How to Qualify Contractor Leads
Contractors that provide restoration and other home services depend on getting consistent, quality leads. However, not all leads are good leads. It is great when a contractor can generate a lot of leads, but someone needs to take the time to follow up and qualify the leads to separate the good leads from the ones that are not worth pursuing.
Qualifying leads is a tedious process and spending a lot of time combing through bad leads to find the good ones can cost your business money. Identifying good leads quickly so you can follow up and convert the sale will help improve the profitability of your business. The following are the main things you should consider when qualifying leads to decide quickly which leads are good leads and which ones you can quickly eliminate.
Contractors can also work with professionals that provide lead generation services like RestorationMaster who can generate high quality leads that make qualifying leads faster and easier.
The Source of the Lead
The first thing to consider is where the lead came from. Your leads may come from several different sources including your own website, a third-party lead generation website, social media, or other. After spending enough time qualifying leads, you will start to recognize which channels are most likely to bring in high quality leads and you will be able to save time by focusing your efforts on leads from your highest-converting sources.
Project Timeline
One of the first things you need to know when it comes to qualifying leads is the timeline of the project that the prospective client expects. Find out when they want to start the project and when they would like the project to be finished.
You should also ask the prospective customer about their flexibility and consider your own flexibility with your schedule. If you cannot accommodate the start time or the time by which they want the project done, you can try to work with them to see if their timeline can be adjusted in a way that works for you. If you cannot quickly come to an agreement on the timeline, you can move on to the next lead.
Services Requested
You can qualify a lead pretty quickly by looking at the service that was requested. It is common for leads from all sources to include requests for services that may be outside the scope of what you offer. If you see a request for services that you do not provide, you can quickly move on. Adding extra fields to your form submissions for people to request specific services will help you quickly identify requests for services that are beyond your scope so you can move on.
Customer’s Budget
The budget of the customer is important to consider as this can determine whether or not you can do the project. Before talking to the customer, you should have a price in mind for the services requested and determine your flexibility with the price. You can be more flexible with your pricing by offering payment plans or by using alternative parts, equipment, or methods that are a lower cost to your business.
When you talk to the customer, make sure they understand the costs of the project and the options available to make the cost more flexible. This will help you build trust among prospective customers and increase the likelihood of converting the sale. If you cannot be flexible enough to meet their budget, then you can move on to another lead.
Location of the Customer
One of the easiest ways to determine if a lead is worth pursuing is to see if the customer is located within your service area. Staying within your service area is the most practical and cost-effective thing for your business to do, but there may be a job request outside your service area that is worth it. Before taking a job outside your service area, consider the cost to your business including the travel expenses, materials needed, and the time the job will take.
If your business has decided to stick with project requests that are within your service area, then checking the location of a prospective customer is a fast and easy way to eliminate leads.
Get Quality Contractor Leads from RestorationMaster
Qualifying leads is a necessary, but sometimes time-consuming job. The lead qualifying tips discussed above will help you more efficiently sort through your incoming leads and determine which leads are worth pursuing and which leads can be eliminated from your consideration.
No matter what source your leads come from, there is bound to be some bogus leads or leads that do not make sense for your business. One way to help improve the quality of incoming leads and reduce the amount of time spent qualifying leads is to work with a professional that provides lead generation services for contractors.
At RestorationMaster, we provide high quality leads for disaster restoration contractors through our website restorationmasterfinder.com. Our highly optimized micro-sites and service pages generate relevant, quality contractor leads, and we offer exclusive leads in each territory so there is no competition. We record each phone call that goes to your business from our tracking number and provide you with a report of the calls so you will immediately know what source the leads came from which can help make qualifying the leads more efficient.
RestorationMaster can generate quality contractor leads including water damage leads, fire damage leads, and mold remediation leads. You can call us at (888) 846-1992 for more information about how we can help you grow your business through lead generation.