Here is an example of how visual analytics using Sales & Pricing metrics can be powerful in driving real, measurable change for your Company.

Below is a manufacturing company's Customer landscape (fictitious), organized by their Trailing Twelve Months' performance. 

For ease of decision-making, we grouped our customers into six performance clusters based on TTM Gross Margin % and Cumulative % of Net Sales.

To the right of the vertical line are 12% of the customers that drive 80% of Net Sales; to the left are 88% of customers that generate 20% of Sales. 

It is a typical distribution and Sales vs. Margin imbalance in many B2B settings, with companies struggling to establish the ideal relationship between Customer Size and their Margin profiles.

Ideally, our smallest Customers should have the best Margin % performance, receiving the smallest Discounts, Rebates, and other Sales Credits. 

A quick visual like the one below using your Transactional data (quickly done with Power BI or Tableau) can guide your Pricing, Commercial and Finance teams in the right direction to raise the Company's margin performance:

✔ Best of the Best: these are your largest Customers that also deliver above-average Margin %. We need to nurture these customers and protect them from defecting to the competition. Price increases must be well thought out and carefully communicated with this group. Whenever possible, allow these customers to forward buy during price increases and even frame the savings you've delivered for them!

✔ Light Sellers - Top Margins: these are small customers delivering strong Margins. We need to identify the ones that have the potential to grow and upsell/cross-sell as much as possible to increase our Margin base.

➤ Top Sellers - Light Margins are some of our largest customers, with the opportunity for higher Margins. Devise sales strategies to Trade Up to higher-priced products. 

✘ Light Sellers - Light Margins are small customers with below-average Margins %. We need to think about increasing prices for this group next quarter. Remember, a "price increase" doesn't have to be a List Price increase: we can rationalize discounts, Promotions, and Other Credits. 

➤ Top Sellers - Bad Margins: these are the largest customers with Margin % profiles in the Bottom 25th percentile. Every % Margin reduction for this group hurts our Company's Operating Profit in a meaningful way. We need to manage these relationships carefully and increase prices over time. Depending on their "cost to serve," we may think about letting some customers churn out over time.

✘ Dead Zone: 20% of our Customers driving 4% of our Total Gross Margin $. This group is priority #1 for us to fix. List price increases, fewer Discounts, reduce Rebates or change to "pay for performance," etc. We will lose some of these customers to the competition. Still, it will likely help our Operating Profit and won't meaningfully impact our Gross Sales.