What We Actually Do in the First 30 Days
The Diagnose phase is not an audit. It's a search for the one structural constraint that's capping your trajectory. Here's how we find it.
When I start a new engagement, the CEO almost always hands me a list of problems. The sales team underperforms. The pipeline is unpredictable. Marketing isn't generating leads. The pricing model needs work. The list goes on. My job in the first thirty days is not to address that list. It's to find the single constraint that, if removed, would unlock the rest.
What Diagnose Actually Involves
- 1Revenue archaeology: A transaction-level analysis of the last two to three years of closed business. What closed, when, at what margin, through what channel, to which customer profile.
- 2Commercial infrastructure review: A structured assessment of the sales process, pipeline management, compensation design, onboarding, and measurement systems.
- 3Stakeholder interviews: Conversations with the CEO, CFO, VP of Sales, frontline reps, customers, and occasionally one lost deal.
- 4Constraint mapping: Locating the one or two structural constraints with the most downstream consequence.
I'm not looking for what's broken. I'm looking for what's limiting. Many things can be broken without limiting growth. The constraint is the one thing that, when addressed, makes everything else easier.
A thought before you continue
If what you're reading is describing a problem your company is actively sitting on, the application is where it starts.
See if we're a fitThe constraint usually falls into one of three categories: a positioning problem, a structural commercial infrastructure problem, or a leadership capability problem. Each has a completely different solution path.
Why This Matters Before Anything Else
Companies spend enormous amounts of money solving the wrong problem because they skip the diagnosis. They hire a new VP of Sales when the problem is positioning. They rebuild the sales process when the problem is customer mix. Thirty days of rigorous diagnosis is the best investment a mid-market company can make before spending another dollar on growth.
Work with Jeff
If any of this mirrors where your business is right now, let's have a direct conversation about it.
The application takes about four minutes. It's not a pitch - it's a filter to make sure there's a real fit before either of us invests time.
Apply to work together
Jeff Bounds
Revenue growth advisor to growth-stage founders and CEOs.
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