Pillar 02
Sales & Desking Optimization:
the margin you pencil but do not keep.
Pricing inconsistency, trade valuation spread, approval friction, and desk-to-delivery leakage that compress front-end gross before anybody at the close table notices.
Where front-end gross quietly leaves the desk
The problem, framed honestly.
Front-end gross is the easiest number to report and the hardest number to protect. Discount discipline erodes one deal at a time.
Trade valuation spread, first-pencil discount creep, and pack miscalibration compound across 500 to 1,500 deals per year per rooftop.
Mechanus IQ surfaces which desks are leaking front gross and at which specific moment in the funnel. You get the pattern before the P&L reflects it.
Signal inventory
What Mechanus IQ actually looks for.
Each signal corresponds to one or more verified vectors in the Mechanus IQ detection surface. Full inventory: intelligence model.
01
First-pencil discount creep
Discount percentage on the first offer trending upward over time. Indicates desking discipline erosion; almost never intentional.
02
Gross-to-MSRP compression by salesperson and model line
One advisor holding 4.2% average gross, another holding 2.1% on the same model line, same market. The delta traces to close skill or a desk that is not enforcing.
03
Loser-deal frequency
Deals sold below invoice with no offsetting backend or OEM bonus. Tracks directly to manager bandwidth and salesperson autonomy.
04
Trade valuation spread vs Kelley/Canadian Black Book
Overallowance on trade to move a unit, undisclosed on the pack. The spread shows up in wholesale recovery, not the front gross report.
05
Desk-to-delivery loss
Deals that reach the finance manager and lose the add-ons. Usually a handoff issue rather than a product issue.
Gates, not recommendations
The problems we surface do not come back.
Every finding becomes a permanent enforcement gate inside the workflow. Hard gates block the action until resolved. Soft gates page an operator on drift. Audit gates flag the event for scheduled review. How gates work.
Hard gate
Minimum-gross override block
A deal below the configured floor cannot be finalized without a GM or DP override, logged with reason code.
Blocks the action until resolved
Soft gate
Trade-spread alert
Trade values overallowed by more than the configured percentage vs the book surface to the desk before the deal works.
Pages the relevant operator on drift
Audit gate
Loser-deal cohort review
All below-invoice deals flagged monthly, reviewed against OEM incentive offset before the pay plan cycle.
Flags the event for scheduled review