Original Article By Toluwaleke Adenmosun — Senior Partner Verraki (A Member of Andersen Consulting)
Organisations that treat revenue as a single-line item risk missing the far larger problem: revenue that was earned but never fully realised. A practical framework being deployed by advisory teams across Africa reframes revenue as a system where attraction, capture, optimisation, retention and growth are connected levers that stop losses and accelerate sustainable profitability. This approach, already deployed in partnership with advisory firms such as Verraki, asks leaders to treat leakage as an operational failure as much as a commercial opportunity.
The problem: invisible drain on margins
Revenue leakage, the misplacement of income through pricing errors, contract gaps, billing mistakes or weak collections, quietly reduces EBITA and constrains cash available for strategy and investment. Industry assessments estimate firms can lose between 1% and 5% of EBITA to poor contract and payment practices; studies also show a high proportion of organisations still report leakage even after ERP investments. The practical consequence: compressed margins, strained cash flow and lower enterprise valuation.
A system-first remedy: revenue optimisation, not only revenue growth
Revenue optimisation treats revenue generation as an engineered system. Rather than only pushing for higher sales, organisations should 1) eliminate leakage at the source, 2) capture full transactional value, and 3) create structures that preserve and grow customer value over time. Core pillars are pricing discipline, demand intelligence and targeted engagement, combined into a measurable execution plan.
Five commercial levers you can operationalise today
Senior advisors recommend a five-lever model that converts strategy into day-to-day actions:
- Attraction — Build a compelling value proposition and brand architecture that brings qualified demand. Audit product-market fit, messaging clarity, and channel economics (cost-to-acquire by channel) to focus spend where conversion potential is highest.
- Capture — Convert interest into revenue efficiently. This means sales enablement (playbooks, incentives), streamlined quote-to-cash processes, and closing contract gaps that cause discounts or unbilled work.
- Optimisation — Use pricing science, promotion governance, and product lifecycle decisions (including graceful product exits) to extract full value. A central pricing committee and dynamic discounting rules prevent margin erosion.
- Retention — Embed post-sale journeys that reduce churn and lift lifetime value: loyalty programs, early-warning churn analytics, structured win-back flows and customer advocacy loops that lower acquisition pressure.
- Growth — Grow deliberately: enter adjacencies with validated unit economics, form distribution partnerships, and pursue inorganic opportunities only after operational controls secure existing revenues.
Collectively, these levers shift teams from firefighting isolated incidents to owning an enduring revenue engine.
Translate levers into measurable execution
Organisations that get this right translate levers into KPIs and routines: contract leakage rate, days sales outstanding (DSO), price variance vs. target, churn by cohort, and revenue per customer cohort. These metrics should be embedded in monthly operating reviews and linked to individual performance plans. Where appropriate, create cross-functional squads (sales + finance + product + legal + operations) responsible for each lever to ensure changes stick.
Culture and governance: the multiplier
Culture is the accelerant. When leaders model revenue stewardship, calibrate incentives around margin and cash (not only bookings) and make data transparent, teams adopt the optimisation mindset. Governance, clear decision rights for pricing, promotion and credit, prevents one-off exceptions from becoming structural leakage.
Quick wins for fast-impact recovery
- Conduct a contract audit focused on service-level clauses, change-order governance and billing cadence.
- Implement a “zero-exceptions” pricing rule for small deals and escalate exceptions to a senior pricing owner.
- Shorten DSO through automated reminders and incentivised early payments.
- Run a one-quarter retention sprint: identify top-risk cohorts, deploy targeted offers, and measure lift.
These low-lift, high-impact moves often pay for larger transformation programmes within 6–9 months.
Why this matters now
In volatile markets, controlling what you already earn is the fastest route to resilience. Organisations that eliminate leakage and institutionalise optimisation improve cash flow, protect valuation, and create optionality for investment. Partners who combine commercial strategy with execution rigour, aligning pricing, sales, operations and legal, are delivering measurable bottom-line improvements for clients across sectors.
