What you are sold
A RevOps agency builds and runs your CRM. A lead-generation agency books meetings. An audit gives a score. A benchmark gives other companies' averages.
For B2B companies with recurring revenue
Find where your profit is leaking.
Deals stall, customers slip between teams and the forecast misses again, with no report that says why.
Kihon Labs finds where the profit is going, works out what it costs you, and fixes the system your revenue comes through so the leak stays closed.
The reality
Most of the profit you lose never shows up in a report.
The pipeline looks healthy. Then deals stall, leads fall between marketing, sales and delivery, and the quarter comes in short. Everyone feels the drag. No one can price it yet.
You are already paying for it.
Quick fixes move the leak somewhere else.
The cost falls between reports.
You cannot fund a fix you cannot price.
Why is the leak there at all? Ask why five times and you land in the same place: nobody owns the standards. A growing B2B company often has no revenue-operations or data team, so who qualifies, who hands over and what gets recorded were set by whoever was there first. Growth then stalls for a reason the founder never sees. There is not enough profit left to put into the next hire or the next market.
Founder view
This came from doing the job, then from testing it.
Cem GorerFounder, Kihon Labs
Since 2021 in B2B commercial teams at Veritas Technologies, SAP, Preply and Delfos Energy: forecast calls, handoffs, renewals, pay plans, and the quarter that missed for a reason no report could name. The questions this practice works on were formed in those rooms, and teaching Customer Experience Management at ESEI Business School and Strategic Sales Management at SBS Swiss Business School made the explanation plain enough to defend.
The Executive DBA at EADA Business School turned it into one research question: how hidden costs and organisational dysfunctions evolve as B2B companies that have a recurring revenue model move through different growth stages, and how commercial systems should be redesigned in response.
Having done the job matters as much as the method. The work starts from how revenue is won and kept day to day, under the targets leadership is held to.
Our services
Start with what is going wrong, not with a service.
Before the evidence
01Executive Workshop
Three hours with your leadership team, up to ten people who can change things, working out what the problem is from what the room already knows. Before any data is pulled.
Best fit: Leaders who can see the pattern but are not ready to open the books on it yet.
- What the problem is, in writing
- Whether it is one problem or several
- A written follow-up, whatever it says
- Whether you have the records a Diagnosis needs
Usual entry point
02Diagnosis
Finds where the profit is leaking and what it is costing you in your own numbers, built from interviews and the records you already keep.
Best fit: Leaders who know something is wrong but cannot say where, or what it costs.
- Where the leaks are, and the evidence for each
- A map of how revenue is won and kept today
- What it costs, in your own numbers
- What to fix first, second and third
- A briefing for leadership
Foundational
03Build
For companies that win business well but have no system anyone could hand over. Build writes down your commercial system: who does what, where work changes hands, what gets measured, how leadership steers.
Best fit: Founders who are the commercial system, and need it to work without them.
- A market the team can serve as it is
- A name against every stage of the work
- Work that arrives ready at each handoff
- Something leadership can steer on
After the Diagnosis
04Operation
Starts with the Diagnosis, then closes the leaks with you and writes the standards that keep them closed: who owns each change, when it gets checked, and what it moved against the starting number.
Best fit: Teams that know what is wrong and need the fix to land.
- The Diagnosis
- The fixes made inside your own team
- An owner and a check date for each change
- The result measured against where you started
Fractional, ongoing
05Partnership
On its own or after Operation: a fractional Chief Commercial Officer seat. We keep reading the system as the company grows, carry the next fix through, and measure it, cycle after cycle.
Best fit: Companies changing faster than one project can keep up with.
- The Diagnosis repeated each cycle
- Help making the fixes
- Each fix measured
- A standing seat at the table
The difference
The market builds. Kihon finds what is worth building first.
Kihon is the architect. It draws the fix from what your commercial system is losing, and whoever installs the tools or brings the meetings is welcome to build from that drawing.
What it leaves out
What each leak costs you in euros, at your rates, and which fix comes first because of that cost. So the building starts before anyone knows what it is for.
What Kihon does
Finds where your commercial system leaks, prices each one from your own records, orders the fixes by that price, and stays while they are made and measured.
What stands behind it
A published research method in use since 1978, doctoral research at EADA on this question, and time inside B2B commercial teams since 2021.
The KIHON frameworkFrom a problem you can feel to a decision
From a problem you can feel to a decision
you can defend.
Five steps take a problem from "something is wrong" to "here is what it costs and what we fix first". The method comes from published research. The framework is how Kihon applies it.
- K · KEY BREAK
Key break.
Find where the leak is. Roles, handoffs, habits, routines and tools are read together, instead of treating the symptom that got reported on its own.
- I · INPUTS
Inputs.
Gather what the finding has to stand on: interviews, the records the business already keeps, and its own cost rates.
- H · HIDDEN COST
Hidden cost.
Work out what the leak is costing: time lost, work redone, deals not won, and what it costs to leave things as they are. Where the evidence is thin, that is written next to the number.
- O · ORDER
Order.
Turn the findings into a fix list, in order. What gets fixed first is decided by the evidence, not by opinion.
- N · NAMED OWNERS
Named owners.
Give every change an owner and a date it gets checked, so the work keeps going without us and can be measured against where you started.
FAQ
Questions that decide whether this fits.
How do I know whether this is a sales problem or a system problem?
A sales problem gets better with coaching, pipeline pressure and harder work. A system problem shows up across people who are individually good at their jobs, and comes back after every quick fix. A short call tests which one you are looking at against your own numbers.
Do we need a Diagnosis before another service?
Usually, not always. Build is for companies with no system to diagnose yet. Operation includes the Diagnosis, and Partnership can start on its own or follow Operation or Build. The first call works out which of the five is the right place to start.
What do you need access to?
Conversations with the people doing the work, the records you already keep on pipeline, handoffs, delivery and retention, and your internal cost rates, so the leak is priced in your own numbers. Where something is missing, the finding says so instead of guessing around it.
What happens if Kihon concludes that no engagement is needed?
You are told in writing, with the reason. We do not propose work where the evidence is not ready or the problem is not one we fix. That is a normal result of a first call, not a failed one.
Get started
Find the leak before paying for another fix that moves it.
Thirty minutes, one conversation. No proposal before the problem is clear.
Not ready for either? Read the daily notes →