Overview
Peer range shows you how a customer's pricing compares to similar customers. For a given item, Pepper looks at the range of margins across that customer's peer set and shows where this customer lands. Sit at the low end, and you likely have headroom to move up. Sit at the top, and it is a sign to ease off before you get caught speeding. It is the read your best reps carry in their heads, made visible for every rep.
So when you are selling shrimp to one account at 7% margin while comparable customers are averaging 16%, that gap shows up immediately, and you can decide whether to close it.
Where you see peer range
Peer range shows up as a column when you dig into an item in Cost Changes, right alongside the customer's current price, margin, and order history. (See: Cost Changes and Bulk Editing.) It is also the logic behind the Pricing Agent's below-peer recommendations. (See: Using the Pricing Agent.)
What makes two customers "peers"
In peer range, "peers" are similar customers. On a given item, you are seeing where one customer's margin sits against the margins paid by comparable customers. (To compare reps against each other, use the rep breakdown in the Impact Dashboard.)
Peer sets reflect how your business already groups its customers. That can be an account segment, a geographic region, or whatever concept you use to think about similar accounts. If you send those groupings through your ERP integration, Pepper uses them to define the peer set.
Where there is no existing concept to read from, Pepper groups customers by how they buy, comparing customers with similar purchasing volume and similar price levels. Pepper can also work with you to build a peer definition that fits your business.
Reading the peer range
For each item on a customer, the peer range shows the span of margins across that customer's peers, and where this customer falls within it:
Low in the range: you likely have headroom to raise price or margin.
Middle of the range: roughly in line with peers.
Top of the range: you are already pricing high for this peer group, so consider easing off before you get caught speeding.
For example, if a customer sits at the low end on an item and their volume has been steady, that is a strong candidate to bump up. If they are already at the top of the range, you may want to bring the price back down.
Acting on what you see
Once the peer range points you to an opportunity, adjust the price or margin right there, line by line or in bulk. (See: Cost Changes and Bulk Editing.) If your distributor has the Pricing Agent, it uses this same peer comparison to find below-peer items for you and surface them as recommendations. (See: Using the Pricing Agent.)
Which accounts are left out
Some accounts are excluded from peer averages so they do not skew the comparison:
Multi-unit accounts.
Contracted GPO accounts (for example, Unipco).
Their pricing does not reflect the open market. Items you cannot edit through Pepper do not appear at all.