Commercial Discovery

A board ready commercial case for your new product, service or market. In eight weeks.

For established businesses that have a new line to decide on and want the decision taken on evidence rather than enthusiasm. Four working sessions with the people who can decide. One written case that goes to the board as it stands.

Fixed fee £10,500 excluding VAT. Half on signature, half on delivery. Three programmes a quarter.

The decision

Every established business reaches the point where a new idea needs a budget line.

A new product. A new service. A market the business has not sold into before. The people behind it are convinced. The board wants to know who buys it, what they pay, how they are reached, and what it costs the core business to find out.

Most businesses do one of two things. They commit on enthusiasm, and the evidence arrives after the money has been spent. Or they wait for certainty, and the idea sits in the plan for another year while a competitor moves.

Commercial Discovery is the third option: eight weeks, four questions, one written case, and a recommendation to proceed, reshape or stop.

The method

Four questions, answered in order

The customer

Who buys it, what they buy instead today, who signs the order, and whether they are the same people you already sell to.

The money

What the buyer pays, what it costs to serve, where the margin sits, and what the new line does to the economics of the existing business.

The route to market

How the buyer is reached, where your existing channels and relationships help, where they get in the way, and which activity should stop.

The plan

Who owns the new line inside the business, what capability is missing, how it is resourced without starving the core, and the first two quarters in sequence.

The order matters. Most businesses start with the route and never define the customer.

What you receive

The written case is the product

At the end of week eight you hold a written commercial case covering the customer, the commercial model, the route to market and the plan. It separates what is evidenced from what is still an assumption, says what it would cost to find out, and ends with a recommendation: proceed, reshape or stop. It is written to go to a board or an investment committee as it stands, and it belongs to the company.

Along the way you receive a written baseline after the intake diagnostic and a short written output after each of the four sessions, so nothing waits until the end.

How it runs

Eight weeks from the Monday after signature

Week 1: Baseline

Intake diagnostic on the existing business and the new line, returned as a short written baseline. Sessions booked.

Weeks 2 to 3: The customer and the money

Sessions one and two with the sponsor and the team.

Weeks 4 to 5: The route and the plan

Sessions three and four.

Weeks 6 to 7: The case

Drafted and issued for your comment.

Week 8: Close

Case issued in final. Close conversation. Handover.

About seven senior days of TGE* time. Twelve to fifteen hours of yours, across the sponsor and the team. Sessions at your premises, in Leeds or online.

What it asks of you

The people who can decide, in the room

An executive sponsor

The person who owns the decision the case informs. They attend every session.

The team behind the new line

Two to four people who would run it.

What the business already knows

Customer conversations, numbers, past attempts. The diagnostic gathers it; the sessions test it.

What it does not ask: no company wide workshops, no data room to build, no consultants embedded in your office, no retainer at the end.

Proof of method

Xenscope: from discovery to paying customers

3

months of structured discovery and beta testing before launch

12

days from launch to the first paying customers

6

months from launch to acquisition interest

Xenscope is a property level data intelligence platform that identifies fuel poverty for social housing providers. The pace was an outlier. The method was not: the same four questions, in the same order, before the money went in.

Who does the work

The principal, not a team of juniors

Every session is led by Farakh Masood, Founding Director of TGE*. Over thirty years of international business leadership across Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa, at ministerial level and with sovereign wealth funds. An engineer by training, with an MBA and legal training behind it, so the customer, the numbers and the contract are read together. Leader in Residence at Leeds University Business School. Specialist partners are brought in where a session needs them, and you are told who.

The commercials

One fixed fee, paid in two halves

£10,500

excluding VAT. Fixed for the scope. About seven senior days at the TGE* rate card.

£5,250 on signature, before work begins.

£5,250 on delivery of the final case at the close of week eight.

A purchase order and your standard payment period are accommodated.

No day rates, no retainer, no equity and no success share.
If the budget is smaller, the scope contracts and the rate does not.
Everything is in one document: a Proposal and Engagement Letter with the Terms of Business attached. One signature.

Is it the right test for you?

Commercial Discovery fits when

The business is established and trading, with customers and a team.
There is a specific new product, service line or market on the table.
A decision to commit budget and people has to be taken in the next two quarters.
There is a named person who owns that decision and can be in the room.

It is not the right test when the idea is still a sketch with no business behind it, or when the decision has already been taken and what is wanted is delivery.

The next step

Thirty minutes to decide whether this is the right test for your new line

A fit conversation, not a pitch. If it fits, a single Proposal and Engagement Letter follows the same day, and the programme starts the Monday after signature. TGE* runs three programmes a quarter, so the conversation also settles when the next start is.

farakh@tge-group.uk | +44 7711 314 044