Stop looking at Cost Per Lead. It’s a vanity metric that hides your real losses.

 I’ve been looking at sales floor data and CRM hygiene for a long time, and the biggest mistake I see owners make is obsessing over getting their CPL down to $20 or $30.

They think volume solves everything. If the funnel is broken, just pour more water in the top.

But here is the reality I see when you actually audit the logs:

Low-cost leads usually have zero intent. They are form fill ghosts who clicked by accident or thought they were getting a free government check.

When you dump 500 of those into your CRM, you aren't filling the pipeline. You are drowning your setters.

I watched a team recently burn 60+ hours of setter time chasing cheap social media leads. The result?

Two sits. Zero closes. And massive turnover because the reps felt like they were cold calling unsuspecting people who hated them.

The hidden cost of low-quality leads isn't the ad spend. It’s the operational drag.

It’s the gas money for driving to a no-show. It’s the setter wages paid to listen to dial tones. It’s the mental fatigue of your best closer driving home empty-handed because the homeowner "didn't know his wife needed to be there."

I’d rather pay $150 for a lead that actually wants to talk to me than $20 for a name and a number that’s going to ghost me.

If you want to fix your margins, stop tracking CPL. Start tracking Cost Per Sit. That’s the only number that accounts for the wasted time in the middle.