Before You Buy Another Lead, Fix This

Every business owner wants more leads.

I get it. More leads should mean more sales. More sales should mean more money.

Except that's not always what happens.

I've been in business for almost 20 years, and I've spent a lot of money trying to generate customers. One thing I've learned is that sometimes the problem isn't that you need more leads.

Sometimes you're just doing a terrible job with the ones you already have.

Before you increase your marketing budget, look at what happens when somebody actually tries to do business with you.

• Do you answer the phone?
• How quickly do you respond when somebody fills out a form?
• What happens when they don't answer your first call?
• Do you follow up with estimates that don't close?
• Can somebody easily figure out what you do, where you work, and how to contact you from their phone?

These sound like little things. They're not.

You can spend $10,000 a month generating leads and still have an empty schedule if your process sucks.

So before we talk about getting more leads, let's fix the bucket we're pouring them into.

Start with the leads you already have

Go back through your last 30 days. Look at every phone call and every lead that came through your website.

• How many calls did you miss?
• How long did it take your company to respond to website leads?
• How many estimates went out without anybody following up?
• How many customers finished a job and never got asked for a review or referral?

You might find that you don't need another 50 leads right now. You need to do a better job with the 50 you already paid for.

I've seen businesses spend more money trying to solve problems that more money was never going to fix.

Don't make that mistake. Get your house in order first.

Answer the phone. Respond to leads quickly. Make it easy to schedule. Follow up more than once.

Then start adding fuel.

Don't sleep on free business

One of the biggest mistakes new business owners make is thinking lead generation starts when you start running ads.

It doesn't.

If I were starting a home-service company tomorrow with almost no marketing budget, I'd start with everybody I know.

I'd tell my family. I'd tell my friends. I'd tell my neighbors. I'd tell people at church. People I do business with. Other business owners I know. Anybody who might either need my service or know somebody who does.

Not some weird sales pitch either. Just tell people what you do.

You'd be surprised how many people in your life have no idea exactly what your business does.

Then I'd start asking customers for referrals.

You finish the job and the customer tells you they're happy? Ask.

"Glad you're happy with everything. If you know somebody else who needs this, send them my way. I'll take care of them."

Simple.

You don't need a seven-step referral program to get started. You need to open your mouth.

Figure out who already talks to your customers

This is another one people overlook.

Somebody in your city is already talking to your potential customers every day. Find those people.

If you're in junk removal, that might be real estate agents, property managers, storage facilities, movers or estate attorneys.

If you're a roofer, it might be real estate agents, insurance agents, restoration companies or general contractors.

Every industry has people who constantly get asked:

"Do you know somebody who does ______?"

Your goal is to become the name they give them.

Go introduce yourself. Take somebody to lunch. Buy them coffee. Drop off your information. Send them business too.

Relationships still generate business. We spend so much time talking about algorithms that people forget that.

Same thing with neighborhood Facebook groups, Nextdoor, local events, chambers and community groups.

And put a damn sign in the yard while you're doing the job if the homeowner allows it. Your truck is sitting outside anyway. Make sure people can tell what company it belongs to.

Not everything needs to be some complicated digital marketing strategy. Sometimes people just need to know you exist.

Now let's talk about Google

Once you've squeezed what you can out of relationships and referrals, you need to make sure people can find you when they're actually looking for what you sell.

For most home-service companies, that starts with Google.

And before you pay Google anything, get your free stuff right.

Your Google Business Profile should be completely filled out.

• Correct business information.
• Correct hours.
• Correct service areas.
• Your actual services.
• Real pictures of your work.
• And reviews. Lots of them.

Not 12 reviews from three years ago. You want customers consistently talking about your business.

And respond to your reviews. Especially the bad ones.

People are going to research you before they call. Give them something good to find.

Your website doesn't need to win an award

I've seen business owners obsess over their website while completely missing what the website is supposed to do.

Your website has a job. Get somebody to contact you.

That's it.

If I land on your website from my phone, I should immediately know three things:

1. What do you do?
2. Do you service my area?
3. How do I contact you?

Don't make me hunt for your phone number. Don't bury your quote button halfway down the page.

And please don't make the first thing I read some giant paragraph about how "our family-owned company has proudly served the community with honesty and integrity."

Nobody came to your website looking for your autobiography. They need their AC fixed. Make it easy for them.

Your phone number should be obvious. Your buttons should work on a phone. Your pages should load quickly. And every important service you provide should have its own page explaining what you do.

Simple beats fancy when simple gets the phone to ring.

Make sure Google knows you're the same business everywhere

Your business information should also be consistent anywhere else you show up online.

Google. Yelp. BBB. Facebook. Industry directories. Anywhere your company is listed.

Same business name. Same phone number. Same core information.

You're trying to make it easy for Google, search engines, AI platforms and customers to understand exactly who you are, what you do and where you do it.

Confusion doesn't help you. Consistency does.

Reviews might be your best marketing investment

I talk about reviews a lot because I think business owners underestimate how valuable they are.

Reviews affect whether somebody trusts you. They can help your visibility. They influence whether somebody clicks you or the guy underneath you.

And now they're becoming part of the information AI systems use when people ask who they should hire.

The crazy part? You've already paid to acquire the customer. You did the work. They're happy.

And then a lot of businesses never ask them to tell anybody about it.

That's insane to me.

Build the review request into your process. Don't leave it up to your technician to remember. Don't tell yourself you'll text the customer later.

Automate it. When the job is finished and the customer is happy, that's when you want to ask. If you want the exact system I use, here's the Review Filter.

Then you can start spending money

Once the foundation is right, now I'm comfortable buying traffic.

But don't take a small marketing budget and spread it across every platform you've heard about.

That's another mistake.

You've got $1,500 and suddenly you're spending $300 on Google, $300 on Facebook, $300 on Local Services Ads, $300 somewhere else and wondering why none of it works.

Pick something. Get good at it. Then expand.

For most home-service businesses, I'd look at Google first because the intent is hard to beat.

Someone searches:

"AC repair near me."

That person probably has a problem right now. They're not scrolling through pictures because they're bored. They're looking for somebody to fix their AC.

That's the kind of person I want to put my money in front of.

Google Ads can be expensive, but expensive isn't necessarily bad. Unprofitable is bad.

I'll happily pay more for a lead if it turns into enough profitable jobs. That's why tracking matters.

Local Services Ads can be great too

If Google Local Services Ads are available for your industry, they're worth testing.

They put you in front of people actively looking for a service and operate differently from traditional pay-per-click advertising.

But the same rule applies. A lead isn't worth anything if nobody answers it.

Getting more opportunities doesn't fix a bad sales process. It just exposes it faster.

Facebook is a different animal

I like Meta advertising, but you need to understand the difference.

Google usually captures demand. Facebook can help create it.

That's not the same thing.

Somebody searching Google for "emergency plumber" is telling you exactly what they need. Somebody scrolling Facebook wasn't necessarily thinking about hiring a plumber until your ad showed up.

That doesn't make Facebook bad. It means the strategy is different.

I've personally built a big part of my own company's lead generation around Facebook, so I know it can work.

But your offer matters. Your follow-up matters. Your sales team matters.

A cheap Facebook lead that nobody closes isn't cheap. It's wasted money.

Here's where most of the money gets lost

This is the part I want home-service business owners to really understand.

Getting the lead is only the beginning.

The customer clicks the ad. They call you. Nobody answers. Game over.

Or they fill out a form. Three hours later somebody calls them. By then they've already called three other companies and one of them has an appointment scheduled. Game over.

Or you actually talk to them and send an estimate. Then you never call them again. Game over.

You paid for all three of those opportunities. Somebody else got paid from them.

That's why I care so much about lead handling.

Speed matters

When somebody reaches out, respond as quickly as you realistically can.

Not tomorrow. Not when you finish the jobs for the day. Now.

If you can't answer every call, have a system in place. Missed-call text back. AI receptionist. Answering service. Whatever works for your operation.

Just don't let the phone ring into nowhere.

Same with website leads. Send an immediate text confirming that you received their request. Give them an easy way to schedule if possible. Then get a human involved quickly.

Make the customer feel like somebody is already taking care of them.

And for the love of God, follow up

This one drives me crazy.

Business owner spends $100 generating an opportunity. Customer asks for an estimate. Company sends it. Customer doesn't immediately say yes.

And everybody moves on.

Why?

Follow up. Then follow up again.

People get busy. They forget. They need to talk to their spouse. They got three estimates. The project got pushed back.

Silence doesn't always mean no.

Build a follow-up system. Maybe it's the next day, a few days later and again the following week. The exact timing can depend on what you sell. What matters is that it happens. Every time.

If your follow-up depends on somebody remembering, you don't have a follow-up system. You have good intentions.

Make buying from you easy

Once the customer says yes, don't create another obstacle course.

If your type of business allows online scheduling, use it. If you take deposits, make paying them easy. Send confirmations automatically. Text reminders. Tell customers exactly what happens next.

People like certainty.

"I'll have somebody get back to you" isn't certainty. "You're scheduled for Thursday between 10 and 12" is.

Every unnecessary step between "I need this" and "you're booked" gives the customer another chance to disappear.

Remove the steps.

Don't forget about people who already paid you

Everybody wants new customers.

Meanwhile there's a list sitting in your CRM full of people who already know you, already trusted you and already gave you money.

Talk to them.

Depending on the service, follow up after 30, 60 or 90 days. Ask how everything is going. Remind them about another service you provide. Ask if there's anything else they need. Ask for the referral if you haven't already.

A past customer doesn't need to be convinced that your company is real. You've already done that part.

Yet businesses will spend thousands trying to get strangers to trust them while completely ignoring the customers who already do.

Makes no sense.

Stop getting distracted by marketing numbers that don't pay you

Impressions sound cool. Traffic sounds cool. Likes are nice.

None of them make payroll.

I want to know what actually happened.

• How many leads did we get?
• How many did we contact?
• How quickly did we contact them?
• How many appointments did we set?
• How many jobs did we close?
• What did it cost us to acquire a customer?
• How much revenue did those customers produce?
• Which source did they come from?

Those are numbers I can make decisions with.

I'd rather have 100 website visitors who produce 20 customers than 10,000 visitors who produce two.

Don't let a marketing company impress you with charts. Ask them where the money is.

Before you increase your budget

Here's what I'd check first.

• Look at your missed calls.
• Look at your response times.
• Look at your unclosed estimates.
• Look at your follow-up.
• Look at your reviews.
• Look at your old customers.

You may have money sitting all over your business that you're not collecting.

Fix that first.

Then if you have $500 to spend, put it somewhere you can measure. If you've got $5,000, same rule.

More money doesn't change the fundamentals. It just lets you do more of what's already working.

The real lead generation playbook

You don't need a $10,000 monthly marketing budget to build a home-service company.

You need discipline.

• Answer the damn phone.
• Respond quickly.
• Follow up.
• Make it easy to buy.
• Ask happy customers for reviews.
• Ask for referrals.
• Stay in touch with old customers.
• Build relationships with people who can send you business.
• Get your Google presence right.
• Then buy traffic.

And when you start spending money, don't be everywhere just because some marketing guy told you that you need an "omnichannel strategy."

Start where the intent is. Measure everything. Figure out what makes you money. Then put more money there.

That's lead generation.

It's not sexy. It's not some secret funnel. And there's no hack.

Get people to raise their hand.

When they do, don't screw it up.

✌️&❤️ — Sergio