The short answer. Take your last 20 enquiries and check six things for each: was it captured, did it have one owner, was it answered fast, was it followed up, does it have an outcome, and do you know its source? Every "no" is a leak. Fix the leak closest to the start of the journey first, because everything after it depends on it.
Most businesses that say "our ads don't work" have a different problem. The enquiries arrive, and then they leak: nobody writes them down, nobody owns them, nobody calls back in time, or nobody calls back at all.
This audit finds those leaks in about half an hour, using your own enquiries rather than anybody's benchmark. You need a notebook or a blank sheet, and access to wherever enquiries arrive today: your phone, WhatsApp, email, the website form, and the Meta or Google lead form downloads.
Set up the audit
Pick the last 20 enquiries from every source, not only the easy ones. Include missed calls and WhatsApp messages. If you get fewer than 20 a month, take the last two months.
Make a row for each one with these columns:
| Enquiry | Source | Captured? | Owner | First reply | Follow-ups | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name or number | Where it came from | Yes / no | One name | Time taken | How many | Won, lost (why), open |
Fill in what you can find. A blank cell is not a gap in the audit. It is the finding.
Leak 1: Capture
The question: was this enquiry written down in one shared place within the hour it arrived?
Score one point for each enquiry that was. Enquiries that live only in someone's phone, a personal WhatsApp chat or a downloaded lead file score zero, because the business cannot see them.
Fix it with one list that every source feeds. Website forms and Meta and Google lead forms can go straight into it automatically. Calls and WhatsApp messages need a rule: whoever takes it logs it before the end of the hour.
Leak 2: Ownership
The question: did this enquiry have exactly one named person responsible for it?
"The sales team" is not an owner. Two people is not an owner either, because each assumes the other called.
Fix it with an assignment rule everyone can recite: by area, by product, or in turn. The rule matters less than the fact that nobody has to decide.
Leak 3: Speed
The question: how long did the first reply take, during working hours?
For this audit, count a reply within 15 minutes as a pass. Someone who just filled in a form is still holding their phone. An hour later they have moved on, and often filled in a competitor's form too.
Fix it with an instant alert to the owner the moment an enquiry lands, and an automatic first reply (a WhatsApp or SMS acknowledgment) so the person hears from you even before the call. See speed to lead for the full system.
Leak 4: Follow-up
The question: if the first attempt failed, how many more attempts were made, and over how many days?
A single missed call followed by silence is the most common leak in this audit. Many enquiries buy on the third or fourth contact, not the first.
Fix it with a written follow-up cadence. For example: call and WhatsApp on day one, call again on day two, a helpful message on day four, a last check-in on day seven. Then put a reminder on every open lead so nothing depends on memory.
Leak 5: Outcome
The question: does every enquiry older than two weeks have a clear status, and does every lost one have a reason?
"Open" forever is not a status. Without outcomes you cannot see which sources sell, and without lost reasons you cannot fix the offer, the price or the pitch.
Fix it with a short list of lost reasons (too expensive, chose a competitor, not ready, never reachable, wrong fit) that the owner picks from when closing a lead, and a 15-minute weekly look at them.
Leak 6: Source
The question: can you say where this enquiry came from, and whether that source has produced sales?
If every lead is "from Instagram" or "from Google" with nothing more specific, you cannot tell a campaign that sells from one that only fills forms.
Fix it with tagged links and forms that record the campaign automatically, a source field on every lead, and closed sales reported back to the ad platforms so they learn which people buy. Our performance marketing work starts here.
Score yourself
Count the passes for each leak out of your 20 enquiries.
| Passes out of 20 | What it means |
|---|---|
| 18 to 20 | Healthy. Keep the habit and check monthly |
| 12 to 17 | Leaking. Fix within the month |
| Under 12 | Broken. Fix this before spending more on ads |
Fix the first broken leak first
Work down the list in order: capture, ownership, speed, follow-up, outcome, source. A fast reply is worthless on an enquiry nobody captured, and follow-up reminders are worthless without an owner to receive them. Fixing a later leak while an earlier one is broken moves effort around without moving sales.
A well-kept spreadsheet can pass this audit for a small team with a handful of enquiries a week. Once enquiries come from several sources, or more than two people handle them, a CRM earns its place: it captures, assigns, alerts and reminds without anyone having to remember.
What "fixed" looks like
Once the leaks are closed, a weekly review takes 15 minutes and four numbers:
- Enquiries received, by source.
- Share answered within 15 minutes.
- Leads still open after seven days.
- Sales by source.
Run this audit again a month after any fix. If a score moved, the fix worked. If it didn't, the cause is somewhere else, and the audit has just told you where to look.
We build this into a CRM customised to how your team sells, and AI agents can take the first reply and the follow-up reminders off your team's plate.
Want help applying this to your business?
Tell us how your business runs today. We'll tell you where to start, or whether a ready-made tool will do.
Request a call