Generating leads is important, but qualifying your leads is vital to ensure you’re targeting the right audience. It’s difficult to ensure every single lead you get is qualified, especially in the home improvement business.
Homeowners are not professionals (which is why they’re calling you) and are less likely to understand what they actually need. It’s in your hands to make sure they are qualified before spending your time and energy nurturing the lead.
So, how can you ensure that your leads are qualified? Keep reading to learn the process of qualifying leads for your home improvement business.
- Determine where they came from
The first step to identifying if a lead is qualified for your business; look into how they came across you. Was it through marketing? Social media? Tracking where your leads are coming from can help you make decisions on where to allocate additional resources to those that generate you the most amount of calls.
After qualifying your leads, you can soon tell if those efforts are producing quality leads.
- Review their scope of work
Following up with the homeowner is the perfect time to ask the right questions that will allow you to determine if they are a good fit for you to do business with. When you call the homeowner, ask them about their project. Ask them to explain in detail what their issue is and what outcome they would like to see.
From here, your experience in your industry will lead you to what questions you need to ask to gauge more of their needs. If it seems like the right fit, you can take it from there. If the homeowner wants a service that you don’t provide, ask them if they would like you to refer them to someone who can provide those services.
- Determine the sense of urgency, budget, and schedule
If you’re in the home improvement service business, you know that many times a homeowner will call you with no sense of urgency, budget, or schedule whatsoever. Usually, those can result in a game of tag, but also can be worth it if nurtured correctly. But most just simply aren’t aware of the timeframe certain projects take and could be looking to you for more structure and direction for their needs. This is a great opportunity to lay out a general timeframe for them based on the information you have gathered so far.
Next, budget. This can sometimes be a question salespeople tiptoe around but when it comes to home improvement services, price matters and can change drastically as the project progresses. So, ensuring the homeowner is able to pay for the cost of your services is essential before moving forward. Remember, they aren’t as knowledgeable as you in the field so they may need some education when it comes to justifying prices.
Another key topic to touch on during your initial conversation with the homeowner is the schedule of the project. Because most homeowners have little experience with projects, especially larger ones, they again can fail to understand the amount of time something may take. For example, a project like a new kitchen or bathroom will need extra time for planning and designing before any construction can begin.
- Review project details
This initial call can be overwhelming for the homeowner. At the end of your call, review the details of their project with them, letting them know you understand their needs and what they are looking for. This will help them piece together everything and give them an idea if it’s something they want to move forward with. And something you want too! If it turns out they aren’t ready for the project, they will appreciate your level of attention and guidance and could refer someone they know to you in the future.
- Know when to move on
It can be exciting when you get a new lead, but not all leads are qualified to receive your services. And that’s okay. It’s better to nurture relationships that you know will result in a positive outcome for your business rather than trying to make something work and hurting your business instead. If any red flags come up while going through the process of qualifying your lead, you may want to make the ultimate decision to move on.
Generating leads can be a long and daunting process (although it doesn’t have to be with conXpros!) Sometimes we want to take any business we can get. But, remember not all business is the right business! It’s important to qualify your leads before you waste resources such as time and money. Follow these steps to ensure you’re qualifying your leads.
For more helpful tips, check out our other blogs.