Every lead has a price, and the person running it should know it

Ask a rep what a lead costs and watch what happens.

Most cannot answer. Not because they are careless. Because nobody told them, and there is no reason they would work it out on their own. The appointment shows up on a calendar. It feels free.

Then somebody runs it with one spouse home, pitches anyway, and leaves without calling in.

I started putting the number in front of people. Not as a threat. As information. Here is what it costs to generate one appointment on your calendar, all in, marketing through confirmation. Here is what it costs us when it gets run wrong and we cannot get back in the house.

That changed behavior more than any policy I wrote. A rep who knows the number handles a cancellation differently. He calls the moment the appointment falls apart instead of at the end of the night, because now he understands that a same day reschedule is worth real money and a next week one usually is not.

The same thing works upward. Once I could show an owner what a rep who does not survive ninety days actually costs, recruiting stopped being an expense line and started being a place to invest.

Cost per lead is easy to calculate and most companies already have it sitting in a spreadsheet. The part people skip is telling the field. There is a worry that reps will turn it into ammunition and start arguing about lead quality using your own numbers.

Mine did, for about two weeks. Then they started protecting the leads, because people are careful with things they know the price of.