Cost per lead or cost per contract, which should decide a prospecting vendor

Vetting a cold calling or SMS vendor is a different shape of underwriting than a rent roll, and the two most common ways to judge one pull in opposite directions. Cost per lead is the number that can be verified immediately. It sits on the invoice, it is countable, and vendors can be compared on it within the first week. Cost per contract is the number that actually matters to the buyer's return, but it takes months to build a sample large enough to mean anything, and it gets contaminated by how well the acquisitions side converts. A bad closer makes a good vendor look expensive, and a great closer can flatter a mediocre one. Say two vendors quote per lead, roughly $80 and $115, and the cheaper one moves more volume. Judged on cost per lead alone, the cheaper vendor wins day one. Judged on cost per contract, the answer might reverse entirely once a few months of conversion data exist. The practical approach is to start the relationship on cost per lead because it is the only number available early, but build a conversion tracking system from day one so the recommendation can shift to cost per contract once there is enough sample to trust it. Anyone who has actually onboarded one of these vendors usually signed on the fast number and wished, in hindsight, they had built the slow one in parallel from the start.