Resources
In complex situations there are no right or wrong answers — only pros and cons.
The Mbrace tools are a suite of intuitive Excel workbooks designed to make assessment conversations easy, consistent, and grounded in the right questions. Built for teams, not individuals.
In business there are no right or wrong answers, especially when it gets complex; only pros and cons. These situations deserve their own tools aimed at providing a broad and varied view of any situation based upon pertinent (and customizable) questions, that makes assessment conversations easy, and consistent across teams.
The Mbrace suite does exactly that.
The Mbrace suite
Six tools. One consistent principle. Ask the right questions first.
Sales
Opportunity Portfolios
Opportunity pipelines provide a very limited way to assess the attractiveness of an opportunity, ignoring essential business factors such as Time to Cash, or investment cost. Realities that are so critical for smaller companies.
This workbook captures essential business insight about your opportunities through business-focused questions, and presents it as a portfolio analysis, slicing and dicing multiple ways to simplify pursuit decisions.
Download a pdf overview here
Procurement
Supplier selection
Selecting the most suitable supplier for a workscope or as part of a project must take into account more than just their ability to deliver and the price. These considerations then need to be included in the supplier evaluation model.
No tool exists today to ensure consitency and that the right questions have been asked internally to ensure the broader factors are taken into account. This tool fills this gap.
Available on request
Sales
Complex opportunities
Complex opportunities are expensive to pursue and need their own unique methodology and tools to be successful. No such tools exist until now. This workbook allows a specific opportunity to be validated in terms of your business needs, stakeholders identified, competitors evaluated more effectively than with a SWOT model, and a solution to be developed based upon the technical AND business needs of the potential customer. Finally, the tool helps construct your competitive strategy and acts as an online diary capturing actions and progress.
Download a pdf overview here.
Organisational development
Commercial Maturity Assessment
Many companies struggle to establish just how commercially competent their organisation is, both in terms of experience and geographical distribution.
Without this insighjt it is difficult to establish training, build career paths and attrct the right talent to the sales functions.
Moreover there is commonly an assumed level of expertise by management teams out of line with sales teams opinions. This tool not only provides a consistent way to measure this competency, but can also identify hierarchy communications gaps.
Available on request
Sales
Consistent pricing
Unexplainable price variations between customers or geographies are negotiating gifts made all the easier with the advent of Contract Management Systems (CMS) that compare and benchmark supplier pricing at the click of a mouse. It is essential for suppliers to base their pricing on defendable business logic without leaking the value their products and services can bring to their customers. Aimed specifically at small or medium sized companies this workbook helps build a structured pricing methodology for global operations, and includes an interactive pricing tool to allow quicker and more competitive offers.
Download a pdf overview here
Commercial maturity
Acquisition Attractiveness Assessment
It is common practice for companies (or their investors) looking to be acquired, to hire on specialists to promote them and manage the acquisition regardless of how commercially attractive they may be. However leaving it so late means that no strategic effort can be made to enhance this attractiveness.
By reviewing a company’s acquisition attractiveness at least 2 years in advance gives time to build up strenghts and address weaknesses depending on the profile of potential acquirers. This tool provides a method to undertake this assessment,make a plan, and track progress.
Available on request
How the tools work
Currently available as part of a consulting or facilitation engagement.
The Mbrace tools are not standalone software products. They are practical frameworks used within a structured engagement — where the questions they ask can be properly explored, challenged, and acted upon.
A fully accessible online version of the tools is in development. If you would like to be notified when this becomes available, or want to discuss using them as part of a current engagement, get in touch.
Each tool can be customised to your business environment and your needs. Complex workscopes and generic tools don't work.
Also worth noting
The book is itself a resource.
Selling is More Than Sales was written as a learning story — a narrative that teaches commercial practice through a real complex opportunity played out from first contact to contract award. It is the most accessible entry point into the methodology and the thinking behind the tools.
Coming soon
More resources in development.
A self-learning programme converting five years of workshop and training material into accessible online format is currently being built out. Topics will cover complex sales, commercial maturity, and procurement thinking.
If you would like to be kept informed as new resources become available, get in touch.
Get in touch →