Marketing & SalesObservation 0032 min read
−8.2%
The cheapest acquisition is not automatically the best acquisition.
Optimizing for cost per acquisition finds the customers who are cheapest to reach, not the ones worth reaching.
Marketing & Sales
Connect acquisition and selling to what customers are actually worth.
Marketing and sales are measured on what their own systems can see: clicks, leads, conversions, pipeline. TCB connects that activity to the economics of the customers it produces, so budget moves to the channels and motions that create value, not only volume.
Where it works in the value chain
Demand · Customer · Transaction
What we help solve
The problems that bring leadership to this work.
- 01Every channel reports success, and the P&L tells a different story.
- 02Attributed return is strong; incremental return is unknown.
- 03Lead volume is up while win quality and deal economics fall.
- 04Conversion optimization is quietly lowering customer quality.
- 05Budget is allocated by last year's split rather than by value.
Our capabilities
Marketing & Sales, in 7 parts.
04.1
Acquisition Economics
04.2
Marketing Effectiveness
04.3
Channel Economics
04.4
Sales Performance
04.5
Customer Acquisition
04.6
Conversion
04.7
Commercial Funnel
How we approach the problem
Diagnose, benchmark, identify, prioritize, act.
01
Diagnose
Frame the decision and reconcile the data. Separate what is observed from what is assumed.
02
Benchmark
Compare against your own history, your cohorts and the category, where evidence exists.
03
Identify
Locate where value is created and where it leaks, and the mechanism behind each.
04
Prioritize
Size each opportunity in contribution and rank by value, confidence and effort.
05
Act
Leave with decisions, owners and measures, and the date each will be judged.
Commercial questions
The questions we answer.
- What is each channel's new-customer return after margin?
- Which channels and campaigns create customers who come back?
- Where would the next dollar of acquisition create the most contribution?
- Which tests would prove incrementality before spend scales?
What changes
Potential outcomes.
- Channel budgets allocated on contribution, not attributed revenue.
- Acquisition targets that include customer quality.
- An incrementality test plan the teams agree to.
- A commercial funnel measured end to end, from demand to repeat.
Outcomes describe what the work is designed to change. They are not guarantees.
Related capabilities
Commercial problems rarely stay in one function.
Featured intelligence
Related thinking.
Marketing & SalesObservation 0052 min read
$0.90
A 4.0 ROAS that returns ninety cents.
Attribution asks who touched the sale. Incrementality asks who would not have bought otherwise. The difference can be most of the return.
Marketing & SalesObservation 0082 min read
20%
What changes for you if I spend 20% more?
The question to ask every partner before the budget is locked. Not an accusation: a test of whose incentive is in the room.
A TCB engagement
10–15
Business days
Customer Economics Sprint
One commercial diagnosis and a clear 90-day path forward: the constraint identified, the economics diagnosed, the opportunity benchmarked and the intervention prioritized.
Bring the constraint.We'll give it direction.
Start with the commercial problem you're trying to solve. We'll identify the constraint, diagnose the economics, and determine whether there is a useful next step.
- 01Identify the constraint
- 02Diagnose the economics
- 03Recommend the right intervention
- 04Define the next move