Approach Investment About NL Apply for diagnostic
Commercial Diagnostic

Find where the money
leaves the system.

Most mid-sized businesses have marketing activity. Very few have a clear picture of where that activity is losing qualified buyers, and why. The Commercial Diagnostic finds the breaks in the commercial logic, names them precisely, and gives you a prioritised plan to fix them.

No retainer commitment. The diagnostic stands alone. The roadmap is yours, to act on with whoever you choose.

Fixed investment
€2.900

One engagement. Fixed scope. No expansions unless you ask for them.

  • Full audit of commercial core
  • Positioning and offer review
  • Buyer-tension mapping
  • Website and message audit
  • 90-minute debrief session
  • Written findings and prioritised 90-day roadmap
Apply for diagnostic
What this is

Not a deck full of findings.
A decision you can act on immediately.

Most audits produce a document. This produces a decision. That difference matters, because most businesses already have a general sense of what is not working. What is missing is a precise diagnosis of where the commercial logic breaks — and a clear sequence to repair it.

Vagueness inside a marketing system is expensive. It just gets paid invisibly: in leads that do not convert, in sales cycles that drag, in agencies that are never held accountable because nobody agreed on what success looks like.

The most common outcome I have seen across thirty years of this work is not that the business does not understand what needs to change. It is that the business does not act on what it already knows. What is missing is not intelligence. It is a precise diagnosis that makes the first action obvious.

Marc Wajsberg, The Invisible CMO

The diagnostic is also a test of fit. If working together during the diagnostic feels productive and the thinking is relevant to your situation, a retainer engagement is the logical next step. If it is not, the roadmap is still fully actionable without further involvement.

What it covers

Six areas. Each connected to revenue.

Each area is assessed against one standard: does this make the right buyer easier or harder to win?

Area 01
Clarity of the commercial core

Who is the business actually for? What specific tension does the offer resolve? What makes it defensibly better for that buyer? Without precise answers here, everything downstream is weakened.

Area 02
Positioning and competitive context

What does the business want to mean — and is that position credible, specific, and demonstrable? Or is it interchangeable with every competitor in the category?

Area 03
Offer design and purchase friction

Is the offer described in outcomes or deliverables? Is the scope clear enough for the buyer to evaluate without a sales conversation? Does the price signal value or create hesitation?

Area 04
Message architecture and site performance

Does the homepage work for the buyer, or for the business? Is the right proof in the right place? Where does trust grow, and where does it break?

Area 05
Channel accountability and budget logic

Are channels assessed against the right criteria? Are branded and non-branded traffic separated? Is the business funding activity, or funding outcomes?

Area 06
Measurement and ownership

Is anyone responsible for the commercial-logic question? Are success criteria connected to pipeline rather than activity? Is the reporting honest, or flattering?

The roadmap

A 90-day sequence. In the order that matters.

The roadmap is not a list of recommendations. It is a prioritised sequence built on one principle: repair clarity before amplification. Repair the foundation before scaling.

1–30
Foundation
Repair the leaks before you spend more
  • Clarify the commercial core: segment, position, tension resolved
  • Review the site as a buyer, not as an insider
  • Fix the largest clarity and proof failures on key pages
  • Establish shared definitions for what a qualified lead actually is
31–60
Strength
Build assets that earn trust before contact
  • Upgrade primary service and product pages to source quality
  • Build decision-support content around real buyer questions
  • Strengthen visible proof: specific cases, outcomes, numbers
  • Improve entity consistency across the web and directories
61–90
Amplification
Strengthen what is now worth strengthening
  • Deploy paid media on pages that are now strong enough
  • Selectively expand distribution into appropriate buyer environments
  • Assess what the market actually rewards
  • Decide what to scale, what to change, what to stop — based on real signal

Why this order? Starting paid campaigns in month one against pages that still create doubt produces expensive, misleading data. Scaling content before the commercial voice is clear produces generic output. The order exists because businesses that skip the foundation step pay for it in amplification: they spend money making weak signals louder.

Who this is for

The diagnostic works best in a specific situation.

Read both columns before you apply.

Good fit
  • Mid-sized business with marketing activity that is not producing qualified pipeline
  • You have a general sense something is wrong but cannot pinpoint exactly where
  • You want a second opinion from someone with no stake in the current setup
  • You are willing to hear an honest assessment, including the uncomfortable parts
  • You want to act on the findings yourself, with your existing team or your agencies
  • You are considering a longer engagement and want to test the thinking first
Not a good fit
  • You want confirmation that what you are already doing is correct, not an honest diagnosis
  • You are pre-revenue or have not yet tested the offer in real sales conversations
  • You need someone to fix the problems, not diagnose them
  • You expect a polished presentation rather than a working instrument that challenges assumptions
  • Your annual marketing budget is below €25.000
  • You have already briefed another consultant and are looking for a second opinion to validate them
What clients say

What people say after working together.

"Over the course of my career, I've come across plenty of marketing specialists. Marc is the first who actually sounds like a businessman, not a vague consultant full of empty talk."

Philippe Criel · CFO Centre Belgium

"Marc combines two worlds you rarely see together: old-school marketing, empathy and psychology, and extremely deep technical knowledge."

Ziv Knoll · Board Member, Antwerp Diamond Bourse

"Working with Marc is like driving with a V12 on kerosene. A virtuoso in digital marketing, much better than most digital natives."

Erik Saelens · CEO, Brandhome and Unbox

If marketing activity is not producing qualified pipeline, that is not a reporting detail. That is a commercial-logic problem. The diagnostic finds where it breaks and tells you what to fix first.

Apply for the diagnostic

Eight questions. About seven minutes.
Direct response within 2 business days.

What you can expect

  • 1I read your answers personally. No assistant. No filter. I assess whether the diagnostic is the right starting point for your situation.
  • 2Within 2 business days: a direct response. If the fit is clear, I confirm and send a short preparation note for the engagement.
  • 3The diagnostic itself takes one to two weeks: desk research, a 60 to 90-minute working session, written findings, and the 90-day roadmap in a document.
  • 4The debrief: a 90-minute session where we work through the findings together. You leave with a clear picture of the priority actions and the reasoning behind them.

8 questions · about 7 minutes · Personal response within 2 business days

No newsletter. No follow-up sequence. A direct, personal response within 2 business days. If there is no match, I say so directly. Privacy policy.

Common questions

What business owners ask about the diagnostic.

What does the Commercial Diagnostic include and what does it cost?
€2.900 fixed. It covers six areas of focus across your commercial system, produces written findings specific to your business, and delivers a prioritised 90-day implementation roadmap. Includes a 90-minute debrief session. No retainer commitment.
How long does it take?
Typically one to two weeks from confirmation. Desk research, a 60 to 90-minute working session, written findings, the 90-day roadmap, and a 90-minute debrief session. The debrief is a working conversation, not a presentation. You leave with an exact sequence of what to address first.
Do I have to sign a retainer afterwards?
No. The diagnostic stands alone. The findings and roadmap are yours, to act on with whoever you choose. If the fit is right and you want to continue, the retainer is the logical next step. But that decision is entirely yours after seeing the output.
What makes the 90-day roadmap different from a standard audit document?
It is a prioritised sequence, not a list. The order is fixed because order matters. Paid campaigns started before the foundation is repaired produce expensive, misleading data. The roadmap tells you exactly what to do in month one, two, and three, and why that order produces better results.
Is this the same as the AEO Visibility Audit?
No. The AEO Visibility Audit (€4.200) is a separate engagement focused specifically on visibility for AI engines. The Commercial Diagnostic evaluates the broader commercial foundation: positioning, offer, message, channels, measurement. Each has its own scope and price. Both can be run independently.