How to Run a 60-Minute Q3 Marketing Reset That Actually Ends With Decisions
A four-phase recipe, timed. The reasoning was in Issue #013 and #014 — this is what to actually do. No H1 dashboard yet? Build it first, then come back.
Sources: Improvado — Marketing Budget Allocation Framework 2026 · WebFX — 2026 Home Services Marketing Benchmarks · Pipeline On — Jobber ROI Tracking
Phase 1 — Before the Meeting
1. Build the one-page dashboard and send it 24 hours ahead. One tab, five columns: Channel · H1 Spend · Booked Jobs · Cost-Per-Booked-Job · Revenue. One row per paid channel; pull spend from the ad platforms and jobs/revenue from your FSM by source. No clean attribution yet? Write "UNATTRIBUTED" — that gap is itself a Q3 fix. Email it the day before with three sentences: "Reset meeting tomorrow. Read this first. Bring two channels to scale and two to cap." No deck.
2. Lock the room to three people. Owner, marketing lead, ops manager (who owns the FSM data). That's it — no agency seats, no observers. Three people can decide in an hour; five can't. Invite the agency to a separate follow-up once the plan is written.
Phase 2 — Minutes 0–20 (Read the Numbers)
3. Dashboard on screen. Five minutes of silence. Set a timer. Everyone reads silently — nobody narrates. The discomfort is the point: it forces the numbers to land before opinions do. Most reset meetings die right here, when someone starts explaining and the room nods along.
4. Everyone writes two scales and two caps, then compare. Three minutes, on paper, independent — the two channels each person would scale and the two they'd cap. Then read them out and write them up. Unanimous picks are done — skip them. The disagreements are the real meeting. Mark which channels need debate and move on.
Phase 3 — Minutes 20–45 (Make the Decisions)
5. Answer the four reset questions, in order. Same four every quarter, about six minutes each:
- (a) Where are we capping?
- (b) Where are we scaling?
- (c) What are we testing? (one or two new channels not on the dashboard)
- (d) What's our drift threshold? (the cost-per-booked-job that puts a channel on watch)
If the room can't agree, the owner calls it. Move on.
6. Reallocate 10–15% of budget — one named owner per row. This is the actual reset. Add two columns: Q3 Budget and Owner. Fill them in row by row, out loud. The total should match this quarter — you're reallocating, not adding. Improvado's 2026 framework benchmarks top performers at 10–15% moved per quarter: less isn't a reset, more is overcorrecting. Every row gets a first name, not "marketing." Can't name an owner? Kill the decision.
Phase 4 — Minutes 45–60 (Write It Down)
7. Fill the one-page Q3 plan and email it from the room. Five sections: Q3 Budget by Channel · Caps · Scales · Tests · Drift Thresholds. Fill it in together, out loud — writing it surfaces ambiguity that "we're aligned" hides. Then hit send to all three before anyone leaves. If a decision is wrong, you hear it in 15 seconds, not three weeks.
8. Lock the cadence before you leave. Two calendar blocks, same three people: the Q4 reset in late September, and a weekly 15-minute Monday check — one question, did anything cross a drift threshold? Booking the next meeting before you finish this one is what separates companies that reset every quarter from companies that mean to.
Your Checklist
- Phase 1: one-page dashboard built, sent 24 hours ahead, three attendees confirmed (owner + marketing + ops, no agency).
- Phase 2: five minutes silent reading done, each person wrote two scales and two caps, overlaps and disagreements marked.
- Phase 3: four reset questions answered, 10–15% of budget reallocated row by row, named owner on every decision, Q4 reset meeting on the calendar.
- Phase 4: one-page Q3 plan written, emailed to all three attendees from the room, weekly Monday 15-minute dashboard review scheduled.
If you want a second set of eyes in the room — or you want us to build the H1 dashboard so the meeting can actually happen — that's the kind of work we do every quarter for our clients. Book a call and we'll sit in on the first one free.
