The ACDC Business Flow
Every business runs on four stages: Attract, Convert, Deliver, and Collect
The ACDC model breaks down every business into four essential stages that must operate continuously for the company to survive and grow. Attract is bringing in new prospects interested in your offering. Convert is turning those prospects into paying customers. Deliver is supplying customers with the product or service as promised. Collect is ensuring money flows in and is properly managed.
This framework serves dual purposes in the Clockwork system. First, it provides the organizational structure for all captured systems, creating a simple four-folder directory that every team member can navigate. Second, it becomes the foundation of the business dashboard, with each stage becoming a gauge that measures the health of that part of the business.
The power of ACDC is that it reveals bottlenecks and flow problems. When one stage is backed up (like Cyndi's Convert stage when leads were pouring in faster than she could onboard them), the entire business suffers. By monitoring all four stages simultaneously, you can identify which stage needs attention and turn the right dial to fix it, rather than guessing at solutions.
- Every sustainable business must continuously Attract, Convert, Deliver, and Collect
- A bottleneck in any one stage restricts the throughput of the entire business
- The order may vary (some businesses collect before delivering), but all four stages must function
- ACDC provides both the organizational structure for systems and the framework for metrics
- When the QBR is nailed, it creates a surge that often reveals bottlenecks in adjacent stages
- Map your business to ACDCList all activities in your business and categorize each under Attract (marketing, lead generation, outreach), Convert (sales calls, proposals, closing), Deliver (fulfillment, service delivery, product creation), or Collect (invoicing, payment processing, cash flow management). Note: some businesses collect before delivering, and that is fine.
- Identify metrics for each stageChoose one or two simple, measurable indicators for each ACDC stage. For Attract, it might be number of new leads per week. For Convert, it might be conversion rate or number of new customers. For Deliver, it might be on-time completion rate. For Collect, it might be accounts receivable aging or cash balance. Add a QBR metric as well.
- Build your dashboardCreate a simple, visual dashboard with 5-8 total metrics. This does not need to be fancy software; a printed sheet taped to the wall works. The goal is a two-second glance that tells you if everything is normal. Like a car dashboard, you should be able to spot problems instantly without needing to run calculations.
- Monitor and fix one dial at a timeReview the dashboard weekly. When a metric is out of expected range, investigate that specific ACDC stage. Make one change at a time, measure the result, and reset before trying another change. This prevents the common mistake of changing multiple variables simultaneously and not knowing which one actually fixed or worsened the problem.
After nailing her QBR (compassionate client communication) and committing to a niche (e-commerce sellers), Cyndi's lead flow exploded to 25+ leads per day after a webinar appearance. The Attract stage was flowing powerfully, but the Convert stage became a massive bottleneck. She could not onboard new clients fast enough, and prospects were waiting and eventually going elsewhere.
Michalowicz synthesized the ACDC framework from his study of manufacturing efficiency experts and his collaboration with Adrienne Dorison, who specialized in making lumberyards more efficient. Dorison explained that all business elements can be broken into four quadrants, and the QBR must exist in one of those spots: leads, sales, deliverables, or cash flow. Michalowicz formalized this into the Attract-Convert-Deliver-Collect model as a universal framework applicable to every business type.