What I Look for in a CRO Partner (From the Other Side of the Table)

Flipping the Lens on CRO Partnerships

Most of the time, when people talk about CRO services, it’s from a sales perspective—what we offer, what you get, why it’s worth it. But as someone who’s worked in this space for over a decade, I’ve come to believe that the relationship matters just as much as the methodology.

Because Conversion Rate Optimization isn’t just a service you purchase. It’s a partnership you build.

And like any good partnership, it works best when expectations go both ways.

This post isn’t a sales pitch—it’s a perspective shift. These are the traits I’ve come to value in the clients I work best with. It’s what I look for when I’m on your side of the table, deciding whether to go all in on a CRO rebuild or walk away before misalignment turns into frustration.

You Care About the “Why,” Not Just the “What”

I don’t expect every client to come in with a background in UX, marketing psychology, or analytics. In fact, most don’t.

But the clients I do my best work with tend to have one key trait in common: they’re curious.

They don’t just say, “Make the button bigger.” They ask, “Why do you think people aren’t clicking?”
They don’t just want prettier pages. They want to understand how user behavior connects to business outcomes.

That mindset doesn’t just make the process smoother.
It makes the strategy smarter.

Because the truth is, if you’re only looking for someone to execute instructions, you don’t want a CRO partner—you want a task-runner. And there are plenty of people who do that.

But if you want to collaborate—to learn, to test, to uncover what really works for your audience—that’s where things get interesting.

You’ve Got Enough Traffic to Learn From

This one’s simple: you can’t optimize what you can’t observe.

CRO relies on patterns, and patterns require data. If your site gets 50 visits a month, even the world’s most beautifully structured A/B test isn’t going to give you meaningful results.

That doesn’t mean you need enterprise-level traffic. Many of my clients are in the 10k–30k monthly visitor range and get plenty of insight.

What matters most is:

• That traffic is flowing to meaningful pages (not just your homepage)
• There’s some user intent to act—read, contact, schedule, buy
• You’re open to improving those journeys, not just watching the numbers

If you’re already publishing content or running ads, you’re probably sitting on more testable traffic than you think.

We don’t need a million impressions. We just need a signal we can listen to—and a system we can tune.

You’re Willing to Think Iteratively

One of the biggest mindset shifts in CRO is letting go of the idea that everything has to be “right” the first time.

Great partners understand that optimization is a process—not a grand unveiling.
Sometimes we launch a version that’s intentionally incomplete—because the goal is to learn. Sometimes the first test loses—and teaches us something we couldn’t have guessed.

If you need every change to be perfect before it goes live, CRO is going to feel risky.
If you can embrace the idea that testing makes things safer, not shakier, you’ll start to see opportunity where others see uncertainty.

CRO is for people who value progress over polish—data over dogma.

The clients who get the best results are the ones who say, “Let’s find out,” not just, “Let’s get it done.”

You’ll Let Go of “Gut Feel” When the Data Says Otherwise

I love instinct. I use it all the time in my own business.

But when it comes to conversion behavior, gut feel has limits.
Because you are not your user—and what feels obvious to you might not even register to them.

Sometimes the button color matters. Sometimes it doesn’t.
Sometimes a form converts better with fewer fields. Sometimes people want the extra friction.

The only way to know is to test. And the only way to act on what you learn… is to be open to being wrong.

The best CRO partners don’t ignore their instincts—they hold them loosely.
They’re willing to be surprised.

This doesn’t mean ceding all control. It means co-creating a strategy where everyone agrees: if the data says something different, we adjust.

You’re In This for the Long Game

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
Great CRO doesn’t happen in a month.

You might get a few quick wins. You might even double your clickthrough rate on one offer. But the real magic? It comes from stacking small insights, month over month, until the whole system performs better—not just the parts.

That means sticking around. That means scheduling review calls, looking at the numbers, asking better questions.

It means building a site that gets smarter—not just prettier.

If your goal is a one-time launch and a clean “done” stamp, we’re probably not the right fit.
But if you want a growth engine that adapts as your business does—we’ll probably get along just fine.

Wrap-Up: It’s a Partnership—And That’s a Good Thing

At its core, CRO isn’t about changing buttons. It’s about changing relationships—between your users and your website, your offers and your outcomes, your goals and your execution.

And like any relationship, the most powerful ones are built on alignment.

If you see yourself in what I’ve described above, there’s a good chance we’ll work well together.
And if you don’t? That’s okay too. Not every business is ready for this kind of investment—and not every partnership needs to happen.

But when it is the right fit?
The results speak for themselves.

Learn What to Expect From a Discovery Call or Explore How Our CRO System Works