Most orgs solve the wrong problem.
The Diagnostic Lens
The Core Idea
This is my meta-process — the framework I use before applying any other framework. After 20 years of walking into sales organizations that 'need training,' I've learned that the presenting problem is almost never the actual problem. Pipeline is low — but is that a prospecting skill issue, a messaging problem, a territory design failure, or a leadership gap? Most enablement teams skip diagnosis entirely and jump straight to content creation. They build beautiful training programs that solve the wrong problem, then wonder why the numbers don't move.
Components
Symptom vs. Root Cause
The discipline of looking past the obvious metric to understand what's actually driving it. 'Reps aren't hitting quota' is a symptom. The root cause might be inadequate pipeline generation, poor qualification letting bad deals advance, weak negotiation giving away margin, or a dozen other things. Each one requires a completely different intervention.
A CRO tells me 'we need negotiation training — reps keep discounting.' I look at the data and find that discounting correlates almost perfectly with deals where the economic buyer was never engaged. The real problem isn't negotiation skill — it's that reps are negotiating with people who don't have budget authority. No amount of negotiation training fixes a qualification problem.
Layer Analysis
A systematic way to identify which layer of the system is broken. Is it a skill problem (rep can't do it), a will problem (rep won't do it), a process problem (the system makes it hard to do), or a leadership problem (manager isn't reinforcing it)? Each layer requires fundamentally different solutions, and most orgs default to 'it must be a skill problem' because training is the easiest lever to pull.
Reps at a client weren't logging activities in the CRM. Leadership wanted 'CRM training.' Layer analysis revealed: they knew how to use it (not skill), they thought it was pointless because managers never used the data in coaching (leadership problem), and the CRM required 14 fields for a simple activity log (process problem). The fix was simplifying the CRM workflow and training managers to use CRM data in one-on-ones — not retraining reps.
Data Triangulation
No single data source tells the whole story. Quota attainment tells you what happened but not why. CRM data tells you what reps recorded but not what actually occurred. Call recordings reveal real behavior but only on calls that were recorded. Rep interviews surface perception but are subject to self-serving bias. You need all four, cross-referenced, to form an accurate diagnosis.
CRM data showed healthy pipeline, but quota attainment was tanking. Call recordings revealed that reps were advancing deals without confirmed next steps — so the pipeline was full of stalled deals masquerading as active opportunities. Rep interviews confirmed they felt pressure to show pipeline volume, so they inflated stages. The actual problem was a stage-gate process that incentivized false progression.
Hypothesis Testing
Form a thesis about what's broken, design a small test to validate it, and revise before investing in a full solution. This is the scientific method applied to sales performance. Too many enablement teams go from observation to full program build without ever testing their assumptions. The result is expensive programs built on wrong diagnoses.
My hypothesis was that new reps at a fintech company were struggling because the product was too complex, not because the sales methodology was wrong. I tested it by giving 10 reps an extra week of product deep-dive before methodology training, while a control group followed the standard sequence. The product-first group ramped 23% faster — confirming the hypothesis and saving us from rebuilding the entire methodology program.
In Practice
At Attentive, leadership came to me convinced they needed 'more training' — reps weren't hitting pipeline targets and the assumption was a skill gap. Before building anything, I ran a full diagnostic. I pulled conversion data across every stage of the funnel, listened to 50+ call recordings, interviewed 15 reps and 8 managers, and mapped the end-to-end workflow from lead to opportunity. The diagnosis was clear: the issue wasn't rep skill. SDRs were booking meetings that AEs couldn't convert because the SDR-to-AE handoff process was broken — critical context about the prospect's pain points and buying situation was getting lost in a sloppy handoff template. I redesigned the handoff process, built a structured brief format, and created a 15-minute SDR-AE sync protocol. Pipeline conversion lifted 11% in the first quarter with zero training spend.