth will type it into a search bar. If someone else — a competitor, or anyone watching your traction — owns that domain and those handles first, your own referrals hand them the traffic.
Ownership is cheap and nearly instant now; winning it back later is expensive or impossible.
1. The moment you've identified your phrase, register the .com — before you promote it anywhere.
2. Claim the matching handle on every major social platform your customers actually use.
3. Use the exact phrase consistently everywhere — site, bio, ads — so search results consolidate around you instead of splitting.
4. Recheck availability any time a later Won Sales Analysis interview surfaces a cleaner version of the phrase.
Example: Craig Elias owns triggerevent.com and every matching social handle for "Trigger Event Selling." Someone hears the phrase at a conference, searches it that evening, and lands on Craig — not on a competitor who noticed the phrase getting traction and bought the domain first.
3. 30% or more of your new customers came to you inbound — they found you, you didn't find them
What does "The 30% Inbound Threshold" mean?
The benchmark that signals readiness for marketing investment: 30% or more of new customers arriving inbound — they found you, through word of mouth, search, AI search, or content, rather than you finding them.
Marketing amplifies whatever pattern already exists. Below 30% inbound, the pattern is still you doing outbound, so spend amplifies your effort rather than replacing it.
Above 30%, the moat is doing real work — and that is the thing worth pouring money into, because inbound customers close faster and churn less than any paid channel produces.
1. Record the source of every new customer at signup: inbound or outbound, and if inbound, how (word of mouth, search, AI search, content).
2. Calculate the inbound percentage monthly.
3. Below 30%: keep working Boxes 1–9 rather than spending on marketing.
4. At 30%+: ask every inbound customer, "How did you find us?" and "What words did you search or hear?"
5. Buy the .com and every social handle for the phrase that repeats — before you start promoting it.
Example: "Three of our last ten customers came from an existing customer we never asked to refer us." That is 30%. The founder asked all three referrers what they had said, heard the same two words twice, registered the domain that afternoon, and only then started spending on ads.