I was asked to review a Terms of Reference a couple months ago for a twelve-month Commercial Marketing Advisor. It was a thoughtful document. The objectives were clear, the scope of work was comprehensive, and the desired outcomes were well defined.

As I read through it, however, I found myself thinking less about the proposed role and more about the thinking that had produced it.

My first question wasn’t whether the organization needed a Commercial Marketing Advisor.

It was:

How did we conclude that this was the intervention the organization needed most?

That question wasn’t intended to challenge the role itself. Marketing may well have been the right answer. But before committing to a twelve-month appointment and a significant financial investment, I wondered whether enough time had been spent understanding the situation that had given rise to the recommendation.

In my response, I suggested something different.

Rather than moving directly to recruitment, I recommended a short assessment designed to better understand the factors influencing commercial sustainability, service uptake, demand generation, patient experience, execution capacity, and the organization’s overall ability to sustain growth.

My thinking was simple.

If the diagnosis was sound, the assessment would strengthen confidence in the proposed role. If it wasn’t, it might reveal a different intervention capable of producing greater impact.

My response wasn’t what most people expect.

I didn’t recommend a different marketing strategy or suggest a stronger candidate profile. Instead I questioned whether the organization had established that marketing was the intervention it needed in the first place.

To some people, that kind of pause feels like delay.

It can look as though you’re slowing progress or making things unnecessarily complicated.

I see it differently.

Sometimes slowing the decision is exactly what prevents an organization from investing significant time, money, and resources in an intervention that was never designed to address what was actually limiting progress in the first place.

That experience reminds me of how often organizations move quickly from observing a problem to prescribing a solution.

• Sales decline, so marketing becomes the answer.
• Conflict emerges, so leadership training is commissioned.
• A project stalls, so strategy is revisited.

Sometimes those interventions are exactly what’s needed.
Sometimes they’re responses to an interpretation of the situation rather than the situation itself.

By the time a Request for Proposal reaches the market, the organization has often already concluded what kind of expertise it needs.

Yet the quality of the consultant can never consistently exceed the quality of the understanding that shaped the brief in the first place.

A brilliant consultant can only solve the problem they’ve been asked to solve. If the organization has commissioned the wrong expertise, the engagement may be executed exceptionally well while leaving the underlying issue untouched.

Perhaps the most valuable question isn’t:

Who should we hire?

Perhaps it’s:

How confident are we that we’ve identified the right need before investing significant time, money, and resources?

That question comes BEFORE the RFP and, in my experience, it often determines the value of everything that follows.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

Think about the last consultant, trainer, or specialist your organization engaged.

How much time was spent selecting the right person… compared with testing whether the organization had correctly identified the problem that person was being asked to solve?

About Giselle

Most costly decisions begin with an inaccurate understanding of the situation.

I’m Giselle Hudson. As a writer and Pre-Decision Diagnostic Advisor, I illuminate understanding so leaders can see more clearly, make wiser decisions, and build better businesses.

Through my daily Strategic Alignment Journal, I explore leadership, decision-making, and the patterns that shape organizations, helping leaders make sense of complexity before committing significant time, money, or resources.

If you could better understand one thing about your business right now, what would it be?