Ground Truth. Advisory · Helen Vernon
The work · Every fee, every duration

Start by asking.
Almost nobody does.

Every engagement produces something written you can act on without me — I'd rather be re-hired than retained out of habit. These are starting points; most briefs end up a hybrid, scoped to what you actually need. Every fee and duration is on the page, because a practice built on saying the quiet part out loud should not hide its prices.

← Back to the argument
01

The Health Check

When did somebody not connected to the building last ask your people how they are?

Full package & timingsClose

You have an engagement survey. Nobody believes it is anonymous — and they are right not to. The results get cut by department, so a team of six is identifiable by arithmetic. And if you don't complete it, somebody notices that too. So people write nothing, or they write something safe. The survey produces exactly the data the business was hoping for, which is why the business keeps commissioning it.

I am not anonymous. I am unattributable — I don't report to their manager, I'm not on your payroll, and I have no career in your building to protect. I tell you what I heard. I never tell you who said it. The people who have worked with me for thirty years know that I mean that — and that is the only reason any of this produces the truth.

Then a written finding, with a named owner and a date against every line. And I come back in ninety days to see what actually landed.

Dealer groups · Single sites · OEM network · PE holdings

How it runs
BeforeScoping call, 20 minutes. What you want looked at, what's already been tried, and who I should not be surprised to meet.
Days 1–3, on siteListening. Every level. Free-flow, not a questionnaire. If month end matters to what you want found, I come at month end.
Weeks 2–4The written finding. Strengths recorded first and protected, then the pattern, the mechanism, and every action owned and dated.
Read-back, 60 minutesI take you through it. You can disagree with any of it. I won't change it because someone found it uncomfortable.
Day 90The return. What landed, what quietly reverted, and what I got wrong because somebody managed what I was allowed to see.
What this is not
  • No individual is ever named or identifiable — that's a hard limit, not a preference
  • Not an HR investigation, a grievance process or a disciplinary input. If something discloseable comes up I'll tell you it exists and nothing more
  • Not a benchmark against other groups — I have no panel and won't pretend to
  • I don't implement the finding under this fee. If you want that, it's a separate conversation and I'll say so plainly
  • Stage 1 · Listen — every level, no managers in the room. The receptionist, the parts adviser, the technician, the administrator. The people who see everything and are asked nothing
  • Stage 2 · The finding — the junctions, the costed truth, what's already working (protected in writing), and the free fixes. Every line owned, dated, and defined as done
  • Stage 3 · The 90-day return — what landed, what stayed, what quietly reverted. And what I got wrong because somebody managed what I was allowed to see
  • Most of what I find costs nothing. Tag the keys. Write down what outranks what. Being heard is free
  • See what one finds →
  • Test it first — the free Entry Review →
£6k–£9k 2–3 days on site
+ 90-day return
02

AI, Designed and Landed

Not a strategy deck. A rollout. Nobody in this industry has a person whose job is to take AI from decision to adopted across a group — so it stalls at the pilot, or it lands and nobody uses it.

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AI does not fix a broken process. It exposes it — faster, at scale, and in front of the customer. Automate a booking journey that never worked and you get a bad journey, instantly, every time. So we look at the operating model before we put anything on top of it. That is the part most AI programmes skip, and it is the part I can actually do — because I ran the departments.

Then the rollout. I have done this shape of work before: five brands, over 40 sites, systems that didn't exist until go-live, solo. Process maps, training, the SharePoint, the person on the phone at 4pm when a site can't make it work — and the regression afterwards, which is where the real design happens.

Design is the easy half. Landing it is the job.

Dealer groups · OEMs · Suppliers · Multi-site networks

How it runs
Stage 1 · ExposeThe operating model read first. What is AI about to amplify? Broken processes get faster and more visible, not fixed.
Stage 2 · DesignWhere it goes, what it touches, what it must not touch, and what good looks like in a form somebody can be held to.
Stage 3 · BuildBuilt with the people who'll use it, on their real work — not a pilot in a side room.
Stage 4 · LandSite by site, in person. Taught to the people who won't ask questions in a group.
Stage 5 · HoldThrough the regression, which arrives at roughly week six to ten. This is the stage everyone underfunds.
What this is not
  • Not software selection, procurement or vendor negotiation — I'll tell you what you need it to do, not which to buy
  • Not IT implementation, integration or data engineering. I work alongside whoever does that
  • Not a strategy deck. If a document is the deliverable, this isn't the offer
  • I won't land a design I think is wrong. If the read at stage 1 says stop, I'll say stop
  • Expose — the operating model read first. What is AI about to amplify?
  • Design — 4Ds diagnostic, use cases ranked by return, governance and risk framework
  • Build — working tools, not slideware. Proven at pilot before the network sees them
  • Land — process maps, training, site-by-site rollout, readiness that means something
  • Hold — adoption tracked, the post-live regression owned, and the fix delivered
  • Eleven AI certifications. Production systems built, not described
Interim / retained day rate on application
3–12 months
03

The Ground Truth Read

Before you set the target, launch the model, or roll the standard — I take your plan into real retailers and tell you what it will actually collide with. Written from the receiving end, in the language of the people who have to make it work.

Full package & timingsClose

OEM national & regional · Network development

How it runs
Week 1The plan read cold, then the session with the people who wrote it.
Weeks 1–3The network read, where access allows. What the plan does when it reaches a site that is already behind.
Weeks 3–5The written read: what lands, what stalls, what breaks, and what it collides with that nobody modelled.
Read-backIn person or on video, with the people who need to hear it rather than the people who commissioned it, if those differ.
What this is not
  • Not a rubber stamp. If the plan is sound I'll say so quickly and bill less
  • Not a rewrite — I tell you what it does, you decide what to change
  • Not a market or competitor analysis. This is an operational read, not a strategic one
  • No board presentation unless agreed separately
  • Plan read against operating reality
  • Collision points, ranked by cost
  • What your network won't tell you, and why
  • Board-ready written finding
£12k–£25k scope-dependent
04

Product & Roadmap Reality

Your product assumes the Head of Business has time to look at the dashboard. He doesn't. I'll show you his actual Tuesday — where your tool sits in it, what it's competing with, and why the feature you're proudest of is the one nobody opens.

Full package & timingsClose

DMS & SaaS · Suppliers to the network

How it runs
Weeks 1–2Roadmap read, product sessions, and what you believe the retailer does with it.
Weeks 2–4The retailer reality: what actually happens at the desk when your product is in use on the last day of the month.
Weeks 4–6The written verdict — what to build, what to stop building, what to fix before adding anything, and where you have misread the user.
What this is not
  • Not UX research, usability testing or a design audit
  • Not technical architecture or code review
  • Not a sales tool. I won't write anything intended to be shown to your prospects as endorsement
  • I won't validate a roadmap I think is wrong
  • Voice-of-the-retailer, unfiltered
  • Workflow reality mapping
  • Roadmap challenged before it's built
  • Sales narrative that survives the room
from £10,000 4–6 weeks
05

Agency & Structural Change

Five marques. Five agency models. Over 40 sites. I delivered every one of them — solo, end to end — and was accountable through the regression, when the launch architecture met the showroom floor and something had to give. Advice from the only side of the table that saw all five arrive at once.

Full package & timingsClose

OEM · Retail groups · Transition programmes

How it runs
ScopingHalf a day. Where you are, what has already been decided, and what is genuinely still movable.
Design or diagnosisDepending on stage. Either what the model needs to work at retail level, or why it isn't.
DeliveryOn site, through the change. Training built for the system that actually operates, not the one on the slide.
Post-liveRegression is normal and predictable. Held, not reported.
What this is not
  • Not legal, contractual or competition-law advice on agency structures — take that to counsel
  • Not OEM–retailer negotiation or representation. I work for whoever engages me and say so openly
  • Not a margin or remuneration model rebuild
  • Day rate means day rate — I'll tell you when you no longer need me
  • Model design stress-tested against multi-brand reality
  • Post-live regression planned, not discovered
  • System and process reconciliation
  • Change plan the network will actually adopt
day rate on application
06

Retention: Women in the Network

Not a values workshop. A retention audit. Where women enter, where they stall, where they leave — and what each departure costs you in recruitment, lost margin and rebuilt relationships. Then we fix the mechanism. I have been the only one in the room for thirty years; I know precisely where it breaks.

Full package & timingsClose

OEM · Groups · Anyone tired of the photograph

How it runs
Weeks 1–2The data as it stands, and what it doesn't capture — most retention data doesn't record why.
Weeks 2–4The conversations. Current and former, unattributable, no managers, no HR present.
Weeks 4–6The written finding, costed in pounds: what attrition is actually costing you in recruitment, lost productivity and lost management capability.
What this is not
  • Not a values workshop, an away day, or unconscious bias training — explicitly not, and I'll decline if that's what's wanted
  • Not an EDI strategy, policy document or reporting framework
  • Not a grievance route. If something discloseable arises I'll tell you it exists and nothing else
  • Not a recruitment service
  • Pipeline leakage mapped by grade and function
  • Attrition costed in pounds, not sentiment
  • Stay and exit interviews, run externally
  • Intervention plan with review gates
  • Where the finding is communicative — how people are introduced, how feedback travels up and down, who gets spoken over — the frameworks are already published and in use, not invented per engagement
from £9,000 6 weeks
07

The Network Programme

The hybrid. I come into every dealership in your group, one at a time, and get your people genuinely comfortable with AI — what to use, when to use it, when not to, and where governance actually applies.

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Not a webinar. Not a train-the-trainer cascade that dies at the second site. In the building, with the Service Adviser at half past eight, with the parts window in full flow, with the administrator on the last working day of the month. Where the work actually happens, and where adoption is actually decided.

This is the shape of work I have done before. Five marques, five models, over 40 sites, solo — site by site, until it stuck.

Multi-site groups · OEM networks · 10 to 60+ sites

How it runs
Month 1Scoping across the network. Which sites are ready, which are struggling, and where to start — which is rarely the strongest site.
Months 2–12Site by site, in person. In the building at 08:30, at the parts window in full flow, with the administrator on the last working day.
ThroughoutA monthly read to the sponsor on adoption reality — not attendance figures.
Final thirdHandover to the internal owner, with the material and the method, so it survives without me.
What this is not
  • Not a webinar series, an e-learning build or a train-the-trainer cascade
  • Not a one-day group session per region — that's the thing that doesn't work
  • Not software delivery or configuration
  • I won't claim adoption figures I can't evidence, and I'll tell you where it hasn't landed
  • Site by site — every dealership, every department, in person
  • Role-specific — the three moves, applied to the job they actually do
  • Governance, in plain English — what you can put in, what you cannot, and who owns the answer when it is wrong
  • Confidence, not compliance — people don't resist AI, they resist being made to look stupid. That is a teaching problem, and it is solvable
  • Adoption tracked and held — through the regression, not to go-live
Retained programme scoped by network size
6–18 months
08

Delivering Change

The decision is made. The plan is not up for debate — a new system, a new structure, a new standard, and it is happening. What you don't have is the thing that makes it stick: people who understand why, managers who can carry it, and training that works inside the system you actually run.

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Most change fails after go-live, not before it. Not because the plan was wrong, but because the landing was left to chance — a cascade briefing, a PDF, and a hope that the floor picks it up. It doesn't. The old way is faster under pressure, so the new way quietly dies at day one hundred and twenty.

I build the landing. The why communicated so people move, not comply. The change curve managed rather than ignored. Training manuals written for the system that operates, not a generic model. And adoption driven through learning people actually do — knowledge that sticks, reinforced with gamification, held through the dip.

Dealer groups · OEMs · Networks mid-transition

How it runs
Weeks 1–2Stakeholder and impact mapping. Who this actually affects, and who will quietly kill it — usually three people, and they're identifiable early.
Weeks 2–4The why, built into something teachable. Training manuals written for the system that actually operates.
LandingSite by site. The change curve is real and predictable; people are told what's coming rather than managed through it in silence.
Through regressionHeld. The point where the workaround becomes the process is where this earns its fee.
What this is not
  • Not a review of whether the decision was right — that's settled, and it isn't my business under this offer
  • Not redundancy consultation, TUPE, or any employment-law process
  • Not a comms or PR exercise
  • Not system configuration or data migration
  • The why — the case for change, in language the floor believes, not the boardroom's
  • The curve — the Change Curve mapped and managed, with the objection handling for the three people who'll quietly kill it
  • The manuals — training written inside your actual system setup, not a template that ignores how the DMS really behaves
  • The landing — knowledge, learning and gamified reinforcement, so it's adopted, not endured
  • Held past go-live — through the regression, to the point it becomes the way things are done
from £12,000 scope-dependent
+ landing period
09

The Enquiry Management Audit

Before you commit the marketing spend to rescue the quarter — can the process convert what you already have? More enquiries into a process that leaks is not more sales. It's more cost, and a bigger bill, chasing the same conversion.

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This protects the marketing budget, it doesn't blame it. If you're the one fighting for spend, this is the argument you've been making for years: there's no point buying more enquiries if the ones you already pay for aren't being worked. I prove it, so the money lands where it converts.

So first we look at what's actually happening to the enquiries you get now. Not the CRM report — the real thing. Who genuinely reviews handling all the time, and not just when the numbers dip? Where did the tenacity go? What are the basics, what level should they sit at, and does anyone hold them there every single day — or only when you're not performing?

Who watches the video quality sent to customers, sales and aftersales? Who knows the test-drive route every executive takes, for the safety of your team? Who's grading the red and amber calls, the lost call, the manager taking the booking because nobody else is free, the manager sitting with the showroom customer because there's no one else to talk to them, the product presentation that's quietly become unskilled? In most dealerships, nobody — consistently. That's the finding.

Dealer groups · Single sites · OEM network · Before any media buy

How it runs
BeforeData pull and a scoping call. What you're spending, where it goes, what you believe converts.
Days 1–3, on siteLive observation. Calls, follow-up, video quality, test-drive routes and team safety, the lost call, product presentation, and who fills every gap.
Weeks 2–3The written verdict: whether more spend buys more sales or just more cost. Owned and dated.
OptionalA return at 60 days to see whether the basics held once nobody was watching.
What this is not
  • Not a marketing strategy, media plan or agency review
  • Not a website, SEO or paid-media audit
  • Not a CRM or lead-management system selection
  • This protects the marketing budget — it isn't an assessment of the marketing team
  • The honest grade — what's good, what's poor, and where the basics actually sit against the level they should
  • Enquiry to appointment to sale — where it leaks, and whether tenacity survives past the first attempt
  • The unwatched things — video quality, test-drive routes and team safety, red/amber call quality, product presentation
  • The gap-fillers named — the manager doing three jobs because the process assumes someone who isn't there
  • The verdict on spend — fix the process first, or waste the media budget. In writing, owned and dated
  • Book a free enquiry walk →
£6k–£9k 2–3 days on site
+ written verdict
10

The Network Drains-Up

If site A performed like site B, you'd be on budget. So what's actually different? Same brand, same systems, same standards, same market half the time — and yet one hits and one doesn't. The answer is rarely the people. It's almost always something in the building nobody's gone back to look at.

Full package & timingsClose

Here's the honest part: the FD can't be in every site to do a proper drains-up. That isn't a failing — it's arithmetic. So you employ capable people to run each one and trust the line to report up. But the people running the site are the same people who'd have to surface their own site's problems — and nobody drains up their own drains honestly with a number to hit. So the version that reaches finance is the managed one, from every site, and there's no neutral way to see why A works and B doesn't.

That's what I do. Site to site, drains-up, the same eyes on each — no stake in how any of them reads. I find what genuinely differs, whether it's a pattern or a one-off, and whether the thing that makes B work will actually travel to A — because half of what works on a good site is a person, not a process, and that matters before you try to roll it out.

Dealer groups · Multi-site networks · FD & MD, group level

How it runs
ScopingWhich sites, what the gap looks like on paper, and what you already believe explains it.
Site visitsOne at a time, same method. The strong sites as well as the weak ones — half the value is in what the good ones are doing that nobody has written down.
The comparisonWhat actually differs. Named honestly, including where the difference is a person rather than a process — because that changes what you can roll out.
Day 90The return, across the sites where actions were owned.
What this is not
  • Not a ranking, a scorecard or a league table — and I'll decline if that's the intended use
  • Not a restructure recommendation or a headcount review
  • Not individual performance assessment of site management
  • Not a benchmark against other groups
  • The real difference, site by site — A against B on the same measures, read by the same neutral eyes, not self-reported
  • Blocker or history? — what's structural, what's a hangover from an old initiative, and what's simply a person carrying it
  • Does it travel? — whether B's advantage is a process you can lift, or a person you can't clone — named honestly before rollout
  • What the good site proves — your own network as the benchmark, so the target is evidenced, not imposed
  • Written, owned, dated — aimed at the mechanism, never the manager
from £14,000 scope by site count
+ 90-day return
11

EV Readiness Audit

The BEV target became the manufacturer's target, which became yours. Is the network actually ready — or just hoping? Not the marketing readiness. The real thing: workshop safety, adviser knowledge, sales capability, and what EV does to your aftersales parc.

Full package & timingsClose

I audit it the way I audit everything — on site, at every level, unattributable. High-voltage tech cover and what happens on their day off. PPE, signage, quarantine and a rehearsed incident protocol. What the workshop can do versus what must go to a battery centre. Whether advisers actually understand EV servicing and warranty, or perform it when a manager's listening. What sales qualify, what they refer, and how ready they are for the price-led brands arriving fast.

Then the part most people haven't modelled: what EV adoption does to servicing frequency, warranty claims, change cycles and retention across the ownership cycle — and what that means for the aftersales business you're counting on.

Dealer groups · OEM network · Single sites · Aftersales & workshop leadership

How it runs
BeforeScoping. Which sites, which marques, and what the manufacturer is currently requiring of you.
On siteHV cover and cover gaps, PPE, signage, quarantine, rehearsed incident protocol, on-site versus battery-centre boundaries. Then adviser knowledge and sales capability — tested in normal conditions, not demonstrated.
Weeks 2–3The written readiness verdict, site by site, owned and dated, aimed at the gap and not the person.
IncludedThe parc model: what EV adoption does to servicing frequency, warranty patterns, change cycles and retention.
What this is not
  • Not a formal HV safety certification, audit or compliance sign-off — I am not a certifying body and won't present as one
  • Not electrical testing, equipment inspection or facilities specification
  • Not a position on ZEV policy. I hold both sides and tell you whether your network is ready
  • Not EV product or brand selection
  • Workshop safety & capability — HV tech cover, PPE, signage, quarantine, incident protocol, on-site vs battery-centre boundaries
  • Service-drive knowledge — EV schedules, warranty scope, what's processed vs referred, and where confidence actually sits
  • Sales capability — how they qualify EV, what tools they use, readiness for new Chinese entrants
  • Parc & retention model — the effect on servicing revenue, warranty patterns, change cycles and people
  • An honest readiness verdict — site by site, owned and dated, aimed at the gap not the person
£7k–£11k scope by site count
+ written verdict
12

The Post-Live Read

A pre-mortem is a nice-to-have. Four months after go-live, quietly regressing, is a fire — and fires have budget. The plan launched. The numbers held for six weeks. Now something is slipping and nobody can tell you precisely what, because everyone reporting on it has a stake in the answer.

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This is the one nobody sells, because it requires being in the building after the consultants have gone and the launch photographs have been taken. I've been the person holding a rollout through the regression — the point where the workaround becomes the process, where the training is technically complete and functionally absent, and where the site that "adopted it fully" is running a parallel system in a spreadsheet.

I'm not assessing whether the decision was right. That's settled and it isn't my business. I'm telling you what it's actually doing now, where it's being quietly worked around, and what it takes to hold it — with the people you already have.

Post-agency · Post-DMS · Post-restructure · Post-AI deployment · OEM network

How it runs
BeforeThe plan, the timeline, and what has already been escalated.
On siteThe designed process against the one actually in use. Workarounds documented as data, never as misconduct — including the parallel spreadsheet nobody mentions.
Weeks 2–3Where it regressed and when, what the reporting isn't showing because the workaround feeds it, and the hold plan: what to enforce, what to redesign, what to formally let go.
Optional day 90The second regression is the one that sticks. This is where it's caught.
What this is not
  • Not an assessment of whether the original decision was right. That is settled and it isn't my business here
  • Not a supplier performance review or a route to a contractual claim
  • Not a rebuild of the system or process — I tell you what it takes to hold it
  • No individual is named, including the people running the workarounds
  • What's actually running — the designed process against the one in use, site by site. Workarounds are data, not misconduct
  • Where it regressed and when — the specific point adoption stalled, and whether it stalled for a reason the design can absorb
  • What the reporting isn't showing — the metrics that look healthy because the workaround feeds them
  • The hold plan — owned, dated, no new headcount. What to enforce, what to redesign, and what to formally let go
  • Optional 90-day return — because the second regression is the one that sticks
£8k–£14k scope by site count
+ optional 90-day return
13

Ten Minutes a Day

Everyone's given their all, everyone knows the basics, and it still isn't happening. Going through the basics again won't fix that — it was never a knowledge problem.

Full package & timingsClose

The cheapest thing on this page, and for a lot of businesses the right place to start. I sit with each role for an hour and map what they actually do all day — then identify the routine work a machine can do to the same standard or better, and write the prompts that do it. Their words, their system, their customers, their month end. Not a generic library.

Nothing structural changes. No new software, no headcount, no restructure. The same people and the same targets — with the handwritten repetition taken out of the day.

And it's taught in the building, in person, to people who are not confident with this and won't say so in a group. People don't resist AI. They resist being made to look stupid. Nobody is asked to demonstrate anything in front of their manager.

Single sites · Dealer groups · Head office teams · Aftersales & sales management

How it runs
BeforeA short call to pick the roles. Usually the ones drowning, not the ones asking.
Day 1The day mapped, role by role. What actually gets done, what it costs in time, and the routine work nobody has ever counted.
Day 1–2The prompts written and tested with them, in the room, on their own work. They leave able to use it, not with a handout.
Day 2What not to put AI near — judgement calls, customer conversations, anything where a wrong answer costs you. Named explicitly and in writing.
Day 30Check-in. What's being used, what quietly stopped, and why.
What this is not
  • Not a software purchase, licence or subscription — I don't resell and I take no commission from anyone
  • Not IT security, data protection sign-off or DPIA. Involve whoever owns that before anything touches customer data
  • Not a transformation programme. It's deliberately small and changes nothing structural
  • I won't quote a time saving I can't evidence. The estimate you get is conservative and yours to check
  • The day, mapped — role by role, what actually gets done and what it costs in time. Including the work nobody has ever counted
  • A written prompt set per role — built on their real documents and language, tested with them in the room, ready to use the day I leave
  • Taught in person, no audience — the ones who need it most are the ones who won't ask in a group
  • What NOT to put AI near — the judgement calls, the customer conversations, and anything where a wrong answer costs you. Named explicitly
  • An honest time estimate — what this gives back per person per day. Conservative, and yours to check
  • 30-day check-in — what's being used, what quietly stopped, and why
  • Or start with the free Entry Review →
£3.5k–£6k 1–2 days on site
+ 30-day check-in
R

Standing reality check

Send me the plan before it goes to the network. I'll mark it up. Two days a month, an open line, and someone outside the building who has no reason to tell you it's fine.

Full package & timingsClose

Retained · Six-month minimum

How it runs
OngoingA standing call. What's moved, what hasn't, what's about to go wrong.
Between callsReachable when something lands unexpectedly — a target change, a resignation, a plan arriving from above.
RollingNo minimum term. Cancel with a month's notice, and I'd rather you cancelled than kept it out of habit.
What this is not
  • Not on-site work — that's scoped separately when it's needed
  • Not a written report or deliverable
  • Not a retainer against a fixed number of days
  • I'll tell you when you don't need it any more
  • Plans reviewed pre-issue
  • Standing monthly session
  • Direct access between sessions
£2,500–£4,000 per month
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