Featured · Advisory
The diagnostic method, so you can run most of it yourself
Consulting engagements look opaque from outside, which is part of why they are expensive. In practice a good marketing diagnostic follows a fairly standard method, most of it applied to data the firm already holds.
Setting it out has two uses. A firm can run most of it in an afternoon and may not need to hire anybody, and a firm that does hire will know whether it is getting the real thing.
The method, in order
Each step narrows the question. The discipline is doing them in sequence rather than jumping to the interesting one.
Establish the objective in numbers. Which matters, how many, at what value. Almost no firm has this written down and every subsequent step depends on it.
Map what arrives now: enquiries by month, by source, by practice area, and how many became matters. Approximate is fine; absent is not.
Find the biggest single drop. Between impressions and clicks, clicks and enquiries, enquiries and conversations, conversations and instructions — one gap is always much larger than the others.
Attempt your own journey. From a search, on a phone, as a stranger, all the way to making contact. Ten minutes, and it usually explains the drop.
Listen to five recorded enquiry calls, or sit with whoever answers for an hour.
Only then look at channels. Most firms start here, which is why they so often optimise a channel that was not the constraint.
Write the constraint in one sentence, and the three things that would move it.
The single most valuable step is the fourth, and it is free. A partner attempting their own firm's enquiry journey on a phone finds more in ten minutes than a month of reporting usually surfaces.
The step firms skip is the first. Without an objective in numbers there is no way to tell whether anything is working, and the engagement becomes a discussion of activity.
What you cannot easily do yourself
Being honest about this is the point of setting the method out. Some of it genuinely needs somebody from outside.
Seeing what you have stopped noticing. Familiarity with your own site and process is the main obstacle to diagnosing either.
Comparison against other firms' numbers, which a consultant carries and you cannot obtain.
Saying the unwelcome thing to a partnership — that the constraint is a partner's response time, or a practice area nobody wants to drop.
Technical depth where the drop turns out to be indexation, site speed or tracking that was never configured properly.
And the authority that an outside voice sometimes carries where an internal one has been ignored for two years.
Running it yourself, and when to stop
A firm can complete most of this in an afternoon. The value is knowing which part to buy afterwards.
Block three hours and do the seven steps in order, writing down each answer even where it is approximate.
Do the journey test first if you are short of time. It is the highest-yield ten minutes available.
Write the constraint in one sentence and show it to somebody who was not in the room.
If the constraint is operational — response times, ownership, process — you likely do not need a consultant; you need a decision.
If it is technical and specific, buy a channel specialist for a defined piece of work rather than a general engagement.
If the answer is politically difficult inside the firm, that is exactly what an outside adviser is for, and worth paying for.
Keep the written diagnostic. Repeating it in a year takes an hour and shows what actually moved.
And be suspicious of any consultant whose first week does not resemble this.
The method is not the valuable part; the willingness to look honestly is. Firms that run this themselves and act on it outperform firms that buy it and file it.
FAQs
What does a marketing consultant actually do first?
Establish the objective in numbers, map what arrives now, find the largest single drop in the chain, attempt the firm's own enquiry journey, listen to real calls, and only then look at channels. Most firms start at channels, which is why they optimise things that were not the constraint.
Can a firm run the diagnostic itself?
Most of it, in about three hours. The journey test alone — attempting your own enquiry from a search on a phone — is the highest-yield ten minutes available and needs nobody's help.
What genuinely needs an outsider?
Seeing what you have stopped noticing, comparison against other firms' numbers, technical depth if the drop is indexation or tracking, and saying the unwelcome thing to a partnership — which is often the real reason to hire one.
When do we not need a consultant?
When the constraint turns out to be operational — response times, ownership, an undefined process. That is a decision rather than a diagnosis, and buying advice will not substitute for taking it.
How do we tell a good consultant from a poor one?
By whether their first week resembles this method. A consultant who opens with channel recommendations before establishing your objective and mapping your enquiries is selling a template.
End Note
Consulting is priced as though the method were the product. It is not — the method is fairly standard and most of it uses data you already hold.
Run the seven steps yourself in an afternoon, write the constraint in one sentence, and buy only the piece you genuinely cannot do: the technical depth, the comparison, or the unwelcome conversation.
Key Takeaways
The method is standard; running it honestly is the hard part.
Objective in numbers first — without it everything else is activity.
The journey test is the highest-yield ten minutes available.
Look at channels last, not first.
If the constraint is operational, you need a decision, not a consultant.
