Good feedback. Slower sales. Now what?

Laura is starting to wonder whether one of her most established services has become stale.

It's a manager-development programme she's been running for years. Lately, decisions take longer, proposals sit unanswered and what used to be a relatively straightforward sale requires considerably more effort.

It's a reasonable possibility.

Except the managers who go through it still rate it highly. They value the practical exercises and the opportunity to work on situations they're actually dealing with.

But the managers aren't usually the ones buying the programme; HR or a managing director is. Laura also collects the managers' feedback immediately after the programme. They can leave genuinely pleased with what they've learned while she still knows very little about what happens once they're back at work.

The programme may have become stale. What Laura knows so far doesn't tell her that.