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How it works

Four engagement formats

The format is chosen from the problem to solve, and the budget follows. A badly scoped diagnostic often ends up costing more than a well-framed build.

Let's talk about your challenges A first 30-minute conversation, no strings attached. Reply within 48 hours.

Choosing the right format

Most enquiries arrive framed as a request for an audit. An organisation that already knows what is wrong is mostly looking for someone to install what is missing. Conversely, one that hires to solve a problem it has not yet characterised will hire badly.

The four formats below combine or follow one another. The most common sequence is a short diagnostic followed, if the findings warrant it, by a build. Fractional leadership is the rarest and the most committing.

The four formats

Diagnostic

2 to 3 weeks

A quantified assessment, followed by a prioritised roadmap. It is the shortest format, and it commits you to nothing afterwards.

What it covers

  • On the Customer Success side, mapping of the actual portfolio, NRR calculation and breakdown, account coverage, breakpoints in the customer lifecycle.
  • On the pricing side, a reading of the price architecture, consistency of positions by category, promotional mechanics and their real cost, the price decision circuit.
  • In both cases, interviews with the teams involved, a review of available data, and a comparison of what the organisation says with what the numbers say.

What you get

  • A written and quantified assessment, with nothing softened
  • A roadmap prioritised by expected effect and by effort
  • A verbal readout to the leadership team, questions included

When it is the right formatThe right format when the problem is felt but not characterised, or when an investment or hiring decision is waiting to be settled.

When it is notThe wrong format when the diagnosis has already been made internally and shared. It will only produce a paid confirmation.

Build

3 to 6 months, part-time

This format builds the function, or rebuilds it, by installing what does not exist yet: segmentation, processes, indicators, rhythms and tooling.

What it covers

  • On the Customer Success side, portfolio segmentation and coverage model, lifecycle definition, expansion and renewal strategy, team sizing, interfaces with Sales and Product.
  • On the pricing side, the pricing decision framework, range architecture, competitive response rules, the trade-off between everyday price and promotion, ownership and review frequency.
  • On both sides, tooling comes last, once the process is stable. A tool installed too early freezes an organisation that does not yet exist.

What you get

  • A working function, documented and run by internal teams
  • Steering indicators defined, calculated and understood
  • A handover plan with an end date

When it is the right formatThe right format when the function still has to be created, or when it exists but rests on people more than on processes.

When it is notThe wrong format when leadership has not yet settled the mandate. Without a clear decision on what the function must produce, no build holds.

Fractional leadership

1 to 2 days per week

Velista holds the role and owns its decisions until a permanent lead is hired or grows into the job. The role covers managing the team, steering the metrics and making the week's trade-offs.

What it covers

  • Direct management of the Customer Success or Account Management team, including across several markets and several languages.
  • Ownership of renewals and key accounts, preparation and conduct of sensitive negotiations.
  • Participation in leadership forums on the relevant scope, with the same accountability as an internal head of function.

What you get

  • The function's results, month by month
  • A team managed and assessed against explicit criteria
  • A successor prepared, or a hiring process taken to completion

When it is the right formatThe right format during a transition, after a head of function leaves, when growth outpaces hiring, or when a market opens.

When it is notThe wrong format when the organisation mostly needs extra hands. The role is to decide, and the team keeps its own work.

Training and mentoring

One-off sessions or ongoing support

This format builds skills without a transformation mandate, either by training a team on a specific subject or by supporting, over time, the person who has just stepped into the role.

What it covers

  • In team training, running an account review, preparing a renewal, reading a P&L and a price grid, building and using a health score.
  • In individual mentoring, support for a newly appointed Customer Success or pricing lead, on their real trade-offs rather than on textbook cases.
  • Materials produced stay with the organisation and are designed to be reused without Velista.

What you get

  • Training materials built on the organisation's own context
  • A session rhythm agreed in advance and kept to
  • No dependency created, which is the success criterion for this format

When it is the right formatThe right format when the processes exist and the gap is one of skill or confidence.

When it is notThe wrong format when the problem is structural. No amount of training compensates for missing segmentation or a vague mandate.

Method

Four stages, with the exit planned from the first

A successful engagement has an end date. The first three stages build the system; the fourth organises Velista's departure.

01 Frame You set what the function, or the pricing policy, must deliver, for whom, and how it will be measured. The stage ends with a short signed-off document that everything else refers back to.
02 Instrument Starting from the data available, you choose the metrics that matter and set the meetings where decisions get made. The dashboard is only a means; the aim is to decide on numbers rather than instinct.
03 Industrialise Whatever only worked thanks to one particular person is written down, quantified and handed to named owners, so it can repeat without them.
04 Hand over The teams take the system over. After a documented handover and skills transfer, support is deliberately scaled down until it stops.

Common conditions

Scope written before starting

What is in the engagement, what is not, and the date it ends.

Restricted data access

Strictly what is needed, aggregated wherever possible, under a confidentiality undertaking. No access to end users' personal data.

One counterpart who decides

An engagement without a sponsor able to settle trade-offs stops at the recommendation stage.

Four working languages

French, English, German, Spanish. Teams spread across several European markets work in their own language.

Remote, with on-site milestones

The substantive work is done remotely. Framing, readouts and turning points happen on site.

An exit planned at framing

The end date and handover conditions sit in the initial scope, written before the work starts.

What makes the cost vary

No rate is published here, because a single rate card would mislead. Cost varies widely with the format chosen, the duration, the breadth of scope (number of segments or categories, number of markets) and the number of stakeholders to bring along.

An order of magnitude is given at the end of a first conversation, once these parameters are known.

A first thirty-minute conversation

Thirty minutes are enough to frame a retention, expansion or pricing issue, and see whether there is work to do together.

Let's talk about your challenges
A first 30-minute conversation, no strings attached. Reply within 48 hours. contact@velista.net