#329: Measuring What Matters: How CRM Integration Improves Marketing ROI
Discover how AV integrators can track what matters with Cameron Howitt of One Firefly—CRM, automation, and data-driven marketing made simple.
This week's episode of Automation Unplugged in our marketing experts segment, we’re tackling a big question: how do you know which of your marketing efforts are actually driving results?
To answer that, we’re joined by Cameron Howitt, One Firefly’s Director of Technology and Innovation. Cameron’s been with the team for nearly a decade, and he’s passionate about helping integrators use data and CRM tools to connect marketing activity to real revenue.
About this episode:
This episode is hosted by Kat Wheeler, and together she and Cameron dig into:
- The difference between metrics that matter and vanity stats you can ignore
- How automation and CRM integration can boost efficiency and client experience
- And common mistakes to avoid when measuring marketing ROI
Transcript
Kat:
Hi everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Automation Unplugged. I am your host, Katharine Wheeler, and today we are diving into a topic that can really transform how you think about your marketing, measuring what matters for many AV integrators. Marketing fields like a bit of a mystery. You run campaigns you see. Some activities, but it's kind of not hard to know exactly what's working and what's not. So that's where CRM integration and marketing attribution can kind of come in. So joining me today, we have the expert in all of those things. Uh, Cameron Howett, who knows exactly how to connect the dots between your marketing efforts and your sales results. So Cameron, welcome to the show. Hey
Cameron:
Kat, thanks for having me.
Kat:
Happy to have you here to kind of help us unpack all of this. So before we get into details, I would love for you to introduce yourself to the listeners. Can you tell everybody a little bit about your background and how you help businesses connect their marketing to their bottom line?
Cameron:
Yeah, absolutely. Um, so my name's Cameron Howett. I'm the Director of Technology and Innovation here at One Firefly, and I've been with the company for almost nine years. Um, my background comes primarily from project management, production management. I've worked a wide variety of jobs and industries. Um, interesting thing about my past is I, prior to coming to One Firefly, made holograms, um, for a company that is no longer in existence. Um, but it was a really fun job. We got to make 3D models of. Different landscapes around the world for, uh, the Department of Defense and for engineers. And, uh, we did some work with Disney for Star Wars as well, so I know we're not here to talk about that, but it's a strange bit of background about my career, so, no,
Kat:
That's super interesting and also interesting about Cameron is, uh, he rides bicycles and also knows all of the dad jokes.
Cameron:
Yeah, yeah. Um. You know, just trying to learn my dad jokes every day. That's, uh, what's most important.
Kat:
Well, and explain about the bicycle thing, right? Because I don't, I not like riding bikes around the neighborhood. You're like a biker guy.
Cameron:
Yeah. Yeah. So for, you know, I've been cycling for about 15, 16 years. Um, it's just become a point of passion for me. And not only is it a sport, it's kind of a way of life. It's my, my own personal release, my me time, if you will. Um, I do races primarily in Texas where I'm based in Austin. I do gravel bike races mostly, um, which means kind of like a mix between a road bike and a mountain bike. So it's a road bike with wider tires. Um. So you can ride on gravel roads. Um, yeah, and typically the races will range anywhere from 40 to 120 miles.
Kat:
Oh my God.
Cameron:
Um, so, you know, it's two hours to seven or eight hours, maybe nine. Depending on the day or the terrain.
Kat:
And this is why when Cameron invites you for outdoor activities, you politely decline. Um, okay, so before we jump into the podcast today, I would like to start us at a big picture because, 'cause sometimes I think we drill down into the minutiae and we forget like the outcomes or why the whys of all of these things. So why is it so important for our AV integrators out there to be able to measure what marketing activities are actually driving revenue?
Cameron:
Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, the, it may seem obvious to some and not to others, so I'm glad we're talking about this, but the reason you want to measure where your marketing activities are delivering value is so that you can double down or triple down on those investments areas where your audience is responding to the messaging that you're putting out there that's driving business to you. Yeah. Every business owner wants to put money to the best, you know, to receive the greatest return on investment that they possibly can. So if you're not measuring what leads you're generating from certain activities, what sails are coming from those leads, then you're basically just throwing your money into, into the wind and hoping that some goodness comes from it. Um, but through actually measuring your attribution. Uh, for your marketing activities, you can find that area that's working, figure out why it's working, and continue and improve on that area to grow your business.
Kat:
Yeah, I coined a new term. It's data not vibes.
Cameron:
Yeah, absolutely. It's not about what feels right, it's about what's actually driving value.
Kat:
Yeah. 'cause I mean, we're in business to make money, not, I mean, and have a good time, but primarily,
Cameron:
yeah. You know, maybe do something that you like to do with the people you like to do it, but yeah. Yeah.
Kat:
Okay. Totally about money.
Cameron:
That's what keeps it all moving.
Kat:
So, you know, I like to play a game with my guests.
Cameron:
Yeah, I'm excited.
Kat:
I'm very, I don't know what you
Cameron:
have in store.
Kat:
It's, they're tailored to each guest and, uh, since we're talking about attribution and CRM integration and tracking stuff, today's game is called track It or Hack It. So I am going to, you know, I like alliteration as well. Uh, we are going to, I'm gonna throw out some common marketing and sales tracking scenarios, and you're gonna tell me if it's actually worth measuring your tracking because it drives real insights. Or if it's just clutter and noise that distracts from, from what really matters.
Cameron:
Okay.
Kat:
You ready?
Cameron:
Yeah, I'm ready.
Kat:
First one, tracking where every lead originated, whether it's from a Google search referral, a home show, whatever that is.
Cameron:
Worth it.
Kat:
Worth it. Track it.
Cameron:
Track it. Yeah.
Kat:
Okay. And why So hack
Cameron:
it. Hack it for, for, okay. Why? I can say track
Kat:
it for, yes.
Cameron:
Okay. Um, yeah, I mean, it gets back to the last question, right? If you don't know what brought someone into your pipeline, then you don't know how to continue to tap that resource. If it's a Google ad that's driving 50% of your leads keep doing Google ads. Look at the key phrases that people are searching. Look at the ad copy. Continue to optimize that area because that's what is driving traffic to your website. Also, when you track where your lead comes from, that information will follow that lead into an opportunity or a deal, whatever you want to call it, and you can see what's the duration, what's the, how many activities did we have to do to close that project, you know, the, all of those data points about the operation of your business. Become available, and then you start to see what lead source ends up delivering the most closed deals. Because a lead doesn't mean you've won business, it just means you have an opportunity or an at bat. So if you don't track that source, you know, you're kind of forgetting everything else. Like you're, you're gonna lose out on all of that insight that's available.
Kat:
Okay. There's a lot to unpack in that, and we're gonna get there because. Spot on Cameron. Okay. But keeping the game moving. Okay, let's go. Is this a track it or have keeping tabs on? How many likes your last Instagram post? Got
Cameron:
probably a hack it.
Kat:
Vanity metric?
Cameron:
Yeah. I, I think so. Unless, unless your lead sources show that you're converting people from Instagram followers into closed deals, in which case. You might wanna continue to create posts that are optimized for that audience.
Kat:
Okay. And I think you kind of alluded to this in our last one, but tracking how many days it takes for a lead to move from a lead to a signed contract.
Cameron:
Yeah. Track it a hundred percent.
Kat:
And I, yeah. Okay. I'm gonna keep, I don't wanna, don't wanna derail us. Okay. Uh, monitoring open rates of your email newsletters and promotional campaigns.
Cameron:
I think it's a track it. Yeah.
Kat:
I mean it should be right that your audience wants to hear from you.
Cameron:
Exactly. And you want to make sure that you're delivering content to your audience that engages with them. So if you see that your open rate, um, or like follow click through rate on whatever it is that you have in that newsletter is dropping, or maybe that content is no longer aligning to the audience and you need to modulate what you're doing.
Kat:
Love that. Okay. Tracking the number of business cards you collected at a networking event.
Cameron:
Uh, I'm gonna say hack it.
Kat:
Okay. Uh, tracking how many showroom visitors later requested a proposal. Like if somebody comes in and you give 'em a showroom tour and you have a meeting
Cameron:
Yeah.
Kat:
And they turn into a lead
Cameron:
track, I can track it. Yeah. Yeah, I can track it. Yeah. I mean, really a, a, a showroom visitor is a lead.
Kat:
Yeah.
Cameron:
So this gets back to that first question about where your leads came from and what does that end up resulting in for the business
Kat:
if they take that next step. Yeah. Sort of taking it down that pipeline a little bit.
Cameron:
Exactly.
Kat:
Alright. Tracking the number of leads that came from A CEU lunch and learn with designers and architects. You're gonna say track it. This is, yeah, track it. Yeah. Track it. Mm-hmm. Now, when you're tracking things from different audiences, like from your showroom or from an architect or designer, an event, do you recommend people tag those as such?
Cameron:
Yeah.
Kat:
Yeah.
Cameron:
Yeah. I mean, you should have, I would have a unique lead source for each, you know, you could, you could be as granular or as broad as you want here. You could have events as a lead source or you could have event on September 11th, 2025. Or you could have, um, you know, event, uh, you know, CEU events or uh, community events, like whatever makes sense to you as a business owner. That's how I would categorize the lead sources.
Kat:
And you as a person, you wanna get as granular as you can, right? Like for you and your data filled mind.
Cameron:
Yeah, absolutely.
Kat:
Okay. And I think, I think, thank you for playing my little game with me. I think what we've kind of learned in this is that every piece of information is valuable, but, but what you're gonna do with that information determines like how much effort you spend in measuring it. Is that kind of Right?
Cameron:
Yeah, I would agree. Yeah. I think all the data matters and the context of the data matters even more.
Kat:
I think also too, what I kind of heard you say, and correct me if I'm wrong or please expand, is that. You have to kind of get the basics down first. Like you start tracking your leads and where they're coming from, and then because you have that data, you can then say, well, all of my Google leads are closing and none of the showroom tours are closing. Who is responsible for these things? Is there a reason? Is one of my salespeople closing more than the other? Is you, you can kind of get a little more deep on how that is.
Cameron:
That's exactly right. If you, you know, marketing data can seem opaque. But if you think about it like an engineer, like an integrator, you want to know where the cable plugged into the box and where it's going and what's happening in both sides of those if you're not getting the result you want. So you have to know where everything fits into your system in order for you to figure out what's going wrong. If one side of the system is completely invisible to you and you're only looking at the output. Well then that means the output is the problem, but maybe it's not. Maybe it's on the other side. So you can, um, you can get a bit more granular when you have the data for every step of your sales process.
Kat:
Okay. You just made it super negative. I'm gonna turn that around and also say that the, the reverse is also true in that you can also tell where you're winning. And where you're really strong. And so like say for example in your business, you do both residential and commercial and for some reason, you know, all your leads that are coming in for Google are residential focused and you're winning all of them, but nothing for commercial. Like you can maybe either double down on that investment plan to shift your business strategy or you know, reinvest in commercial the same way that you are. And so there's just a lot you can, you can make better choices. Yeah,
Cameron:
exactly. Okay.
Kat:
Yeah. Alright, so, so we're gonna get into, uh, some of this may be redundant from our game, but the basics for someone who hears CRM integration Right. And just thinks that is extra software that is extra hassle. We've already been doing this, we have our other way, we much work. Would it take me to get into it? Why would you tell them that it's worth that? 'cause it is an, an upfront investment of time, energy, resources to get those things started. Why is that important?
Cameron:
Yeah, I mean, CRM is a very important piece of software for any business owner of any size. Um, you know, it enables you as a business owner to watch all of the activity coming into your business. All of the interactions that your company is having with your customers, where they're coming from, what are they doing, what is the end result? What is the lifetime value of a client? In ways that, you know, Excel spreadsheets or note documents that might be shared across your business just aren't built to do. There are built-in capabilities in A CRM that are absolutely designed for you to manage the relationships with your customers, which is exactly what CRM stands for, is a customer relationship management software. So having a relationship with your customers. Is extremely important for you to grow your business and to make sure that you're serving those clients in the best way that you can, um, so that they become really valuable clients to you in time.
Kat:
Okay, I mean, sold. So now that you've sold all of our AV integrators on the reason you have that CRM, uh, why specifically for integrators? And what is kind of like the difference in between having a CRM and actually using it as like a marketing and sales attribution tool? Hmm. That, because you can have it and put everybody's name and phone number in there and all your customers live in, and it'll track where your emails go, but how do you take it from just being like a data storage tool versus using it, actually using it for the things that'll help you grow your business?
Cameron:
Yeah. I think that there's two ways. That come to mind immediately. There's there's many ways, right? But A CRM allows you to again, like monitor and watch that entire life cycle of a client so that you can see all the activity that they're doing, all the activities that your team is doing with that customer. Um, and really track their engagement with you as a business mm-hmm. In a way that you can't outside of a CRM. Mm-hmm. And then the second thing is that pretty much every CRM, anyone that's worth investing in has the ability for you to automate actions based on things that you do as a company or that your client does in the way that they interact with you. So maybe you want to. Send a follow up email to every customer that you meet with 24 hours after you've met with them. Well, there's one way to go about that, which is remember to do it, and then you have to go and manually write that email every single time. Very personal. It's a big, but it's a big lift for a business owner, and chances are you're gonna do it maybe 70% of the time, or you use your CRM and you say. Okay, I'm gonna create this automated workflow that after every meeting, 24 hours later, I'm gonna have an email template that fires, that's pulling data from the record that I've created about my client. It's putting their name in, it's putting what we talked about. Maybe it's, you know, taking notes from that meeting and serving it back to them, and it drops into their inbox exactly at the moment that you desire, and that becomes a low. Effort way to have a high touch experience with your client.
Kat:
So I love that. And I think, I think that's like kind of like the introductory, introductory phase of having a CRM and using those fun automations to help you kind of like do the, do the manual things that just take time. But let's level this up, Cameron, because like, let's say, let's say our AV integrators are out there and they sell. Uh, control system and it was on version one, and all of a sudden they've now updated to version two. If you are a snazzy CRM user, you could have all of those end users tagged as control system, uh, you know, version one. You could send them all an email saying that your control system is upgraded to V two. Would you like to schedule an appointment and talk about it? Are this is all the new feature? Like you can actually boost sales through that if you're used correctly. Is that sort of a thing?
Cameron:
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That is a, definitely a, a high value use of A CRM. It's to know where your customers stand and if there's those opportunities to upsell them on something, uh, or to just to improve their experience. Right? Maybe you roll out a service program, you know, your business grows large enough that now you want to offer this recurring service model. Well, now you know, what tools or equipment have I installed for that customer? When was it installed? Maybe it's, you know, it's been there for 18 months and they should really get a service plan because you know, things are gonna become out of date. All of those types of long-term relationship management capabilities exist when you have a CRM that's properly managed with the right data.
Kat:
Or even like, hey, we've come out to do four service calls this year. If you had purchased our, you know, plan, it would've cost you less money. Would you like to, you know, hire us to do this for you on a recurring basis for next year?
Cameron:
Yeah.
Kat:
I love exactly. There's so much, and as a salesperson myself, uh, there's so much historical data that really feeds into the conversations I have with my customers when I see, you know, what they've done with us and what their lifetime relationship is before I joined the company and after. Mm-hmm. And having all that information makes me so much better prepared. To do that. I just, that's my favorite part, but, uh, but I know we all have our own. Uh, okay, so speaking of CRMs and valuable data and stuff, when we're talking specifically about marketing data, who in a company should be involved in having those conversations? Is it just the owner? Is it, is it the sales team? Is it like, who is, who is all involved in this?
Cameron:
I mean, it's everyone who's interacting with your clients. Okay. From my perspective, if you have a marketing manager, obviously they should be watching your marketing data. Um, you know, the business owner should know where their money is going and what's being, what's the most effective channels. And that creates a system of accountability between that marketing manager and the owner to make sure that we're always investing in the right areas. Maybe we're trying something new. It's working great. Let's double down. Um. Also, yeah. The sales team should have a, at least a view into that marketing data so that they can then understand where that customer came from. Because there's different layers of the customer journey.
Kat:
Mm-hmm.
Cameron:
And every customer enters your sales pipeline at a different level. So someone who's reacting to your email newsletter is. Most likely someone who's interacted with you many times and they're further along in their customer journey, or maybe they're already an ongoing customer, that interaction as a salesperson is different from somebody who's filling out a web form for the first time. Yes, all of those, you know, all of those areas are require a different kind of touch, and as a salesperson you should know where they are rather than assuming everyone is just, you know, walking in off the street, learning about you for the first time.
Kat:
That is so interesting. Okay. I love it. I'm kind of a data nerd too, but Cameron, you outshine me. So, uh, so let's talk about the flip side, which is mistakes. Uh, we all know when you're trying new things and trying to like get, get your feet under you with new processes. Yeah. Uh, we always, you know, have, there's some common pitfalls out there. So what mistakes have you seen people make when they try to measure their marketing? ROI through a CRM?
Cameron:
Not keeping it updated. I mean, rely, relying fully on human interaction with your CRM to keep clean and accurate data all the time will result in missing data, incorrect data, um, an infinite number of inputs on a field that should be structured. Um. Just relying too much on the human input and this idea that we always remember to do things correctly. Every time is wrong. We're all busy, we're all doing many things, whether you're a business owner or just someone who works in the business. Um, so chances are your team, your people are gonna make mistakes when they're interacting with this new system. So everything you can do, again, getting back to that automation side. To automate the input of data from the source, rather than relying on your sales team or your office manager to input everything correctly every time. The other thing is use structured data types. So use a dropdown list if you want people to make a selection rather than they remember that, oh, if they came into the showroom, I'm supposed to put showroom here. Just give 'em a list, showroom as an option. Boom. There you go. And if they can't input something else, they can't make that mistake. Um,
Kat:
yeah. Speaking on behalf of salespeople everywhere, there's nothing we hate more than a Sierra. I don't know why, because we also love it in the same, in the same breath. But I think yeah, you're right. Tip drop down list is a tip. And automation is, is, is a really big deal. Um,
Cameron:
and automating field updates too. So like if something happens. It's kind of hard to like just come up with a concept of what this could mean. But you know, if something needs to change on the lead record when a certain action occurs, you can write field update automations as well so that new value gets automatically created rather than, oh, I need to remember that when they move from this stage to this stage. I changed this field. No, you just. Make it happen automatically through a field update, and that will occur every time.
Kat:
There's nothing I, little more than automations and things I don't actually have to do, but talk to. Yeah, me too.
Cameron:
Yeah.
Kat:
Because anything else I don't have to do, I'm, I'm here for, uh, talk to me about things that you can. That can, that you can integrate with A CRM to help with automation. So I think, you know, some things I know about 'em that are common are like your email platform, like a MailChimp or Constant Contact. You can integrate that with your CRM so that it knows, and it can track that when every customer gets an email and if they open it and all that fun stuff. Or if a form fill gets filled on another website. What are some other things that you recommend people integrate with their CRM?
Cameron:
Yeah, your phone system. Oh, so every time someone calls in from a number, if they're a contact, it'll show that they called. If you call them. Same thing. Um, you mentioned web forms. That's certainly a, a great one. You, you should have all of those integrated into your CRM, your email platform, especially if you're doing email marketing, but even just your personal or your business email so that you can see all of the touch points that are direct from business to consumer. Who's interacting when, what was the message? I'm going into a call. I can look and see what were the most recent emails that members of my team sent so I can see the context. And again, go into that conversation with context so that that customer doesn't feel like they're starting from the ground level with you every time. Um, your social media, of course, is something that can be integrated. Um. Yeah, I mean, you can even integrate like your website just generally if people, if you want to do some cookie based marketing, like if people are visiting your site, it can count how many times they've come to your site, um, what pages they visit, all of that. I, and then you can even start scoring these things. Like you can create scoring rules in your CRM. So if they take a certain number of actions, then the score is higher and that makes them a warmer lead and someone who's more likely to buy from you. Oh,
Kat:
okay. Right. You and your, you, you and your level leveling up the data. I'm we all, um, yeah. Yeah. I just, I think you, what you've said and what I think will stand out to most of these business owners is that kind of like Forwar is forearmed. So like in our company, there's a lot of people that touch our customers. So when I'm going into a call with a customer, if I can look back and say, oh, they talked to Cameron yesterday. Maybe I don't call them today. Maybe that's annoying or, yeah. Oh, they talked to Cameron yesterday and they're expecting a call back today. I need to immediately call them. You just have a lot more information and when we have a lot more information, we can make better decisions.
Cameron:
Yeah, or, or in, you know, in my case, they talked to Cameron yesterday and he solved all their problems and he's awaiting feedback. So let me check in on that with them.
Kat:
Them, yeah, yeah. Don't brag that the IT guy gets to be the hero all the time. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. We're aware.
Cameron:
Sorry. No, something I enjoy most honestly is working with our customers to. To do exactly what we're talking about, bringing the valuable marketing insights to their CRM and it's really, uh, it's a lot of fun.
Kat:
It's been fun for us because it also gives us that, that extra opportunity for attribution and again, for our, for our dealers to take their analytics to the next level because we do now that. The deal, the customers that we've integrated their marketing with, their CRMs have a much more tactical way to see how their sales processes are working throughout their business. And if maybe those sales processes need to be refined or updated or more targeted or strategic based on, you know, lead, origin, things of that nature, that really helps everybody get better. Mm-hmm. And it's not even necessarily about spend or investment, it's about, you know. Converting the opportunities you do have. Yeah. And if we can't, you know, not even bring, I mean, yes, we always want more opportunities, but if you convert more of the op existing opportunities, you're still winning. So how do we make that too? And there may be an underlying reason that those things aren't happening, but we don't know because the leads came in and then, I don't know.
Cameron:
Yeah, and I mean, getting a lead, it can be very expensive. Especially, you know, in our industry, like if you're gonna try to do. Direct paid ads on any platform, the cost per click there is, is quite high. Um, but we also know that our, our industry has pretty high ticket value when we do close deals, right? So to your point, the more you can do to optimize what happens once the lead comes in, the greater ROI you're gonna have as a business owner. And the CRM and tracking that data allows you to both look at the marketing attribution, but the activities that your sales team is doing. What are people resonating with in that part of the process as well?
Kat:
I love it because I think too, uh, not only is it, is it a high cost to get a lead, but it's also a very limited target audience. You know, especially depending upon where you are in the country. Our, our consumers are not, you know, everyday people. There are a certain percentage of the population and it's much smaller, you know, than the, than the greater population, whatever that may be. Um, but yeah, so targeting the right people, you need to make sure every one of those. At bats counts, if you will.
Cameron:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Kat:
Okay. So last question kind of, uh, kind of is if somebody realizes that they've kind of been tracking the wrong stuff and it hasn't really been efficient or beneficial, and they're kind of frustrated, how can they course correct without getting overwhelmed? I know,
Cameron:
because
Kat:
you're
Cameron:
gonna,
Kat:
sorry. It just is. You're gonna get overwhelmed. Yeah.
Cameron:
Yeah. And it's ubiquitous. I think across every business that there's some level, no matter where you are in your adoption of A CRM, you are at some level of disappointed with the data you're getting. It's just a guarantee, right? Because businesses are constantly changing. You were tracking something a year ago, that doesn't really matter anymore. So why are we still doing that? Why are all these fields in my record? Um, you know, how can I optimize that? Oh, but what if I lose that data? I think the best thing to do is just only move forward. Yeah. Don't get focused on what happened before. Just think about where you're going as a company, as a business, and what do you need now. Um, and the way that you can do this, some CRMs are, as in particular, I know many others offer a sandbox environment. Oh. So your team can operate in the, in the now. With the setup that you have, and then as an administrator you can create a sandbox where you're building what's to come. You can test that sandbox and make sure that it's operating the way you like it. And then you deploy that and then everyone sees the new version. So you're not always editing the live environment that can create confusion, dissatisfaction with your users, you know, data management challenges. And the thing with technologies. People have to use it, and you have to build it in a way that they want to use it, because none of this matters if you don't have adoption. If your sales team refuses to use your CRM, it has no value. If they're inputting the wrong data, it has no value. So there's certainly a, a give and take that has to occur, but at the end of the day, as a business owner, you have to decide what matters and what insights you need. People have to come along for the ride with you.
Kat:
Yeah. I mean, yes. Again, speaking for all salespeople everywhere are bad. Sorry, I'll just take that one for the team. Um, and now I wanna go play a sandbox, so thank you for that. No problem. But as we kind of wrap up today's episode, again, Cameron, thank you. But, uh, let's talk about today for our, for our dealer partners out there. What are three? Practical metrics that our dealers can look at today that will help them connect marketing to revenue. I know, um, hard questions today. I'm sorry. Yeah. But what are, yeah. Just some practical things that might help them get started.
Cameron:
Yeah. I mean, lead, source.
Kat:
Source, yes.
Cameron:
It's, that's a great one. I'm gonna go back to ones I've already mentioned before. No. Yeah. So lead source. Yeah. Um. Your conversion, like timeline, the duration. So going from lead to close deal, that's a big one. How long does that take? You can't ask your sales team to close deals in 20 days when on average it takes 90. Hmm. That's just not realistic. You need to have a realistic understanding of the field that you're playing on. Um. I am gonna give you two more Okay. Activities. Okay. Correcting the activities that your sales team is doing to understand what leads to a closed one deal that allows you to know, you know, who's delivering on calls to clients, meetings, showroom visits, those kinds of things. And if it's, you know, you can kind of figure out the equation of what seems to work generally. When you're tracking activities. And then the last one is, you know, revenue. Yes. You know, average deal size is an important thing. So getting to that other point that we talked about, about the cost of leads and converting those leads, once you understand your probability of closing those and the average value, you can now create a forecast of how much revenue you should expect to have in 90 days in 180 days. With all of these points. So you know, once a lead moves through certain stages, the likelihood of it closing becomes higher. So that expected revenue becomes more actualized. And then you can also pair that with the average duration and you'll start to see, you know, X days out in the future, I have this revenue to lean on. And then you can track where that actually goes. I realize that that might be kinda like pie in the sky, nebulous ideas, but this is what's possible with CRM.
Kat:
No, it's actually not, because we have a customer that we've been working with on attribution and they have three parts to their business and one is electrical, one is residential and one is commercial. And what we kind of are looking at is, you know how the rest of their 2025 and going into 2026 is gonna unfold. And looking at that business activity and how many leads they got for each, what the percentage of close rate was for each one of them. We can sort of see, hey. And you know, size of deals, like the size of the average cost of or deal of those things. If we got 5% more of a close rate here, we would hit our goal for 2026. So it's not nebulous. It's, and then looking at the sales cycle too, does one of these parts of the business take longer than the others? And if we are in a pinch, what could we do to actively bring in some business, you know? But again, it's data, not vibes. How do you really know? And if you do know, you can take appropriate action. And if you don't know, you're just kind of guessing.
Cameron:
That's right. Yeah.
Kat:
Okay. And stop blaming sales. You have to
Cameron:
know where you're going.
Kat:
Stop blaming salespeople. We are busy. You don't need to look at our activity. We're doing things. Serious sales. Thanks.
Cameron:
Sailing selling, selling
Kat:
all A, B, C. Always be closing camera. That's
Cameron:
right, that's right.
Kat:
Uh, thank you for, seriously thank you for doing this today. Uh, yeah, I really appreciate it. I always love talking to you about the data because I can nerd out just as much as you can and it's fun, but I do not know how you do it and keep it all straight. It's a lot. It's a lot to unpack.
Cameron:
Thanks Kat. I appreciate it. This is fun.
Kat:
This is great. And so thank you because I think, I think all of our dealers appreciate sometimes taking a step back from their business and looking at that big picture to connect their marketing to their ROI. So if you had to tell the dealers or the integrators one thing you want them to remember about measuring the accountability, what would it be?
Cameron:
Just wondering. You gotta know. You gotta know where you want to go. I think it's, it might be, that might be a very broad response. No, but you have to know what your goal is with your business in order to achieve it. So, you know, set your vision and then think about the metrics that are gonna help you achieve that. And then lean on your CRM to. Help drive you there. It's your map
Kat:
to find your, so what you're saying is you gotta know when to hold them
Cameron:
and know when to fold 'em.
Kat:
Know when to walk away.
Cameron:
That's right. That's right. Okay.
Kat:
Well thank you again, Cameron. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this and how much I think all of our listeners will get out of it. So I hope you enjoyed today's episode and don't forget to like, subscribe and join us next time. Until then, keep tracking what counts and putting your marketing dollars to work.
Ron Callis is the CEO of One Firefly, LLC, a digital marketing agency based out of South Florida and creator of Automation Unplugged. Founded in 2007, One Firefly has quickly became the leading marketing firm specializing in the integrated technology and security space. The One Firefly team work hard to create innovative solutions to help Integrators boost their online presence, such as the elite website solution, Mercury Pro.