Getting Oriented: Who You Are and What You're Trying to Fix

• What's your name, role, and the single most important outcome you personally want from fixing channel conflict?
• Which channels currently generate meaningful revenue for you (select all that apply)? Options: Direct-to-consumer / Website, Wholesale / Brick & mortar retail, Marketplaces (Amazon, etc.), Subscription / Replenishment models, Distributors / Export partners, Other
• Select your company's current annual revenue band. Options: <$50M, $50M–$150M, $150M–$300M, $300M–$500M, >$500M
• How long have you been noticing meaningful channel tension or margin compression? Options: Just started in last 3 months, 3–12 months, 1–2 years, More than 2 years
• Tell us briefly: what's the single event (lost account, board review, marketplace issue) that prompted you to consider addressing channels now?

Why Are We Pretending This Isn't a Problem?

• If we kept doing nothing for another 12 months, what's the most likely negative outcome for your brand? Options: Loss of a major retail account, Sustained margin decline, Customer expectation of discounts, Channel partner attrition, Brand reputation damage, Other
• When you say 'margin erosion' or 'channel conflict,' can you share a recent concrete example that brought this to light?
• How often do your wholesale partners flag pricing or assortment concerns to you? Options: Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Rarely, Never
• How does it feel internally when a retail partner raises these issues—do conversations escalate, stall, or get deferred? Give a real incident if possible.

Follow the Margin — Where Is Value Leaking?

• How confident are you in your current view of gross margin by channel (including rebates, placement fees, promo cost)? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, We have estimates only, No clear view
• Which levers do you believe are driving most of the margin pressure today? Options: Marketplace discounting, Unmanaged promotions, Wholesale pricing not updated, High logistics/fulfillment costs, Assortment cannibalization, Other
• What percent of your total volume do you estimate is sold at a materially discounted price (across channels)? Options: <10%, 10–25%, 26–50%, 51–75%, >75%
• Have you modeled a scenario where marketplace or DTC growth is normalized against wholesale—what changed in margin and partner economics? If not, why not?
• Which pricing or promo practices are decentralized today (e.g., regional sales teams setting price, marketplaces running unauthorized promos)? Options: Sales reps set local discounts, Regional pricing levers, Marketplaces set promotions, No central promo calendar, Other

Who Wields the Real Power (and Who Will Need to Say Yes)?

• If you needed a cross-functional decision to change pricing or assortment, who would veto it today? Options: CRO / Head of Sales, Head of Ecommerce, Head of Retail Partnerships, CFO, Operations / Fulfillment, CEO / Founder, Other
• List the core stakeholders we must align with to implement new governance (name, role, and typical priorities).
• Who owns channel economics today—who has custody of pricing models, margin dashboards, and promotional calendars? Options: Finance, Commercial Ops, Ecommerce, Sales leadership, A shared team, No single owner
• How do these stakeholders typically make trade-offs—consensus, executive decision, or channel-specific incentives? Options: Executive decision, Consensus across stakeholders, Channel leaders decide independently, Guided by finance, Other
• Tell us about the most recent internal disagreement over pricing or channel strategy—how was it resolved and what blocked a faster decision?

What Keeps You Up at Night (the Human Side)?

• When you think about channel conflict, what emotion comes up first—frustration, embarrassment, urgency, or something else? Options: Frustration, Embarrassment, Urgency, Anxiety, Resignation, Other
• How has partner pushback (or internal finger-pointing) affected morale or the way teams operate day-to-day?
• Have you lost a major account or seen measurable channel churn as a direct result of pricing or assortment issues? Describe what happened and the impact.
• Which internal stories do you find yourself telling about channel strategy—'we can't control marketplaces', 'sales must hit targets', or another narrative? How honest do you feel that story is?
• If you could stop worrying about one specific channel-related risk tomorrow, what would it be and why?

If Channels Were Healthy, What Would That Look and Feel Like?

• Imagine channel economics were clear and enforced—what KPIs would you expect to improve in 6 months? Options: Gross margin %, Net revenue retention, Wholesale partner satisfaction, Marketplace margin contribution, Promo spend as % of revenue, Other
• Describe a customer or partner interaction that would signal to you that channels are healthy (e.g., a retailer praising pricing fairness).
• Which trade-offs would you accept to stabilize channels (slightly lower DTC growth, reduced promo windows, stricter marketplace enforcement)? Options: Reduced DTC growth, Tighter promotional cadence, More restrictive assortment online, Higher wholesale floors, Accept short-term revenue dip for margin recovery, Other
• How quickly would you expect to see early signs of improvement after implementing new channel governance? Options: 0–3 months, 3–6 months, 6–12 months, Longer than a year
• If success were a short narrative we could read in a board meeting six months from now, what three sentences would you want it to say?

What Would It Take to Break Old Habits and Commit to Change?

• What's the biggest barrier between deciding to change channel rules and actually enforcing them—people, systems, incentives, or politics? Options: People / culture, Legacy systems & data, Sales incentives, Lack of clear ownership, External partner resistance, Other
• How much time and executive attention could your team realistically commit to a focused 8–12 week redesign effort? Options: Multiple leaders weekly, Weekly touchpoints from one leader, Biweekly participation, Ad hoc as-available
• What internal resources could we leverage (data analysts, pricing team, sales ops) and which critical gaps would we need to fill?
• Thinking about enforcement—do you currently have tooling or contracts that enable price floor enforcement and channel monitoring? If yes, name them; if no, how have you tried to police behavior?
• What would a meaningful 'minimal viable governance' look like to you—one change we could implement quickly that would reduce the most urgent risk?

Agreeing on Success: Signals, Ownership, and Next Moves

• Which measurable success signals would convince you this effort is working (choose up to 3)? Options: + Gross margin points, Reduced % of discounted volume, Wholesale partner retention, Fewer unauthorized marketplace promos, Improved average selling price (ASP), Faster promotional approval cycle
• Who will be the single executive sponsor and who will be the operational owner responsible for day-to-day decisions during the engagement?
• What decision rights must be established up front for changes to pricing, assortment, and promotions to stick? Options: Executive approval required, Finance sets margin floors, Channel leads set assortment, Shared governance council, Automated enforcement via contracts/tools, Other
• How would you like us to present findings—high-level executive summary first, deep model annex, and an operational playbook for teams? Options: Executive summary + playbook, Full model with annex, Playbook only, Workshop-led delivery
• What would you consider 'agreement to proceed' after discovery—board approval, executive sign-off, pilot budget, or something else? Options: Board-level approval, Executive sponsor sign-off, Allocated pilot budget, Cross-functional readiness checklist, Other

• Pre-Experience Alignment (Preparation & Data Reconciliation)
• Channel Economics Model Walkthrough
• Sensitivity & Trade-off Workshop
• Partner Impact & Negotiation Simulation
• Validation & Mutual Commit Review

• Align on pilot targets, timing, and success criteria for partner outreach.
• Produce a one-page scenario summary (KPIs, assumptions, risks) for each validated scenario.
• Identify any unresolved data reconciliations and assign owners to close them before the sensitivity workshop.
• Recap of Chosen Scenarios
• Identify the levers that have disproportionate impact on margin and partner outcomes.
• Agree explicit guardrails and thresholds that will guide pricing/assortment and promotion governance.
• Select the scenario variant(s) that balance margin recovery with acceptable partner impacts for negotiation simulation.
• Run additional sensitivity permutations requested during the workshop and circulate results.
• Draft the recommended guardrail definitions (thresholds, exceptions, escalation paths) for review.
• Produce a trade-off dashboard snapshot to use in partner conversations and internal decision packs.
• One-sentence Future State & Negotiation Goals
• Confirm partner-level impacts are accurate and acceptable for pilot conversations.
• Select a negotiation approach for priority partners and validate the playbook language.
• Introductions & Objectives
• Produce partner-specific one-page impact summaries and negotiation talking points.
• Assign owners for partner pilots and schedule pilot outreach windows.
• Capture any remaining model adjustments flagged during simulations and update scenario outputs.
• Recap: Current State, Consequence, and Chosen Future State
• Obtain explicit sign-off on the validated scenario or capture required changes with owners and dates.
• Agree on clear success signals and acceptance criteria that will govern implementation and measurement.
• Handoff validated model, datasets, and agreed guardrails to the Solution Scope team with named owners.
• Create and circulate a short sign-off document capturing the chosen scenario, KPIs, and approvals.
• Handoff model files, datasets, and a summary of assumptions/guardrails to the Solution Scope lead.
• Schedule Solution Scope kickoff and assign preparatory tasks to responsible stakeholders.
• Ensure the current state can be stated in one clear sentence and is shared by all stakeholders.
• Surface the financial and operational consequences with supporting numbers so urgency is explicit.
• Agree on required data, finalize assumptions, and commit owners and due dates for missing inputs.
• Deliver reconciled dataset (sales by channel, promo activity, partner-level margins) to the modeling team.
• Confirm and document the one-sentence current state and one-sentence future-state objective in the shared workspace.
• Update the model assumptions sheet with any agreed changes and circulate prior to the next session.
• Brief Recap of Current State & Consequence
• Validate that the model accurately represents current channel economics and reconciles to known financials.
• Demonstrate one or more modeled future states that concretely prove improved margin/revenue/partner outcomes.
• Capture participant validation or objection on each scenario so only proven paths move forward.
• Incorporate participant feedback into the model and re-run updated scenario outputs.
• One-sentence Current State
• Partner-level Impact Snapshots
• Lever 1 — Pricing & Discounting Sensitivity
• Model Structure & Key Assumptions
• Final Modeled Scenario: KPIs & Implementation Milestones
• Acceptance Criteria & Success Signals
• Simulation: Negotiation Outcomes for 3 Approaches
• Baseline Economics Review
• Lever 2 — Assortment & Channel Exclusivity
• Consequence Quantification
• Modeled Future-State Scenarios
• Decision & Commit
• Lever 3 — Promotion Governance & Enforcement
• Risk, Escalation & Timeline Map
• Data & Assumptions Checklist
• Proof Points: How Each Scenario Eliminates Specific Problems
• Validate Partner Messaging & Playbook
• Aggregate Trade-off Dashboard
• Handoff: Owners, Immediate Next Steps, and Timeline
• Define Future-State Objective (one sentence)
• Live Validation Checkpoints
• Decision Checkpoints & Guardrail Agreement
• Pre-work Assignments & Timeline

• Deliver SKU-level Channel Profitability Model
• Implement Channel-Specific Pricing Architecture
• Deploy Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) Policy and Enforcement
• Configure Marketplace Price Monitoring and Alerting System
• Deploy Promotion Governance Calendar with Rules Engine
• Publish Channel Assortment Playbooks for Sales and Merch
• Draft Wholesale Contract Pricing Amendments
• Implement Marketplace Seller Enforcement Workflows
• Configure DTC Dynamic Pricing Rules and Integrations
• Design Channel-aware Sales Compensation Plan
• Integrate Channel Economics Dashboard into BI
• Train Cross-functional Teams on Channel Playbooks

Deliver SKU-level Channel Profitability Model

• Do you want a SKU-level channel profitability model produced as part of this engagement? Options: Yes, No
• Which channels should be included in the SKU-level model? Options: Direct-to-Consumer (DTC), Wholesale / Retail Accounts, Marketplaces (e.g., Amazon), Distributors, Other
• Approximately how many SKUs should the model cover? Options: Less than 100, 100-1,000, 1,001-5,000, More than 5,000
• Do you have historical per-SKU data available for sales, returns, discounts, shipping, and COGS? Options: Yes — full dataset, Partial data available, No, we need to collect this
• What time horizon should the profitability model analyze (e.g., trailing 12 months, seasonal window)? Options: Trailing 3 months, Trailing 6 months, Trailing 12 months, Custom — specify in next field
• If you selected 'Custom' above, describe the timeframe or special segments to include (e.g., holiday, outlet sales).

Implement Channel-Specific Pricing Architecture

• Do you want a channel-specific pricing architecture designed and documented? Options: Yes, No
• Which channels require distinct pricing rules or ladders? Options: DTC, Wholesale, Marketplaces, Retail Partners, International channels, Other
• What are your target margin or profitability thresholds by channel (leave blank to provide later)?
• Are there existing contractual price commitments or MAP agreements that constrain pricing architecture? Options: Yes — many, Some, No
• Do you want scenario modeling included (e.g., shows margin impact of moving 10% volume from wholesale to DTC)? Options: Yes — include multiple scenarios, Yes — one baseline scenario, No
• Who will be the primary owner/approver for the pricing architecture internally (title/role)?

Deploy Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) Policy and Enforcement

• Do you currently maintain a MAP policy that you want deployed or revised? Options: Existing policy to revise, No policy — create new, Existing policy — enforcement only
• Which sales channels and marketplace platforms should the MAP policy target? Options: Amazon, eBay, Walmart Marketplace, DTC, Wholesale partners, Other
• Do you have legal counsel available to review MAP language and contract changes? Options: Yes — in-house, Yes — external counsel, No
• What enforcement measures do you want defined in the policy (select all that apply)? Options: Automated warnings to sellers, Price suppression or delisting, Supply restrictions, Contractual penalties, Escalation to legal
• How frequently are MAP violations occurring currently (estimate)? Options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Rarely / Unknown
• Are there channel partners who must be excluded or treated differently for MAP reasons (e.g., promotional partners)? Options: Yes — list in follow-up, No

Configure Marketplace Price Monitoring and Alerting System

• Which marketplaces and channels should the monitoring system cover? Options: Amazon, eBay, Walmart Marketplace, Other marketplaces, Retailer websites, Distributor portals
• Do you require real-time monitoring or periodic (e.g., daily) checks? Options: Real-time (alerts within minutes), Near real-time (hourly), Daily, Weekly
• How would you like to receive alerts when price or MAP breaches occur? Options: Email, Slack / Teams, BI dashboard, SMS, Webhook to internal system
• What alert thresholds should trigger an incident (e.g., % below MAP or MSRP)? Options: Any breach, 5% below threshold, 10% below threshold, Custom — specify in next field
• If 'Custom', describe the threshold rules or special logic required.
• Do you have API credentials or feed access for marketplaces and your own DTC platform to enable automated monitoring? Options: Yes — full API access, Partial access / need to provision, No — will require scraping or manual checks

Deploy Promotion Governance Calendar with Rules Engine

• Do you currently maintain a master promotion calendar across channels? Options: Yes — centralized, No — fragmented by channel, Partial — some channels centralized
• Which promotion types should the rules engine manage? Options: Sitewide discounts, Coupon codes, Marketplace promotions (lightning deals), Retailer co-op promos, Bundle discounts
• What approval workflow do you prefer for promotions (who must sign off)? Options: Central team only, Channel leads + central, Cross-functional committee, Automated rules with later review
• Are there blackout periods or channel exclusivity windows we must encode? Options: Yes — list in follow-up, No
• What reporting cadence and metrics do you require for promotion performance and compliance? Options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Ad-hoc / custom
• Do you need the rules engine to integrate with your e‑commerce, ERP, or promotions platform? If so, list systems.

Publish Channel Assortment Playbooks for Sales and Merch

• Do you want channel-specific assortment playbooks created and published? Options: Yes — all channels, Yes — select channels only, No
• Which channels should receive dedicated assortment playbooks? Options: DTC, Wholesale / Retail accounts, Marketplaces, International, Outlet / Closeout
• What format do you prefer for playbooks (operational checklists, merchandising rules, SKU lists, training guides)? Options: Operational checklists, SKU-level lists / spreadsheets, Internal wiki pages, Training modules
• Do you have SKU performance or assortment segmentation data to inform recommendations? Options: Yes — per SKU performance, Partial, No — need analysis included
• Who are the internal owners for sales and merchandising updates to the playbooks?
• Do playbooks need to include sample scripts, objection handling, or commercial messaging for partners? Options: Yes — include samples, No — high-level only

Draft Wholesale Contract Pricing Amendments

• Do you have existing wholesale contracts that will require amendments for pricing or MAP terms? Options: Yes — many partners, Some partners only, No — new contracts only
• How many wholesale partners would likely require contract amendments? Options: 1-5, 6-20, 21-100, 100+
• Which amendment types are needed (select all that apply)? Options: Price floors / MAP clauses, Promotional approval processes, Territorial or channel restrictions, Reporting and audit rights
• Will amendments require legal review or sign-off by external counsel? Options: Yes — external counsel, Yes — internal legal, No
• What is your preferred timeline for delivering draft amendments and negotiating with partners? Options: 2-4 weeks, 4-8 weeks, 8-12 weeks, Custom — specify
• Who will be the internal lead responsible for partner negotiations?

Implement Marketplace Seller Enforcement Workflows

• Do you sell via third-party sellers that require enforcement workflows? Options: Yes — many 3P sellers, Some 3P sellers, No — only first-party
• Roughly how many seller accounts or distinct marketplace listings must be covered? Options: Less than 50, 50-200, 200-1,000, More than 1,000
• What enforcement actions should be supported in workflows? Options: Automated email warnings, Escalation to partner management, ASIN suppression / buy box control, Legal escalation
• Do you have seller contact information and account manager assignments available? Options: Yes — structured list, Partial, No
• What level of automation do you want for enforcement (manual, semi-automated, fully automated)? Options: Manual — human review required, Semi-automated — approvals required, Fully automated
• What SLA should enforcement workflows target for initial response and resolution? Options: 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, Custom — specify

Configure DTC Dynamic Pricing Rules and Integrations

• Are you seeking dynamic pricing capabilities on your DTC channel? Options: Yes — implement rules, Yes — refine existing rules, No
• What triggers should be used for repricing (select all that apply)? Options: Competitive prices, Inventory levels, Time of day / seasonality, Promotion calendar, Customer segments
• Which systems must the pricing engine integrate with? Options: ERP / Finance, PIM, E‑commerce platform (Shopify, Magento), BI / Analytics, Third-party pricing engines
• What constraints do you need enforced (min/max price, margin floor, MAP adherence)? Options: Min/max price, Margin floor, MAP override protection, Bundle-specific rules
• How often should prices be recalculated and pushed live? Options: Real-time / continuous, Hourly, Daily, Weekly
• Do you want A/B testing or holdout groups to validate dynamic pricing impact? Options: Yes — include testing, No

Design Channel-aware Sales Compensation Plan

• Do you want a revised sales compensation plan that accounts for channel profitability and non-cannibalization? Options: Yes — design new plan, Yes — revise existing plan, No
• Which sales roles and channels should be in scope for compensation changes? Options: DTC sales / account reps, Wholesale account managers, Marketplace account managers, Channel marketing / merch
• What behaviors do you want to incentivize (e.g., full-price sales, growth in profitable channels, channel preservation)? Options: Full-price retention, Channel margin improvement, New account growth, Compliance with promotion rules
• Do you have reliable data to track the KPIs that would drive compensation (e.g., SKU profitability by rep)? Options: Yes — data available, Partial — needs integration, No — will require new tracking
• How frequently should compensation calculations and payouts be adjusted to reflect channel economics? Options: Monthly, Quarterly, Annually, Custom
• Who are the stakeholders that must approve the plan (titles/roles)?

• Statement of Work (SOW)
• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Pricing & Commercial Terms Annex
• Payment Schedule & Invoicing Terms
• Decision Rights & Approval Matrix
• Milestone Acceptance & Sign-off Protocol
• Resource & Cross-Functional Readiness Commitment
• Governance & Escalation Charter
• Data Processing Agreement & Confidentiality
• Change Order & Scope Management Process
• Marketplace Enforcement Authorization
• Implementation Readiness Checklist & Go/No-Go
• Termination, Transition & Renewal Terms

• Success Validation Review
• Lessons Learned & Optimization Workshop
• Operational Handover & Enablement Check
• Governance, Enforcement & Issue Channel Setup
• Ongoing Performance Cadence & QBR Planning

• Create and provision the shared issue channel with templates and tags.
• Define clear experiment designs and success criteria for the top priorities.
• Assign owners and timelines to ensure experiments move to execution quickly.
• Produce an Optimizations Backlog ranked by impact/effort and circulate to stakeholders.
• Create experiment briefs (hypothesis, metrics, duration, owner) for top 3 experiments.
• Update channel playbooks to reflect any low-effort fixes identified during the workshop.
• Handover Summary
• Frontline teams are trained, have access to playbooks, and understand acceptance criteria.
• Dashboards and alerting are operational and owners for each alert are defined.
• Clear support and escalation paths are in place to prevent operational friction.
• Schedule and publish role-based training sessions and attendance roster.
• Publish final playbooks and runbooks to the knowledge base with version control.
• Configure dashboard alerts and assign individual owners to each alert channel.
• Governance Model Overview
• Agree on a governance model and RACI that supports ongoing control without bottlenecks.
• Operationalize an issue channel with clear SLAs and rules of engagement.
• Establish enforcement and exception processes that protect partner relationships and margin.
• Opening & Objectives
• Publish the governance RACI and distribute to all stakeholders.
• Set up SLAs in the ticketing system and configure escalation alerts.
• Recommended Cadence & Rationale
• Establish and calendarize a clear performance review cadence that all stakeholders agree to.
• Confirm the KPI set and QBR template to ensure consistent decision-making over time.
• Assign dashboard owners and triggers so issues surface before they become escalation-worthy.
• Publish the QBR template, KPI definitions, and the agreed cadence to the governance folder.
• Send calendar invites for the next 12 months of scheduled reviews and include required pre-reads.
• Configure dashboard alerts for agreed trigger thresholds and assign responders.
• Confirm which success signals have been met, partially met, or not met with quantitative backing.
• Agree on concrete next steps (accept/iterate/escalate) and assign owners and timelines.
• Surface the commercial consequence for any missed signals to create urgency for remediation.
• Publish the validated results pack and data sources to the shared drive with versioning.
• Assign remediation owners for signals not met, with target deliverables and due dates.
• Schedule targeted deep-dive sessions for any high-impact gaps identified.
• Framing: One-sentence Future State
• Create a prioritized backlog of optimizations mapped to commercial impact and effort.
• Playbook Walkthrough (role-based)
• Structured Retrospective (What/So What/Now What)
• QBR Template & Metrics
• RACI & Decision Rights
• One-sentence Current State
• Dashboard Ownership & Data Hygiene
• Success Signals Recap & Baseline
• Impact vs Effort Prioritization
• Training & Enablement Plan
• Issue Triage & SLA Definitions
• Define Experiments & Acceptance Criteria
• Trigger Conditions for Ad-hoc Reviews
• Shared Channel Provisioning & Rules of Engagement
• Data Walk-through by Channel
• Operational Dashboards & Alerts
• Gap Analysis & Consequence Summary
• Calendarization & Invitations
• Support & Escalation Workflow
• Resource & Risk Assessment
• Enforcement & Exception Workflow
• Decision Table: Accept / Iterate / Escalate
• Sign-off Criteria & Follow-up
• Pilot Issue Triage Run
• Wrap-up & Assignment
• Continuous Improvement Loop