Every stage fails for a different reason
When a client's results slip, the conversation usually turns to lead quality. But a lead-gen funnel has five places to lose a customer, and each one has a different owner and a different fix:
- Lead cost: the ads. Creative and targeting.
- Reaching leads: the call center. Speed to lead and dial persistence.
- Booking: the booking call. Script and objection handling.
- Showing up: confirmations and reminders, and how far out appointments are booked.
- Closing: the sales conversation, usually on the client's side.
The method
- Measure each step as its own conversion: cost per lead, then reached ÷ leads, booked ÷ reached, showed ÷ booked, and closed ÷ showed.
- Compare each step with a benchmark: your agency average, or the client's own history.
- The step furthest below its benchmark is the leak. MARVIN flags a step when it performs below 70% of the benchmark.
- Fix that step first, and give the fix to the person who owns it.
Three clients, three leaks
The same method on three sample clients. Switch between them:
Meta spend$3,927
Leak: lead cost
Fix the ads.
Leads cost $101, 3.1x the agency average. Everything after the lead is on par. Rework the creative and targeting first.
- CAC
- $561
- agency $261
- Cost per lead
- $101
- agency $32.64
Why it matters
Changing the ads won't fix a call center that doesn't call, and coaching callers won't fix ads that bring the wrong people. Naming the stage first is what keeps the fix pointed at the problem. For the cost side of the same picture, read How to calculate true CAC for lead-gen clients.