CASE STUDY
Sales were up.
Margin was leaking.
They asked us to roll out Salesforce for one view of the customer. The scope: a 360° view doesn't stop margin walking out the door — and the money was leaking through discounts and promotions no one could see across stores, online, and the trade desk.
Real Problem
"Roll out Salesforce so we finally have one view of the customer."
Scope
They weren't losing customers — they were losing margin. Discounts and promos were given away across channels with no guardrails and no visibility.
The Challange
A mid-market omnichannel retailer in South Africa — around 140 stores, an online channel, and a wholesale desk — was growing revenue while gross margin slid for several quarters, and no one could say exactly why. Pricing was managed per channel, mostly by hand. A diagnostic found three compounding causes.
- Discounting with no guardrails. Reps and store managers discounted at will; off-policy discounts were invisible until month-end.
- Promotions that stacked. Online codes combined with markdowns; nobody governed promo-on-promo margin.
- Trade-desk deals in spreadsheets. Terms drifted and accounts were under-billed against agreed pricing.
The Solution
- One view of margin : We unified customers, orders and pricing in Salesforce, so every transaction carries its true margin — visible in real time.
- Guardrails, not dashboards : Discount thresholds and promotion governance (CPQ) built into quote-to-order. Off-policy discounts need sign-off; promo stacking is blocked or flagged.
- Leakage analytics : We surfaced where margin escapes — by channel, rep, product, promo — and alerted leaders as it happened, not at month-end.
The Impact
2.4 pts
Gross Margin Recovered
Pricing visible and governed across every channel.
65%
Fewer Off-Policy Discounts
Approval thresholds built into quote-to-order
30%
Less Trade-Account Leakage
Under-billing against agreed terms recovered.
The answer wasn't a better view of the customer. It was margin no one could quietly give away.