Operations
Terms are 30 days. The cash arrives on day 54.
The gap between agreed payment terms and actual receipts is usually blamed on customers. A surprising share of it is created before the invoice ever leaves the building.
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Operations
Three suppliers quoted. The spec was written by one of them.
A competitive tender only discovers a price if the requirement is neutral. Often it isn't, and the paperwork is the…
Growth strategy
There are six people on the buying side. The CRM has one name.
A deal with one enthusiastic contact looks healthier than a deal with three cautious ones. The loss data usually says…
Operations
Eleven people can raise a purchase order. The same item has nine prices.
Scattered buying rarely shows up as a problem in the accounts, because the money leaks in small enough amounts that…
Operations
Every proposal is written from scratch. Most of the work is one of four jobs.
Productising a service almost always starts with delivery. In most firms the expensive customisation is sitting somewhere else, and it…
Market analysis
The five best new clients look identical. The website says “any sector”.
Revenue often reorganises itself around one kind of customer long before the marketing notices, and the obvious response is riskier…
Operations
Two people can price a job. One of them owns the company.
Estimating is often the last thing a founder hands over, and the reason given is rarely the real one. The…
Growth strategy
Nine partners signed. Two have ever sent anything.
Channel programmes rarely fail at the signature. They fail in the weeks after it, for reasons that usually have very…
Operations
The forecast was 2% out. Every line in it was wrong.
Aggregate forecast accuracy is the most comforting number in the board pack, and often the least informative. Here is what…
Growth strategy
Churn is 12% a year. Half of it happens in the first four months.
An annual churn rate averages away the one thing that matters most about it: when customers actually leave, and what…
Take it further
This is the general pattern. Your business is the specific case.
Everything here is free to read with an account, and always will be. What it cannot do is tell you which of these applies to your numbers, your market and your constraints. That is the work we do with clients.