How Colton Whitney Turned 180 Neglected Leads Into Revenue With Data-Driven Accountability
The Challenge: Limitations of "Doing More"
At sixteen, Colton Whitney began in the industry. Sounds impressive, especially since he was putting in seventy to eighty hour workweeks to create some form of traction. He tried everything; some things stuck, but mostly, it exhausted him.
The team grew. He brought in Sisu to track KPIs because that's how you scale: you measure. Sisu performed as intended. It gave him a clue when someone needed help. Low conversation-to-appointment ratio? Well, the dashboard would highlight that. But seeing bad numbers tells you almost nothing. You still need to understand the cause.
Colton saw an agent convert at two percent, and he'd be stumped. Was it the script? The tone? Did they even ask for the appointment? He'd have to listen to every call (he did), to figure that out. Given the size of his team, that wasn't feasible. You'd be guessing. You'd tell people to "just make more calls" or you'd assume they didn't have it in them. Perhaps they just needed someone to tell them they were forgetting to ask for the appointment.
Volume only gets you so far. Colton managed with spreadsheets and instinct. It works until it doesn't.
The Solution: Transparency Through Data
He reached that breaking point, and that is when he decided to try something new. MaverickRE came in, and now he was looking at the same issue in a completely different way. Colton had tracking already. This told him the reason for the numbers. An agent sets zero appointments this week? Now he could see that same agent only asked for the appointment 3% of the time. The issue was behavioral, and behavioral is something you can fix.
The whole management process changed. Rather than "make 50 more calls", it became "you are only asking 3% of the time, and the team average is 38%, let's get you closer to that". Specific. Actionable. Much less damaging to everyone involved.
The data was important, but what really won Colton over was not feeling like he was making educated guesses on conversations.
Implementation: The "Inspect What You Expect" Protocol
Those conversations eventually evolved into something more tangible. Over time, Colton developed his entire system around accountability. The platform tracks if you follow-up with the lead, and if you don't, it reassigns the lead. No longer would there be ambiguous statements of "I will stay on top of these".
1. The "Ask" Audit
The "Ask" Audit is one of the primary tools he uses today. He pulls up an agent's statistics, and compares them to the team averages. One agent was asking for appointments 3% of the time. The top-performing agent on the team? 63%. You show an agent that difference, and they are motivated. That same agent increased to 15% immediately. Same leads. Same scripts. They just asked.
2. AI Roleplay Certification
New agents cannot receive live leads until they pass AI Roleplay with a minimum score. Which may seem harsh, but consider this: why would you give paid leads to someone who can't even handle a simple objection? The AI allows them to practice and develop their skills without burning through actual opportunities. Once they pass, they are certified. Until then, they are practicing.
The Friday Sweep
Then there is the Friday sweep. During the week, the system nags the agents on leads they have not contacted. A gentle reminder that sits in their workflow. By Friday, if the agent has not contacted the lead again, the system will pull the lead back and reassign it.
One Friday sweep alone pulled back 180 neglected leads.
Colton doesn't have to go find agents who aren't contacting their leads, nor does he have to guess who is actually working their database. It just happens.
Results: Protecting the Bottom Line
The system tracks the activity of the agents and holds them accountable for performing the behaviors that actually matter. Once you establish that within your organization, the team will begin to correct itself. Agents will see where they are failing and will generally correct themselves.
That correction led to significantly more revenue than Colton thought. The data allowed him to have the difficult conversations. Telling someone "you are not working hard enough" rarely addresses the issue. Tell them "you are only asking 3% of the time and the team average is 38%", and they will likely remember that because its true.
| Metric | Impact |
|---|---|
| Objection Handling | Team-wide objection handling rate is 86.8%. |
| Lead Recovery | Recovered 180 abandoned leads in a single sweep while agents complained about "not enough leads." |
| Agent Performance | Agent increased ask rate from 3% to 15% immediately after seeing data. |
| Management Efficiency | The ISA department is no longer the CRM police; focused on revenue, not hygiene. |
Across the team, objection handling rate is 86.8%. Quite impressive when you think about how many agents freeze when someone raises an objection about price or timing. If you can identify specifically where objections are dropping off, you can coach the agents on the specific objection.