Marketing Cost per Funded Loan is a wonderful example of good KPI’s run amok.
It’s a metric used by virtually every single Consumer Direct lending operation on the planet. In most cases, viewed as gospel. The first and last number in every Executive presentation. A thin red line beyond which Marketing dollars are cut off or employees are let go.
And yet, at least half the times it is deployed – the result is much more harm than good.
What started as a concise and reliable way to measure campaign effectiveness was inexplicably twisted into a subtly deceptive method of evaluating LO performance. The product is a self-perpetuating machine that obscures true performance insights and makes meritocracy nearly impossible.
The problem is that some of the highest-converting leads are free (or comparatively quite cheap)
- If Janet researches options online for two weeks and then calls your website number with maximum intent – that lead is 5x more likely to convert than average and costs $0.
- If Bob from Accounting decides to refinance his house through the Employee referral program – that lead is 10x more likely to convert than average and costs $0.
The result is lop-sided addition – the denominator (funded loans) swells while the numerator ($$ of leads) stays the same.
But wait – is there a 30%+ difference in Cost Per Funded Loan between your best performing marketing source and your worst? That instantly rules out apples-to-apples measurements. And a 30% difference between best and worst is on the low end of companies polled.
If Steven gets a disproportionate amount of leads from Best Marketing Source (<$500 CPFL) and Sally gets a bunch from Worst Marketing Source (>$2,000 CPFL) – how can you claim to accurately benchmark their performance?
And guess what happens when Steven lucks into a streak of good leads and lands an artificially low CPFL? He’s further rewarded with cherry-picked “gimmes” and the cycle is perpetuated indefinitely. Steven is now playing tee-ball and getting paid like a Hall-of-Fame slugger.
There’s a Better Way
Welcome to WAR – or Wins Above Replacement
With DataLoom’s cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence module, the performance of each LO is calculated relative to how the average team member would have performed on the same exact leads. This lets you calculate their performance above or below what was expected on a difficulty-adjusted basis.
No more padding the stats with lay-ups, and no more penalizing employees for dud leads.
But best of all? Absolutely unparalleled, granular insight into Sales performance on every level.
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