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Independent review
A detailed analysis of what drives and erodes commercial performance, by product, by customer and by margin, culminating in a prioritised plan of what to do about it.
Typically from £1,995, based on scope.
The problem
Owners can usually say what the business earned. Far fewer can say where it earned it: which products carry the margin, which customers cost more to serve than they return, what an acquired customer actually costs, and where price has quietly drifted.
The information almost always exists. It sits in the accounting system, the sales records and the invoices, in a form nobody has ever cut the other way.
A single blended margin conceals the entire structure of profitability, which is why the cause of a flat year is so hard to see from inside.
Purpose
The review takes the business apart commercially and puts it back together with the numbers attached: what earns, what does not, and which operational realities explain the difference.
It ends in a prioritised action plan rather than an analysis. The analysis is the means; the point is knowing what to change first.
When it helps
Usually when performance has become difficult to explain, or difficult to influence.
Scope
The list below is where we usually start. Which parts carry most weight depends on the business and on what the available data will support, and we agree that before beginning.
Margin by line rather than in aggregate: what each part of the offering genuinely contributes once the cost of delivering it is attached.
Which customers return more than they cost to serve, including the administrative time they absorb that appears in nobody’s budget.
How customers group by value, behaviour and cost to serve, and whether the business is organised around the groups that matter.
What it costs to win a customer, where the available data supports the calculation, and how that compares with what they return.
Whether pricing reflects the value delivered and the cost of delivering it, and where it has drifted without anyone deciding it should.
What is given away in negotiation, how consistently, and what it costs across a year rather than on a single job.
How revenue is distributed across customers, products and routes to market, and how durable each of those looks.
Which financial and commercial measures genuinely predict performance in this business, as opposed to those conventionally reported.
What happens between an enquiry arriving and work being won, how consistently, and where opportunities are lost.
Where in the process opportunities fall away, at what rate, and what that pattern costs over a year.
The delivery realities behind the commercial numbers: capacity, utilisation, rework and anything that quietly consumes margin.
What the business currently measures, who acts on it, and whether it would let you notice this pattern next time without help.
Within the Aston Finch Value Framework, this engagement draws most heavily on commercial performance and financial performance, while considering the business as a whole.
Deliverables
The report is written to be worked from. If you have a sales manager, a commercial lead or an accountant, it is designed to be useful to them too.
Boundaries
Please note
Prioritisation
Commercial findings divide sharply between changes that cost nothing but attention and changes that require investment. Improving how enquiries are answered is usually free. Rebuilding a pipeline is not.
Findings are ordered accordingly, each with a horizon attached and the expected commercial effect stated. In practice the first two or three are often adjustments to what the business already does, which is why this review frequently pays for itself before anything is spent.
The fee
Indicative fee
Typically from £1,995, based on scope.
That is a genuine starting point rather than a headline. The fee depends on scope, which we agree with you first and confirm in writing before any work begins. There are no packages, no tiers and no day rates.
Arrange an initial discussionAfterwards
Most owners work through the priorities themselves, and the plan is written to make that possible without us.
Some owners would rather have help with the work itself: reworking a pricing structure, setting up commercial reporting that gets used, or redesigning how proposals are put together. That is scoped separately, and only if you want it.
Questions
It is a genuine starting point rather than a headline. The fee depends on the size of the business, the number of products or customer groups in scope and the state of the underlying data. We agree the scope and confirm the fee in writing before any work begins, and it does not move afterwards.
That is common and it is part of the finding. We work with what exists, say plainly where a conclusion is directional rather than precise, and note what would need to change for the question to be answerable properly next time.
Where the available data supports it, yes. Many owner-managed businesses do not record what would be needed, and in those cases we say so rather than producing a figure with more confidence than it deserves.
No. A sales consultant is generally engaged to improve or run part of your commercial function. Our role is to analyse it independently and set out where the opportunities are. What you do about them, and who you ask to help, is your decision.
Different question. Exit readiness asks how transferable the business is to somebody else. This asks how well it performs commercially for you now. They overlap in places, and if both are relevant we will say which is the better starting point.
Typically management accounts, sales records by product and customer, pricing information and whatever you record about enquiries. We agree the list with you first and do not ask for material we do not need.
Yes. Commercial and financial information is among the most sensitive a business holds. Everything you share is used only for the review, and we are happy to sign a confidentiality agreement first.
Turnover rises, effort rises, and the bottom line does not follow. Why growth arrives in the least profitable places, how overheads move in steps, and why price is the most neglected lever.
Referral is an outcome of past work rather than a channel a business operates. The five costs of depending on it, why they stay invisible, and how to add a second route without changing character.
Accurate and useful are different properties. What decisions actually require from financial information, why statutory accounts cannot supply it, and where to start without new systems.
A short discussion establishes what the available data would support and what a review would be able to tell you. We will confirm the scope and the fee before anything begins.