Channel Profit Diagnosis
What does each of your channels truly earn — and where should the next dollar go?
The Channel Profit Diagnosis is Peraxis's paid, fixed-scope engagement for a founder or commercial owner facing one consequential channel decision. It normalizes what each channel truly earns — after costs, terms and timing — and ends in a decision: scale, fix, hold, reduce, or exit.
Bring the decision — and the numbers behind it. No generic pitch.
The Situation
Begin when one channel decision is important enough to make now
Every channel earns differently. DTC, marketplaces, retail, wholesale and professional carry different margins, costs, cash cycles and acquisition economics — and the blended P&L mixes them. Revenue can grow while the business quietly funds its weakest channel.
The Channel Profit Diagnosis is built for the moment that stops being tolerable:
- Which channel deserves the next dollar of growth capital
- Whether to enter or expand retail
- Marketplace growth that is not producing profit
- Wholesale or professional terms quietly eroding margin
- Whether to grant, renegotiate, or exit distribution rights
- A channel growing revenue while contribution falls
The entry condition is one agreed decision question. A request to diagnose the entire business is outside this engagement.
The Decision Package
A bounded answer, ending in a decision
- Channel economics, normalized.
- What each channel truly earns after landed cost, terms, deductions, fees and timing — up to three channels, on one comparable basis.
- The decision the evidence supports.
- Scale, fix, hold, reduce, or exit — stated plainly, with the reasoning that carries it.
- Financial significance.
- What the decision is worth, on the most appropriate measure — contribution margin, working capital, landed cost, cash timing, or revenue at risk — including assumptions and evidence limitations.
- A prioritized near-term action plan limited to the agreed decision.
- Implementation direction
- Where capabilities, workflows, data, systems, technology, or AI may materially help. Direction — not implementation design.
- A direct executive readout.
- Findings, limitations, tradeoffs, the next decision, and the boundary between diagnosis and implementation.
The Work
From the data you already have to the decision you cannot yet make
Evidence comes from the tools and records you already run — accounting platforms, retailer portals, ERP exports, distributor reports, or spreadsheets. The Channel Profit Diagnosis works from your existing data and normalizes the channels your tools don't reach: retail, wholesale, and professional, where terms, deductions and sell-through live outside the dashboards.
Peraxis then puts every channel on one economic basis and follows the agreed question only as far as the decision requires. The purpose is not to measure everything. It is to make one consequential decision on evidence.
Requirements
Relevant evidence. Direct sponsorship. A decision owner in the room.
The engagement requires the sales, cost and channel records the question depends on, and access to the founder or commercial owner sponsoring the decision — plus the functional owners needed to understand it. The participant group follows the question; it is not an unlimited interview process.
If the evidence is limited but workable, the conclusion carries explicit limitations. If leadership will not provide relevant existing evidence, or wants validation of a predetermined answer, it is not the right time to begin.
Explicit Boundaries
A decision engagement — not another report
The Channel Profit Diagnosis is not a reporting dashboard, an accounting cleanup, a generic marketing assessment, a software evaluation, a free strategy call, or a disguised sale of predetermined technology.
It does not include implementation, configuration, system building, adoption management, or ongoing monitoring.
It does not provide legal, tax, accounting, or other specialist opinions outside Peraxis competence.
It does not guarantee financial recovery, profit improvement, or implementation results.
If your books cannot support a responsible reading, that is identified fast — the engagement does not become a data-cleanup project.
Evidence Limitations
Uncertainty is stated. It is not hidden with false precision.
Not every engagement can produce a precise dollar figure. If the evidence cannot support a responsible estimate, Peraxis states the limitation, identifies what can be concluded, and defines what must be measured next.
You should not commit capital to a channel before knowing what it truly earns, how consequential the decision is, and what should happen first.
What Comes After
The next engagement is a separate decision
If the evidence supports action, you decide whether to proceed, which elements to authorize, and whether Peraxis is the right provider. Any implementation requires its own scope, fee, timeline, and agreement.
If the evidence points toward another provider — or shows that Peraxis is not the right answer — you will hear that directly.
What if we already use accounting or analytics tools?
Good — those are inputs, not substitutes. The Channel Profit Diagnosis works from the data your tools already produce and normalizes the channels they don't reach. The deliverable is not another report; it is the decision.
What happens if some data is missing?
Peraxis first determines whether the available evidence can still answer the question responsibly. If not, the limitation is stated and what must be measured next is defined. Extensive evidence reconstruction is not in scope.
Does every engagement produce a precise dollar estimate?
No. The result may be quantified, bounded, or require a measurement baseline. Precision is never fabricated.
Does it include implementation?
No. Implementation is a separate decision with its own authorization, scope, fee, and agreement.
Bring the channel decision you cannot confidently make
The first conversation determines whether the decision is consequential and bounded, whether the evidence likely exists, and whether the Channel Profit Diagnosis is the sensible next step.
No generic pitch.