Before anyone changes a price or writes a new follow-up message, we need to know where revenue is actually escaping. The diagnosis takes ten working days. It follows real transactions through your business, prices each leak in dollars and produces the ledger that the rest of the sprint is judged against.
What the diagnosis is
It is a structured audit of the path from first contact to repeat purchase. We take a sample of recent enquiries, typically the last 200 to 400, and follow each one forward: Was it answered? Was it quoted? How long did the quote take? Was it chased? Was it won, and at what price? Did the customer ever buy again?
Every break in that chain is a leak. Some are obvious, like voicemails nobody returned. Others hide in the numbers, like a discount that sales staff give on almost every job without being asked.
Who it is for
The diagnosis suits any business with enough transaction history to sample: at least a few dozen enquiries a month and six months of records. It works for trades and home services, professional firms, distributors, software resellers and business-to-business service companies.
If your enquiry volume is very low, we sample a longer period instead. If you have no records at all, the first job is to start keeping them, and the sprint timeline shifts accordingly.
What is included
- Transaction trace. A sample followed from first contact to payment, with every drop-off logged.
- Leak ledger. Each leak listed with an estimated monthly dollar value, a confidence rating (high, medium or low) and the lever that addresses it.
- Lever figures. Your current opportunities, win rate, average sale, days to close and repeat-purchase rate, calculated from your own data.
- Price-realisation check. List price compared with what customers actually paid, by service line.
- Order of attack. A written recommendation for how the remaining 80 days should be divided between pricing, pipeline and sales and retention.
Timeline
| Working days | Activity |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Data request, exports, short interviews with whoever answers phones and writes quotes |
| 3–6 | Transaction trace and price-realisation check |
| 7–8 | Leak ledger drafted, dollar values estimated |
| 9 | Findings reviewed with you; estimates challenged and corrected |
| 10 | Ledger and order of attack signed off |
The day-9 review matters. Owners often know why a leak exists, and that context changes the estimate.
A worked example
Suppose the trace shows that 18% of quotes over $5,000 never received a second contact, and your normal win rate on chased quotes is 35%. If 40 such quotes go out each quarter, that is about seven unchased quotes. Chasing them at a 35% win rate would win two or three more jobs a quarter, worth $10,000 to $15,000. That estimate goes on the ledger with a medium confidence rating until the follow-up routine proves it.
How results are measured
The ledger is the measuring stick. Every lever figure has a baseline date and a source. At each two-weekly readout, the same figures are recalculated the same way, so changes can be traced to specific actions. If a figure cannot be measured cleanly, we say so instead of reporting it.
What you receive at the end
A short written report, the ledger itself as a spreadsheet you own, and a one-page summary for anyone else who needs to understand the plan: a partner, a sales manager or your accountant. Nothing in it relies on our tools or logins.
Mistakes to avoid
- Diagnosing from opinion. Staff and owners often disagree about where deals are lost. The trace settles it.
- Counting leads only. A business can double its leads and still lose revenue if win rate and price fall.
- Skipping the baseline to move faster. Without it, nobody can tell a sprint win from a seasonal swing.
- Fixing everything at once. The ledger ranks leaks so the biggest, fastest ones go first.
The method behind the ledger is explained in the revenue velocity guide. To start with a diagnosis, call, text or email.
Frequently asked questions
What data do you need from us?
Usually an export of the last 6 to 12 months of enquiries or leads, quotes or proposals, and invoices, plus access to your phone log if calls matter. Spreadsheets and paper records both work; they just take longer.
Do you need access to our accounting system?
Read-only exports are normally enough. Any access you do grant stays in your name, and we document what we looked at.
What if our records are a mess?
That is a finding in itself. We sample what exists, estimate with wider error ranges, and make cleaner records one of the first changes so the later readouts are trustworthy.
Is the diagnosis confidential?
Yes. Your figures are used only for your engagement, and the terms for handling them are set out in your proposal.