The Kept-Deal Map: find where your deals leak.
Most investors don't have a lead problem, they have a leak problem. Money disappears between the marketing dollar and the kept deal, at five points a CRM can measure if it's set up to. This map names the five leak points, what each looks like, what a system that closes it does, and the free tool to measure it from your own numbers.
Tap Yes or No on each leak point below. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Want the detailed version? Take the 10-point Deal Leak Score and compare answers with your team.
1. Spend
Which campaigns produce kept deals, not just leads?
- How the leak looks
- Leads are counted by source, but contracts and closings are not tied back to the campaign that paid for them. Cost per lead looks fine while cost per deal is unknown.
- What a system that closes it does
- Lead source is a required field that carries from lead to contract to closing. A report shows spend, leads, appointments, contracts and closed deals by campaign and market.
- Measure it
- Cost per deal calculator
2. Answer
How many seller calls go unanswered, and what does that cost?
- How the leak looks
- Calls to marketing numbers roll to voicemail after hours or when reps are busy, and nobody sees the list. A seller calling several investors usually talks to whoever answers first.
- What a system that closes it does
- Every missed call to a marketing number creates a callback task on the lead with a due time minutes out, assigned to the next available rep, plus a report of missed calls and time to callback.
- Measure it
- Missed seller call cost calculator
3. Follow-up
How fast does the team act once a seller is engaged, and does anyone fall through?
- How the leak looks
- Follow-up lives in reps' heads, phones and sticky notes. Leads with no next task quietly die, and nobody can say how long a new lead waited for a first touch.
- What a system that closes it does
- No open lead without a next task. Time to first touch and time from contract to first seller call are measured, and stalled leads surface automatically in a shared queue.
- Measure it
- Deal Leak Score
4. Offer
Is every offer made from the same disciplined numbers?
- How the leak looks
- Each rep underwrites differently, in a spreadsheet nobody else sees. Offers go out above the real maximum, and the spread disappears after the contract is signed.
- What a system that closes it does
- Underwriting sits on the deal record: ARV, repairs, rule percentage and fee as fields, MAO as a formula, and a required review step before an offer goes out.
- Measure it
- Deal analyzer (MAO)
5. Keep
Does your ROI count only the deals that actually closed?
- How the leak looks
- Revenue is reported when a contract is signed. Cancelled contracts and reduced fees never come back out of the numbers, so campaigns look more profitable than they are.
- What a system that closes it does
- Booked revenue and closed revenue are separate fields. ROI by campaign is calculated on kept deals only, and fall-outs are tracked with a reason.
- Measure it
- The Monday 5
Watch the series
Six short videos, one leak each, with a "steal this" fix you can set up in any CRM. Example numbers are labeled as examples.
Questions
What is Deal Leak?
Deal Leak is the profit a home-buying or wholesaling business loses between paying for a seller lead and keeping a closed deal: the unanswered call, the lead with no next step, the offer made off-formula, and the contract that falls out but still sits in the ROI numbers. It is usually unmeasured, which is why it keeps happening.
What is a kept deal?
A deal that actually closed and paid, at the fee or profit that was actually received. ROI on kept deals leaves out contracts that cancelled or were renegotiated, so it shows what each campaign really returned.
Is speed to lead really that important?
The best-known study (InsideSales.com with MIT's Dr. James Oldroyd, 2007, about 15,000 web leads across six companies, not real estate) found that calling within 5 minutes instead of 30 gave roughly 100x higher odds of making contact and 21x higher odds of qualifying the lead. A Harvard Business Review study (2011) found firms that responded within an hour were about 7x more likely to qualify the lead. No comparable study exists yet for real estate investors.
Do I need Salesforce to close these leaks?
No. Any CRM can close most of them if lead source carries through to closing, every lead has a next task, underwriting lives on the deal, and ROI is calculated on kept deals. Salesforce makes sense when you run several markets, teams or channels and have outgrown simpler investor CRMs.
What does the CRM Revenue Audit do with this map?
The audit (USD 1,500, fixed price) goes through your CRM and phone data leak point by leak point, sizes each leak from your own numbers, and gives you a prioritized fix list. You can implement it yourself or with me.
Related
Investor CRM audit checklist (60 checks) · Which campaign gets credit? · Google Ads offline conversions · Offer follow-up in Salesforce · Reactivating dead seller leads · All free tools · Wholesaling CRM glossary · CRM Revenue Audit
Last updated October 2026.
Want the leaks sized from your own data?
On Salesforce already? The CRM Revenue Audit (USD 1,500, fixed price) goes leak point by leak point through your org and call data and gives you a prioritized fix list. On another CRM, the move to Salesforce comes first. Or start with a free 30-minute call.
Book a free 30-minute callSee the Revenue AuditOn Podio, REsimpli or GoHighLevel? See how a move to Salesforce works. Already on Salesforce? See a sample audit report.
Or just ask one question about your setup: email · WhatsApp · LinkedIn
