Phare Consulting Group reviews the commercial assumptions behind a business plan: market demand, customer economics, and funding requirements. The review sets out the choices available.
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A growth forecast depends on reaching customers at a price that covers the cost of serving them. The review looks at the buyer, the route to market, and the operating requirements behind that forecast.
For an existing business, invoice lines and commercial agreements show what customers pay, while operating records explain the resources their orders consume. That comparison can inform a pricing change, a different service offer, or the next investment.
Reviews of markets, pricing, margins, and investment proposals. Each service sets out the analysis and working material included.
Review the market, revenue, and investment assumptions behind a business plan.
Assess demand, routes to customers, and entry costs for a new market or adjacent offer.
Design the responsibilities and services needed to deliver a commercial plan.
Compare investment choices by cash requirements, commercial position, and effects on the remaining portfolio.
Reconcile prices and commercial terms to the revenue and contribution they leave.
Develop cost and margin actions with a reconciled baseline, operating requirements, and financial measures.
Examine the market, customer, and revenue assumptions supporting an acquisition or investment.
Choose the issue you are examining to see the relevant service, its scope and the material it produces.
Revenue forecasts depend on market-share or pricing assumptions that have not been tested.
Review the market, revenue, and investment assumptions behind a business plan.
Market estimates include buyers the proposed offer cannot realistically serve.
Assess demand, routes to customers, and entry costs for a new market or adjacent offer.
A process passes through several functions with unclear accountability.
Design the responsibilities and services needed to deliver a commercial plan.
Investment proposals use inconsistent cash-flow or cost assumptions.
Compare investment choices by cash requirements, commercial position, and effects on the remaining portfolio.
Discounts, rebates and service commitments are recorded in different systems.
Reconcile prices and commercial terms to the revenue and contribution they leave.
Reported margin movements have several competing explanations.
Develop cost and margin actions with a reconciled baseline, operating requirements, and financial measures.
The acquisition case depends on an untested market or customer assumption.
Examine the market, customer, and revenue assumptions supporting an acquisition or investment.
The records and assumptions change with the business. Each industry page sets out the customer, cost and operating questions that matter there.
Commercial strategy, business-unit economics and operating arrangements for banks, insurers and other financial-services businesses.
Product, customer and plant economics, pricing arrangements and operating choices for industrial businesses.
Market, pricing and operating analysis for software and technology-enabled businesses.
Business planning, commercial analysis and operating-model work for healthcare and life-sciences organizations.
Analysis of price waterfalls, customer service costs, acquisition assumptions, and cash commitments, with practical guidance on the records each review needs.
Trace the price increase from invoice lines through rebates, credits, and customer terms before treating it as additional margin.
PricingUse order, delivery, and support activity to explain account contribution and assess the cost of changing an offer.
Pricing and costsShow when each proposal needs funding, what becomes committed, and how those obligations change under a downside case.
Capital allocationThe scope determines the records and analysis needed. These stages explain how findings are prepared and reviewed. Read how a commercial review is prepared.
We agree the business or market under review, the decisions it will inform and the records available. A pricing review might use invoice lines and contract terms; a market-entry review needs a defined offer, buyer and geography.
The written agreement records the deliverables, fees, timing and access required. It also names the people responsible for reviewing factual findings and approving any extension to the work.
Send an outline first. We will agree how to exchange confidential records before asking for the underlying files.
A pricing finding may draw on an invoice, a rebate agreement and an estimate of delivery activity. The analysis file keeps those sources with the calculation for review. Interviews help explain the arrangements; where information cannot be reconciled or confirmed, the finding states the limitation.
The final report explains why the recommended option follows from the analysis and what could change that conclusion. Costs, operating dependencies, and sensitivity to the main assumptions accompany the recommendation. Management decides whether to proceed. Further research or implementation support requires an agreed scope.
The two orders below have the same invoiced revenue and product cost. Their rebates, delivery requirements, and handling costs leave different amounts to cover shared overhead.
Illustrative order comparison.
Order A contribution before shared overhead15
Illustrative comparison. Amounts are currency units per order, not client results.
| Item and source | Order A | Order B |
|---|---|---|
| Invoiced revenueInvoice lines | 100 | 100 |
| Customer rebateRebate agreement | −8 | −3 |
| Delivery costFreight record | −12 | −4 |
| Direct product costProduct cost record | −58 | −58 |
| Order handlingActivity estimate | −7 | −3 |
| ContributionBefore shared overhead | 15 | 32 |
The second order leaves 17 more units before shared overhead. Product cost is unchanged; rebates, delivery and handling account for the gap.
Returns, payment financing, tax and shared overhead are excluded. A real review defines each cost once, reconciles the records and tests estimates before drawing a conclusion.
Start from Order A and move a term. The invoice stays at 100 and product cost at 58. Illustrative only; no data leaves the page.
15left before shared overhead
For reference: Order A leaves 15 and Order B leaves 32.
A proposed price increase needs to account for the rebate and delivery terms on each order. In this example, those terms explain much of the contribution gap. Any revision also needs a view of how the customers would respond and which costs would change with their orders.
Our pricing and commercial terms work reviews the agreement. Cost and margin improvement tests the resources used to serve the account.
For the records behind the calculation, read the price-waterfall analysis.
Tell us whether you are reviewing an existing offer or considering a new commitment. See how we define the review, or email Phare about the decision.
