Method
The method is the same whether the engagement is a short diagnostic or a longer programme. We collect evidence, form one recommendation, write it down, and only then talk about who should execute. The sequence exists so that a later reader, who was not in the room, can still follow the argument.
Why a sequence
Marketing conversations drift. A meeting that begins with pipeline quality can end with a request for new creative or a channel idea. A written sequence protects the original question long enough for it to be answered. You can see what we will do in week one, what we will not do until the evidence is in, and where you can stop if the work is no longer useful. The process below is how we hold ourselves to that standard. The unpaid first call is step one, and it is complete even if nothing follows.
Steps
Project formats travel through all six steps. Standing advisory repeats the later steps on a monthly cadence once a recommendation already exists. Dates flex with access and with how many markets we must cover. The order does not.
Opening conversation
A ninety-minute call with the decision-maker. We listen for the demand you can already describe, the work you have already paid for, and the decision that is actually pending. There is no charge. If we are the wrong firm, we say so here.
Evidence review
We read analytics, customer records, past briefs and agency reports. Gaps are recorded rather than filled with confidence. This stage is quiet by design. Most of the later recommendation is already visible in this material if we look at it without a campaign to defend.
Working sessions
We sit with the people who sell and, where it helps, with the person who owns the numbers. These sessions are structured around live opportunities and lost work rather than a blank whiteboard. We are testing whether the story in the documents matches the story in the room.
Draft recommendation
We write one recommended action, the evidence that supports it, the costs of taking it, and the costs of leaving the current path alone. If marketing is the wrong lever, that is the recommendation. The draft is a complete argument. A slide deck waiting for a workshop is not the deliverable.
Challenge and revision
We walk the draft with the decision-maker. The purpose is to find the sentence that will not survive a board reading, and to fix it. We also check that the organisation can actually carry the action. A recommendation that needs headcount you do not have is still unfinished.
Written handover
You receive the final note, the supporting evidence, and a short brief for whoever will execute. The engagement ends here unless you commission standing advisory. We remain available for a follow-up call if a later reader of the document needs the argument repeated.
The document
Every paid engagement ends with a document a director can reuse. It names the question we were asked, the evidence we used, the limits of that evidence, and the one action we recommend. It also names the costs of that action in money, time and attention, and the costs of leaving the current path alone. If we believe two paths are still reasonable, we still choose one and write why. Annexes hold tables and extracts so the main argument stays short enough to read before a board meeting. We do not deliver a slide deck as a substitute for this note. Slides can follow if you need them for a specific audience, and they will point back to the same sentences.
The document is dated. If the facts change, the date tells a later reader that the argument has a life span. Standing advisory exists partly so that date does not become an excuse to ignore the original recommendation, and partly so that we can revise it in writing when the facts have actually moved.
Time
A diagnostic usually takes two to three weeks of elapsed time, with most of the calendar waiting on access and on the diaries of people who sell. Positioning work needs four to six weeks because the language has to be drafted, used on a live conversation, and revised. Programme design needs six to eight weeks because capacity in sales and delivery has to be checked rather than assumed. We do not compress those windows by skipping the challenge step. If your dates are fixed by a board meeting, tell us on the first call. We will say whether the quality of work can fit, or whether a narrower question would be more honest.
You will not receive weekly slide packs. You will receive a short note if we are blocked, and you will receive the draft on the date we agreed. If your organisation needs a mid-point conversation for governance, we will put it in the written scope.
Stopping
We stop if the evidence shows that marketing advice cannot change the outcome, and we write that as the recommendation. We also stop if the decision-maker leaves the process, because a document nobody can accept is not a deliverable. If access to data is refused after we begin, we pause and we do not invent the missing picture. Fees already earned for work completed stay earned; we do not bill for steps we did not take. This is set out in the written confirmation before work starts, so the ending is not a surprise. We would rather a short, true diagnostic than a full-length programme built on a question that has already collapsed.
If we cannot show our working, we do not yet have advice worth charging for.
Bring the demand problem you are actually looking at. The first ninety minutes follow step one of this process, with no fee and no obligation to continue. If we take work after that, the remaining steps and the fee will be in writing before we start.