Revenue grows while contribution stalls
Discounts, mix or cost to serve are absorbing the benefit.
Growth only creates value when the economics improve.
We help CEOs and commercial leaders turn pricing, customer and channel choices into profitable growth with a clear route to execution.
When needed
A pricing round closes without the expected margin
Realised prices diverge from the approved increase, and the leakage is not explained.
A new market enters the investment plan
The entry case rests on an untested win rate, channel model or local cost structure.
A sales reorganisation leaves the pipeline unchanged
New roles have not changed account priorities, conversion or commercial behaviour.
Our approach
Four steps take the work from framing the question to executing the agreed changes, with service-specific activities and a decision gate at the end of each step. We agree the scope, evidence requirements and owners for each phase before work starts.
Duration: 1–2 weeks
Step 1: Frame
Connect revenue, discounts and cost to serve at customer, product and channel level.
Gate 1
Revenue reconciles to finance reporting; exclusions and gaps in contribution data are explicit.
Duration: 8–12 weeks
Step 2: Diagnose
Test segment, price and channel hypotheses with commercial teams and customer evidence.
Gate 2
Finance and the commercial sponsor sign off the opportunity logic; the partner distinguishes facts from demand assumptions.
Duration: 4–6 weeks
Step 3: Validate
Test the selected pricing or sales changes in a bounded cohort before expansion.
Gate 3
Pilot results are compared with the agreed baseline or comparison cohort; rollout requires sponsor approval.
Duration: 6–18 months
Step 4: Execute
Roll out validated pricing, sales and channel changes in waves. Coach teams and track contribution, retention and conversion against the agreed baseline.
Gate 4
Commercial owners approve each rollout wave; finance validates the margin impact and line teams accept ongoing ownership.
Deliverables
Step 1: Frame
Commercial value brief and measurement plan
An agreed scope of customers, products and channels, with revenue and contribution definitions, data requirements, pilot measures and accountable commercial owners.
Step 2: Diagnose
Customer profitability model and opportunity portfolio
A reconciled view of price, volume, mix, discounts and cost to serve. Size incremental contribution by opportunity, including cost to implement, customer risk and the assumptions behind each estimate.
Step 3: Validate
Pilot results and rollout business case
A pricing, sales or channel pilot assessed against an agreed baseline or comparison cohort. Document realised price, conversion, retention and contribution, with scale-up economics and acceptance criteria.
Step 4: Execute
Commercial rollout and margin tracker
Account and channel actions with owners, milestones and adoption measures. Track incremental contribution and implementation costs against the business case, distinguishing growth from profitable growth.
Each phase leaves a working asset with an owner, source references and an update process. Economic estimates distinguish potential value from approved commitments and realised results.
Illustrative example
Margin bridge and segment heatmap
See how price, mix, discounts and cost to serve change contribution margin, then pinpoint the customer segments that need action.
Sample data, not a client deliverable. The format is tailored to the engagement.
View full-size example ↗
Team & Duration
You get direct access to partner judgement, a team working inside your business and a shared focus on economic impact. We work through the difficult questions with you and stay close as decisions become action.
A senior team, working with you
- Partner judgement at the problem-solving table
- 1 accountable partner. Works directly on your hardest questions: shaping hypotheses, examining the evidence and developing recommendations with your team. Regular joint working sessions and partner-led decision gates bring senior judgement into the work throughout the engagement.
- Day-to-day momentum, inside your business
- 1 Engagement manager. Works side by side with your people, including from your offices. Connects the analysis to operational reality, resolves blockers and turns decisions into owned actions.
- Analytical depth focused on value
- 2–3 consultants. Combine rigorous analysis with our proprietary AI harness to test opportunities, quantify the economics and build practical working assets with your team. You gain a stronger fact base and tools your people can keep using.
- Expertise that makes recommendations practical
- 1 expert. Brings relevant industry or service experience to test assumptions, challenge feasibility and identify the constraints that matter before you commit resources.
Duration & Fees
- A clear path from question to impact
- Duration of each step: Frame: 1–2 weeks. Diagnose: 8–12 weeks. Validate: 4–6 weeks. Execute: 6–18 months. We agree the scope, owners and decision gates before work starts.
- Continuity from insight to execution
- The partner and engagement manager are planned to stay from Frame through Execute, carrying the context and accountability into implementation. Any change to the core team is discussed and agreed with you.
- Fee certainty upfront. Alignment on results.
- Steps 1–3 (Frame, Diagnose and Validate) are fixed-fee, with scope and deliverables agreed for each step. Execute can include performance-based fees linked to agreed outcomes, baselines and measurement rules.
- You control the next commitment
- At each decision gate, choose to proceed, adjust the scope or take the working assets forward with your own team. Each further commitment follows an explicit decision, with ownership and handover built into the work.
Cases
Selected anonymised engagements. Many span several services; each case shows the relevant areas of work alongside its outcome.
Consumer & Retail · Growth & Commercial · Cost Out
Value creation
Privately held vehicle parts distributor
~EUR 49mIdentified value
Read case →
Industrials · Growth & Commercial · Strategic Decisions
Market entry
Global rolling stock manufacturer
~EUR 40mLower modelled capital requirement
Read case →
Industrials · Strategic Decisions · Growth & Commercial
Corporate strategy
Listed precision medical technology manufacturer
12 → 4Priority markets selected
Read case →Baselines, timeframes and evidence
Privately held vehicle parts distributor
- Starting position
- Distributor with approximately EUR 1.1bn revenue, approximately 4% EBIT margin and an average realised discount of 22%.
- Timeframe
- 12-month realisation assessment for the first tranche of opportunities.
- Recorded facts and outcomes
- Pricing, assortment and supplier terms were analysed together in a sequenced value-creation plan.
- Judgement, targets and limits
- Approximately EUR 49m of potential value was identified, equivalent to approximately 4.5 EBIT-margin percentage points; 40% was assessed as realisable within 12 months. This was identified potential, not a reported uplift.
Global rolling stock manufacturer
- Starting position
- A national tender pipeline of approximately EUR 3bn over five years, with 40–50% local-content requirements.
- Timeframe
- Five-year tender-pipeline horizon.
- Recorded facts and outcomes
- Greenfield, partnership and acquisition routes were evaluated against local requirements and incumbent competition.
- Judgement, targets and limits
- Partnership entry was recommended with approximately EUR 40m less modelled capital than greenfield. Bid criteria used a modelled 25–30% win rate on bids, not an observed conversion rate.
Figures are approximate. EUR conversions are documented in the full cases. These engagements illustrate experience, not forecasts for a new assignment.
Other services
The core question is which businesses or markets to own
Strategic Decisions →The commercial bottleneck is a technology or workflow constraint
Technology & AI →When to do it yourselves
If your team already knows the source of leakage and can test a bounded change with reliable measurement, run the pilot internally before commissioning a wider programme.