Cash Flow Protection

The Marketing Signals That Show Trouble Early

Most leaders ask marketing one question: “How much revenue did it generate?”

It sounds reasonable. It is also late. Revenue confirms what happened. It does not tell you what is happening right now or what to fix before the quarter ends.

Cash flow problems rarely start in accounting. They start when trust cools and buyers stop taking the next step. Usually weeks earlier.

The core mechanism: the marketing lag

Cash flow follows readiness. Readiness follows repetition. Repetition follows clarity and proof.

If your message is unclear, buyers don’t progress. If your proof is thin, they hesitate. If your path is high-friction, they stall.

Those stalls don’t show up as revenue until later. But they show up immediately as behavior.

The 3-signal early warning system

1) Right accounts paying attention

You do not need “more impressions.” You need the right people noticing.

2) Return within 30 days

Return behavior is the cheapest proxy for “this matters to me.”

3) Next step taken

Define one next step that matches your model:

• reply

• consult request

• demo request

• application

• donor action

  
  

The simplest weekly scoreboard

Pick one target segment. Track two numbers weekly:

• returning target accounts

• next steps taken

That is enough to decide: Keep, adjust, or cut.

What to do when the numbers are zero

Zero is not failure. Zero is a bottleneck revealed early.

Use the bottleneck to diagnose:

• Message clarity problem: people do not understand who it is for.

• Proof problem: they are interested but not convinced.

• Path problem: they want it, but the next step is fuzzy.

  
  

A note on budgets and scrutiny

Marketing budgets are not getting bigger. Pressure is. When budgets hold flat, guessing gets expensive. That is why decision-grade reporting matters.

The 30-minute implementation plan

1. Choose the segment.

2. Choose the next step.

3. Choose how you will capture the signals.

4. Put it on the calendar weekly.

   
   

If you want marketing to protect cash flow, stop using revenue as the only scoreboard. Build a simple early warning system. Then run it every week.

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