Paid diagnostic

A priced first engagement — an audit, strategy, or roadmap — sold as the standard entry to a build, in place of a free proposal that gives the thinking away. The thinking is the product, so it starts when the paying starts. For WPH this is the Automotive Digital Infrastructure Assessment (an internal $3–8k private deep-dive of the account’s benchmark scorecard), the only door into a build conversation. It filters the unserious, funds the sales process, and anchors the build that follows so the $50k option lands as the middle of three.

Source: Blair Enns, Win Without Pitching (PRACTITIONER) — proclamation eight, “we will not solve problems before we are paid,” combined with proclamation three, diagnose before prescribing. Reinforced by David C. Baker’s roadmap/diagnostic model (the 2Bobs “product-enabled consulting” thesis) and the Sakas & Company paid-discovery practice.

First used in: 2.8 · The paid diagnostic