Cutting marketing to “save money” is one of the most common self-inflicted wounds in business. It’s the managerial equivalent of shutting down the assembly line because parts costs went up.
Here’s the story version: A company feels pressure. Inflation. Competition. Margins. A slower quarter. Leadership says, “We need to tighten up.” So, they pull the easiest lever: reduce marketing. For 30 days it feels smart. Cash looks better. Everyone feels disciplined. Then week six hits. Pipeline is thin. Sales “gets lazy.” Close rates fall because reps are chasing fewer deals. Good talent starts looking around. Suddenly leadership says, “Sales sucks,” or, “The market changed.”
No. You turned off the factory and acted surprised when the warehouse emptied.
If demand is your constraint, marketing isn’t a discretionary expense. Marketing is production. Marketing is driven by data analytics of performance activity and advertising spend. Marketing and sales production has to be measured like any other kind of production.
Great Day Improvements is a national business that generates over 1 million unique homeowner leads per year, which convert to roughly 400,000 in-home appointments, which convert into roughly 100,000 jobs that yield $1.6 billion in revenue annually. Every lead needs to be managed and tracked with care through ever-evolving systems and processes in order to optimize customer satisfaction and quality of performance. These marketing production metrics are crucial and incredibly detailed at scale, but the theme applies to any sized business.
Here are three operating moves to run marketing like a factory:
1) Make CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) payback the driver of decisions, not the mood.
Most marketing arguments are emotional: This feels expensive. It used to cost less. I don’t like Google. We should do brand. I can’t quantify it but I know that it works. Replace emotion with performance data: CAC, return on advertising spend (ROAS), ad ratio — marketing costs as a percentage of revenue.
Set the rule: “We spend if payback is under X months and quality holds.” Now you can scale spend confidently and cut spend intelligently without starving growth.
2) Protect marketing channel diversity like a risk manager. If 70 percent of your leads come from one channel, you don’t have a marketing strategy. You have a single point of failure.
Set a constraint: No channel >40 percent unless it’s truly owned and defensible (brand-driven direct, partnerships you control, proprietary lists).
Platform changes happen. Competitors bid up costs. Algorithms shift. Diversity is not “nice.” It’s survival.
3) Create a weekly lead-quality feedback loop with sales operations. Marketing teams can generate “leads.” Sales ops teams live with the consequences. If marketing is delivering junk, ops will hate marketing. If ops is slow, marketing will look “inefficient.”
Fix it with a weekly ritual: Lead flow reviewed. Review of conversions rates and survey feedback. What made them good/bad? How was “speed to lead?” Why customers said no? Common objections? Which jobs turned into complaints/cancellations? That loop improves targeting, scripts, offers and service — fast.
The modern business isn’t won by “who does the best work.” It’s won by who can manufacture demand predictably and deliver it reliably. Run marketing like a factory. Or keep calling it “overhead” while competitors eat your lunch. ●
Ed Weinfurtner is Entrepreneur, Executive Chairman/Co-Owner of Great Day Improvements
