Survey
The Profit Survey
Where your gross profit is made, by customer and by item, on your own numbers.
Learn moreWhere we look
Which revenue is costing us money?
Most of a manufacturer's gross profit comes from a small part of the business. Some of the book earns nothing at all. We find which part is which, on your own numbers.
What is capped here
The constraint here is margin and cash. A company can grow revenue for years and still run short of cash when the growth comes from the wrong customers and the wrong items, priced without the full cost of serving them. The company margin is an average, and an average hides the customers and items that lose money. Most Surveys start here, because the margin read is usually the quickest to show where the profit comes from, and it runs on sales and cost data already on hand.
Generally, the top 20 percent of customers generate 150 to 300 percent of the total profits, whereas the middle 70 percent of customers break even and the bottom 10 percent of customers reduce firm profits by 50 to 200 percent.
The lanes
- Margin. By product line and by customer, not only at the company level.
- Cost to serve. The customer who looks best on the sales report is often the one losing you the most.
- Pricing. What the work is worth against what it costs you to deliver.
- Cash and working capital. Profit on paper that never turns up in the bank.
In this area
Survey, blueprint and build in finance.
Blueprint
The Margin Discipline Blueprint
The matrix and the cadence your finance team runs on its own.
Learn moreBuild
The Finance Engine
Multi-company accounting run to a standard, alongside the team you already have.
Learn moreWhere to go from here
One hour of your time, no charge: fifteen minutes on the Growth Check, then a forty-five-minute video call. We read every answer before the call.