Once a week, spend thirty minutes on four questions. What did you actually spend, after approved credits? Does every open lead have a dated next action? How many leads reached each stage, counted the same way every week? And what one change will you make before next week? Keep spending, work in progress, signed contracts and closed deals in separate columns. An open lead is not a loss because the review happened on a Friday.
Thirty minutes, four outputs
Leave with a reconciled ledger, no lead without a next action, honest counts and one decision. Bring:
- Your lead-test log, updated through today.
- The provider’s transaction or wallet history for the week.
- Your follow-up notes from the seven-day worksheet.
- Any pending credit requests and their deadlines.
Define the stages once, then never change them mid-test
Write these definitions at the top of your log. Use the same ones every week.
| Stage | Counts when |
|---|---|
| Purchased | You were charged for the lead |
| Contacted | You had a two-way conversation with the seller (not just an attempt) |
| Qualified | The seller confirmed authority, a reason to sell and a timeline that fits your buy box |
| Signed contract | A purchase or assignment contract is signed by the seller |
| Closed | The transaction completed and funds moved |
| Lost | The seller said no, asked you to stop, or the lead was credited |
| Open | Anything not closed or lost, with a next action |
Signed and closed are different stages. A signed contract can still fall through. Counting a signature as a deal is the most common way a pipeline looks better than it is.
The review, in five passes
1. Reconcile charges and credits
Match every charge in the provider’s history to a row in your log, and every approved credit to the row it belongs to. Then compute:
- Gross lead charges = sum of prices charged this period.
- Approved credits = sum of credits approved (count each once, on its lead’s row).
- Net lead spend = gross charges minus approved credits.
Keep plan payments out of this calculation. DrivenSellers states: A plan gives no per-lead discount; leads stay at their listed grade price. Each plan fee is added to the wallet as credit. A plan payment is funding; the lead charges drawn from it are spend. Count the charges, not both.
On DrivenSellers, an approved request works this way: 5 days from purchase to report an exclusive lead as not as described; an approved request credits the price back to the wallet. It reduces net spend on that lead; it is not cash returned to your bank account.
2. Walk every open lead, row by row
Go row by row through open leads. For each, check:
- Is there a next action, a date and a person?
- Is the date in the past? If so, either do it today or reschedule with a reason.
- Has the seller set a date we should be waiting for instead?
- Is a credit deadline approaching on any lead with a possible mismatch?
Any open lead without a next action is the first problem to fix.
3. Leave young leads open
A lead bought three days ago has had three days. A seller who said “after the holidays” is on their timeline, not yours. Leave these open. Note the age of each open lead so you can see which ones are new and which are stalled.
4. Count stages, then divide by real denominators
Count leads at each stage, cumulative since the test began. Then compute cost metrics only where the denominator is a real count:
- Net spend per purchased lead = net lead spend ÷ purchased.
- Net spend per contacted lead = net lead spend ÷ contacted.
- Net spend per signed contract = net lead spend ÷ signed contracts.
- Net spend per closed deal = net lead spend ÷ closed deals.
If a denominator is zero, the metric is “not yet measurable,” not zero and not infinite. Never mix denominators, for example by dividing this week’s spend by contracts signed from last month’s leads, unless you state that clearly.
5. Change one thing for next week
Look at where leads stop moving. Pick one change for next week, write it down, and leave everything else the same. Examples: tighten one buy-box rule; block a second calling window; make first contact on purchase day; add a question to the first call.
A six-lead review, worked (illustrative)
Since the test began: six leads purchased (one grade A, three grade B, two grade C). One grade B lead was credited after the seller said they never asked to sell.
| Line | Arithmetic | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Gross lead charges | $249 + 3 × $169 + 2 × $99 | $954 |
| Approved credits | 1 × $169 | $169 |
| Net lead spend | gross minus credits | $785 |
| Stage | Count | Net spend per stage |
|---|---|---|
| Purchased | 6 | $131 |
| Contacted | 4 | $196 |
| Qualified | 2 | $393 |
| Signed contract | 1 | $785 |
| Closed | 0 | Not yet measurable |
| Lost | 2 (1 credited, 1 not interested) | - |
| Open | 4 | - |
Per-stage figures are rounded to the nearest dollar. Read this table carefully:
- Four leads are still open, including the one with a signed contract. None of them is a loss.
- “Net spend per closed deal” is not yet measurable. It is not zero, and it is not the signed-contract figure.
- The credited lead is counted in “purchased” and in “lost,” and its credit is in the ledger once.
The one change, illustrated: two of the four contacted leads were reached only on a third attempt, both in the evening. Next week, move one calling block to early evening and keep everything else the same.
Before you close the review
- Every provider charge matches a log row.
- Every approved credit sits on its lead’s row, counted once.
- Plan payments recorded as funding, not lead spend.
- Every open lead has a dated next action and a person.
- Pending credit requests checked against their deadlines.
- Stage counts use the written definitions.
- Zero denominators shown as “not yet measurable.”
- One change chosen and written down.
Six ways a review flatters or buries a test
- Calling open leads losses. It makes a young test look like a failure and pushes you to quit early.
- Counting signatures as closings. Keep the two stages apart.
- Double-counting money. Plan fee plus lead charges, or credit as both reduced spend and new funding.
- Comparing against someone else’s rates. Your market, leads and calls are your data.
- Changing four things at once. Next week you will not know which one mattered.
- Skipping the review in a busy week. That is when leads lose their next action.
The log behind the review
The lead-test log carries every column used here, with totals at the bottom that keep cost per signed contract and cost per closed deal on different denominators. Keep seller names and phone numbers out of it if you share it.
Log versus CRM
Your log is the source of truth for cost and outcome. DrivenSellers states: Bought leads land in MyCRM, with stages from New to Closed, follow-up dates and CSV export. That gives stages and dates beside each lead, but a CRM stage does not hold credits and net spend, so keep your own cost columns. No third-party CRM integration is documented; export if you work elsewhere. Listed per-lead prices (C $99, B $169, A $249 and A+ $349 per exclusive lead) keep the gross-charges line simple: one known price per row.