This is a sample diagnosis for a fictional company, shown so you can see exactly what you get. Your version is built from your numbers.
Meridian Freight Software does not exist. Every figure below is invented to be realistic for a company of this shape, and every formula is shown so you can check the math. When we run this for you, the inputs come from your invoices, your CRM, and your reps.
Estimated annual leak: ~$585,000 against ~$196,000/yr of sales stack spend (excluding Slack). All hour figures are estimates and labeled as such; the formulas are inline in Section 3 so you can rerun them with your own inputs.
The leak is not one bad tool. It is rep hours going to work the stack should already be doing: rebuilding proposals by hand next to a $14k/yr PandaDoc contract, retyping call notes into Salesforce next to a $42k/yr Gong contract, and hunting answers in a stale Notion while paying for two overlapping outbound tools.
The #1 needle-mover is a proposal generation flow into PandaDoc. Reps currently rebuild proposals in Google Docs, roughly 3 hrs/wk each. A generator grounded in Salesforce opportunity data that outputs into the PandaDoc templates already paid for recovers an estimated $168k/yr in rep time and cuts proposal turnaround from days to under an hour. Effort: medium. No new software purchased.
Paragraph a VP could forward to a CEO:
Forwardable summaryWe had our stack diagnosed line by line. The finding: we spend ~$196k/yr on sales tools and still leak an estimated ~$585k/yr in rep time and duplicate spend, mostly on proposals rebuilt by hand, manual CRM entry, and answer-hunting. The plan is three moves in 90 days: build proposal generation on the PandaDoc contract we already pay for (est. $168k/yr back), stand up a Slack assistant that answers from our own calls and docs (est. $67k/yr back plus faster ramp), and cancel Apollo at its October renewal ($12k/yr, it duplicates Outreach). Nothing gets ripped out, nothing new gets bought, and we own everything that gets built. The math and formulas are in the attached ledger.
| Tool | Annual cost | Verdict | Why (one line) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce | $54,000 | KEEP | System of record works; the leak is manual entry around it, not the CRM itself. |
| Gong | $42,000 | KEEP | Recordings are a paid, untapped data asset; mine it, don't cancel it. |
| Slack | (company-wide) | KEEP | Where reps already ask questions; it becomes the delivery surface for answers. |
| PandaDoc | $14,000 | KEEP | The e-sign and template layer is fine; the problem is nothing feeds it. |
| Outreach | $36,000 | CONSOLIDATE | Survivor of the Outreach/Apollo overlap; one sequencing tool is enough. |
| Apollo | $12,000 | CONSOLIDATE (cancel at renewal) | Duplicates Outreach sequencing and ZoomInfo data; paying twice for one job. |
| Notion | $8,000 | REPLACE or fix | Stale docs nobody trusts; either becomes a maintained source for the assistant or gets retired. |
| ZoomInfo | $30,000 | KEEP, decide at renewal | Data is used, but the Sep 2026 renewal is the moment to right-size seats and credits. |
| Proposal generation flow | build | BUILD | Salesforce opp data in, PandaDoc-ready proposal out; no vendor sells this for your templates. |
| Gong insights layer | build | BUILD | Pull deal signals and objections out of recordings into Salesforce fields and coaching digests. |
| Slack answer assistant | build | BUILD | Answers pricing, process, and objection questions from Gong transcripts and cleaned docs. |
Loaded hourly rate = OTE x 1.25 (payroll load) / 2,000 working hrs = $130,000 x 1.25 / 2,000 = $81.25/hr, rounded to $81 for every row below. Annualization uses 46 working weeks, not 52, netting out PTO, holidays, and training; we use the lower number on purpose. All hrs/wk figures are estimates from rep interviews in a real engagement; here they are stated assumptions.
| # | Leak | Formula | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Proposals rebuilt by hand in Google Docs | 3 hrs/wk x 18 reps x 46 wks = 2,484 hrs x $81 | $201,204 |
| 2 | Manual CRM admin (logging calls, updating fields, pipeline hygiene) | 4 hrs/wk x 18 reps x 46 wks = 3,312 hrs x $81 | $268,272 |
| 3 | Tribal knowledge hunting (pricing rules, competitor answers, process) | 2 hrs/wk x 12 reps x 46 wks = 1,104 hrs x $81 | $89,424 |
| 4 | Apollo overlap with Outreach + ZoomInfo | contract cost, paid twice for one job | $12,000 |
| 5 | Gong paid but unmined | $42k contract; call review delivers roughly two thirds of the value, est. one third idle | $14,000 (est.) |
| Total estimated annual leak | $584,900 (~$585k) |
Check the addition: 201,204 + 268,272 + 89,424 + 12,000 + 14,000 = 584,900.
Two honesty notes. Row 2 is the biggest number but the hardest to recover in full; some CRM work is judgment, not typing. We count the full leak here and claim only a partial recovery in Section 5. Row 5 does not claim the whole Gong contract is wasted; call review is real value. Only the unmined remainder is counted.
Renewal dates are invented for the sample; in your version they come from your contracts. Switching cost: 1 = walk away next month, 5 = multi-quarter migration.
| Vendor | Data export | API access | Renewal (fictional) | Switching cost | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce | Full (weekly export + API) | Strong, well documented | Mar 2027 | 5 | Keep. Cost of leaving exceeds any plausible savings. |
| Outreach | Contacts/activity via CSV and API; sequence logic is partially trapped | Good | Jan 2027 | 3 | Document sequences outside the tool so the logic is portable. |
| Apollo | Easy CSV export | Adequate on paid tier | Oct 2026 | 1 | Export saved lists before cancellation. Cheapest exit in the stack. |
| Gong | Transcripts and recordings exportable via API | Good | Feb 2027 | 3 | The recordings are your data; pull transcripts out on a schedule so the asset outlives the vendor. |
| Notion | Full markdown/CSV export | Good | Sep 2026 | 2 | Content is portable; the problem is staleness, not lock-in. |
| PandaDoc | Documents export as PDF; templates rebuildable | Good | May 2027 | 2 | Keep templates mirrored in your own repo. |
| ZoomInfo | Export capped by credits; contract typically requires data purge after termination | Restricted | Sep 2026, decision point | 2 | The data evaporates when you leave. Right-size seats and credits at renewal; do not auto-renew. |
| Slack | Standard export | Strong | company-wide IT contract | 4 | Not a sales-led decision; treat as fixed. |
Flag: two renewals land in Sep/Oct 2026 (ZoomInfo, Apollo). That is inside the 90-day window below, which is deliberate. Decisions made before renewal dates are leverage; after, they are next year's problem.
Exactly three. Ranked by recovered value against effort.
Combined, the three moves target an estimated $247k/yr (167,670 + 67,068 + 12,000 = 246,738) of the $585k leak in the first 90 days, without buying new software. The CRM admin leak (row 2) is chipped at by the Gong insights layer pushing call data into Salesforce automatically, but we do not claim a number for it until the day-60 re-measure.
| Item | Effort | Annualized Impact | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proposal generation flow into PandaDoc | M | $167,670 | Big Bet |
| Slack answer assistant fed by Gong and Notion | M | $67,068 | Fill-In |
| Outreach/Apollo consolidation | S | $12,000 | Quick Win |
The Quick Win (Apollo consolidation) is low-lift and can start immediately. The Big Bet (proposal generator) is worth the medium effort for its impact. The Fill-In (Slack assistant) delivers solid value once the proposal build is in progress.
Day 1: Measure baseline metrics: proposal turnaround time, rep hours per week on proposals, CRM admin hours, and info-hunting hours across affected reps. Document current manual process flows so the before-and-after comparison is clean.
Day 2: Audit and clean Salesforce opportunity fields (products, pricing tier, terms, customer segment). These fields feed the proposal generator; gaps here will cause garbage output.
Day 3: Export Apollo contact lists and sequences into CSV. Audit the team to confirm no hidden workflows depend on Apollo-only features. Document any sequences that must migrate to Outreach.
Day 4: One-time Notion cleanup: archive pages older than 6 months, tag the trusted set that will feed the Slack assistant, and validate that pricing rules and objection answers are accurate. Stale docs in means wrong answers out.
What not to spend money or quarters on this year. Avoided bad spend is worth as much as recovered hours.
Owners: VP Sales (sponsor, decisions), RevOps lead (data, contracts, internal wiring), SalesOS Labs (builds, vendor pressure-testing). Everything built is owned by Meridian: code, prompts, and data pipelines live in Meridian's accounts.
| Action | Owner |
|---|---|
| Measure baselines: proposal turnaround, hrs/wk on proposals, CRM admin hrs, info-hunting hrs (table below) | RevOps lead |
| Clean Salesforce opportunity fields feeding proposals (products, pricing tier, terms) | RevOps lead |
| Build proposal generator v1 against PandaDoc templates; pilot with 3 reps | SalesOS Labs |
| Export Apollo lists; confirm no hidden Apollo dependencies | RevOps lead |
Day-30 checkpoint: pilot reps producing proposals in under 1 hour; Apollo exit confirmed safe.
| Action | Owner |
|---|---|
| Proposal generator to all 18 reps; training session recorded | SalesOS Labs + VP Sales |
| Cancel Apollo at renewal | VP Sales |
| Gong transcript export pipeline running on schedule | SalesOS Labs |
| One-time Notion cleanup: archive stale pages, tag the trusted set | RevOps lead |
| Slack assistant v1 answering from Gong transcripts + cleaned Notion; pilot with one pod | SalesOS Labs |
Day-60 checkpoint: re-measure proposal hrs/wk and turnaround against baseline; assistant answering pilot pod questions with sources cited.
| Action | Owner |
|---|---|
| Gong insights layer: deal signals and objections pushed into Salesforce fields | SalesOS Labs |
| Slack assistant to full team | SalesOS Labs + VP Sales |
| ZoomInfo renewal decision: right-size seats/credits with usage data in hand | VP Sales + RevOps lead |
| Day-90 re-measure of the full baseline table; ledger recomputed with observed numbers | RevOps lead |
Day-90 checkpoint: recomputed ledger goes to leadership next to this document.
| Metric | Day 0 (assumed) | Day 60 | Day 90 | Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proposal turnaround (request to sent) | ~3 days | < 1 day | ||
| Rep hrs/wk on proposals (avg) | 3.0 | < 0.5 | ||
| Rep hrs/wk on CRM admin (avg) | 4.0 | < 2.5 | ||
| Rep hrs/wk hunting answers (avg, affected reps) | 2.0 | < 0.5 | ||
| New-rep ramp to first closed deal | ~4 months | 3 months | ||
| Annual sales stack spend | $196,000 | $184,000 | ||
| Assistant answer rate (questions resolved without a human) | n/a | > 70% |
Pricing is discussed on the discovery call and anchored to the ledger above. If the ledger for your stack does not justify the engagement, the diagnosis says so and you keep it either way.
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The sample above is what a written Stack Diagnosis looks like. Yours is built from your stack, your team, and your numbers.
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