Commercial Diagnostic: why did the result change?
Sales are up without more profit. The team is making more calls, but orders are not increasing. Or costs have risen unexpectedly. The review compares the plausible causes with the records available, so management can decide what is worth changing.
Unsnag is not VAT registered, so no VAT is charged. Digital delivery is included. Travel or work outside scope is quoted separately.
What result changed — and what did management expect?
The business may have taken a perfectly sensible action, or the conditions around it may have changed. The job is to see what happened after it, where the expected link failed and which explanation the evidence supports.
The team is busier. The amount of work won is not.
Delivery got busier. Profit did not.
The cost base grew. The pressure did not ease.
The product changed. Sales did not get easier.
What else could explain the result?
A weak sales result may be tied to lead quality, an uncompetitive offer, slow decisions or problems in delivery. The first step is to establish where the outcome changed.
Company, offer, market context, customer model and the material conditions, decisions or changes relevant to the result.
90 minutes with the owner, Sales Director, COO or person responsible for the overall result.
Up to five additional 30-45 minute conversations with the people who saw different parts of what happened.
A targeted sample of existing commercial and operational records, reports, cases, projects, proposals or other traces relevant to the question.
I list the plausible explanations before choosing which ones to test.
Each explanation is compared with the records, examples and accounts the business actually has - including evidence that points the other way.
The response depends on where the change began
Each explanation needs a different test and could lead to a different management decision.
Sales worked harder, but there were not enough real opportunities - or the real limitation sat somewhere else.
More customers brought more promises, exceptions and delivery work than the business expected.
More people increased coordination and chasing without removing the thing slowing the work down.
Product effort went into improvements customers did not value enough to change what they bought.
Individual teams improved their own numbers while the overall business result stayed flat or worsened.
The written Commercial Diagnostic
A written analysis showing the evidence, the reasoning and its implications for the next decision.
The result or trend being investigated, relevant actions and the observed mismatch.
The steps that were expected to turn the change into a better result.
What the available interviews and operational/commercial evidence actually show.
The explanations considered, and what supports or weakens each one.
The best-supported explanation, if the evidence allows one; otherwise competing hypotheses, remaining uncertainty and a practical next test.
A clear boundary between evidence, inference and questions the business cannot currently answer.
What the finding changes for Sales, Marketing, Delivery, Product, staffing or management information.
A proportionate next check or change, with the reason for recommending it.
Which planned changes are supported by the findings, and which should be reconsidered.
Timing. The written Commercial Diagnostic is normally delivered within 10 working days of the final agreed evidence session or input. The investigation boundaries and timetable are confirmed before work begins.
See how a plausible explanation is tested against the mechanism between action and result.
The anonymised situations show what was observed, the possible commercial mechanism and where further evidence would be needed to establish the consequence.
See situations from earlier professional work →One agreed question and a defined evidence sample
The fixed fee covers a targeted review of existing records and cases relevant to the agreed question.
If the initial evidence points to a larger data exercise, I explain what it would involve before any additional work is agreed.
Scope: one material commercial question, the stated interviews, a targeted sample of relevant records and a written diagnostic. Large-scale data cleansing, statistical attribution, market research, organisation-wide mapping or implementation would require separate scope. Where more than one explanation remains plausible, the findings identify what would help distinguish them.
Please do not share confidential files in an initial LinkedIn message; evidence access and confidentiality arrangements are agreed separately.
The diagnostic starts with information the business already has. Additional data collection is proposed where it would materially improve the decision.
When the figures are clear but the business explanation is not.
If Finance or your accountant has established that profit, margin or another financial result changed, and the financial data does not fully explain the operational reason behind it, I can use that as the starting point.
I trace what changed in customer behaviour, commercial commitments, staffing, delivery demand or the way work was generated.
Financial figures are taken from the business or its accountant; the diagnostic examines the commercial and operational activity behind them.
If nobody can follow the story at all, map visibility first.
If the answer is scattered across systems, spreadsheets and people, the smaller Revenue Visibility Review may be the better first step.
Revenue Visibility Review · £595 →What question would make a focused investigation worthwhile?
Choose the scope according to the decision the business needs to make.