The situation
A consumer business was running a flat 10% discount across almost everything. The logic was defensive: competitors discount, so we must too. But margin kept shrinking and nobody had a clear view of whether the spend was earning anything back. Finance wanted cuts. Sales wanted to protect volume. The actual customer data sat unused.
What I did
I built a behavioural segmentation of the customer base: long-term high-value regulars, steady mid-value customers, promising new sign-ups with strong early signals, and "one-and-done" buyers who purchase once on offer then disappear.
I analysed how each segment behaved over time. Who grew, who stayed flat, who dropped out after one or two orders. A clear pattern emerged: a high volume of short-term, low-value customers were absorbing discounts and service attention with almost no lifetime value.
I redesigned the commercial approach. Strong, structured offers for genuinely valuable customers and promising new ones. Tighter or different terms for the segments that weren't earning their keep. I also introduced "early behaviour flags" so the business could decide quickly which new customers deserved nurturing and which didn't warrant further discount.
What changed
Overall margin improved by just over 3 percentage points while revenue stayed stable. The best customers actually got a better experience because attention and offers focused on them rather than being spread thinly. The business stopped treating all customers as equally valuable and developed a shared language for "who we protect at all costs" versus "who we can afford to treat differently."
Who this is for
If you've been offering blanket discounts or identical terms to everyone, I can show you which customers genuinely drive your profit and which quietly eat it. Then we reset your offer structure so you stop giving away margin where it isn't deserved.