Executive Workshop

Three hours to name the problem before you spend on the data.

Up to ten people who can change roles and handoffs, working from what the room already knows. One problem named in writing before a single record is pulled.

Book a strategy callSee the Diagnosis
Deliverables

Not a list of initiatives. One problem, named in writing.

Picture the offsite that produced fourteen initiatives. None had a number, so none could be ranked, and the one that got funded belonged to whoever argued best in the room. Two quarters on, two were under way and nobody could say what either was for.

You leave with one problem: the thing your room agrees is going wrong, in a sentence you could read out at the board. With it comes our plain read on whether the records exist to put a number on it. What the room said and what a Diagnosis would have to prove are kept on separate lines.

Process

Four steps, in this order, for a reason.

Three hours in the room with your leadership team, then our written follow-up. Each step works from what the one before it wrote down, so nothing is concluded before the room agrees on what is wrong.

  1. 1Where the room disagreesThe first record
  2. 2Name one problemOne, not a list
  3. 3Whether it can be pricedThe evidence question
  4. 4The written follow-upThe record
Step 101 / 04

Where the room disagrees

The first record"A change built on a disagreement gets abandoned."

Every leadership team believes it agrees on what is wrong until each person says it out loud. In the first hour you each name the leak you see, and the gaps between the answers go on the wall before anything else.

What happens
  • Each person names the leak they see, in their own words
  • The gaps between the answers written up, not smoothed over
  • Symptoms set apart from causes as they come up
  • No conclusion reached yet
OutcomeThe disagreement, written down.
TimingThe first hour
Step 202 / 04

Name one problem

One, not a list"Fourteen initiatives cannot be ranked. One problem can be priced."

The second hour reads the symptoms together rather than one at a time: the forecast that missed, the deals that stalled and the handoff nobody owns, as one pattern. Your room settles on the one thing underneath them.

What happens
  • The missed forecast, the stalled deals and the dropped handoffs read as one pattern
  • Candidate causes tested against what the room knows
  • The one problem the room can stand behind, named in writing
  • What would prove it wrong, noted beside it
OutcomeOne problem, named, that the evidence can be pointed at.
TimingThe second hour
Step 303 / 04

Whether it can be priced

The evidence question"If the records are not there, the answer is not yet."

The third hour is the evidence question. Which records exist, who holds them, whether the interviews can happen, and whether a Diagnosis is possible at all. If it is not, you hear it in the room and read it in the follow-up.

What happens
  • The records that exist, and who holds them
  • The interviews a Diagnosis would need, and whether they can happen
  • Whether a Diagnosis is possible, or whether the records are not there yet
  • The answer said in the room before it is written
OutcomeThe evidence question answered, in the room.
TimingThe third hour
Step 404 / 04

The written follow-up

The record"Nothing said in the room is a finding."

After the session we write down what your room agreed: the problem named, the evidence question answered, the next step. What was said in the room is marked apart from what a Diagnosis would have to establish.

What happens
  • The problem the room named, in writing
  • What was said marked apart from what would be a finding
  • Whether a Diagnosis is possible, and why or why not
  • The next step, including no engagement needed
OutcomeOne problem named and the evidence question answered, in writing.
TimingAfter the session
What we look at

Six questions the room answers in three hours.

Every question is about your own company, put to the people who run it. Where the answers differ is where the work starts.

  1. 01

    Where revenue goes missing

    Between first contact and renewal, where each person in the room would say the money goes.

  2. 02

    The handoff nobody owns

    Which step between two teams has no owner, and who notices first when it fails.

  3. 03

    The people

    Who has left, who is off, who is running on empty, and which team it shows in.

  4. 04

    Work done twice

    Which piece of work is redone because one team's definition is not the other's.

  5. 05

    What is already counted

    Which of these the company has a number for, and which it has never measured.

  6. 06

    Who would own the first fix

    The person in the room who would carry it, if the evidence backs it.

Is this for you?

For the people who can change things, before any data is pulled.

  • Targets are missed or good people are leaving, and each person in the room names a different cause
  • The list of things to fix is longer than the year, and nobody agrees which comes first
  • Up to ten people who can change roles, handoffs and ownership, with a decision-maker among them
  • You want to test the work on one real problem before committing to a full engagement

Without a decision-maker in the room, the session ends in advice. Records already there? Go straight to the Diagnosis →

The evidence

One number, read two ways at the same table.

The seats around one table put different figures on the same leak, and the surveys show how far apart they sit. The workshop closes that gap before a record is pulled.

  1. 01

    26% and 16%

    The share of annual revenue lost to breaks in the revenue process, as put by RevOps leaders and by CROs in the same survey: two seats in one company, ten points apart on the size of the leak.

    Clari, The 2024 Revenue Leak Report, 420 senior revenue leaders in the US and UK, vendor survey, 2024

  2. 02

    66% and 52%

    Two-thirds of finance leaders say their forecast misses are under 9%; half of sales leaders say theirs are 10% or more. The same forecast, and two readings of how wrong it was.

    Xactly, 2024 Sales Forecasting Benchmark Report, 405 North American sales and finance leaders, vendor survey, July 2024

  3. 03

    3 in 10

    Sales and finance leaders who say their forecasts are often missed because RevOps, finance and the go-to-market teams do not work together. The miss is put down to the gap between the seats, not to the market.

    Xactly, 2024 Sales Forecasting Benchmark Report, 405 North American sales and finance leaders, vendor survey, July 2024, p. 7

  4. 04

    61%

    Companies that did not reach their 2023 revenue target, reported by senior revenue leaders at companies mostly above $100M in revenue. A target missed by six in ten is a system question, not a bad quarter.

    Clari, The 2024 Revenue Leak Report, 420 senior revenue leaders in the US and UK, vendor survey, 2024

What happens next

The whole fee comes off the next step.

  1. 01

    Diagnosis

    The problem your room named is what the evidence gets pointed at. A Diagnosis collects it over two months; booked within 30 days of the session, the whole €5,000 comes off.

    Explore the Diagnosis →

  2. 02

    Operation

    Where the figure justifies it, Operation makes the fixes inside your own team, with the Diagnosis as its first two months and the same credit on the fee.

    Explore Operation →

  3. 03

    Stop here

    If the session shows the problem is not one we fix, or that the room is looking for cover for a choice already taken, the follow-up says so and nothing follows it.

FAQ

Executive Workshop FAQs.

Is anything said in the workshop a finding?
No. A finding needs the evidence a Diagnosis collects: interviews, the records the business already keeps, and its own cost rates. The workshop works on what the room already knows, which is enough to name the problem and to test whether the team agrees on it, and not enough to put a number on it. The written follow-up says which is which.
Can the workshop end with no Diagnosis needed?
Yes. That is a designed outcome, not a failed one. If the session shows the problem is not one we fix, or that the decision has already been made and only needs justifying, that is what the follow-up says.
Who should be in the room?
Up to ten, and they have to be the people who can change roles, handoffs and who owns what; in a large company that is the sales and marketing leadership and the teams their handoffs depend on, not a representative sample. Cem runs the session himself. The cap is not a comfort limit: ten can argue their way to agreement on one problem inside three hours, and fifteen cannot.
How much does the Executive Workshop cost?
€5,000 flat, for three hours with up to ten people, and the written follow-up. It is credited in full against a Diagnosis or an Operation booked within 30 days, so a Diagnosis booked in that window costs €10,000 more.
Get started

Put the problem in one room.

A short call works out whether a workshop is the right place to start. If your leadership team already agrees on what is wrong, the call says so and points past the Workshop.

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