A marketing diagnostic is a structured assessment of a business's marketing function - what's working, what isn't, and what to do next. It covers the full picture: positioning, visibility, pipeline, content and output, measurement, and team capability. The output is a scored review across all six areas with a clear 12-month roadmap and recommendations.

Built environment B2B businesses at £5-40m revenue. Typically businesses where marketing has grown organically without strategic direction, where a new leadership team wants an objective view of the function, or where a business is preparing to cover an interim CMO gap.

Six weeks from the framing conversation to the leadership presentation.

A two-page executive summary written for the CEO, a 15-20 page Findings and Recommendations document written for the marketing lead, and a 12-15 slide leadership presentation delivered live. Plus a 12-month roadmap and a measurement tracker template.

The leadership presentation covers three execution paths: running the recommendations in-house, appointing an agency, or bringing in fractional marketing leadership. There's no pressure toward any of them. If fractional is the right path, the scope maps directly to the Diagnostic findings - no second discovery process.

Scoped at the framing conversation based on business size and complexity. £4,000 for businesses under £5m revenue up to £10,000 for businesses at £40m and above with multi-brand or multi-market complexity.

The three programmes answer different questions at different stages.

The Marketing Diagnostic is for businesses that aren't sure where the problem is. It reviews the whole marketing function across six pillars, scores what's working and what isn't, and produces a clear picture of where to focus. It's the right starting point when the brief is "we know marketing isn't performing but we're not sure why."

A Strategy Sprint is for businesses that already know what the question is. The Diagnostic might have surfaced it, or it might be obvious from a business event - a new service line, a rebrand decision, a market entry. The Sprint answers that one question properly. It assumes you already have a reasonable view of the function overall.

Marketing Foundations is for businesses that have grown without any formal marketing strategy and need one built from scratch. Where the Diagnostic assesses what exists and recommends how to improve it, Foundations starts from zero and builds the full architecture - positioning, messaging, channel strategy, 12-month plan and budget model.

A common sequence is Diagnostic first, then either a Sprint to address the most pressing strategic question the Diagnostic surfaces, or straight into a fractional retained engagement to implement the roadmap. Foundations tends to stand alone - it's the right answer when there's genuinely nothing to assess.

Programmes are fixed-fee projects with a defined scope, a specific deliverable and an end date. You know what you're buying, what you'll get and when it will be done. They're the right answer when the brief is specific and bounded - assessing the marketing function, answering a strategic question, or building a strategy from first principles.

Fractional services are retained and ongoing. There's no fixed deliverable and no end date - the output is a marketing function that works, week to week, over time. They're the right answer when the business needs ongoing marketing leadership rather than a specific piece of work.

The two often work in sequence. A Marketing Diagnostic is a common entry point for businesses that want an objective assessment before committing to a retained engagement. The Diagnostic roadmap then defines the scope of the fractional role, removing the need for a second discovery process.

The Diagnostic framework works across B2B sectors but the sector knowledge that makes the interviews, competitor analysis and recommendations sharper is built environment specific. If you're outside the sector, it's worth a conversation before committing.