New patient volume is short of plan — fertility networks

Consults are up and cycle starts are not

PRESENTATION — WHAT THE OPERATOR SEES

Inquiry and consult volume are healthy and cycle starts are short of plan. In fertility and IVF marketing the volume presentation is almost always a conversion presentation wearing different clothes, because the distance between a first consultation and a started cycle is long, expensive and mostly unmeasured.

DIFFERENTIAL — LIKELY CAUSES, MOST LIKELY FIRST

01
The funnel is not instrumented past the consult

Inquiry, consult booked, consult kept, diagnostics completed, plan agreed, financing resolved, cycle started — seven steps, each with a measurable drop and an owner, and most groups hold two of the seven.

Each of the seven states exists in the clinic's own systems. Most of the owners of the middle steps have never been shown a marketing report.

No published distribution — ADMEN source register, /sources/

NOT THIS IF — All seven states are counted monthly per clinic and the drops are known.
02
Speed to first contact, in a market where she is comparing three clinics

She has researched for months before calling and is contacting more than one programme. Time from inquiry to a booked consult, measured in days, is a competitive variable rather than an administrative one.

Time from inquiry to booked consult is in the CRM and the phone system, and is rarely reported as a competitive metric.

No published distribution — ADMEN source register, /sources/

NOT THIS IF — Median time to a booked consult is inside a day and stable.
03
Benefits and financing sit with a team that is not measured on conversion

The step most likely to end the process is owned by the business office. Nothing in the marketing report records a loss there, because as far as the report is concerned the consult happened and was a success.

Only fifteen states mandate any infertility coverage, and most large employers offering fertility benefits do not cover IVF treatment itself — which is precisely why the cost and coverage conversation decides the outcome rather than documenting it.

KFF, coverage of infertility services: fifteen states mandate any infertility coverage, and most large employers offering fertility benefits do not cover IVF treatment itself

NOT THIS IF — Benefits turnaround is measured and the business office carries a conversion measure.
04
Lab and scheduling capacity cannot start the cycles being won

Demand bought without reference to cycle-start capacity produces consults that queue, and a cycle that cannot start this window may not start at all. Buying against cycle-start capacity rather than against consult capacity is the difference between a won cycle and a queued one.

Cycles started per clinic per month against lab and scheduling capacity is a comparison most networks can make and few make routinely.

No published distribution — ADMEN source register, /sources/

NOT THIS IF — Capacity headroom exists in every cycle window at the clinics carrying the shortfall.

HOW TO TELL THEM APART

How to tell these apart in your own numbers

Each of these is a measurement you can run yourself, without us.

01 · The funnel is not instrumented past the consult

Count all seven states for one quarter per clinic, and name an owner to each drop.

CONFIRMS IF

Two or more of the seven cannot be produced, or one drop is far larger than the others.

EXCLUDES IF

All seven are counted and the drops are small and stable.

02 · Speed to first contact, in a market where she is comparing three clinics

Median and 90th-percentile time from inquiry to a booked consult, per clinic, ninety days, split by day of week.

CONFIRMS IF

It is measured in days, or the weekend cohort is materially worse.

EXCLUDES IF

It is inside a day across the week.

03 · Benefits and financing sit with a team that is not measured on conversion

Time from benefits request to a clear answer, share answered before the next appointment, and cycle-start rate for the fastest and slowest quartiles of that turnaround.

CONFIRMS IF

The slow quartile starts materially fewer cycles.

EXCLUDES IF

Cycle-start rate is flat across turnaround quartiles.

04 · Lab and scheduling capacity cannot start the cycles being won

Cycle starts per clinic per month against available capacity per window, twelve months, with any queue length recorded.

CONFIRMS IF

Capacity is at its ceiling in the windows where the shortfall appears.

EXCLUDES IF

Headroom exists throughout.

WHAT RESOLVES EACH

What resolves this, and how you will know it resolved

The funnel is not instrumented past the consult	Rx 03 · patient conversion →	The consult path instrumented as a full sequence — inquiry, booked, kept, diagnostics, plan, financing, cycle start — with the drop measured at each step and named to an owner.
Speed to first contact, in a market where she is comparing three clinics	Rx 03 · patient conversion →	Speed to first contact treated as a competitive variable, with cover for the hours the inquiries actually arrive.
Benefits and financing sit with a team that is not measured on conversion	Rx 03 · patient conversion →	Benefit eligibility run as a conversion step: turnaround measured, answer written, financing presented alongside it.
Lab and scheduling capacity cannot start the cycles being won	Rx 01 · patient acquisition →	Demand bought against cycle-start capacity rather than against consult capacity, so the network does not win cycles it cannot start.

WHAT "RESOLVED" LOOKS LIKE — Cycle starts per clinic per month, and consult-to-cycle-start conversion

MEDIAN

Not published in a form comparable across programmes.

TOP DECILE

Not published, and clinic-selected figures are not a substitute.

TARGET

The network's own best clinic on one definition set. Resolved means every one of the seven states is counted and the largest drop is falling quarter over quarter.

No published distribution — ADMEN source register, /sources/

HOW THIS DIFFERS BY SCALE

How this differs by scale

Single site	One clinic can count the seven states by hand and usually finds the loss inside a fortnight.
Group	Across a few clinics the comparison between them is the instrument, provided the definitions match.
Platform	At platform scale the seven-state funnel is the deliverable, because it is the only thing that makes fifteen legacy brands comparable.

OTHER PRESENTATIONS — FERTILITY NETWORKS

A differential narrows the field. It does not replace the examination — that is what the six weeks are for. Every figure above is an industry reference range, not a client's numbers; those stay sealed. Sources are set out at /sources.

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