Many lawyers tell me that they would like to try TV advertising or billboards for a month. If it’s working at the end of the month, they will continue. When these lawyers consider if their advertising is going well, they look at the number of calls they received and want to see that enough clients were retained. Many of these lawyers will be disappointed and go away happy that they cut their losses, never realizing that they really cut their profits.

Outside of the legal profession, retailers, long experienced in advertising, plan their advertising campaigns differently and evaluate ROI differently. For instance, stores routinely sell “loss leaders” just to get customers into the store with the hope that they will purchase other items, come back again, and refer their friends. Retail stores look beyond the initial customer that was brought in by advertising.