Signal · Portfolio

Keep / renegotiate / grow / fire

2×2 quadrant of clients by value (revenue net of credit notes) against a cost-to-serve proxy — advisory only, never a verdict.

Portfolio

What the signal measures

2×2 quadrant of clients by value (revenue net of credit notes) against a cost-to-serve proxy — advisory only, never a verdict.

Why it matters

Revenue looks great for clients whose true cost-to-serve you never quantify. This signal plots every client on a 2×2 of value (revenue net of credit notes) against a cost-to-serve proxy (a weighted mix of credit-note count, chase effort, discount cadence and payment lag). Some of your top-5 by revenue may quietly cost more to serve than they pay — and the only way to see that is to make the two dimensions explicit at the same time. Compass calls it advisory: the quadrant guides the conversation, not a verdict.

How to act on it

Compass will never draft a "fire this client" email — the guardrail rejects blunt-verdict wording. Instead, the drafted action for a Renegotiate is a scope + terms conversation ("your last three months have run over — can we restructure the retainer to reflect that?"). For a Fire quadrant, the drafted action is a graceful wind-down conversation, not an ambush. Both are edited-in-place before you send.

Worked example — fixture consultancy

On Meridian, Brightwave Agency sits high-value / high-effort (£1000/day × 6 days/month but 75-day pay lag and three credit notes across the window) → Renegotiate. Dovetail Ltd sits low-value / high-effort (£400/day × 1 day, twice-monthly, four credit notes and unpaid stack) → Review. Neither is a delete-key decision — both are the start of a conversation that would otherwise have never happened.