ALTA Research | The Seller-Doer Effectiveness Study
Research across twenty technical and advisory firms reveals why common approaches to scaling sales fail, which operating patterns work, and what firms should build before making their next investment.
Prefer to start with your own firm? Take the eight-question diagnostic and receive the study with your result.
Free research from ALTA Consulting. Your information is never sold or shared.
Choose your starting point
The complete research
Read the findings from twenty firms, explore the four operating patterns, examine the cases behind the conclusions, and see the capability sequence successful firms followed.
The diagnostic
Answer eight questions about origination, marketing, sales structure, visible expertise, and accountability. Receive a directional firm-type result, recommended next move, and the complete study.
The most common failure pattern
Seven of the twenty firms in the research hired dedicated sellers before building the marketing, positioning, and leadership conditions required to support them.
The result was often activity without enough closed business, followed by seller turnover or further investment in the same incomplete system.
The better-performing firms followed a different sequence. They built authority, developed selling capability inside the firm, protected origination time, aligned accountability, and only then decided whether dedicated sellers belonged in the model.
Inside the study
See the patterns that appeared across the twenty-firm case database and what they imply for growth investment.
Identify the operating pattern that most closely resembles your firm and the interventions associated with it.
Examine what firms tried, what happened, and what the evidence suggests they should have done differently.
See what successful firms built before deciding whether a dedicated sales function was appropriate.
The four operating patterns
The research identified four recurring operating patterns. They are not permanent labels or fixed stages. Firms can move between them as leadership, marketing, and origination capabilities change.
The firm can deliver without the founder, but it cannot consistently originate without them.
Multiple partners sell and the reputation is strong, but growth has stopped compounding.
Dedicated sellers are generating activity, but the conditions around the team are limiting results.
Origination, marketing, leadership, and delivery operate as a coordinated system.
Apply the research to your firm
The Seller-Doer Diagnostic uses eight questions from the research to provide a directional view of your firm's current operating pattern.
You will receive:
Approximately three minutes. Complete your profile before receiving the result.
About the research
The Seller-Doer Effectiveness Study draws on twenty technical and advisory firm engagements conducted between 2017 and 2026 across Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
The case database includes engineering, management consulting, IT services, and embedded services firms ranging from under $1 million to $2 billion in revenue.
The research uses a clinical case-analysis method. Its findings are directional. They are intended to help firm leaders recognize patterns, identify structural questions, and make better-informed decisions about marketing, origination, and sales investment.
Choose your next step
Read the complete research, or take the diagnostic to identify which of the four operating patterns most closely resembles your organization.
Diagnostic participants receive the study with their result.