The method
How an engagement runs.
Four phases, in this order, with one deliverable each. Each deliverable feeds the next: a plan without a costed diagnostic is a list of good intentions, and steering without a plan is just a meeting. What follows is what is written into the contract.
- 01
Diagnostic
Objective
Name and cost what blocks, and clearly rule out the workstreams that will not change it.
Split
- Client
- Data access, and one hour of interview per person involved.
- Agency
- Rebuild, interviews, analysis, writing and presentation of the note.
The work
- Read access to the data: back office, ad platforms, billing, measurement tools, detailed accounts where they exist.
- A full recalculation of what each sale truly earns and costs, including what the usual reporting leaves out.
- Interviews with the team, the suppliers in place, and one or two people outside marketing — support, fulfilment or product, depending on the model.
- A review of the last twelve months of decisions: what was tried, what was stopped, and on what grounds.
Deliverable
Diagnostic note: the real profitability calculation, the main thing blocking, costed, and the workstreams ruled out with the reason. The document is yours, even if we stop there.
- 02
Costed growth plan
Objective
Turn the diagnostic into a run of workstreams, each with a cost, a measurable hypothesis and a stop condition.
Split
- Client
- The final call on the budget available and the non-negotiables.
- Agency
- Writing, costing, putting it in order, and defending the plan in front of your partners or board.
The work
- Each workstream written as a testable hypothesis, with the expected result and the time targeted to break even.
- Costing: budget, resources needed, what it depends on, and what not doing it costs.
- The order is set by what blocks, not by what is easiest to do.
- Stop conditions written before launch, never during.
Deliverable
Plan in order, over a stated period: budget per lever, numbers to hit, stop conditions, and what is clearly put off until later.
- 03
Directed execution
Objective
Get the plan done by the teams and suppliers in place, and settle each week what is stopped, sped up or replaced.
Split
- Client
- The work done by your teams and suppliers, and attendance at the weekly meeting.
- Agency
- Decisions, priorities, directing suppliers, reporting to the directors.
The work
- A weekly steering meeting: an agenda, numbers prepared, dated decisions on the way out.
- One shared dashboard, replacing the duplicate reports.
- Direct management of suppliers, within the scope written into their contract.
- Hiring or replacement where what blocks turns out to be a person or a missing role.
- Budget decisions along the way, written down and reasoned.
Deliverable
Decisions written down and dated, a dashboard kept current, and a written monthly note for the directors or the board.
- 04
Handover
Objective
Leave the company able to decide without me, then withdraw.
Split
- Client
- You name the people who take over each area.
- Agency
- Documents, training, and support through a phased withdrawal.
The work
- Working documents: how things are measured, the thresholds, the decision path, and the history of decisions with their reasons.
- Each area handed over to a named person.
- The team takes the weekly meeting back: I watch, then I step away.
- Exit review: what is secured, what is still fragile, and what to keep an eye on.
Deliverable
A complete pack, every area handed over, and a stated withdrawal timetable kept to.
What frames the engagement
A few fixed rules, the same on every engagement, whatever the sector.
- Fees
- No commission on ad spend. An agency paid a percentage of what it spends cannot advise spending less. The figure is set after the first conversation, according to what we cover: no public rate card.
- Confidentiality
- An NDA is signed before any data access. No figures are published without written permission.
- Exclusivity
- No directly competing engagement in the same sector and market for its duration.
- Number of engagements
- Few engagements at a time. Deciding well requires knowing a company better than a monthly meeting allows.
- Term
- Three months minimum: below that, the setup cannot yet produce a measurable result. Beyond it, nothing rolls over by default — an engagement that works comes to an end, it does not renew indefinitely.
The first phase stands on its own.
The diagnostic can be commissioned with no obligation to continue. You keep the note either way: it is what you will use to decide, with me or without me.