01.01
Find the one constraint holding your business back
Score six stages of your business (lead flow, speed to lead, follow-up, appointments, conversion, retention and referrals) with your own numbers and find the one to fix first.
Video walkthrough
- Why fixing everything at once fixes nothing
- The six stages and the single number that represents each
- Walking through Dana's numbers: 210 leads, 47 minutes to first call
- Unknown numbers are a finding, not a failure
- What to do this week once you know your constraint
What you're building
A one-page diagnosis of your business across six stages, each scored against a target you choose, ending in one named constraint and the first move to fix it. Every later part of the Playbook maps to one of these stages, so this tells you where to start reading.
| Stage | Question it answers | Number | Formula |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead flow | Do enough new people raise their hand? | New leads | Count of contacts created in the window |
| Speed to lead | How fast does a human respond? | Median minutes to first personal touch | Median of (first call or 1:1 text time minus created time) |
| Follow-up | Do we keep trying until we reach them? | Contact rate | Leads with a two-way conversation ÷ new leads |
| Appointments | Do conversations become kept meetings? | Appointment rate and show rate | Appointments set ÷ leads contacted; held ÷ set |
| Conversion | Do meetings become clients? | Sign rate | Signed agreements ÷ appointments held |
| Retention and referrals | Do clients come back and send people? | Repeat and referral share | Closings from past clients or referrals ÷ all closings |
Why it matters
A business that closes $20M to $60M a year usually has one stage that limits everything downstream. Doubling lead spend when speed to lead is 47 minutes buys more leads that go cold. Polishing listing presentations when only a third of appointments show up improves a step few people reach. Find the narrowest point first; fix it; then measure again, because the constraint moves.
The scoring is deliberately simple and visible: each stage's actual divided by your target, capped at 100%. No hidden weights. If you disagree with the answer, the table shows you exactly why it came out that way.
What you need
- Your CRM (HighLevel, Follow Up Boss or another) and 60 minutes to pull counts for the last 90 days. Chapter 3 shows exactly where each number lives.
- Your closed transactions for the same period, marked by source (from your transaction coordinator, brokerage back office or a spreadsheet).
- A target for each stage. If you have none, the tool's placeholders are starting assumptions, not benchmarks. Replace them with numbers you believe.
Time and cost
- Time
- 30 minutes if your CRM is tidy; 2 hours if you first need the audit in chapter 2
- Cost
- $0
Step by step
Pick the window and write it down
Use the last 90 complete days (for example July 1 to September 30). Ninety days smooths out a slow week but is recent enough to reflect how you work now. Every number below must use the same window.
Check: The start and end dates are written at the top of your worksheet.
Answer the diagnostic questions for each stage
Before the numbers, answer these yes/no questions. Two or more 'no' answers in one stage is a strong signal on its own.
Stage Diagnostic questions (answer yes or no) Lead flow Did we get more new leads than our target? Do we know which three sources produce most of them? Does no single source supply more than 60% of leads? Speed to lead Does a human call or text every new lead within 5 minutes during working hours? Does someone get alerted when that does not happen? Do after-hours leads get a first call before 10am? Follow-up Does every lead get at least 6 attempts over 10 days? Is there a written cadence? Can we see which leads have had zero attempts? Appointments Does every booked appointment get a confirmation and a reminder? Is every outcome (held, no-show) recorded? Does every no-show get contacted the same day? Conversion Do we use the same consultation process every time? Do we follow up within 24 hours of a consultation that did not sign? Do we know why people did not sign? Retention and referrals Does every past client hear from us at least quarterly? Do we ask for referrals at closing and at the 1-year anniversary? Do we tag referral sources? Check: Every question has a yes or no. 'Not sure' counts as no.
Pull the eight counts
- New leads: contacts created in the window (exclude imports of old lists).
- Median minutes to first personal touch: take 20 leads from the window and time each by hand (chapter 3 shows how), then take the middle value.
- Leads contacted: leads with at least one two-way conversation.
- Appointments set and appointments held.
- Clients signed: signed buyer or listing agreements.
- Closings, and closings from past clients or referrals.
If a number does not exist in your CRM, leave it blank. That is a finding: you cannot manage a stage you cannot see.
Check: You have a number or a deliberate blank for each of the eight inputs.
Run the constraint finder
Enter your counts and targets in the tool below. It shows each metric's score, picks the lowest-scoring stage as the constraint (ties go to the earlier stage, because upstream fixes flow downstream), and lists stages it could not score.
Check: The tool names one constraint, and you can explain from the table why that stage scored lowest.
Sanity-check the answer against your yes/no questions
The numbers and the questions should point the same way. If the tool says Speed to lead and you answered 'no' to the 5-minute question, you are done. If they disagree, look for a bad input (for example, appointments set counted from a calendar that includes personal events).
Check: You have written one sentence: 'Our constraint is ___ because ___.'
Commit to one first move for 30 days
Each constraint maps to a part of the Playbook. Pick the first move the tool suggests, put the chapter on your calendar this week, and do not start a second fix until you have measured the first for four weeks (chapter 4 builds the weekly meeting where you do that).
Check: The first move is on your calendar with a date, and the metric you will watch is in your scorecard.
What success looks like
- One named constraint with the numbers that justify it.
- A list of the stages you cannot measure yet, each with an owner to fix the data.
- One first move scheduled, linked to the chapter that builds it.
Copyable templates
Window: {start date} to {end date}
Constraint: {stage}
Evidence: {metric} was {actual} against a target of {target} (score {score}%).
Not measurable yet: {stages}. Owner to fix data: {name} by {date}.
First move: {chapter or action}, started {date}.
Re-measure on: {date 30 days later}.Try it
Constraint finder
Prefilled with a fictional agent (Dana Reyes, Coastal Key Realty). Replace every number with yours. Leave a box empty if you do not know it.
Leads wait too long for a human. Build new-lead alerts with an escalation timer (Part 03, chapter 5).
| Stage | Metric | Actual | Target | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lead flow | New leads | 210 | 150 | 100% |
| Speed to lead | Median minutes to first personal touch | 47 min | 5 min or less | 11% |
| Follow-up (contact rate) | Contact rate | 44% | 50% | 88% |
| Appointments (set and held) | Appointment rate | 26% | 25% | 100% |
| Show rate | 79% | 80% | 99% | |
| Conversion to client | Signed per appointment held | 47% | 50% | 95% |
| Retention and referrals | Closings from repeat and referral | 36% | 40% | 91% |
Dana Reyes (fictional, Coastal Key Realty): 210 leads and healthy appointment numbers, but a 47-minute median to first call. Change any number to see how the constraint moves.
How to test it
- Recompute one score by hand: actual ÷ target, capped at 100%. It must match the table.
- Set every input at or above target. The tool should pick Lead flow, because ties go to the earliest stage.
- Blank out the minutes input. Speed to lead must move to 'cannot score yet' and never be picked.
Troubleshooting
Every stage scores 100%.
Your targets are too easy, or you are counting generously (for example, any automated reply as 'contacted'). Raise one target to what your best month achieved and rerun.
Half the stages are unknown.
That is your real constraint: the CRM is not recording the business. Do chapter 2 (audit) and chapter 3 (metrics) before choosing a fix.
The answer changes when I change the window.
Use 90 days and keep it fixed for comparisons. If 30 days and 90 days disagree, the recent change is worth investigating.
Advanced technical details
Optional. You can follow every step above without these.
Technical detailsExactly how the scoring works
- Higher-is-better metrics: score = min(actual ÷ target, 1).
- Speed to lead (lower is better): score = min(target ÷ actual, 1); 0 minutes scores 1.
- Appointments has two metrics; the stage takes the lower score.
- A rate with a missing input or a zero denominator is unknown. Unknown stages are never chosen; if every stage is unknown, there is no constraint.
- The constraint is the lowest score; on a tie, the stage earliest in the order lead flow, speed, follow-up, appointments, conversion, retention.
The logic lives in one small pure function with unit tests that check each rule above, including the tie-break and the unknown handling.