← Every exhibit

Figure 1From “The one number a commercial team should share.”

The two-envelope test

Three rows, ten minutes, no meeting. Both answers get written before either side sees the other, which is the only version of this exercise that tells you anything.

Cite Embed

Figure 1The two-envelope test

A three-row worksheet: the head of marketing, the head of sales, and the compensation plan, each recording the one number named, what the plan actually pays for, and whether the three match.Who answeredMarketing lead, saleslead, the plan.The number they namedFor the other function, nottheir own.What the plan pays forRead it off thecompensation plan.Match?Each other, and theplan.All three agree and the problem is not alignment. The two leaders agree but the plan does not, and theplan is the thing to open. The two do not agree, and neither does anything downstream of them.

Source: Author's own worksheet.

PNG4:3, 1600 × 1200, with the title, the source line and the attribution set in the image isoglu-2026-one-number-commercial-team-fig02.png

From the essay

Cite or embed

APA 7

Isoglu, S. (2026). The two-envelope test [Figure]. isoglu.com. https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-one-number-commercial-team-fig02/

BibTeX
@misc{isoglu-2026-one-number-commercial-team-fig02,
  author = {Isoglu, Sinan},
  title = {{The two-envelope test}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Figure 1, isoglu.com},
  url = {https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-one-number-commercial-team-fig02/},
  note = {From the essay {The one number a commercial team should share.}}
}
Embed this exhibit

Copy this HTML to use the PNG exhibit on your site with its source line and a link back to the exhibit page.

<figure>
  <a href="https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-one-number-commercial-team-fig02/">
    <img src="https://isoglu.com/social/isoglu-2026-one-number-commercial-team-fig02.png" alt="Figure 1: The two-envelope test" width="3200" height="2400">
  </a>
  <figcaption>Figure 1: The two-envelope test. Source: Author&#39;s own worksheet. <a href="https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-one-number-commercial-team-fig02/">View exhibit</a>.</figcaption>
</figure>

Related exhibits

Table 1Table

Candidate shared numbers, and how each one fails

The one number a commercial team should share.

Figure 4Figure

The three numbers off your own cloud bill

What AI did to cost of goods sold is not visible in the line everyone quotes.

Figure 2Figure

Five numbers, five questions

What is sales forecasting?

Every exhibit

Contact

Bring the question you're working on.

Research, a guest lecture, or a commercial question.