Finance · Margin and cost to serve
What we do · The Profit Survey
Find the real margin
Most companies know their margin at the company level and nowhere below it. The customer who looks best on the sales report is often the one losing you money once the real cost of serving them is counted. The Profit Survey finds which part of the book earns, and which part does not, on your own numbers.
What it is
The Profit Survey is an evidence-based read on where your gross profit is actually made, built from your own transaction data rather than your description of it. We run an 80/20 read by customer and by item to find what earns and what does not, cost to serve into every customer relationship honestly, and run structured "what's working" interviews with your own team, because the fix a business needs often already exists somewhere inside the building. You leave with a ranked finding, not an impression.
What you receive
- 01
80/20 by customer and by item
We map revenue and gross profit two ways: by customer, and by product or service line. Many businesses carry a real share of the book that earns nothing once the true cost of serving it is counted. We find which customers and which items actually carry the business, and which ones quietly cost you money.
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Cost to serve
The customer who looks best on the sales report is often the one losing you the most, once the calls, the rework, the special terms, and the short-notice orders are priced in honestly. We cost to serve at the customer level, so the margin number on the page matches the margin you actually keep.
- 03
What's working interviews
We run structured interviews with your own team on what is actually working today, not only on what is broken. The fix a business needs is often already running somewhere inside the building, in a process one location has solved and another has never seen. We find it and write it down.
The findings are yours whether or not you proceed. If a Margin Discipline Blueprint or a Finance engine is warranted, the proposal that follows names only what the evidence supports.
What it needs from you
- A transaction extract covering your customers, products or services, and their true cost to serve
- Read-only access. No system integration and no ERP connection required
- Time for structured interviews with the people who actually run the numbers
- A single point of contact who can get us the right data quickly
How it ends
The Profit Survey ends with a finding presented to you directly, not a sales pitch dressed as one: which customers and products carry your gross profit, and which do not. You keep the finding regardless of what you decide next. Where a Margin Discipline Blueprint or a Finance engine is warranted, the proposal names only the lane the evidence points to.
Where it fits
The Profit Survey is the Finance area's first rung, and the entry point most Surveys across the business start from: margin evidence is usually the fastest way to learn what a company actually does. It precedes the Margin Discipline Blueprint or the Finance engine, whichever the findings point to. See How we work for the full Survey, Blueprint, and Build sequence, or the Finance area for what else we look at here.
Where to go from here
Book an hour with us, no charge. Or take the Growth Check first, about fifteen minutes, to see where your own constraint sits before the call.