About
Thirty-six years selling and running IT services — eighteen of them at Phoenix Software, latterly as Services Director. GrowthLift exists to give smaller businesses the systems enterprise buyers have had for years.
Following thirty-six years traversing the information technology landscape, I have been involved in selling most products and services related to IT. I started GrowthLift because I am passionate about supporting business owners on their journey to grow their business by implementing the latest solutions, including artificial intelligence and automation.
One of my key goals is to arm business owners with systems that not only add value to growth, but also build intellectual property into the business, should the owners ever wish to sell it.
Phoenix Software · 18 years
I worked my way up to Services Director, responsible for the sales and delivery of Phoenix's services. That role gave me direct insight into how a business is led and managed, the day-to-day impact of internal and external pressures, and how IT solutions make a real difference when you consult towards an outcome rather than sell a product.
Insight UK
I joined Insight to improve sales performance and the quality of service across the whole portfolio.
SHI International
Working with enterprise customers across the UK and Europe on developing their IT asset management capability.
I started my IT sales career in 1990 and have watched technology evolve for thirty-six years, helping businesses take the benefits of it seriously enough to change their outcomes.
Enterprise businesses could afford chat agents, AI agents and automated workflows to streamline how they attract and handle customers. Smaller businesses had neither the skills nor the knowledge to employ the same technology. The result is a great many businesses whose websites and marketing were never built for how buyers now search, and whose enquiries are lost to slow or missed responses.
So I took an approach that works in the enterprise space and built it for smaller firms. Speed to lead matters: a customer who has spent time researching you and then makes contact will not wait. Being visible to AI search means being found in the first place, and answering immediately means keeping the enquiry once it arrives.
Most people selling AI will show you a statistic. Very few have read the study behind it. We grade every number we put in front of a client — the source, the sample, the date — and we publish the ones that count against us alongside the ones that help.
The best-known claim in this field is that replying within five minutes makes you twenty-one times more likely to convert. It does not survive checking, so it is not on our site, and we say why on the evidence page. The research we do rely on is peer-reviewed, and we are equally clear that it has never tested an automated reply. That is an open question, and we would rather name it than paper over it.
If the fit is poor we say so in week one, and you do not spend the money.
Everything is created inside accounts in your name. No lock-in.
Response time, quotes issued and win rate are recorded before go-live and reported monthly.
That is a conversation we start, not one you have to.
Reactive services businesses across the UK — the firms where work arrives as an enquiry and is won or lost on how quickly it is answered and quoted. Building services, HVAC, roofing, hire, hygiene, industrial services and waste are typical. We work UK-wide.
I am based in York. Away from the business I sail, and hold an RYA Yachtmaster certificate.
Straight answers
GrowthLift is Steve Waugh. He began his IT sales career in 1990, spent eighteen years at Phoenix Software rising to Services Director, and later held senior roles at Insight UK and SHI International. He works with clients directly.
Thirty-six years in enterprise IT, and an ISO 42001 Lead Auditor certification gained through Mastermind Assurance in December 2025. ISO 42001 is the international standard for managing AI systems responsibly.
No. It is a small, owner-led business. That means you deal with the person doing the work, and it means we take on a limited number of installs at a time.
Steve is based in York and GrowthLift works with services businesses across the UK. Most are reactive service firms where enquiries arrive by phone, form or email and are won on response speed.
Because a claim you cannot check is worth nothing. We grade every statistic by source, sample and date, and publish the ones that weaken our case, including the fact that no study has yet tested whether an automated fast reply works as well as a human one.
A twenty-minute call, no pitch. If your business is not a good fit for this, I will tell you on the call.
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