Build

No system to diagnose yet? Build it first.

A CRM, stage names and a weekly call can exist and still not add up to something a new hire could run. We write the first version down with you, an owner against each part.

Deliverables

The first version of your commercial system, written down and owned.

The founder closes every deal a little differently, the CRM has stages nobody applies the same way twice, and the new hire learns the job by sitting in on calls. All of it works, and none of it would survive the founder taking a month off. Build is for that company.

We write the first version down with the people who will own each decision, run it on live deals rather than in a side pilot, and record what each choice assumed at the time. A first version, not a finished one: what changes is how the company runs, not how much paperwork it owns.

Process

Four steps, from access to handover.

Build is done with you, not delivered as a document at the end, and it adds no work to a commercial team. It removes the private coordination each person was doing to cover for choices nobody had made.

  1. 1Access, before opinionsWhat exists
  2. 2Choices made with their ownerThe decisions
  3. 3Introduced on live workIn flight
  4. 4Handover, then one reviewOwnership transfers
Step 101 / 04

Access, before opinions

What exists"What a record can answer is not put to an interview."

The opening weeks go to the people who sell, deliver and support, and to whatever the CRM, the contracts and the calendars already hold. We start from what your company does, not from what it says it does.

What happens
  • Conversations across selling, delivery and support
  • CRM, contracts and calendars read for the pattern they already record
  • Where the way revenue comes in depends on one person's memory, put on paper
  • The choices nobody has made yet, listed
OutcomeA map of what exists and what was never decided.
TimingThe opening weeks
Step 202 / 04

Choices made with their owner

The decisions"Nothing is designed for a team that is not in the room."

We put up the options and what each one gives up. You work each decision through with the person who will hold it afterwards, against the alternatives, and it is recorded with what it assumed.

What happens
  • Which market, and what the current team can run
  • A name against finding demand, qualifying it, moving deals forward and delivery
  • What each handoff has to carry to the next person
  • The small set of measures leadership will steer on
OutcomeThe first choices about your commercial system, written down and owned.
TimingThe middle weeks
Step 303 / 04

Introduced on live work

In flight"Whatever does not survive contact appears while Kihon is still there."

Your new way of working starts on deals already in flight, not in a side pilot. What breaks, breaks in front of the people who can correct it, while we are still in the room.

What happens
  • The new handoffs run on real deals from the first week
  • Corrections made as the new way of working meets the pipeline
  • The reasoning behind each choice recorded for the next leader
  • The measures chosen in step two start recording: the first starting point the company has had
OutcomeA system that has been run, not only designed.
TimingOnce the choices are made
Step 404 / 04

Handover, then one review

Ownership transfers"A review set too early tells you the system was new, not that it held."

Ownership transfers to you with the document. One review is set far enough out to show whether the new way of working held once support stopped, and that review closes the work.

What happens
  • The handover document, with the reasoning the next leader inherits
  • Every decision with an owner and a point where it gets looked at
  • One review, timed after the system has had to hold on its own
  • The Diagnosis only once the system has produced a pattern to read
OutcomeA commercial model the company runs without us.
TimingHandover, then one review later
What we look at

The six parts of a first commercial system.

Each part is decided with the person who will own it. A later part cannot hold if an earlier one was skipped.

  1. 01

    Who you sell to

    The customers the current team can win and keep, and the ones it should turn down.

  2. 02

    The stages

    Each stage from first contact to renewal, defined so that two teams cannot read it differently.

  3. 03

    The handoffs

    Marketing to sales, sales to customer success: what must arrive, and who checks that it did.

  4. 04

    The roles

    Who finds demand, who qualifies it, who closes and who keeps the customer, with one name against each.

  5. 05

    The numbers

    A short set of measures, each with one definition and one owner, that settles a disagreement between two teams.

  6. 06

    The rhythm

    The weekly pipeline review, the monthly forecast and the regular look at who left and why.

Is this for you?

For companies selling without a system to hand over.

  • You win business, but every deal is run from memory rather than from a system
  • The next hire would inherit habits, not a system, and take months to reach full output
  • Marketing, sales and delivery redo work the last team should have passed on
  • Nobody can say which measure settles a disagreement between two teams

Already have a stable pattern to read? Read it with the Diagnosis →

The evidence

What selling without a system costs early on.

Early-stage selling has a known price before any system is written down. Build exists so that spend runs through a system instead of through memory.

  1. 01

    106%

    Median sales and marketing spend as a share of revenue at software companies under $10M ARR, and 73% between $10M and $25M: below $10M the commercial team costs more than the company earns.

    ICONIQ, State of Software 2025, quarterly operating data from 127 software companies to Q2 2025, September 2025

  2. 02

    18 months

    Median CAC payback at private SaaS companies in 2024, up from 14 in 2023, with the slowest quarter waiting 24 months or more to earn back what a new customer cost.

    Benchmarkit, 2025 SaaS Performance Metrics Benchmarks, N=148, 2025

  3. 03

    62%

    Ramped account executives who hit quota in 2025, up from 58% in 2024. Nearly four in ten fully ramped sellers still missed, on shorter deals than the year before.

    ICONIQ, The State of Go-to-Market in 2026, January 2026 survey of GTM executives at 150+ B2B software companies, March 2026

  4. 04

    21%

    The share of a seller’s day spent engaging with customers; top performers reach nearly 50%. The rest is coordination, which a written system does once instead of every seller doing it privately.

    Ebsta with Pavilion, GTM Benchmarks Report 2025, 655,000 opportunities at 387 companies, vendor survey, March 2025

What happens next

Build creates the system the other services later read.

  1. 01

    Diagnosis

    Once your system has run long enough to produce a pattern, the Diagnosis reads it and puts a figure on the leak.

    Explore the Diagnosis →

  2. 02

    Operation

    Where the finding justifies it, Operation closes the leak inside the system Build created.

    Explore Operation →

  3. 03

    Partnership

    Where the company will change shape faster than the written system can settle, Partnership follows Build directly: the system re-read each cycle and the next fix made with the people inside it.

    Explore Partnership →

FAQ

Build FAQs.

We already have a CRM and a small sales team, is this still Build?
Possibly. A CRM records a process, it does not design one, and tools are not the test. The test is whether the same deal moves the same way twice. If a stable pattern already exists, even an informal one, Diagnosis is the better start because there is something to read. If every deal is run from memory and the CRM is a filing cabinet, that is Build.
How much does Build cost?
€36,000 flat, six months to handover, from the day we get access. That covers the access, the working sessions with the people who will own each decision, the new way of working introduced on live deals, the handover document and one review set far enough out to show whether it held. The fee is the fee, not a starting point. Nothing in Build is given as a euro figure for your company, because there is no starting point yet to measure one against.
What happens after Build is finished?
Two ways on. If you want us beside the system while it settles, Partnership can follow Build directly: the person who built it keeps it read, fixed and measured, with the same twelve-month minimum. If you would rather run it alone first, Diagnosis is the useful next step once it has produced a pattern to read, not before.
Is Build included in Partnership?
No, they are separate engagements. Build writes the first system; Partnership can follow it, follow Operation or start on its own, and keeps the system read, fixed and measured cycle by cycle. Nothing moves from one to the other unless you ask for it.
Get started

No system yet? That is where Build starts.

One call, thirty minutes, on what exists today and what does not. Where there is already something to read, we say so and point you to the Diagnosis instead.

Book a strategy call