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Capability | Sales and Commerce

Commercial policy without structure is discounting without control.

We build commercial policy with discount criteria, approval thresholds, and exception rules that protect margin without slowing the commercial team down.

Commercial policy by the numbers

73.6%

of buyers switch brands on their next purchase; real loyalty is 26.4%

Jørgensen et al. / Nord Univ. 2016 ↗
43.4%

of price dispersion for identical products in the same network: no commercial policy in place

Chiu et al. / SAGE Open 2022 ↗
83%

of B2B industrial companies operate without value-based pricing

Hinterhuber / IMM 2004 ↗
22%

of additional EBIT from a 5% improvement in average price

Hinterhuber / IMM 2004 ↗

The risk nobody quantifies

43.4% price dispersion for identical products in the same network. Does your commercial policy know where the discount begins, and where the margin ends?

When commercial policy exists only as a verbal guideline, every salesperson invents their own concession rule. Discount turns into bargaining currency, approval into a favor, and the exception into routine. The result is margin erosion nobody tracks, until the quarterly consolidation reveals the size of the damage.

The real scenario

Four structural failures that erode commercial policy every day

Each of these failures operates in silence. Together they decide whether the policy protects margin or exists only on paper.

01

Discount with no concession criteria

Every salesperson sets their own negotiating margin. Without a reference table or a ceiling per channel, concessions go unrecorded and discounts pile up quietly. The real margin only shows up at the quarterly close.

02

Informal approval thresholds

Who approves what, up to what amount, on what justification? When the answer depends on a personal relationship with the manager, commercial speed stalls and governance dissolves into undocumented exceptions.

03

Exceptions left unrecorded and unmeasured

Off-policy concessions get approved by email, WhatsApp, or a hallway conversation. Without a formal record or an impact calculation, the company learns nothing from them: each exception sets a precedent, and the policy loses authority with every cycle.

04

Policy disconnected from channel and segment

83% of B2B industrial companies operate without value-based pricing. One rule for every channel and segment ignores that each route to market carries a different cost, risk, and margin, and the result is a generic concession that rewards whoever negotiates hardest instead of whoever generates the most value.

Hinterhuber / IMM 2004 ↗

Struc­tured Commer­cial Pol­icy

Bunker

We have seen informal, disconnected commercial policy before. And we know where margin erosion hides.

Commercial policies do not fail for lack of intent. They fail because discount, approval threshold, exception, and traceability operate as disconnected dimensions. The Bunker Protocol connects those layers into a single architecture, with criteria, governance, and institutional visibility.

We do not tie the commercial team's hands. We design the policy that makes every concession operate within its perimeter.

  • 40+ B2B operations with structured commercial policy
  • 300+ CRM projects with concession governance
  • 8 countries with a commercial policy architecture in operation
  • Documented reduction of price dispersion in 55%+ of cases

Bunker Protocol applied to Commercial Policy

Four phases. One commercial policy. Auditable governance.

Phase 01

Concession Diagnosis

We map the real concession practice end to end: discounts applied, informal approval thresholds, recurring exceptions, and price dispersion by channel. We identify where margin is lost for lack of criteria, where approval stalls, and where the exception has become the rule. The diagnosis shows the real cost of a policy that is announced and never enforced.

Outcomes
  • Map of price dispersion by channel, segment, and salesperson
  • Real cost of every untracked concession practice
  • Prioritization of workstreams by impact on margin and predictability
Phase 02

Rules Architecture

With the concession diagnosis in hand, we design the policy architecture: a concession matrix with a ceiling by channel and segment, volume and recurrence criteria, and a reference table with a discount floor and ceiling. Every rule reflects how the operation actually works, not a theoretical ideal.

Outcomes
  • Concession matrix with a ceiling by channel, segment, and volume
  • Reference table with documented discount floor and ceiling
  • Exception criteria with mandatory justification
Phase 03

Approval Thresholds and Traceability

We formalize the approval engine inside the real routine of the operation: thresholds with defined escalation, maximum decision deadlines, and a complete record of every approved exception. With the engine in place, the commercial team runs approval on protocol instead of negotiating it case by case.

Outcomes
  • Approval thresholds with defined escalation and deadline
  • Exception registry with justification, impact, and owner
  • Auditable decision trail for every off-policy concession
Phase 04

Governance and Transfer

We install a traceability dashboard with visibility of dispersion by channel, policy adherence, and the accumulated impact of exceptions. The operation evolves in waves, with progressive autonomy. The goal is for your team to govern the policy without depending on Bunker.

Outcomes
  • Governance dashboard with dispersion, adherence, and exception impact
  • Margin indicators by channel and segment on a defined cadence
  • Operational autonomy transferred to the internal team

Transformation

From informal discounting to commercial policy with governance

Without Bunker

Concessions with no control

  • Discount set by the salesperson, with no ceiling and no criteria
  • Approval by personal relationship, with no formal threshold
  • Exceptions approved with no record and no impact calculation
  • Price dispersion invisible across channels and segments
  • Margin eroded with no traceability of cause

With Bunker

Policy with criteria and visibility

  • Concession matrix with a ceiling by channel, segment, and volume
  • Approval thresholds with defined escalation and deadline
  • Exceptions recorded with justification, impact, and owner
  • Price dispersion visible and monitored by period
  • Margin protected by active policy governance

Every month of informal policy is margin draining away and precedent piling up.

The first step is a concession diagnosis. No commitment, no generic PowerPoint. Assess whether your commercial policy justifies a different architecture.

Speak with a specialist Request a compatible case study

This service is part of the capability Sales and Commerce.

See also: Channel Design and Governance | Commercial and Approval Flows | Commercial Intelligence Platform