Free tool
What is a customer actually costing you?
Your cost per lead is the number you know. Cost per sale is the number that decides whether the channel works. This walks one up to the other.
Works without an account. Everything is calculated in your browser — no figures you type are sent to us or to anyone else.
Leads you actually speak to, as a share of leads bought.
Of the people you speak to.
Of appointments that become a sale.
Which input moves the result most
A ten-percent relative improvement in each, holding the rest still. Computed from your figures, not a rule of thumb.
Every rate multiplies, so the same relative gain anywhere saves the same amount. What decides the ranking is which rate has the most room — and contact rate usually has the most, because it depends on when you ring rather than on how well anyone sells.
Sales at these rates: 22.1 a month from 500 leads, at 45% contact. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere — the calculation runs in your browser and the figures live in the URL.
Why this figure matters
Cost per lead tells you almost nothing on its own
Two floors paying £32 a lead can have costs per sale £400 apart, because everything between the lead landing and the money arriving is a rate that multiplies. Judging a lead source on its price is judging it on the only figure that doesn't decide anything.
The rates multiply, so the weakest one dominates
Contact, appointment and close rates multiply together. A ten-percent relative gain in any of them saves the same amount — which means the one worth attacking is whichever has the most room, not whichever feels most important.
Contact rate usually has the most room
Appointment and close rates are about how well people sell, and move slowly. Contact rate is mostly about when you ring and whether your number gets answered — which is why it is normally the cheapest thing on the list to change.
Questions
What is a good cost per sale?
Whatever leaves an acceptable margin at your average order value — there is no universal figure. A £2,400 order can carry a £400 cost per sale comfortably; a £300 order cannot. The useful comparison is against your own last quarter, not against another business.
What counts as a contact?
A call where a person answered and you spoke to them — not a ring-out, not a voicemail, and not an answered call that turned out to be the wrong number. Counting loosely inflates contact rate and hides the problem this calculator is meant to surface.
Is my data sent anywhere?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser and the figures are held in the page URL so you can share or bookmark them. Nothing is posted to us, and there is no account or email required to see the result.
Why does return on ad spend use revenue rather than profit?
Because gross revenue is the figure most people have to hand. If you know your margin, multiply the return figure by it to get the number that actually matters — a 4× return at 20% margin is not the same business as a 4× return at 60%.
The other two
Same rules — free, no account, nothing leaves your browser.
If the number that needs fixing is contact rate, that's about how fast you ring and how often you get answered — which is what Dialspace is for.
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