The argument "the leads are bad" versus "you aren't following up" is usually unresolved because nobody has the numbers side by side.
Why do marketing and sales blame each other?
Because each sees a different half. Marketing sees cost per lead and calls it healthy. Sales sees weak conversations and calls the leads poor. Both can be true when good leads sit uncalled and go cold. Our article on marketing and sales as one system explains why the leak sits in the handoff nobody owns. It's the lesson from my years delivering appointments to mortgage brokers: a lead isn't the product. The product is a qualified person with a genuine chance of becoming a customer.
What are the five checkpoints?
Pull the last 30 days of leads into one sheet and add a column for each:
- Contacted at all? Share of leads that received a real attempt.
- Time to first attempt. Median minutes. InsideSales found conversion 8 times higher inside five minutes, and 77% of leads never got a response at all.
- Booked? Share of contacted leads that booked a call or visit.
- Showed? Share of bookings that attended.
- Closed? Share of attended, qualified calls that became customers.
How do you read the result?
| Pattern | Diagnosis |
|---|---|
| Low at checkpoint 1 or 2 | Follow-up: speed, ownership or capacity |
| Contacted fast but booked rate low | Lead quality or the offer and qualification questions |
| Booked but showed rate low | Confirmation and reminders |
| Showed but closed rate low | The sales conversation or fit, so not marketing |
| Everything fine but volume low | Now it's a traffic problem, and only now does more spend make sense |
The same chain, expressed as a formula, is in why your ads get leads but no sales.
What should you do once you know?
Fix the earliest weak link, because everything after it's multiplied. Give follow-up a named owner and a written standard (for example, first attempt within five minutes in business hours). Add response time and qualified calls to the marketing scorecard next to cost per lead. Define a shared number: the qualified sales call is a good one.
Why does this matter more with paid ads?
Because you're paying for each lead that enters the chain. A lead lost to slow follow-up is the most expensive kind: you paid for it and got nothing. Fixing follow-up raises revenue without extra ad spend, which is why it usually comes before spending more.
What happens on our free call?
It's a diagnosis, not a pitch. We put your response time, booking rate, show rate and close rate next to your ad spend and name the weakest link. If it's your sales process rather than your marketing, that's the answer you'll get, and it may mean we aren't the right fit yet.
If you're an established service business spending $5,000 or more a month on ads, Book A Free Call and we'll run it on your numbers.
Sources
- InsideSales, Lead Response Management 2021.
