FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Every question answered across the site, grouped by service, with a link to the page each answer comes from. If yours isn't here, email hello@stratusgrowth.co.uk and I'll reply within one working day.
General
Who is Stratus Growth?
Stratus Growth is the practice of Seehab Ahmed, providing fractional sales leadership, hands-on Google and Meta ad management and practical AI training for founder-led UK businesses. Stratus Growth Limited is registered in England and Wales, company number 17473029.
Where are you based?
In Manchester. I work remotely across the UK, and every engagement includes some time in person.
Do you buy leads?
No. I don't buy leads from lead marketplaces, and I don't sell your details to anyone.
Who will I work with?
Me. There's no team of account managers. The person who diagnoses the problem does the work.
Fractional sales director
From Fractional sales director
What does a fractional sales director cost?
It depends on the days a week and the scope, so I quote after a free scoping call. To compare fairly, the hire cost calculator shows what a full-time sales director costs in the first year, including recruitment and ramp.
Is it one day a week?
Usually. I add a second day when the business needs more hands-on deal work or more build work.
What if I already have a sales manager?
I coach and advise; I don't line-manage. I'm there to make your sales manager more successful, not to replace them.
When would you manage the team directly?
When junior salespeople have been hired and there's no sales manager or director. Then I work hands-on in deals and run the sales side day to day until the business has its own leader.
Free scoping call
From Free scoping call
How is the scoping call different from the issue call?
The scoping call is free and about fit. The issue call is a paid hour on one specific question, with a straight answer at the end.
What should I prepare?
A rough picture of what's going on, what you've tried and what you want to be different in six months. Numbers help, but you don't need them.
Google Ads management
Should I use Performance Max?
Once the account records enough conversions for it to learn from. Google's Target ROAS guidance for Search and Shopping sets a minimum of 15 conversions in the past 30 days. Below that, tightly targeted Search or standard Shopping usually works better first.
Do you need access to Google Analytics?
Yes, alongside Google Ads. Revenue tracking in Google Analytics is often the missing piece, and I set it up where it's missing.
How do you report?
Monthly, in plain English: progress month on month, the wins and the issues I'm still working on.
The AI adoption programme
From The AI adoption programme
What do the sessions cover?
Whatever will make the biggest difference for your team: email triage, workflows, better prompting or a specific project. Each session is pitched at the team's current level.
How is it priced?
After the scoping call you get a written proposal priced to your team.
Do you write an AI policy as well?
Yes. A short, usable AI usage policy is part of making adoption safe, so nobody puts client data in the wrong place.
True break-even ROAS calculator
From True break-even ROAS calculator
What's the formula for true break-even ROAS?
Ad spend plus management fee, divided by ad spend multiplied by gross margin. At a 40% margin, £1,000 of spend and a £400 fee: 1,400 divided by 400 is 3.5.
What management fee should I enter?
Your own. If you don't have one yet, most UK SMEs pay £500 to £1,500 a month, and small business flat fees start around £150. Enter 0 if you run the ads yourself.
What counts as gross margin?
What you keep from a sale after the cost of the product or service, before ads. The extra costs option also takes off shipping, payment fees and returns.
AI training for sales teams
From AI training for sales teams
Will AI write our sales emails for us?
It will draft them faster. The training covers using it for research and first drafts while the salesperson keeps the judgement and the relationship.
Which tools do you train on?
Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, whichever your team already has.
Fractional sales leadership
From Fractional sales and commercial leadership
How many days a week is a fractional sales director?
Usually one day a week, sometimes two. The second day follows what you need, and usually means more hands-on deal work with your leadership team and more build work.
Will you manage my sales team?
Not if you already have a sales lead. I coach and advise; I don't line-manage. The exception is a business with junior salespeople and no sales manager: there I work hands-on in deals and run the sales side day to day until you have your own leader.
What will I have after 90 days?
Documentation of how your sales system is set up, what works and what isn't working yet and gets improved next. A working sales system you can see and run, and the first numbers from it. I don't promise revenue figures.
What are the terms?
Month to month with 30 days' notice. Tools such as Clay and Lemlist sit in your own accounts and are paid for by you, so you keep the whole system if we stop.
Hire cost calculator
From Fractional vs full-time sales hire cost calculator
How much does it cost to hire a sales director in the UK?
Typically £6,000 to £19,000 to hire for a senior role according to CIPD, before salary, employer National Insurance, pension and the months before the hire is fully productive. The calculator adds these up for your figures.
What does a bad hire cost?
The REC estimates a poor hire at mid-manager level on £42,000 can cost a business more than £132,000, roughly three times salary.
Why doesn't the calculator show your fee?
Fractional fees depend on the days a week and the scope, so I quote them after a free call. Enter any fractional quote you have to compare.
Google Shopping and ecommerce ads
From Google Shopping and ecommerce ads
Standard Shopping or Performance Max?
Standard Shopping first when the account has little conversion data, because Performance Max needs data to learn from. Performance Max once the account records enough conversions with values tracked.
Do you fix product feeds?
Yes. Titles, categories, prices, availability and disapprovals in Merchant Center are usually the first things to fix.
Paid issue call
From Paid issue call
What kind of questions can I bring?
Anything specific about sales, ads or AI. For example: should my first sales hire be senior or junior, is my agency's Performance Max setup right for my data, or where should my team start with AI.
Do I get anything in writing?
No written deliverable. It's live, verbal advice, and you're welcome to take notes or record it.
When do I pay?
When you book. The slot is confirmed once payment goes through.
Ad spend health check
Do I need to connect my ad account?
No. It's a questionnaire, so there's no account connection and nothing stored about your account.
Why doesn't it tell me how to fix things?
Because the fix depends on why it's happening in your account, and that needs someone to look at it. The check shows what's wrong and how serious it is. The £97 ad account teardown explains why, and what to fix first.
Commercial audit
From Commercial audit
How much does the commercial audit cost?
I quote it on the free scoping call, because it depends on the size of the team and the business. The fee is credited against the first month of a retainer if you ask me to implement the plan.
How long does it take?
Two weeks from the date I have access and recordings.
What if our calls aren't recorded?
I can sit in on live calls during the audit window instead.
What about the personal data in call recordings?
Recordings contain your prospects' personal data. The terms of engagement include a data processing clause, and you confirm the recordings were made with proper notice to the people on them.
Go-to-market strategy
What's included in a go-to-market strategy?
Target segments, an ideal customer profile and ideal customer situation, positioning and messaging, channels, pricing and packaging, and a launch sequence with numbers to measure.
How is it different from a marketing plan?
It covers the whole route to revenue, including how leads are qualified, followed up and closed, as well as how they're generated.
Ad management
From Google and Meta ad management, run by one accountable person
Who owns the ad account?
You do. It's set up in your business's name with admin access for you. If we stop working together, you keep the account and all of its history.
Do you mark up ad spend?
No. You pay Google or Meta directly, and I never add a margin to it.
Is there a minimum budget?
I don't turn anyone away, but what I recommend changes with budget. Below about £600 a month, or for a new account, Set Up and Go usually makes more sense than ongoing management. From about £1,000 a month, management can pay back.
How quickly do you reply?
Within one working day, usually the same day.
Do you use AI to run the ads?
Yes, openly. AI-assisted workflows make setup faster and monitoring closer. I make the decisions and I'm accountable for the account.
Ads for Shopify and ecommerce brands
From Ads for Shopify and ecommerce brands
What ROAS should my store aim for?
It depends on your margin and your fees. At a 40% margin, £1,000 of spend and a £400 fee, break-even is 3.5, not the 2.5 you'd get from ad spend alone.
AI for proposals and presentations
From AI for proposals and presentations
Do you build the templates for us?
Either I teach your team to build them, or I build the prompt library and templates for you. Built-for-you work is quoted on scope.
AI search readiness check
From AI search readiness check
What happens to the address I enter?
I fetch the public pages at that address to run the check. Nothing is stored unless you ask for the report by email.
AI training
From AI training built around your team's real work
Which AI tools do you train on?
Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. I build the sessions around the tools your team already has.
How long is the programme?
Two or three sessions, pitched at your team's current level and focused on real improvements such as email triage, workflows, better prompting or a specific project.
Can you build the automations for us instead?
Yes. I can teach your team to build their own workflows, or build the agents, prompt libraries and repeatable workflows for you. Built-for-you work is quoted on scope.
How is it priced?
It starts with a free scoping call. You then get a written proposal priced to your team's size and needs.
AI visibility teardown
What are SEO, GEO and AEO?
SEO is ranking in search results. AEO, answer engine optimisation, is being the answer Google's AI Overviews and featured snippets show. GEO, generative engine optimisation, is being quoted and linked by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini.
Does a missing robots.txt block AI crawlers?
No. With no robots.txt, every crawler is allowed. The real problems are a robots.txt that blocks AI crawlers, and Cloudflare's setting that blocks AI crawlers by default on many domains.
What if I need more than the basics?
Where you need full SEO, I bring in a specialist and stay your point of contact.
Sales process and playbook
From Sales process and playbook
What's in a sales playbook?
Who you sell to, the stages a deal moves through, how each stage is qualified, what gets said at first contact, discovery, proposal and close, how objections are handled and who hands over to whom.
Do you use a qualification framework such as MEDDIC?
Where it fits. I built MEDDIC-aligned qualification at Docan for enterprise software sales. Smaller deals need something lighter, so the playbook uses whatever matches your deal size.
Advisory
From Advisory calls and audits
What's the difference between the scoping call and the issue call?
The scoping call is free and about fit: what's happening, whether I can help and what an engagement would look like. I won't try to solve the problem on it. The issue call is a paid hour on one specific question, with a straight answer at the end and no obligation afterwards.
Is VAT charged?
No. Stratus Growth Limited isn't VAT registered, so no VAT is charged.
Are the fees credited if I go ahead?
Yes. The commercial audit fee is credited against the first month of a retainer. The ad account teardown is credited against management, and the AI visibility teardown against follow-on work.
CRM setup and pipeline management
From CRM setup and pipeline management
Which CRM do you use?
Mostly HubSpot, whose free CRM suits most small businesses. The same principles apply to any CRM.
Who pays for the tools?
You do, in your own accounts. HubSpot, Clay and any sequencing tool are set up in your name, so you keep everything if we stop.
Lead generation ads for service businesses
From Lead generation ads for service businesses
What's a good cost per lead?
The one your close rate and margin can support. If one lead in five becomes work, your break-even cost per lead is a fifth of the profit on a job, less the management fee spread across the month's leads.
Moving beyond founder-led sales
From Moving beyond founder-led sales
When should a founder stop selling?
Gradually. You stay in the deals where you add most, usually the biggest and most strategic, and step out of the rest once a repeatable process exists and someone else can run it.
Should my first sales hire be senior or junior?
It depends on whether there's a process for them to follow. Juniors hired into no process rarely succeed. A fractional sales director can build the process and manage juniors until you're ready for your own leader.
Set Up and Go
From Set Up and Go
How much does Set Up and Go cost?
I quote it on the free call, because it depends on the platforms and how much needs building. It's one-off work, never a retainer.
Why won't you manage a small budget?
Because a management fee on a small budget rarely pays back, and I'd rather you kept that money. A retainer that can't pay back costs you, and it costs my reputation.
Can I move to management later?
Yes. When your budget grows, a teardown will show whether management makes sense.
Switching from your ad agency
From Switching from your ad agency
Will I lose my account history if I leave?
Not if the ad account belongs to your business. If the agency created it under its own manager account, ask for ownership to be transferred before you give notice.
What should I ask the agency for?
Admin access in your name, the conversion actions and how they're set up, any audience lists, the landing pages they built and your reports. The agency switching checklist lists them all.
Will my ads stop while we switch?
No. I plan the handover so campaigns keep running while access changes.
Ad account teardown
From Ad account teardown
Why pay £97 when agencies offer free audits?
A free audit is a sales step, so its job is to sell you management. The teardown is paid, so its job is to tell you what's wrong. You keep the summary whatever you decide, and the £97 is credited if you hire me to manage the account.
What do you need from me?
Read-only access to your ad account and, ideally, Google Analytics, plus your own figures for last month's sales or enquiries.
Is there a minimum spend?
The teardown is built for accounts spending about £600 a month or more. Below that, or for a new account, the free Set Up and Go call is usually the better first step. I'll tell you which fits when you book.
Book a call
From Book a call
Which call should I book?
Weighing up ongoing help: the free scoping call. One question: the £150 issue call. Spending £600 a month or more on ads: the ad account teardown. Wondering whether AI assistants can find you: the AI visibility teardown. A small or new ad budget: the free Set Up and Go call.
How I work
From How I work
What happens to my tools and accounts if we stop?
They stay yours. Ad accounts, the CRM and tools such as Clay and Lemlist are set up in your own accounts and paid for by you.
When can you start?
We set a start date together when the scope is agreed.
Pricing
From How much does it cost to work with me?
Why aren't some prices shown?
Because they depend on your business: the days needed, the size of the team, your ad spend and platforms, and how complex the account is. A number without that context would be wrong for most people. Every quote comes after a free call.
Is VAT charged?
No. Stratus Growth Limited isn't VAT registered, so no VAT is charged.
Is there a minimum term?
No. Everything is month to month with 30 days' notice.
What happens to my ad account if we stop?
Nothing changes about who owns it. It's in your business's name with admin access for you, and you keep it and all of its history.
Can I start with one thing?
Yes. Most people start with a free scoping call, a £150 issue call or one of the £97 teardowns, and decide from there.
Home
From Senior sales leadership and ads that pay back, without a full-time hire
What does a fractional sales director do?
A fractional sales director runs your sales function part-time, usually one day a week and sometimes two. I build the process, pipeline and CRM, coach the people already selling and work on live deals, without the cost of a full-time senior hire.
How much does it cost to work with you?
Three things have fixed prices: the £150 paid issue call, the £97 ad account teardown and the £97 AI visibility teardown. No VAT is charged. Ongoing work is quoted after a free scoping call, because it depends on your business. Terms are month to month with 30 days' notice.
Do you work with businesses outside Manchester?
Yes. I'm based in Manchester and work remotely across the UK. Every engagement includes some time in person, because nobody understands a business properly through a screen.
Will I work with you or with a junior account manager?
With me. The person who diagnoses the problem does the work, and I reply within one working day, usually the same day.
Do I own what you build?
Yes. Ad accounts, the CRM and tools such as Clay and Lemlist sit in your own accounts and are paid for by you, so you keep all of it if we stop working together.
Two ways to start
Free
You're weighing up ongoing help
A 60-minute call to work out what's going on and whether I'm the right person to fix it. If I'm not, I'll say so on the call and tell you what would help instead.
£150 · One hour · No VAT is charged
You have one question that needs a straight answer
Bring the question. You leave the hour with my answer and the reasoning behind it, with no retainer and no obligation afterwards.
Not sure which? Answer three questions and I'll point you to the right one.