The nine numbers

Nine figures an operator accountable for marketing should be able to say without opening anything. Not because recall is a virtue, but because not knowing them means nobody is holding the shape of the thing.

What it costs to acquire one customer, at full cost including salaries rather than media spend alone. What a customer is worth over their life, using actual retention rather than a target. The ratio between those two. How long the payback takes in months. What share of new business comes from sources you do not pay for. The conversion rate at the single worst step in the funnel. The volume at the top. How long the average buyer takes from first contact to purchase. And what share of revenue this year came from customers acquired this year.

The last one is the one most operations cannot answer and the one that most often changes the conversation, because it separates a marketing engine from a book of business that is still paying out.

The exercise is to write your nine, then have finance produce them independently, then compare. The discrepancies are the finding, and there are always discrepancies.