I Tested 10 Tradies Response Times. The Results Were Shocking

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You’re losing jobs and you don’t even know it.

Not because your work isn’t good enough. Not because of your reviews or experience. But because another tradie is simply getting back to the lead faster.

In this episode of Marketing for Tradies, Shannon breaks down the results of a real experiment where she submitted the exact same enquiry to 10 local roofing companies. One tradie responded in just 4 minutes, had a quick conversation, and locked in the job immediately while others who responded later never even got a chance.

This episode dives into why lead response time is the real deciding factor when it comes to winning work, and how tradies can improve their lead conversion without increasing ad spend.

If you want to win more jobs, generate more leads, and grow your trades business, this episode will show you how to take advantage of what Shannon calls the “golden window” ⏱️ and turn more enquiries into booked work.


Timestamps:
[00:00:00] Introduction
[00:00:20] Why tradies lose jobs without realising
[00:01:10] The biggest myth about winning work
[00:02:20] The 10-tradie experiment explained
[00:03:40] The tradie who won in 4 minutes
[00:04:50] What happened to the other tradies
[00:05:40] Why speed beats experience and reviews
[00:06:30] The Harvard study (21x conversion)
[00:07:45] The “golden window” explained ⏱️
[00:09:00] How to win more jobs consistently

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Right now, you're losing jobs you don't even know you're losing. Simply because your competitors are getting back to leads faster than you. Most tradies think their quality of work, their years of experience, or their five-star reviews are what wins the job. This is the reality of speed to lead. The homeowner with a problem wants a problem solved now. They want a feeling of progress. What this does in terms of the psychological process of someone that's inquiring with you is that it's Welcome to Marketing for Tradees, the podcast where we help trades and service-based businesses with straight-up marketing advice to get more leads and win more jobs. I'm your host, Shannon, and my agency has helped over a hundred businesses go from inconsistent work and relying on word of mouth to getting a steady flow of jobs coming in every single week. In this podcast, I'm walking you through simple, practical strategies that actually help you grow your business without the guesswork. So let's get into it. Last week I did an experiment. I submitted an identical inquiry for a simple roofing job to 10 different local tradies in my area. The results were genuinely shocking. Today we're talking about why the first trade to get back to Leeds almost always wins the job and how you can be that tradie every single time. Right now, you're losing jobs you don't even know you're losing simply because your competitors are getting back to Leeds faster than you. The lead that you plan on calling back this afternoon has already been lost this morning. Most tradies think their quality of work, their years of experience, or their five-star reviews are what wins the job. They believe the customer will wait for the best quote. But the hard truth is the customer will almost always hire the first person who contacts them, sounds competent, and solves their immediate problem. This isn't just a theory. A famous study from Harvard Business Review found that companies that tried to contact potential customers within five minutes of receiving an inquiry were 21 times more likely to convert that lead compared to those who tried to contact the customer even an hour later. 21 times higher. So in this episode, I'm gonna share the full unfiltered results of my 10 trade experiment. We're gonna break down what I call the golden window for lead response, and I'll show you exactly how you can win the speed game even if you don't have a sales team. Let's start with the experiment. So I went to Google, I searched for Roofing Company near me, and I filled out the inquiry form for the first 10 local businesses that came up. Then I started a stopwatch and waited. What happened next is a perfect illustration of why so many trades businesses are struggling to get ahead. They're playing a game they don't understand. They're losing before they even get on the field. Trading number one called me back within four minutes. I answered the phone, we had a great conversation, and he booked in a time to come and quote the job. Simple. And by the way, this is a real job that I need done. Trading number two and tradey number three both called me back within the first hour. Not too bad, but here's the thing: I didn't answer. Why? Because I was already on the phone or had already spoken to trading number one, the fast one. They didn't leave a voicemail. Trading number four sent me an SMS about two hours later. Trading number five, six, and seven all emailed me back the next day. And tradey eight, nine, and ten, I never heard from them again. Nothing. So who do you think got the job? It's not a trick question. The race was over in four minutes. Nine other businesses, many of whom probably do fantastic work, never even had a chance to speak to me. They were competing for second place and they didn't even know it. This is the reality of speed to lead. The homeowner with a problem wants a problem solved now. They want a feeling of progress. The first person who contacts them provides that feeling. Everyone else is just an afterthought. So here's what I want you to do. This is your action step for this part of the episode. Go into your CRM system or your email inbox, your phone log, whatever you use, find the last 10 inquiries you got from your website or from a lead form and calculate the average time it took for you to respond to them. Be brutally honest with yourself. Are you trading number one or are you trading number eight? Now you might be thinking, this is impossible. I can't call everyone back in four minutes. I'm on the tools, I'm up a ladder, I'm driving between jobs, I'm trying to have some downtime finally. And you're right, you can't, not manually. This is how the big companies with full-time receptionists and sales teams have traditionally beaten the small operator. They have the manpower to be fast, but you can use technology now to create the same result or even a better one. This is just one part of the trade's marketing system, which is an AI-powered speed-to-lead system. I want you to imagine this. The moment a lead fills in a form on your website or landing page, your system automatically sends them an SNS. It's simple and it's something like, hey John, got your inquiry about the roofing job. Are you available to answer some questions about your project? It then proceeds to have a fully automated conversation with them. This is using AI, this sounds human, and it's asking key details that are often repeated when you speak to leads. Like where are they located, what's the exact job they need done, and then the AI tells that lead that someone from your team is going to get back to them within 24 hours. What this does in terms of the psychological process of someone that's inquiring with you is that it first gives that person, the homeowner, the instant gratification that they crave. Their problem has been acknowledged, they feel progress. Second, it makes you look incredibly professional and organized. And third, this is the most important part by the way, it stops them from calling anyone else. Why would they? They already know that you're on the case. Those few simple texts have bought you time you need to finish what you're doing and call them back properly. And by the way, this isn't some complex, expensive technology. This is a simple automation that anyone can set up, but it's a secret weapon that allows any business to compete with the biggest companies in the country and it completely levels the playing field. Your next action step is to map out the questions that an AI speed to lead system would be asking your inquiries as they come through. More often than not, these are repeatable questions that every single lead is asked as they come through. And just imagine how this would feel when that customer gets that message within 60 seconds of contacting you. And I'm telling you right now, this is what wins jobs these days. So to wrap this up, the game you are playing is a race. I'm sorry, but it is. The quality of your work doesn't really matter if you never get the chance to quote the job. Speed is the new currency in local service businesses. Your challenge for this week is to take that average response time you calculated and cut it in half. If it's two hours, get it to one. If it's 30 minutes, get it to 15 minutes. And start thinking about how you can use a simple automated system and utilize the power of AI to get your foot in the door before anyone else. Thank you for tuning in to the Marketing for Tradies podcast. If you got something out of this episode, don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe or leave us a review on whatever platform you're listening on. And if you're a service based business owner who'd rather have someone handle your marketing for you, book a call with my team using the link below and let's see how we can help.