Sample Deliverable
This is an illustrative example — not a real client. It shows the structure and depth of what a client receives: a positioning diagnosis, an authority-gap assessment, a trust-signal audit, priority recommendations and a 90-day roadmap. Details describe a composite, anonymised professional-services firm.
Subject
Boutique advisory firm (composite)
Team
Founder plus a small senior team
Challenge
Highly capable, quietly under-recognised
The firm is perceived as a capable but undifferentiated generalist. Its public narrative spreads across three service lines, none of which is owned outright. Buyers cannot quickly say what the firm is for, so it is compared on price rather than chosen on authority.
The underlying capability is strong. The problem is not competence — it is that the market has no clear, defensible category in which to place the firm.
The Authority Gap™ is the distance between real capability and market perception, measured across four dimensions.
Positioning clarity
Gap: Wide
Today
Described as a “generalist advisory” across three unrelated service lines.
Target
A single, defensible position in one high-value problem area.
Authority assets
Gap: Wide
Today
No published frameworks; expertise lives only in live delivery and proposals.
Target
A named framework and one flagship publication that travel without the founder.
Trust signals
Gap: Moderate
Today
Credentials are real but invisible — no proof surfaces before the first call.
Target
Visible proof, references and thinking that pre-qualify the buyer.
Referability
Gap: Moderate
Today
Referrers struggle to describe the firm in one sentence.
Target
A memorable, repeatable description a referrer can pass on verbatim.
Present, but hidden
Missing before first contact
01
Retire two peripheral service lines from the public narrative and lead with the single problem the firm resolves best.
02
Codify the firm’s repeatable approach into one named framework that can be shown, taught and cited.
03
Convert existing know-how into a single authoritative briefing that demonstrates depth before a conversation begins.
04
Make credentials, results and thinking visible at the top of the funnel so buyers arrive already partly convinced.
Days 0–30
Days 31–60
Days 61–90
Your Diagnostic
A Commercial Authority Diagnostic™ produces a document like this, built entirely around your firm, your market and your goals.