23%
$3.1M
8 to 24
People driving revenue
Four years of growth. Then the levers stopped working.
From 2020 through 2024, Blackhawk had a good run. Revenue climbed year after year. The playbook was working.
Then 2025 arrived, and everything that had been working stopped. Revenue fell back 12 to 14 percent. EBITDA fell with it. Digital marketing wasn’t producing. The outbound sales effort wasn’t producing. The eight people responsible for driving revenue, four inside salespeople and four outside agents, were doing everything they knew how to do.
John, the CEO, and his Chief Revenue Officer knew they had to do something different. In the fourth quarter of 2025, they made the decision.
“We had a good growth run from 2020 through 2024. Then last year, revenue fell back 12 to 14 percent. Digital marketing wasn't working. Our outbound sales efforts weren't working. So we gave Outgrow a try, and it's been a phenomenal success.”
— John, CEO, Blackhawk Technology Group
The customers said what the team had stopped telling itself.
In critical infrastructure, urgency is the job. When a customer calls, something matters, and it matters now. Blackhawk built its whole culture around that. Every employee in the company operates with a huge sense of urgency. It’s one of their stated uniques.
The cost of that culture is where the team’s attention lives. When you spend every day solving problems, you start to believe the problems are the whole story. You forget to celebrate the wins.
Before the launch workshop, their Outgrow Advisor, Scotty Baudoin, interviewed Blackhawk’s employees and its customers. Then he put 30 people in a room and let them hear what their customers actually said. That they rely on Blackhawk. That they’ve stayed for 10, 15, 20 years. That the work has a real impact on their businesses.
Then Scotty made the room pick up the phone. Live, in the workshop. Two or three wins landed before the day was over.
“You tend to think negatively when you're only dealing with problems day to day. Scotty painted a dream about how our customers really feel about us, and the impact we have on their businesses. It changed some mindsets.”
— John, CEO
Eight people drove revenue. Now 24 do.
01
The people already in the conversation started asking the questions
02
Outgrow became the engine for going deeper into existing accounts
03
The quiet ones surprised everyone
“After Outgrow, everybody's thinking: I can have an impact on my own future by helping this company be more successful. Before, they thought it was just about doing what fell within their job description."
— John, CEO
One voicemail, one text, and the customer who ghosts for months answered the same day.
During the workshop, John reached out to the Director of Global Security at one of the largest renewable energy companies in the world, a contact who routinely goes dark for months. John called, left a voicemail, and immediately sent a text: I’m going to be in Houston next week, do you have time for lunch?
The reply came back the same day. The lunch happened. It led to additional business. John now uses the VM+Text on a regular basis.
— John, CEO
The down year reversed. The data proves where the growth is coming from.
“We track the deal from end to end. Now we're able to tie an opportunity to where it came from. We know Outgrow is a substantial portion of the revenue growth.”
— John, CEO
Committing in a down year was the hard part. The advisor made it possible.
There is a real expense associated with Outgrow. In a down year, with cash flow tight, committing to it was one of the hardest decisions John and his Chief Revenue Officer faced. They wanted to. They weren’t sure they could.
Scotty stayed patient. He kept working with them, kept making himself available, and never pushed. When Blackhawk finally reached the wall, the decision made itself. Scotty dug in immediately, did the work behind the scenes, and delivered from the workshop on.
“Scotty was very patient. When we finally reached the wall, we said, hey, we've got to do something or we're not going to recover. He really dug in, did all the work behind the scenes, and from the workshop on, it's been great.”
— John, CEO
Ask John whether Outgrow is worth it. He'll keep it short.
We asked John what he would tell another business owner who was thinking about Outgrow but wasn’t sure.
“If you want to grow your revenue, you should absolutely do it. If you don't want to grow your revenue, then stay away.”
— John, CEO, Blackhawk Technology Group