I just saved Phil $5,000 that he was about to waste on marketing.
His sales were low and his solution was simple:
“I’m going to double my ad budget to double my sales.”
Wrong move.
The funnel is simple:
He spends money on digital marketing to generate leads.
The constraint is never at the top of the funnel.
It’s in the middle & bottom
Phil’s current numbers:
- 30 leads per month ($5k current spend)
- 15 turn into estimates (50% conversion)
- 4 become customers (26% close rate)
- Average ticket: $10,000
- $40k total revenue per month
The problem isn’t leads — it’s everything after that.
First constraint: The Capacity to say “yes”
He handled all leads, while also selling jobs and managing projects.
Leads were sitting for hours before getting called back. Some were never followed up on at all.
This is why his lead-to-estimate conversion was only 50%.
The solution was simple: hire a remote admin to immediately respond to leads and follow up until they’re booked.
He needed to staff up to widen the funnel.
Second constraint: Converting estimates into sales
You need a solid process for estimating, understanding the customer’s budget and timeline, overcoming objections, and closing the deal.
He was only closing at 26% when he should be hitting 40%.
Lots of money left on the table.
Here’s what math AFTER improving the ratios:
- 30 leads per month (same $5k spend)
- 24 turn into estimates (80% conversion)
- 10 become customers (42% close rate)
- Average ticket: $12,000 (higher close = higher tickets)
- $120k total revenue per month
Same marketing spend of $5k is now generating $120k instead of $40k.
He went from zero profit ($40k was his break-even) to $20k profit.
Once ratios are fixed, he can pour money into the marketing machine.
The last thing you want is to chase good money after bad.
I’ve personally made this mistake many times. Wasted $50k on marketing when the real problem was my conversion and sales process.
Cheers!
Brian
P.S. I’ve been super impressed with the talent we’ve recently hired through Somewhere.com
Here is the job description we used and my referral link to save some money on their recruiting fee.
