How I investigate a business question
A fall in orders, a disappointing margin or a proposed CRM investment can each have several explanations. I start with the decision the business needs to make, compare the explanations against the available records and identify what can be established — and what cannot.
Start with the decision and the expected result
For a CRM proposal review, I start with the decision and the as-is process, compare these with the proposed supplier scope, and identify customer-side duties and unknowns. The review can recommend clarifying scope, testing an assumption, staging the work or proceeding.
Ask what was supposed to change — and what actually changed
The same disappointing result can come from very different mechanisms.
Define the change
What did management increase, introduce or redesign?
Define the expectation
What result was supposed to move, and why?
Follow what happened
What had to happen in the business for that result to follow?
Test reality
Which explanation is actually supported by evidence?
Decide what the system must do — and what it should not own
Do this before vendor features start defining the requirement.
Define the intended change
What should be better once CRM exists?
Define the business requirement
Which customer states, decisions, handoffs or commercial facts need to be represented?
Set the system boundary
What should CRM own, and what should it only see from elsewhere?
Decide the next step
Buy, fix a prerequisite, pair CRM with another system, or do not buy yet.
Separate what the records show from what remains uncertain
The aim is to make a defensible next decision. Sometimes a small sample is enough; sometimes the records cannot answer the question.
Direct evidence supports the finding.
Several independent traces point in the same direction.
The business does not currently capture what would be needed to establish the answer.
The smallest useful measurement or check that would reduce uncertainty.
Evidence that weakens the preferred explanation is kept visible rather than explained away.
A plausible explanation that the available evidence does not currently justify.
Check what you already know before asking people to record more
We can begin by identifying which existing records are useful, which are inconsistent and what the gaps prevent management from establishing.
I can work from interviews, recent commercial situations, proposals, account history, operational traces, system records and existing reports.
Every additional data point has a cost: somebody has to define it, capture it, maintain it and use it. I recommend new capture only where the missing evidence would materially change a decision.
If the remaining question genuinely depends on data the business does not have, that gap becomes part of the finding rather than a number built from guesses.
If the records cannot distinguish between two explanations, I say so. That is more useful than an unjustifiably confident answer.
Revenue Visibility Review
Can management trace the result through the reporting, systems and records behind it?
£595 · written PDF →Commercial Diagnostic
Why has a commercial result changed or failed to improve, given the available evidence?
£1,950 · written PDF →CRM Decision Review
Before a system change: what should CRM actually improve, own and represent?
£300 · written brief →I do some homework first.
I look at the company, offer, customers, business model and the visible change before the first conversation.
You receive a written PDF.
The three fixed-price products end with a documented decision or finding. A separate CRM Proposal Review is scoped and priced in writing for a specific supplier proposal. The analysis does not disappear when the meeting ends.
I separate the business question from the software that records it.
The CRM may be part of the mechanism. Or it may simply be where an older commercial model becomes visible.
See why CRM problems keep coming back →System requirements follow the commercial decision and the information needed to support it.
Process, Management View, reporting, CRM configuration, integration, automation and custom development are scoped only after the requirement is clear.
See services →