Weekly Numbers Every Consultancy Owner Should Check

Each week, a consultancy owner should check how fast the team replies to new enquiries, how many leads are going cold, where students are stuck in the pipeline, what students still owe, and which university commissions are overdue. Five numbers, reviewed at the same time each week, catch most problems before they cost you a student or a payment.

Why weekly

Daily is too noisy for most owners, and monthly is too late: a lead that went cold three weeks ago is gone. A weekly review, at the same time each week, is frequent enough to act on and slow enough to show a trend. Compare each number with your own last few weeks, not with anyone else's.

1. Response time

Question: How quickly does a person reply when a student writes?

Look at the typical time to first reply, the share answered within an hour, and who is waiting for an answer right now. Break it down by counselor and by channel. Don't count chatbot replies, and let the clock run overnight, or the number looks better than reality.

Act on it: if one channel or one counselor is slow, find out why. See following up leads faster.

2. Lead temperature

Question: How many leads are going cold?

A simple Hot, Warm or Cold label, based on stage and last activity, is easier to act on than a score. For example: Hot means past the first conversation with activity in the last few days; Warm means some activity in the last couple of weeks; Cold means nothing for longer.

Act on it: review the Cold list with counselors. Re-contact or close each one.

3. Stage progress

Question: Where are students stuck?

Look at how many students moved forward a stage this week, and which files have sat in the same stage too long, especially document collection and applications.

Act on it: for stuck files, check the document checklist and the next follow-up date.

4. Receivables

Question: What do students still owe?

Look at total fees due and how old each amount is.

Act on it: chase the oldest amounts first, and check that every payment received this week has a receipt.

5. Commissions outstanding

Question: What do universities still owe you, and what's overdue?

Look at commissions by stage (expected, invoiced, received) and an ageing view that flags claims older than your threshold, such as 60 days.

Act on it: follow up overdue claims with the university. See tracking university commissions.

Run it as a 20-minute routine

1. Open each number in the same order every week.
2. Note one action for each number that looks worse than usual.
3. Assign each action to a person, with a date.
4. Start next week's review by checking last week's actions.

If you have several branches, run it per branch and compare. See managing several branches.

What not to track, at least at first

It's tempting to track everything. Resist it. Leave these out of the weekly review until the five numbers above are a habit:

• Social media followers and likes. Useful to your marketing team, but they don't tell you whether students are being served.
• Totals without a comparison. "120 leads" means little unless you compare it with last week.
• Numbers nobody will act on. If a number has no owner and no action, drop it from the review.

A short review that happens every week beats a long one that happens once.

How ConsultMarg helps

ConsultMarg shows response times by team member and channel, marks every lead Hot, Warm or Cold, shows students by stage on a pipeline board, and tracks receivables and commission ageing, so the whole review takes minutes. See the product or book a demo.