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Cut Losers. Back Winners.

Product & Customer Profitability Analyzer

Find your profit pools. Cut the loss leaders. Back the winners.

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How to Upload a Claude Skill

 
 

Full Walkthrough: Product & Customer Profitability Analyzer in Action

Features List

4

Portfolio Segments

6

ABC Cost Pools

11

Tab Excel Workbook

Why Commercial Finance Teams Use This Skill

The Whale Curve Changes Everything

Most companies discover the same thing when they look: the top 20% of customers generate 150% to 200% of profits, and the bottom 20% destroy 50% to 100% of that value. That's not a theory — it's what the whale curve shows in distribution, manufacturing, SaaS, and retail. This skill builds your whale curve from transaction data and shows exactly which relationships are eroding the profit your best customers create.

Four Segments, Clear Actions

Every product and customer gets classified into one of four segments: Grow (high margin, high potential — invest heavily), Maintain (core volume — protect and optimize), Harvest (high margin, declining — maximize cash), or Exit (loss-making, no strategic value — stop serving). The segmentation tells each account manager and product manager exactly what the strategy is, without a committee meeting.

Activity-Based Costing Built In

Revenue-based overhead allocation lies. It makes high-volume, low-touch customers look worse than they are, and high-touch, low-volume customers look better. This skill allocates costs through six activity pools — Order Processing, Shipping, Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, and G&A — using actual cost drivers like order counts, shipment volumes, and support tickets. Fully-loaded margins reflect reality.

Four Dimensions in One Analysis

The skill analyses profitability at every level: product SKU up through category and product line, individual customer account up through segment and industry, channel by sub-channel, and geography from city through region and country. Cross-dimension analysis shows you which customer segments are most profitable for which products in which channels — the insight that drives real pricing and portfolio decisions.

Quantified Recommendations, Not Directions

The skill doesn't say 'focus on better customers.' It says: exiting the bottom 50 accounts adds $1.2M to profit, raising prices 5% on Segment A adds $2.1M, and reallocating sales coverage adds $1.5M — total improvement opportunity $7M, moving margin from 12.5% to 16%. Every recommendation in the Action Plan tab has a profit impact, investment required, and payback period.

What You Get

  • Claude Custom Skill (.skill file)

    The core skill file for uploading to Claude. Contains the full 8-step analysis workflow, activity-based costing methodology with six cost pools and benchmark activity rates, portfolio segmentation logic, whale curve analysis, scenario modelling templates, recommendation framework, and 11-tab Excel output structure with formatting standards.

  • ABC Transactions Dataset (Sample Input)

    A realistic sample dataset in the exact format the skill expects: a transactions tab with revenue, COGS, quantity, freight, commissions, returns, order counts, pack minutes, and support minutes per transaction, plus five dimension tables covering products, customers, channels, geographies, and activity rates. Use this to test the skill before loading your own data, or as a template for structuring your input files.

  • Profitability Analysis Workbook (Sample Output)

    A complete worked output based on ABC Manufacturing's full-year 2024 data showing $119.7M revenue and 27.2% fully-loaded net margin. Seven tabs: Executive Summary (financial summary and key findings), Product Profitability (150+ SKUs ranked by net profit), Customer Profitability (500+ customers ranked), Channel Analysis, Geography Analysis, Segmentation Summary (Grow/Maintain/Harvest/Exit), and Action Plan with prioritized recommendations.

  • Activity-Based Costing Engine

    Six cost pools with benchmark activity rates built into the skill: Order Processing ($15-100 per order by complexity), Shipping and Logistics ($8-150 per shipment by type), Sales allocation ($500-50K per customer by tier), Marketing allocation (revenue-based or campaign-specific), Customer Service ($1-300 per interaction by type), and G&A (3-8% of revenue). Simplified revenue-based allocation available when full ABC data is unavailable.

  • Whale Curve and Pareto Analysis

    Ranked customer and product profit lists with cumulative profit percentages — showing exactly where the profit peak is and how far the unprofitable tail erodes it. Industry benchmarks for profit concentration built in: Distribution (top 20% generate 150-180%), Manufacturing (120-150%), Services (130-160%), Retail (110-140%), SaaS/Software (140-180%).

  • 4-Segment Portfolio Classification

    Grow (high margin AND high growth potential — dedicated account management, volume incentives, joint business planning), Maintain (acceptable margin, core volume — standard service, process efficiency, selective pricing), Harvest (high margin, low growth — reduce investment, hold pricing, accept attrition), Exit (loss-making, no strategic value — price to exit, service reduction, contract non-renewal, or immediate termination with impact modelled).

  • Scenario Modelling Module

    Three scenario types with modelling templates: Pricing Actions (price elasticity analysis, price increase modelling by segment with volume loss assumptions), Cost Actions (service level reduction, cost pool restructuring), and Portfolio Optimization (exit modelling with revenue loss vs. direct cost savings vs. overhead reallocation). Side-by-side scenario comparison with profit impact, revenue impact, investment, and risk level.

  • Prioritized Recommendation Framework

    Every recommendation is structured with: Opportunity description and scope, Profit Improvement ($), Revenue Impact ($), Investment Required ($), Payback Period (months), Implementation Complexity (Low/Medium/High), Key Dependencies, Risks, Detailed Action Steps, and Success Metrics with KPI targets. Presented in a ranked roadmap with total portfolio improvement opportunity quantified.

  • Profitability Heat Map

    Multi-dimensional profitability matrix showing net margin by Customer Segment versus Product Category — colour-coded green (above 15%), amber (0-15%), and red (loss-making). Immediately shows which customer-product combinations are profitable versus value-destroying. Supports pricing, product, and sales strategy decisions at the intersection level.

  • 11-Tab Excel Workbook Output

    Executive Summary, Customer Profitability (ranked P&L per customer), Product Profitability (ranked P&L per SKU), Channel Analysis, Geography Analysis, Pareto Analysis (whale curves), Heat Map (segment × product matrix), Segmentation (Grow/Maintain/Harvest/Exit summary), Scenarios (what-if with editable assumptions), Action Plan (prioritized recommendations with owners), and Data tab (source data and calculations). Formatted to finance standards with Excel formulas throughout.

  • Two Walkthrough Videos

    Video 1: How to Upload a Claude Skill — the standard skill installation walkthrough. Video 2: Full screen recording showing the complete analysis from data upload through to the segmentation output, whale curve, and Action Plan — using the ABC Transactions sample dataset so viewers see exactly what their analysis will look like before they start.

When to Use This Skill

Revenue is growing but profit isn't

Top-line growth is masking margin erosion. Run the full profitability analysis to find which customers, products, or channels are growing at below-average margins or actively destroying value. The whale curve will show whether profitable relationships are subsidising unprofitable ones — and by how much.

Preparing a commercial strategy or pricing review

Your team is building the annual commercial plan and needs to know which segments and products deserve investment versus rationalization. The Grow/Maintain/Harvest/Exit segmentation gives every product and customer a strategic classification with specific recommended actions and quantified financial impact — structured for the strategy deck.

The sales team pushes volume, finance worries about margin

Volume incentives and new customer acquisition aren't delivering profit improvement. Load the transaction data, run the ABC allocation, and show the sales team the fully-loaded margin by customer segment and channel. The recommendation framework quantifies exactly what reallocating sales coverage from low-margin to high-margin accounts is worth in dollar terms.

Rationalizing a product portfolio or SKU count

You have too many SKUs and some aren't pulling their weight. The product profitability ranking shows every SKU by gross margin, contribution margin, and fully-loaded net margin. The skill applies SKU rationalization criteria — negative profit, less than 1% of revenue, no strategic value — and models the exit impact including substitute product effects and customer impact.

Due diligence on a target company's customer base

You're evaluating an acquisition and the target's customer base is one of the key value drivers. Load their transaction data, run the profitability analysis, and build the whale curve for their customer portfolio. Understanding whether that revenue base is concentrated in profitable or loss-making relationships is material to valuation and integration planning.

Four Segments. One Clear Strategy for Every Customer and Product.

Segment Criteria Strategy Key Actions
GROW High margin AND high growth potential or share-of-wallet opportunity Invest heavily to capture more value Dedicated account management, volume incentives (2–5% margin for 10–25% volume), joint business planning, priority support, customized solutions
MAINTAIN Acceptable margin (5–15%), significant volume, core business Protect and optimize Standard service levels, process efficiency to improve margin 1–2pp, selective pricing, retention programmes
HARVEST High margin (>15%), low growth potential, declining market or relationship Maximize cash extraction, limit investment Reduce service investment, hold or increase prices, minimize customization, accept natural attrition, no new product development
EXIT Low margin or loss-making, no strategic value, high service intensity Divest, discontinue, or fire Price to exit over 3–6 months, service reduction to self-service, contract non-renewal at term, or modelled immediate exit with profit impact

Common Questions

Your Top-Line Revenue Is Hiding Loss Leaders. Find Them.

Granular profitability by product, customer, channel, and geography — with a full action plan. Updated for 2026.

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