Most strategy work fails the same way. It's either too thin (one workshop, a PDF, see you next year) or too thick (eight-month transformation programmes from people who haven't sold anything since 2018). This sits in the middle. The engagement is one piece of work in two clearly separable stages: a one-to-two-week deep dive diagnostic from £3k, then ongoing strategic support shaped around whatever the diagnostic surfaces. Every piece tied to a commercial outcome.
These hold across both stages of the engagement and across every other piece of work I run. They're the difference between AI that earns its keep and AI that quietly drains the budget for a year.
Most AI implementation fails the same way. There's no clear answer to "which commercial number is this meant to move." I don't run any work that doesn't have one. Every project, every build, every conversation traces back to a commercial challenge or opportunity. The AI is the tool. It's never the point.
You shouldn't end up with a more complicated workflow than you started with. Your reps shouldn't be clicking through three new tools to land at the same outcome. The end state has to be: less friction, better outputs, clearer commercial impact. If the AI doesn't deliver that, it shouldn't be in the stack.
I get a version of the same conversation every week. The CEO wants an AI plan. The CRO has run three pilots that haven't gone anywhere. RevOps has a Notion doc of forty tools. Marketing has bought two of them. Sales is using ChatGPT in private and not telling anyone.
The team isn't lazy and isn't behind. They're surrounded by signal and short on prioritisation. There is no one whose job it is to look across the whole motion, work out where AI rewrites the playbook and where it doesn't, and put a credible plan on a page that ties back to commercial outcomes.
That's what this engagement does. The diagnostic compresses what most teams spend six months stumbling through into one to two weeks of focussed work. The ongoing support keeps the work tied to outcomes once it starts. Both stages are clearly separable. You can take only the first and stop. Or you can keep going.
A fast, opinionated diagnostic that tells you what AI work is actually worth doing. Two phases. One deliverable that earns the fee. You can stop here if you want to. Most teams don't.
Stakeholder interviews across sales, marketing, RevOps and customer success. Pipeline review, tooling audit, current AI usage map. I'll spend time inside the system and the data, not just in meetings.
I map every part of your GTM motion against what AI actually changes today. Then I shortlist the projects most worth running, each one tied to a commercial outcome and weighted by impact, confidence and effort.
A 6 to 8 page memo summarising where your GTM motion is today, the commercial outcomes it's chasing, and where AI changes the shape of the playbook.
An ICE-scored table of the top 10 to 15 AI projects worth running, each tied to a commercial outcome with an owner, a rough cost, and a success metric.
What to keep, what to retire, what to build, what to buy. Most teams need fewer tools than they're paying for, not more.
One page on what to do after the diagnostic. Could be ongoing strategic support. Could be a specific build. Could be the coaching programme. Could be all three.
After the diagnostic, most teams know what they want to do. They don't always have the senior firepower to keep it tied to commercial outcomes once the work starts. Ongoing support fills that gap. No fixed duration. Shaped to whatever you actually need.
Senior strategic input on the AI GTM work your team is already running. Sense-checks on what's worth building. Pressure-tests on whether projects are still tied to the right commercial outcomes. The thing you don't have without a CRO-level person in the room.
Where the diagnostic surfaces specific builds that need to ship, I scope and ship them under the implementation solution. Fixed scope per project. Your team owns the output on day one. Runs cleanly alongside the strategic advisory cadence.
If you've got a Champion candidate inside the team, the coaching programme is the cheapest route to building the capability internally rather than renting it. Often runs in parallel with the strategic advisory cadence so leadership stays close to the work.
The diagnostic is fixed fee, scoped up front. Ongoing support is rolling, 30 days' notice either way. The diagnostic fee is credited against the first three months of ongoing support if you commission both within 60 days.
I'd rather tell you it's a bad fit on the call than three weeks into the work.
No. Stage 1 (the diagnostic) is standalone and finite. You can stop there. Most teams move into stage 2 because the diagnostic surfaces work they want kept tied to commercial outcomes, but it's a separate decision, made on the back of seeing the deliverable.
Stage 1 produces a deliverable: a memo, an opportunity shortlist, a build-vs-buy view, and a recommendation on next steps. It has a clear end. Stage 2 is open-ended advisory and strategic support that keeps the work pointed at commercial outcomes once it starts. Reshape every quarter, cancel anytime.
Because it's narrow and fast. One to two weeks of focussed work, run solo, with a tight deliverable. Most strategy fees pay for the slow ramp, the deck production team, and the partner who isn't doing the work. None of that applies here.
Yes, but only where it matters. I don't take kickbacks from any vendor. The build-vs-buy view is part of the diagnostic. Most teams need fewer tools than they're paying for, not more.
Every project on the list has a named commercial owner and a number it's meant to move. Pipeline generated, conversion rate at a stage, deal cycle length, gross retention, cost-to-serve, whatever the relevant number is. Anything that can't be tied to one of those gets killed in the quarterly review. That's the whole point.
A fractional CRO owns the GTM motion. I don't. I work alongside whoever's doing that job, focussed on the AI piece of it and how it ties to the team's commercial outcomes. Different problem, different cost, different relationship.
Usually within 1 to 3 weeks for the diagnostic. I run a small number of engagements at a time. If the calendar's tight I'll be upfront on the call.
Tell me where you're stuck. I'll tell you whether the diagnostic fits as a starting point, whether you'd be better off going straight to implementation or coaching, or whether something else makes more sense.
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