We talked with Erica Pauly about:
- How she turned a passion for data into Track That Advisor, helping financial firms cut through the messy data to focus on clear, actionable insights that drive growth
- Why tracking the right data empowers advisors to identify what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus next
- The importance of clean, consistent data and simple data entry, and how even small improvements can unlock smarter decisions and long-term success
About Erica Pauly:
Erica Pauly, founder and owner of Track That Advisor, a consulting and coaching firm based in Gilbert, Ariz., helps advisory firms track and improve their marketing results. She launched the firm in 2015 after recognizing a significant gap in how advisory firms used data to drive decisions. In this episode of On Purpose, she shares how working as a marketing director and a passion for storytelling led her to build simple tracking tools that revealed the power of using data to support decision-making. Erica explains that many advisors feel overwhelmed by data, often focusing on metrics that don’t align with their growth goals, and highlights the importance of tracking the right data at the right time through clean, consistent processes. As Track That Advisor celebrates its 10th anniversary, Erica also previews new tools and resources to help firms turn data into action.
Featured Resources
- Track That Advisor Website
- 2025 Track That Advisor Benchmarking Guide
- Erica Pauly on LinkedIn
- Track That Advisor Contact Form
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Full Audio Transcript:
00:00:00 - 00:07:04
Lauren Hong
Erica, thanks for joining us.
00:07:06 - 00:09:07
Erica Pauly
I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
00:09:14 - 00:29:29
Lauren Hong
Oh, my gosh, I'm so glad you're here too. And especially just for those who are listening to hear from you, because you have created something pretty incredible, Track That Advisor. We're going to get into what you all do. But before we do, I’d love to hear a little bit about your background, how you came to Track That Advisor, and we'll get a little bit more into what you do for firms.
00:30:01 - 00:30:25
Lauren Hong
Yeah.
00:31:20 - 00:48:25
Erica Pauly
It's such a random story. And I love it because random stories are the best. But I never intended to start a company. I never, ever, in a million years thought it’d be what it is today. But I worked for a financial advisor, and I was an English major. I studied rhetoric and composition in college.
00:48:25 - 00:57:28
Erica Pauly
So it was more about creating a story, and appealing to ethos and logic to get people to like your story, which is crazy how we've come full circle.
00:58:02 - 00:01:17
Lauren Hong
So I was just going to say I love it. Oh my gosh.
00:01:17 - 01:22:03
Erica Pauly
It's wild. And so I worked for a financial advisor and I was doing marketing for them. And I'm sitting here thinking, oh, it'll be so fun to write, copy or whatever it is. And very quickly I realized in the industry, the marketing role is much more like checking boxes and doing the things that make the most sense, like running the mailers for dinner, seminars, and all those things.
01:22:03 - 01:40:03
Erica Pauly
And one time the advisor came home from one of those huge seminars they all go to all the time, and they were like, so-and-so over in Ohio isn't doing dinner seminars, and we don't want to do them ever again. And I'm sitting here as a marketing director; I don't think this is a terrible idea but I have no data to back this up.
01:40:05 - 01:56:01
Erica Pauly
So I feel like I was failing in my role. But I also had this hunch that it was a bad idea. So I said, hey, look, I'm doing your company books. I'm looking at all the leads coming in. Give me six months. Let me just run and see everything that's happened in the last six months. Then I sat them down six months later.
01:56:16 - 02:12:20
Erica Pauly
And they loved it, and I loved it. And I fell in love with data tracking and was just like, oh, my gosh, this is it. I love doing this for them. I did it for several years and my husband ended up getting a job elsewhere. And so we moved. I was devastated; I didn't think I would ever leave.
02:12:22 - 02:28:19
Erica Pauly
We moved to Arizona and they called me within six weeks of me being here and they said, look, no one in the industry is doing data tracking and analytics. Would you just keep helping us on the side? And I said, you know what? You're right. I'm going to just start a company. And you are my first client.
02:28:19 - 02:30:04
Lauren Hong
Yes.
02:30:06 - 02:48:16
Erica Pauly
And that was 2015, 10 years ago. And so that is how randomly it happened. I just was doing it for someone for a long time and providing value to them. And then I left and it apparently was a huge need. So we have several hundred clients around the nation now, and it's just really blown up in the last decade.
02:48:16 - 02:51:01
Erica Pauly
So it's been a wild, wild ride.
02:51:15 - 03:11:22
Lauren Hong
I'm excited to get more into it because you're right. I mean, you guys are the ones that are doing it in the industry, right? But I mean, data can have so much noise. People track it all different ways, right? Like garbage in, garbage out. So tell us what you do. How do you guys operationalize this, right?
03:11:22 - 03:33:05
Lauren Hong
Say the firm comes to you and they're like, where do you even start? Because I feel like it can be a hot mess, honestly, right? Sometimes I think of rapid growth M&A or maybe you're just getting started. You don't even know where to go. There's so many different ways to slice it up. So, tell us a little bit more about what you do for advisors or firms or what have you.
03:34:08 - 03:56:01
Erica Pauly
So we used to do that. I mean, we used to track anything and everything anyone wanted. Very quickly we realized one, it's different for every office because everyone thinks they need something different. And two, a lot of it wasn't making sense or helpful. And that was when I really went into: I need to start saying no, or at least pushing back and saying, I see what you're asking, right?
03:56:01 - 04:11:08
Erica Pauly
Mathematically, I see what you're what you're wanting us to get. But tell me how that's helping you, or tell me why that's helpful. And 90% of the time they're like, well, because so-and-so looks at it and he's my friend. But you're not even doing those marketing funnels or they're in growth mode and you're not.
04:11:10 - 04:35:23
Erica Pauly
So it forced me to really learn what is important and what is not. And then I have to teach, teach the advisors. And I don't blame them. There are thousands of points they can look at. And quite frankly, there's thousands of stuff on the trackers we create. But our job, our overall job is to guide them and say, okay, these 15 don't matter at all.
04:35:23 - 04:54:15
Erica Pauly
Don't look at them. They might matter in a year. But these ones matter right now because it is confusing. And I think the only way people are going to learn is by learning, right? By listening to what we're saying and reading books on it. And a lot of them just feel lost in the weeds, and I hate that for them.
04:54:15 - 04:57:00
Erica Pauly
So that's really why we exist at the end of the day.
04:57:02 - 05:14:00
Lauren Hong
Oh my gosh, it's so fair. And I really respect and appreciate that approach because we always call firms we work with like it's very big brother. You can get more data than you would ever want but sometimes it feels really good to just be like, well, is my follower count going up or what have you?
05:14:00 - 05:35:16
Lauren Hong
But there's a lot of vanity metrics out there. And as you said, if they don't match the business goals, then like why track them? So what do you do when a new client comes on for you, do you go through a discovery process? How do you help to really identify what those key metrics are for where they are in their stage of growth?
05:35:19 - 05:57:17
Erica Pauly
So when we initially onboard them, it's pretty templated, the actual trackers we are building for them to come in. But yes, I'm asking. The first call I ever do with anyone is what are the roadblocks right now, right? Is it actual tracking or is it understanding them? There's lots of different reasons why people need help with data and analytics.
05:57:17 - 06:11:11
Erica Pauly
So one, we do start there but two, almost all of them have some growth goal in mind. And so that's good for us to know. It's like that analogy, you know there's three options. You have to choose two.
06:11:13 - 06:11:21
Lauren Hong
Yes.
06:12:05 - 06:28:08
Erica Pauly
So when we sit there and someone's like, I want to have a really high ROI and I'm like, awesome. That means you can't be trying out four different marketing funnels this year. Do you know we can't be doing that? Or we want to grow and we want to scale and I'm like, that's fantastic.
06:28:08 - 06:42:13
Erica Pauly
That means your ROI is going to drop this year. So we have to know that we pull on this thread and it's going to affect this thing over here. It's going to ring this bell. So a lot of it again is that education piece. But I like to know what your goal is. Where are you trying to go?
06:42:16 - 07:01:04
Erica Pauly
So when you call me and you're upset with a low ROI, I can refer back to it and say but you're in growth mode. That's okay. This is not an issue. You shouldn't be afraid of it. And that's also where it's freedom for people. They need the freedom. They need the freedom for me to say, okay, we're going to put the ROI in a box for a minute and we're closing the lid.
07:01:06 - 07:12:08
Erica Pauly
I don't need you to look at that until these three new marketing funnels are really solid. You're really good. And we figured them out. And then we can open up the ROI box and get to it.
07:12:10 - 07:34:04
Lauren Hong
That's so fair, understanding are we nurturing current prospects or is it totally cold? What does that look like from the sales cycle? So one of the challenges we see is, we can give you all kinds of marketing data, right? But then it goes into this CRM black box. It's like what happens there, right?
07:34:04 - 07:56:21
Lauren Hong
And you don't know what the conversion was. Which advisor is closing at what rates? It becomes very black box. So maybe share a little bit more for those who are listening: you've got all these sorts of inputs — do you go as far as the CRM outputs, and how are you tracking that?
07:57:00 - 08:27
Lauren Hong
How are you connecting the two together?
08:01:00 - 08:18:27
Erica Pauly
Okay. So it's twofold. Good question. There's several ways to do it. It all depends on if you have a good process, unfortunately. So some advisors, you're still figuring things out and there isn't a written process. And so the CRM is not clean. The data desert, right?
08:18:27 - 08:40:26
Erica Pauly
Like the black box. And so we have to immediately start with, hey, you actually have to do some manual entry into a specific tracker. Now, as they grow and as they flourish and they bloom, when we have more people, we can get a system in place. It goes into the CRM, and how we are exporting that is literally like integrations we're building.
08:40:26 - 09:02:05
Erica Pauly
So we've just rolled out our Redtail integration. We're rolling out Wealthbox this year. But the caveat is you have to do things the same way every single time in the same way for every single lead. And most people are not doing that. So we get the data in lots of different ways. One, it could be manual entry.
09:02:05 - 09:23:06
Erica Pauly
Two, it's literally getting pulled — we map their Redtail system or we map their Wealthbox system and it gets pulled into our database. That's how we're getting the information. The second part is the way our platform works is that it's scrubbing and auditing the data. So very, very quickly stuff is turning green where it's missing information.
09:23:06 - 09:47:03
Erica Pauly
And so people can see, oh my gosh, our process is not as sleek or as honed in as we thought it was, because we're missing all this information and all of us thought so and so was doing it on step two. So it's another beautiful part about pulling stuff out of the data desert and saying you got 90% of it but there's like 10% that is so important for us to get whatever metric it is.
09:47:14 - 09:55:01
Erica Pauly
So it's kind of twofold. We can do integrations, you can do manual entry, but then we're needing to scrub it to make sure it's clean.
09:55:03 - 10:16:01
Lauren Hong
So then I want to say let's wave the magic wand, right? And we get to a place where you go, we've got it. We've got good data coming in, good data coming out. Is that a place where you can actually start? What happens when you get to that point and how do you help to map next steps?
10:16:10 - 10:21:00
Lauren Hong
When you've got a clean input and output on both sides of that?
10:21:02 - 10:42:06
Erica Pauly
That's the most beautiful part because there's so much you can do from there. Yeah, there's so much they can do. One, they can measure; we can just measure things. We can measure lots of different things against one another. And you mentioned this earlier and I've touched on it. Two, ROI is not the leading thing we all need to be looking at.
10:42:06 - 10:59:02
Erica Pauly
Now we can see our ROI, right? But then because we have all these other pieces, it tells the whole story. And that's what I'm about — you got to get the entire picture. I was reading a book the other day, I forgot what the book is called. I wish I could remember but it starts with this tiny, tiny picture of a ship.
10:59:02 - 11:13:06
Erica Pauly
And then the next page shows the ship is just part of a book. And then the next page is this person reading a book about a ship, and it goes out and out and out. That's kind of what happens when you get all the data, right, when it’s clean and it’s good?
11:13:06 - 11:34:20
Erica Pauly
We have this full picture of every single aspect of what's going on. And then they can make really wise decisions. They can see okay, this is what it's costing us per client. If we know that and we know our close rate and we know our average case size, we can also backtrack and say we need X amount of appointments for the year.
11:34:21 - 11:45:05
Erica Pauly
I mean, there's so much we can do for planning, for measuring, for coaching. That's when the fun really starts. I know they're super vague, and I don't know if you want me to get into the weeds.
11:45:05 - 11:46:13
Lauren Hong
It makes sense to limit it. Kind of like you're maybe thinking like a puzzle piece, right? You get all this together and then you can see the finished piece of it, right? So you can better see the bigger picture. And I think ROI is a really easy metric. Who doesn't want ROI, right?
12:06:23 - 12:26:13
Lauren Hong
But you're right that it's connected to so many other components of that. And to really understand what ROI means as a metric, you've got to be able to get the bigger picture so you can better align your efforts. So much easier said than done.
12:26:15 - 12:47:04
Erica Pauly
So in our industry with financial advisors, it's such a long burn. By the time we see the ROI, we're three or four months down the road. If there are problems, they happened a long time ago. So it just takes a really long time to fix it. And again, all those other things are just a little bit more telling of what's happening in real time.
12:47:06 - 12:51:19
Erica Pauly
ROI is just an old metric. Takes a long time to get there.
12:51:22 - 13:16:07
Lauren Hong
Long sales cycles, as anyone who's listening knows, are based on key trigger points or what have you. It's buying that mindshare over time, connecting the dots to tell the story. So super interesting. So once you've got the decision-making, do you see that firms are making more changes on the marketing side that are impacting decision-making?
13:16:07 - 13:31:21
Lauren Hong
Are they more operations, internal side, like we need to do more sales training or we need to tighten our operations, or is it more about marketing shifts or does it go somewhere else I haven't mentioned? I’d just be curious if you see any trends in that direction or any kind of off odds for folks who are listening?
13:32:16 - 13:53:10
Erica Pauly
It's a great question and it depends on the story, right? I mean, it depends on what all the data is doing. So we have benchmarks. We have a benchmarking guide. What should a first appointment cost? Okay, so the benchmark is about $1,000. And this is for people who are more in dinner seminars, bigger offices that are doing TV, radio, some costs for big heavy price tag items.
13:54:02 - 14:13:07
Erica Pauly
It should be about $1,000 per set appointment. But if it's more than that, we have a conversion problem, right? So then we need to go back and look at marketing and the leads and the call to action and our conversion rates from leads to setting a meeting. So that's if we have a high set first number.
14:13:07 - 14:36:07
Erica Pauly
That's what we start looking at. If it's in the sales process because we're measuring that as well. Stick rates, conversion to a second meeting. Stick rates for a second meeting, close rates. That's usually a process problem. Occasionally when we look at all the data you could have, let's say, 90% of your leads coming from all the different funnels are functioning a certain way in the sales cycle.
14:36:07 - 14:57:23
Erica Pauly
But there's one specifically from radio or digital or whatever it is that doesn't perform like all the others. That's a leading indicator of like, okay, why are the radio people different, right? I had a coaching call years ago with a client and that's exactly what was happening. All their leads were flawless, hitting benchmarks everywhere but the radio leads weren't moving to a second meeting.
14:57:23 - 15:14:13
Erica Pauly
None of them wanted to move. And we figured out it's because they've only heard them on the radio. They have all these assumptions of who these people are, and they come in for a first meeting. The rest of the people who were coming in were from dinner seminars. So they sat for an hour listening to the spiel, all of them in person.
15:14:15 - 15:32:27
Erica Pauly
They built trust and radio was not doing that. So we changed their process. They ended up having an hour and a half meeting for radio leads only. The dinner seminar people were fine. We didn't need to touch that. That's the power I found; some people want to change the whole process when we actually don't need to change the whole process.
15:32:27 - 15:56:18
Erica Pauly
We need to change one little spot for a certain type of people in the process. Or it's also for advisor coaching, right? We get a new advisor in; we think they're following our process and we break it out in our reports by advisor as well. And you've got one advisor who people aren't sticking for a second meeting for them, did they not build enough trust in the first meeting?
15:56:18 - 16:16:07
Erica Pauly
Was it scheduled too far out? There's a lot of reasons why but when you can delineate it and pull different things out, it becomes very clear where the actual problem is. So I'd say it's both — it's process but it's the demographic of people in the process. It's marketing. Are we having the right call to action here, right?
16:16:09 - 16:26:16
Erica Pauly
And even just the correct marketing, just for who we are and how we are as a culture and a company, are we doing the right marketing funnels that really fit with us?
16:26:24 - 16:44:06
Lauren Hong
Yep. I so appreciate the way you all break it down because it's not like this cookie cutter, off-the- shelf kind of solution, right? You can have that to a certain degree to be able to pull in information but it's really like if you're going to train for a marathon, right?
16:44:06 - 16:54:14
Lauren Hong
Everyone's body's different, everyone's climate's different. All these things, right? And being able to tweak and make changes can make a really big difference for the end outcome too.
16:54:16 - 16:56:29
Erica Pauly
Yep, that's a good analogy.
16:57:02 - 17:11:00
Lauren Hong
I feel like we could talk for a really long time. I want to round it out here. Anything you want to share about what's next for Track That Advisor as folks look ahead or any resources you think would be helpful?
17:11:03 - 17:41:04
Erica Pauly
There's a lot ahead — 2025 is a crazy year. Like I said before, it's our 10-year anniversary and we're going at it with a bang. We have a very cool educational library that's going to be launched early this spring, so very soon. Inside of it, we have ask EP, which is an AI bot of me so people can ask any questions about benchmarks or national studies or what was the normal stick rate last year?
17:41:04 - 17:46:23
Erica Pauly
And they can just type it in and ask me. And I'm there to answer those questions, which is a super cool resource.
17:46:25 - 17:48:06
Lauren Hong
That's awesome.
17:48:07 - 18:11:13
Erica Pauly
We're really excited for that to come out. That's a new upcoming thing. Many years ago, I saw the direction Salesforce was heading, specifically for financial advisors. And so over the last five years, we've been in partnership with another company, and we have built a Track That Advisor Salesforce platform.
18:11:15 - 18:30:19
Erica Pauly
So that's coming out this year. The biggest issue we saw with advisors is they go to build their own Salesforce and they don't know how to build it. They don't know the foundation. They don't know how to build reports. They've put fields in wrong. So this has been completely built with the Track That Advisor structure and reporting inside of it.
18:30:22 - 18:47:07
Erica Pauly
So that's getting launched this summer. So that's really fun. We have an online data storytelling course that's coming out for people to go on and learn how to read data. You might get data from somewhere if you have it in Wealthbox and you don't need our trackers but you don't really understand what to do with it.
18:47:07 - 19:05:23
Erica Pauly
It's a 12-week course that people can just get and take it online and really use data to help them make business decisions. And then the last one is our podcast. Our podcast came out this year. It's coming out. We're in the middle of doing a bunch of recordings but that is Molly — that's our CEO’s dream, right?
19:05:23 - 19:24:04
Erica Pauly
They're coming to fruition. So we're pumped about that. It'll be fun. We're interviewing industry leaders on metrics analytics and how they're growing from using the numbers in their practice. So nothing really exists like that. So that's been really fun for us to dabble in. So yeah, lots of new things happening this year.
19:24:04 - 19:39:26
Lauren Hong
Year I love it. I know you're not kidding. This is a really big year, a big year for you all. And also just for those listening, I mean, so many incredible resources that you're rolling out. I love that Salesforce tool or templating or what have you? And then the AI bot. So all these things to look forward to.
19:44:14 - 19:46:22
Erica Pauly
Oh yeah. That's fine.
19:46:25 - 20:10:01
Lauren Hong
Yeah. Well, we're making a link where we can and then what have you, but oh my goodness. Well, Erica, thank you so much for being on today. Sharing a little bit more about Track That Advisor, how you have come to be and evolved, all the support you give to firms. And also just helping individuals and leaders really identify what is important because it's spare time factory.
20:10:02 - 20:27:00
Lauren Hong
And help them to adjust course as they move forward. Because we know there's no two businesses that are exactly the same for where they're at, regardless of our employee size or whatever metric you want to check. So I appreciate the work you guys do.
20:27:02 - 20:36:03
Erica Pauly
That's so true. And I agree with you. No one's the same. Just kind of start where you can start and then you go from there. Thanks for having me. I love being here.
20:36:06 - 20:42:09
Lauren Hong
Absolutely. And we'll make sure to include links below to the numerous resources and what have you. So thanks again, Erica.
20:42:12 - 20:47:21
Erica Pauly
Love it. Thanks.
