Activity metrics hide where retainers leak
Calls logged and emails sent show how busy the month was. Stage-by-stage conversion shows where signed matters were lost.
Many firms report intake through activity: calls answered, forms submitted, emails sent, consults booked. Those numbers are easy to count, and they rarely tell a partner whether more inquiries turned into signed matters.
Why activity counts mislead
A month with more calls and more follow-up emails can still produce fewer signed engagements. Activity counts do not show where an inquiry stopped moving: after the first reply, before the consult, or after the agreement was sent.
What to report instead
Follow the same group of inquiries through each stage, at a fixed cutoff:
- Inquiries captured
- Suitable, after screening
- Consults booked, and consults held
- Agreements sent
- Signed, pending, and lost
Every rate gets its denominator. Pending stays pending until it resolves. It is never counted as lost or as revenue.
A worked example
These numbers are made up to show the method. Say 300 inquiries came in, 120 were suitable, 70 booked a consult, 49 attended, and 18 signed. The busy-month report says 300 inquiries. The stage report says the biggest drop sits between suitable and booked, which points at the first reply and follow-up before it points at marketing.
Start with one month
- Write down what counts as each stage at your firm.
- Sort one recent month of inquiries into those stages.
- Find the stage with the largest drop, and name who owns the next step there.
That is the baseline. Every later month is measured against it with the same definitions.
Start here
See where your own follow-up stalls
Bring one recent month of inquiries to a 30-minute strategy call. You leave with a written list of where you lose people. The list is yours to keep, even if we never work together.