What your customer economics readout could show
Explore illustrative excerpts of the analysis and executive decisions an engagement can support. All figures on this page are synthetic examples, not client results or promised outcomes.
100 customers · $8M revenue · $2.8M contribution · 35% contribution margin
Healthy
60 customers; $6M revenue; $3.3M contribution; 55% contribution margin.
Neutral
25 customers; $1.5M revenue; $150K contribution; 10% contribution margin.
Negative
15 customers; $500K revenue; −$650K contribution; −130% contribution margin.
Contribution equals customer revenue less the costs included in the agreed model. It is not net profit, EBITDA, or a standardized gross-margin measure. Tier thresholds are management choices.
Illustrative synthetic exhibits, not client results.
Synthetic 100-customer portfolio
Healthy 60
Neutral 25
Negative 15
DECISION PROMPTS TO VALIDATE
Low revenue + Low cost: Automate/Scale
High revenue + Low cost: Protect/Invest
Low revenue + High cost: Reprice/Rationalize
High revenue + High cost: Fix Economics
Profitable Customer Profile
Revenue band, industry, product, ERP/platform, vintage, implementation and support burden, adoption, geography and pricing.
90-day roadmap
0–30
Validate
Confirm cost allocations, contract terms, and customer segments.
31–60
Pilot
Test targeted pricing, service, and scope changes.
61–90
Measure/Scale
Measure results and customer response before expanding what works.
Segment economics and management actions
Standard Enterprise
40 customers; $4.8M revenue; $2.88M contribution; 60% margin. Included costs $1.92M
Decision to consider: protect service quality and test further investment. Validate retention risk, capacity and acquisition economics before expanding.
Standard Midmarket
40 customers; $2.6M revenue; $520K contribution; 20% margin. Included costs $2.08M
Decision to consider: pilot repeatable onboarding and service improvements. Separate implementation effort from recurring costs before changing service tiers.
Custom small accounts
20 customers; $600K revenue; −$600K contribution; −100% margin. Included costs $1.2M
Decision to consider: review pricing, scope and product fit. Validate labor effort, cloud usage and allocation assumptions before repricing or exiting relationships.
Reading the model: included costs equal revenue less modeled contribution. These synthetic figures do not provide an observed-versus-allocated cost breakdown. In an engagement, source evidence, cost drivers and allocation assumptions are documented so leadership can assess confidence in each recommendation.
Customer-level decision example (synthetic, independent of the portfolio above):
Customer A has $100,000 revenue, $30,000 included costs and $70,000 contribution.
Customer B has the same $100,000 revenue, $110,000 included costs and −$10,000 contribution.
Decision to consider: investigate why Customer B costs more to serve before changing the relationship. Separate onboarding from recurring support and cloud usage, validate allocation assumptions, then test pricing, service or product options. A negative modeled contribution is a prompt for investigation, not an automatic instruction to exit.
Churn economics
8 profitable customers lost: $400K historical revenue and $200K historical contribution. 2 loss-making customers lost: $30K historical revenue and −$10K historical contribution.
Historical contribution is not a forecast of realized loss or savings. Allocated costs do not automatically disappear when a customer leaves.
An actionable 90-day roadmap
Days 0–30
Validate allocations and contracts against modeled cost drivers and confirm which customers truly belong in each tier.
Days 31–60
Pilot pricing, scope and service changes with selected customers; monitor operational impact and customer response.
Days 61–90
Measure realized contribution, churn and conversion before scaling what works and retiring what does not.