$85 per lead. What did it actually cost you?
The gap between what demand gen appears to cost and what it actually costs is the pipeline tax. It compounds quarterly and it almost never shows up as a line item. This guide is the framework for calculating your number before the next board review.
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Your demand gen team reports cost per lead. What that number leaves out: the four hours a rep spent on a lead that never answered, the three-week sequence run on someone who downloaded a checklist and forgot about it, and the pipeline figure your board reviewed last quarter with nothing behind it. Most CFOs who calculate the gap for the first time find it runs two to four times their annual media spend.
What's inside
- The hidden line items that never reach the demand gen budget
- How to calculate your true cost per qualified lead when the unit isn't fixed
- A worked example on an $85 CPL program, end to end
- What changes when leads are conversation-qualified
- How CAC and sales cycle move together
- The cross-silo leak and the retention leak
- The CFO demand gen audit
“The goal was never cheaper leads. It's cheaper closed deals.”
Run your own numbers before someone else runs them for you. Get the guide and the audit worksheet.