What a real sales audit looks like
An audit is not a survey. It is not a slide deck about best practice. It is a forensic look at how a commercial engine actually runs, and an unflinching written record of what is broken.
Most so-called sales audits in this region are sales pitches dressed as diagnostics. A consultant runs a workshop, repeats a few generic best practices, and proposes a programme that conveniently fits the consultant's own service. A useful audit is a different exercise.
It begins with the data, not with the workshop
A real audit begins with a quiet week inside the business. Pipeline data, conversion stages, scripts, viewing logs, forecast versus actual records, commission structures, team composition, and the last 12 months of lost-deal reasons. Nothing is taken on trust. Everything is checked against the underlying numbers.
The first deliverable is not a recommendation. It is a written statement of how the commercial engine actually runs today, agreed with leadership. Most leadership teams are surprised by this document, which is the point.
It includes observation
Sitting in pipeline reviews. Watching a viewing or a pitch end-to-end. Listening to inbound calls. The gap between what people say happens and what actually happens is often the most valuable finding in the engagement, and it cannot be surfaced from a desk.
Observation also reveals capability. It is one thing to read a CV. It is another to watch an agent handle a price objection in real time. The audit's view on capability is built from observation, not from interviews.
It ends with a written document leadership can act on
Prioritised commercial risks, ranked by revenue exposure. A 90-day action plan with named owners. A short presentation to leadership that holds together when challenged. The document is the deliverable, not a slide deck.
There is no obligation to continue. A useful audit is useful on its own. If leadership chooses to implement internally, the document should be enough to do that. If they choose to move into an advisory engagement, the document is the contract for what the advisory work is going to fix.
The test of an audit is simple. Six months later, did anything actually change. Most audits fail that test. The ones that pass treat the diagnostic as the start of an honest commercial conversation, not the end of a sales process.