"Diagnostic", "audit", "discovery" and "strategy engagement" all describe roughly the same thing, and the quality varies enormously. Here is what the useful version involves, so you can tell it apart from the other kind.
What actually happens
The work is mostly listening and arithmetic. Time with the people who do the job — not only the people who manage it — following real work through the business. Then putting numbers against what that turns up.
- Interviews with the people who actually handle enquiries, quotes, delivery and invoicing
- Following several real jobs end to end, including one that was lost
- A look at the systems in use, what they cost, and where data is re-entered by hand
- Your own numbers: enquiry volume, close rate, average value, admin hours
What you should get at the end
A written picture of how the business currently runs, with a cost attached to each problem, and a recommended order of work with what each step should return. That is the deliverable. If what arrives is a deck of observations without numbers, you have bought an opinion.
Two properties matter more than length. It should be actionable by somebody other than the firm that wrote it — otherwise it is a sales document. And it should be explicit about what it recommends against, and why.
How long it should take
Weeks, not months. A diagnostic that runs a full quarter has stopped being the thing that decides the project and become the project — you are paying to be studied rather than to be told what to do.
What it should cost
This varies with the size and complexity of the operation, so anyone quoting a number without knowing either is guessing. What you can reasonably ask for is a fixed price agreed before it starts, and a defined scope: how many people, over how long, producing what.
Open-ended day rates on discovery work are where budgets go quietly. If a firm cannot scope its own diagnostic, that tells you something about how it will scope the build.
Questions worth asking before you commit
- Do we keep the findings if we do not continue with you?
- Who exactly will do the work, and will we meet them before signing?
- What will you tell us not to do?
- Can our own team act on this without you?
That third question is the most revealing. A firm that recommends everything it sells, every time, is not diagnosing anything — it is qualifying you.
Common questions
Quick answers.
Do we keep the findings if we do not go ahead?
You should, and it is worth putting in writing before the work starts. A diagnostic you only keep by continuing to buy is a sales process wearing a different name.
How much does a business diagnostic cost?
It depends on the size and complexity of the operation, which is why an honest answer needs a conversation first. What you can insist on regardless is a fixed price and a defined scope agreed before anything starts, rather than an open-ended day rate.
What is the difference between a diagnostic and a strategy deck?
A diagnostic carries numbers from your own business and a recommended order of work. A strategy deck carries observations. The test is whether somebody outside the firm that wrote it could act on the document.
Next step
Ready to put this into practice?
Book a consultation and we will map where this applies to your business — and you keep the findings either way.