this is the part of the audit most people skip.
they want to fix what's broken.
they don't want to think about whether they've got the wrong amount of infrastructure in the first place.
on every 30-day call i run, the third question after 'is the infrastructure right-sized' and 'what's the 14-day data showing' is whether you should add capacity, cut capacity, or hold.
THE 3 DECISION PATHS:
add more infrastructure (UPSELL) when:
- positive reply rate is stable or climbing and you're already running at target volume per inbox
- you're turning down leads because you can't follow up fast enough
- you want to run 2+ separate campaign tracks with different icps and you're trying to share inboxes across both (don't do that, split them)
- you've got a tested, working hook and you want to scale volume without breaking what works
cut infrastructure (DOWNSELL) when:
- you're paying for inboxes that are sat idle or sending under 30% of their safe range
- your copy or targeting is broken and adding more inboxes won't fix it (this is the most common one)
- you've over-bought because a provider convinced you you needed X when you really needed half of X
do nothing to capacity (HOLD) when:
- 14-day data is trending positive but you don't have enough volume to be statistically confident yet
- you've just changed copy or targeting and you want to see that variable play out before you add the infrastructure variable on top
- a provider just pushed a policy change and the whole market is finding its new normal. sit still for 2 weeks.
THE HARD QUESTIONS I ASK MYSELF BEFORE RECOMMENDING AN UPSELL:
- would this customer hit the same reply rate on half the infrastructure with better copy?