A consultancy audit of sales and marketing gives you experienced people working with your team, a bespoke document and, if you want it, help with implementation. In the quotes we have received it costs from $20,000 to $45,000 and runs over several weeks or sometimes months. A structured self-service assessment gives you a validated position for both functions, set against average performance and best practice, once a group of your own people has completed the short questionnaire, for $2,600 for the full SM3 report and with no engagement commitment attached. Neither is right for every business. The self-service route suits a business that needs to know where to focus before spending money on fixing it. A consultancy suits a business that already knows and needs hands-on help to act.
How do the two routes compare?
| Self-service assessment (SM3) | Consultancy audit | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | QuickScan $765; full report $2,600 | $20,000 to $45,000 in the quotes we have received |
| Time to findings | 20 to 30 minutes per respondent | Several weeks or months |
| Demand on your team | A short questionnaire per respondent; no preparation | Interviews, workshops, data requests and review meetings |
| Scope | Sales and marketing together, on one scale | Depends on the brief. Consultancies typically focus on one discipline |
| Method | Defined levels and research-based benchmarks, the same for every business | The consultancy’s own method |
| Output | Graphical summaries and, in the full report, more than 60 pages of findings and next steps | A bespoke report and presentation |
| Support | Free optional briefing and interpretation sessions, if requested; no further stages committed | Implementation usually available, at further cost |
| Proposal attached | No | Often |
When is a consultancy the better choice?
A good consultancy brings things a questionnaire cannot, and it is worth being clear about them.
Hands-on implementation. If you already know what needs work and lack the people or time to do it, you need help doing the work.
Facilitation. Some leadership teams value an outside voice in the room to work through a difference of view between functions.
Deep work on one area. If the question is narrow, such as a pricing review or a sales methodology rollout, a specialist in that area will go further than a broad assessment.
Board expectations. Some boards expect a named external firm to review a major commercial change. However, most consultancies, and their consultants tend to have a focus in only one of the disciplines/professions.
When is a self-service assessment the better choice?
When you need to know where to focus. Spending is up, results are flat, and it is not yet clear whether the constraint lies mainly in sales, in marketing, or between them. An assessment answers those questions before you commit any budget to fixing it.
When you want both functions measured on the same terms. SM3 evaluates every sales and marketing category against the same scale, so you can see where the two diverge. Sales and marketing alignment explains why that matters.
When you want candid answers. Individual responses are confidential and are not shared with your business, as SM3 assesses the capability of the organization rather than the people answering.
When you want independence. SM3 produces a validated position you own outright, with no additional engagement to decline at the end of it. What SM3 is not explains why it was built this way.
When you want to measure progress. Repeating the assessment after a planning cycle shows whether the areas you worked on have moved. Some SM3 clients review progress annually.
Is a self-service assessment as rigorous?
The fair question is whether a questionnaire can match the depth of a consultancy. SM3’s answer rests on how it was built: more than two person-years of development, input from twenty advisors in eight countries, and authors who include a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Founding Fellow of the Institute of Sales Professionals, as well as a mathematician and industry analyst. Responses are processed through a number of weighted algorithms that account for job role, sector and geography.
What it does not do is sit in your meetings, interview your customers or implement change for you. That is the honest limit of the self-service route.
Can you use both?
Yes, and for many businesses, the most efficient sequence is to do both, in order. Run the assessment first to learn which categories are weaker, where sales and marketing see things differently, and what the next level looks like. Then decide whether you need outside help, and for what. A consultant briefed with a clear diagnosis can start on the right problem from the first day. If you want a specialist, the SM3 advisors are independent practitioners you can approach, though the report does not route you to anyone.
A DIY marketing or sales audit with a defined standard
A checklist completed by one person is a reasonable start, but it relies on a single view and has no defined standard to measure against. SM3 addresses both: several people answer independently, and every answer is evaluated against a defined scale and compared with averages and best practice. What a sales and marketing audit should cover sets out the full scope.
Common questions
A structured self-service assessment that measures capability against defined standards. It tells you where you stand today without the cost or duration of an engagement, and you can still bring in specialist help afterwards, briefed with a clear diagnosis.
It can be, particularly when you already know what needs work and want hands-on help. If you still don’t know where to focus, an assessment is usually the better first step, and it makes any later consultancy work more targeted.
Not to establish where you stand. A self-service assessment completed by your own people can do that. A consultant adds value when you need help acting on the findings.
The full report sets out the findings behind each score and recommends next steps. It does not implement them for you.
Yes. SM3 can give a consultant a clear baseline at the start of a new engagement. A new tool for consultants explains how.