The price of the leads, nobody talks about the hidden costs!

Thet price of leads is a fascinating topic, one that is not often debated by our marketing friends.

The marketing department does an A/B test:

A offers leads at $10
$1000 = 100 leads
Conversion rate 10% > 10 customers

B offers leads at $50
$1000 = 20 leads
Conversion rate 50% > 10 customers

On paper the two offers are equivalent …

In reality, the sales people have to contact these leads … let’s take the minimum figures

  • 10mn to reach them (multiple calls)
  • 5 mn to requalify them
  • 15mn for the follow-up, reminder, etc …
  • 10mn for a personalized offer

Source A

  • 10x100 = 1000 minutes
  • 5x100 = 500 min > 30% pass qualification
  • 15x100x30% = 450 minutes
  • 10x100x30% - 300 min for a personalized offer
    Total sales time of 2250 minutes

Source B

  • 10x20 = 100 min
  • 5x20 = 100 min > 80% pass qualification
  • 15x20x80% = 240 min
  • 10x100x80% - 160 min for a personalized offer
    Total sales time of 600 minutes

With source A, the work overload is therefore
2250-600 = 1650 mn or 27.5h

The direct overhead, at $20/hour, is therefore $550!
And find me a good salesman at $20/h!

The indirect cost in loss of turnover will be between $2200 and $8800 depending on the company…
I will detail this point in another post …