Most Agencies Underestimate How Many Sales Leads They Need
If you’re serious about becoming the CEO of a profitable, scalable agency — one that gives you the freedom to lead strategically instead of constantly chasing new work — there’s one critical number you need to know: how many sales leads it actually takes to hit your revenue goals.
Most marketing, creative, and digital agency founders come to me with revenue goals in mind, but no clear target for how many leads they need to make it happen. They’re working hard — running campaigns, networking, even doing some outreach — but they’re flying blind when it comes to lead generation math.
That’s why their growth feels slow, unpredictable, and reactive.
This problem has become even more obvious over the last 12-18 months. As the economy slows and businesses become more cautious with spending, agencies are feeling the squeeze. According to The Wow Company’s 13th annual benchmarking study, 56% of agencies say they’re experiencing ‘delayed decisions’ — meaning sales cycles are longer, and deals are harder to close.
We broke down these challenges in our 5 Reasons Your Sales Pipeline Is Stalling article, but the takeaway is clear:
If it’s taking longer to close deals, you’re going to need more sales leads to keep your pipeline healthy.
The real question is:
Do you know exactly how many sales leads you need each month to hit your revenue goals — and build the profitable, scalable agency you want?
The Referral & Networking Problem
According to The Wow Company’s 2024 benchmarking study, most marketing, creative, and digital agencies still rely heavily on referrals and networking as their main source of sales leads:
- Referrals from existing clients — 69%
- Networking in person — 40%
- Referrals from other sources — 40%
- LinkedIn — 25%
- Referrals from agencies or freelancers — 19%
While referrals and networking can work, they come with some serious limitations — especially if you’re relying on them as your only lead generation strategy:
- Referrals are unpredictable. You never know when they’ll show up, who they’ll come from, or whether they’ll actually be a good fit.
- Networking is time-consuming and inconsistent. According to the same study, more than half of agencies attend just 1-2 events per month. But the agencies that actually see meaningful growth from networking attend at least 6 events per month — and only 5% of agencies have the capacity to do this.
If your client acquisition strategy depends entirely on waiting for referrals or finding time for endless networking, you’re not in control of your growth — you’re just hoping for the best.
The Networking Time Trap
Networking takes far more time than most agency founders expect. By the time you factor in:
- Pre-event selection and preparation
- Travel time
- Time at the event itself
- Post-event follow-ups
…most events chew up at least 5 hours each. On top of that, the context switching before and after the event adds at least another 1-2 hours of lost productivity.
That means every networking event could easily take 6-7 hours — sometimes more.
It’s no wonder only 5% of agencies consistently attend 6+ events per month. Even if you made that commitment, you’d be spending 35-42 hours per month — nearly a full working week — just on networking.
That’s a huge time investment for a process that doesn’t scale.
The Return on Time
Even with all that time invested, how many sales leads would you actually generate?
In my experience working with agency founders, a good event might generate 2-3 contacts. A great event might generate 3-5. Let’s be generous and assume you average 4 contacts per event.
Now, let’s apply The Sales Readiness Gap — where we know only 2-3% of prospects are ready to buy in the next 90 days. Even if we round up and assume 5% are ready, here’s the math:
- 4 contacts × 5% = 0.2 sales-qualified leads per event
That means you’d need to attend 5 networking events per month — nearly a full week of time investment — just to generate 1 qualified lead.
Very few agency founders have the time — or the appetite — to spend a full week every month just to produce 1 opportunity. And even if they do, that’s an incredibly expensive, inefficient way to generate leads when you factor in lost billable hours, travel costs, and the opportunity cost of focusing on higher-impact activities.
The numbers only get worse when you calculate the actual cost per opportunity — but that’s a topic for another day.
The Bottom Line
If your goal is to build a scalable, profitable agency that grows consistently without you needing to chase every deal, referrals and networking alone won’t get you there. They’re fine as part of your overall client acquisition strategy, but they can’t be your only approach.
The best agency CEOs know exactly how many sales leads they need each month — and they build repeatable systems to hit those targets.
The real question is:
Do you know your number — or are you just hoping for the best?
Watch:
How to Calculate How Many Sales Leads You Need
If you want to step into the role of strategic CEO — where you’re not constantly worrying where the next project will come from — you need to know exactly how many sales leads it takes to hit your revenue goals and build a profitable, scalable agency.
The top-performing agencies don’t just hope for more leads — they calculate their exact lead targets every month and build systems to hit them consistently.
This is the difference between agencies that react to opportunities and agencies that confidently plan and control their growth.
Here’s the step-by-step process to calculate your lead generation target — so you can stop guessing and start growing.
Step 1: Set Your Revenue Goal
What’s your new business revenue target for the next 12 months?
How much of that will come from existing client growth — and how much needs to come from new client wins?
Most agencies focus only on the top-line revenue goal, but successful agency CEOs know how to break it down into a clear sales and lead plan.
Step 2: Know Your Average Customer Value (ACV)
What does your average client spend in their first year?
For project-based agencies, this is your average project value.
For retainer-based agencies, it’s your monthly retainer x 12 months.
The more you understand your average customer value, the more accurate your lead planning becomes — and the easier it is to forecast growth with confidence.
Step 3: Calculate How Many New Clients You Need
To hit your new business revenue goal, here’s the formula:
New Business Revenue Goal ÷ Average Customer Value = New Clients Needed
This is your target for new client wins, which feeds directly into your lead generation plan.
Step 4: Know Your Sales Conversion Rate
What percentage of proposals actually turn into signed clients?
(Important: Don’t include referrals in this calculation — they typically convert much higher than leads from outreach or inbound marketing.)
- Agencies with a defined sales process often close 30% or more
- Agencies without a process see much lower rates — sometimes 5-10%
The clearer your sales process, the higher your close rate — and the fewer leads you’ll need to hit your goals.
Step 5: Calculate How Many Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) You Need
To hit your new client goal, you need enough proposals — and to get those proposals, you need qualified leads.
The formula:
New Clients Needed ÷ Proposal Close Rate = SQLs Needed
If you want 3 new clients and your proposal close rate is 30%, you need about 10 proposals to hit your goal.
Step 6: Calculate How Many Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) You Need
Not every lead turns into a proposal — some leads drop off after the discovery call.
What percentage of your Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) book a discovery call?
The formula:
Discovery Calls Needed ÷ MQL-to-Discovery Call Rate = MQLs Needed
This is your top-of-funnel goal — the starting point for building a healthy pipeline.
Step 7: Total Sales Leads Needed (The Real Gap)
The best agency sales teams aim for a healthy pipeline coverage ratio — typically 3:1 or 4:1.
That means you need 3 to 4 dollars’ worth of sales leads in your pipeline for every dollar of your sales target.
This ratio reflects typical conversion rates for agencies, where win rates fall between 25% and 33%.
To keep it simple, I recommend doubling or tripling your MQL target to estimate your total monthly sales leads target.
This number is your true lead gap — the real number you need to plan for each month.
Watch:
Example: Why Most Agencies Need 2-3X More Sales Leads
Let’s break it down for a creative agency owner aiming for 3 new clients per month:
- Average Customer Value: $42,000
- Proposal Close Rate: 30%
- Discovery Call to Proposal Rate: 50%
- MQL to Discovery Call Rate: 50%
The math works out like this:
- New Clients Needed = 3
- Proposals Needed = 10
- Discovery Calls Needed = 20
- MQLs Needed = 40
- Total Sales Leads Needed = 120 per month
That’s 2-3X more leads than most founders expect — especially when they’ve relied on referrals, where close rates are much higher.
The Big Misunderstanding
Most agency founders I speak with assume that if they get 10 good sales leads per month, they’ll easily close 3-5 new clients.
But the math doesn’t work — especially for non-referral leads from outbound, LinkedIn, or inbound marketing.
- Referral leads often close at 50% or higher.
- Outbound and inbound leads often close between 5% and 15%.
This misunderstanding is why so many agencies feel stuck — they set big revenue goals without matching them to a realistic lead generation plan.
Without enough leads at the top of the funnel, your sales process — no matter how good — won’t have enough opportunities to convert.
That’s why most agencies — especially those aiming for predictable, profitable growth — need at least 2-3X more sales leads than they think.
Why This Matters to Your Future as CEO
The agencies that grow fastest — without burning out their founders — are the ones where the CEO knows their numbers.
They know exactly how many leads they need.
They know where those leads will come from.
And they have a repeatable system to generate and qualify those leads every month.
That’s how you step into the strategic CEO role — by building a sales and marketing system that doesn’t depend on your personal hustle.
The first step? Knowing your number.
The Benefit of Setting a Monthly Target for Sales Leads
If you want to run a profitable, growing agency — and step into the CEO role where you lead the business, not chase every sale yourself — you need more than vague goals like “get more leads.”
Top-performing agencies don’t leave lead generation to chance. They set a clear monthly sales lead target — and they track it just like revenue.
Without a clear target, it’s too easy to:
- Waste time on low-quality leads that were never a fit
- Rely too much on random referrals (which you can’t control)
- Keep hoping new work shows up instead of having a system to make it happen
A monthly sales lead target puts you back in control — giving you a simple, trackable number to work toward every month.
When You Know Your Number, You Can:
- Set weekly and daily goals for outreach, follow-ups, and content — so you know you’re moving the needle every day.
- Check if your pipeline is filling fast enough to hit your revenue goals — before it’s too late.
- Spot problems early — so you can adjust your marketing and sales efforts if lead flow slows down.
- Focus on high-quality, ideal-fit leads instead of wasting time on random opportunities that don’t match your target client.
It’s Like Planning a Road Trip — You Need Fuel to Get There
Imagine planning a long road trip. You know your destination (your revenue goal) — but if you never check your fuel gauge (your sales lead target), you could run out long before you arrive.
That’s exactly what happens to agencies who set revenue goals but never calculate how many leads they actually need to hit them.
With a clear monthly lead target, you’ve got a GPS for your sales pipeline. You’ll always know:
- How far you need to go (your revenue goal)
- How much fuel you’ll need (your sales leads target)
- When you need to adjust your route (tweak your strategy if lead flow slows)
That’s how you move from reactive referral-driven growth to proactive, controlled growth — the kind that supports both profit and freedom.
The First Step — Find Your Number
If you’re serious about building a scalable, system-driven sales process, the first step is knowing your real lead gap.
That’s exactly why I created The New Business Gap Calculator — a simple tool that helps you:
- Set your new business revenue goal
- Plug in your real conversion rates
- See exactly how many Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) you need every month to stay on track.
Access The New Business Gap Calculator now
Know your numbers. Plan your growth. Lead your agency with confidence.
Got Your Number — But Need More Sales Leads?
Once you know how many leads you need, the next step is building a system to bring in the right leads consistently — without relying on chance.
That’s where I can help.
Book Your Brainstorm Call – we’ll review your current pipeline, assess your lead generation strategy, and help you map out a step-by-step plan to fill your pipeline with better-quality leads every month.
