Most Tradies Are Losing Jobs to Leads They Already Paid For

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In this episode of Marketing for Tradies, Shannon breaks down the real reason tradies lose jobs, and it's not bad leads. It's lead waste. If you're spending money on marketing and wondering why it's not converting, this episode will show you exactly where the money is leaking and the three simple steps to fix it.

This episode covers:
◼️ Why homeowners aren't annoyed when you call, they're annoyed when you don't
◼️ The truth about sales for tradies (it's not what you think )
◼️ How to calculate the exact revenue you're losing to unconverted leads
◼️ The three-step sales process that turns enquiries into booked jobs
◼️ Why your marketing is probably working better than you think

00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:30 Why Homeowners Want You to Call Back
00:01:30 The Truth About Sales for Tradies
00:02:30 You're Not Cold Calling, You're Solving a Problem
00:03:30 How to Present Quotes That Give Customers Confidence
00:04:30 The Real Problem: Lead Waste, Not Lead Volume
00:05:30 Do the Maths on Your Own Business
00:06:30 How Much Revenue Are You Losing Right Now?
00:07:15 The Three-Step Sales Process
00:08:00 Respond in Five Minutes, Follow Up Relentlessly
00:08:45 Present Your Quotes Professionally
00:09:10 What to Do Next

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• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eastbounddigitalagency

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

There's a tradie right now, somewhere in Australia, who spent three grand on Google Ads last month, got 30 leads but won no jobs from it. A lot of tradies treat follow-up very casually. A lead comes in, they call once, it goes to voicemail, and they never call back again. A proper quote presentation is a sales document. It should include a breakdown of the value you're providing. It should include photos of similar projects you've done. It should include testimonials, warranty, all of that information. And that way you aren't just sending a price, you're presenting a solution. Following up is not pushy, it's actually really professional. When a homeowner submits an inquiry, they want to hear from you. They are not annoyed when you call back. They're annoyed when you don't. Welcome to Marketing for Trading, the podcast where we help trades and service-based businesses with straight-up marketing advice to get more leads and put 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 guest ball. So let's get into it. There's a trade right now, somewhere in Australia, who spent three grand on Google Ads last month, got 30 leads but won no jobs from it. Not because the leads were bad or because he's not good at what he does, but because he doesn't have a proper sales process. Nobody was there to catch those leads when they came in. There was no follow-up, there was no system, and he wasn't sending his quotes effectively. And today I'm gonna show you exactly how much that is costing you and how to fix it. So this is the part that's going to sting. I'm gonna give you some numbers here, but you need to see this. It's very, very common, especially in trades businesses. So let's say that you're getting 30 leads a month from your marketing. That's a realistic number for a tradie spending two to four K per month on Google ads, depending on the type of trade that you're offering. So let's say that your average job value is $5,000 for a lot of trades, like builders, landscapers, kitchen renovators, you know, it's significantly more than that. But $5k is a conservative middle ground. Even if it's less, this is just for example's sake, right? If you're losing even half of those leads because your sales process is broken, and based on what I've seen across dozens or hundreds of clients, 50% is very, very conservative. Here's what that looks like: 15 loss leads times $5,000 per month, that's $75,000 a month in potential revenue that never even got a chance. And over a year, that's around $900,000 in pipeline value that leaked out. Not because your ads didn't work, not because the leads were bad, but because your sales process let them slip through. So how do we actually fix it? A proper sales process for a tradee comes down to these three things. The first stage of your sales process is speed to lead. A few months ago, I ran an experiment contacting 10 different trades businesses as a fake customer. Then I timed how long it took for them to respond. The average response time was over four hours. One business took 27 hours, two never even responded at all. And here's why that matters. Research shows that if you respond to a lead within five minutes, you are 21 times more likely to qualify that lead than if you were to wait 30 minutes or more. If you were to wait an hour, you're basically done because that customer has already called someone else and got a response. When an inquiry comes in, let's say 2 p.m. on a Tuesday, you're probably on a job site. It's not realistic to call them back straight away. But if you're relying on manual processes, you don't see that lead for hours. And by the time you do get back to them, they've already gone to someone else. Speed wins. So the trade that responds first always gets the job. But if you can't respond in five minutes, which isn't realistic for a lot of tradies, you need an automated SMS or AI agent that can handle those leads instantly while you're working. The second stage of your sales process is relentless follow-up. A lot of tradies treat follow-up very casually. A lead comes in, they call once, it goes to voicemail, and they never call back again. Or they send a quote, they wait a week and assume the customer went with someone else. This is not a sales process. Hope is not an effective follow-up strategy. And relying on your call logs are not an effective way to handle leads either. People are busy, they get distracted. Your job is to stay in front of them until you get a yes or a no. Proper follow-up process means calling a new lead three times within the first 24 hours. It means sending an SMS if they don't pick up. It means having a scheduled reminder to check in on a quote every day or three days and then seven days after you've sent it. If you don't have a CRM or a system reminding you to follow up, you are relying on your memory, and your memory is costing you so much money right now. We have helped many, many businesses with their sales process, and this is a real thing because it doesn't matter how much marketing you're doing or how good it is and how good the leads are, how many jobs you're closing and jobs you're getting booked into your calendar is what really matters because that's what generates money and what's generating revenue, and that's what drives your business. So you need to be on to having a proper sales process and implementing speed to lead and relentless follow-up if you want to be successful in your trades business and win more jobs. The third stage of your sales process that's really, really important is quote presentation. This is where so many tradies drop the ball right at the finish line. You've paid for the lead, you've responded quickly, you've followed up, you've gone out and measured the job, and then you email them a one-page PDF from zero with a single line item with a cost, with a number, with that dollar sign, and that's all they see. When you do that, you're forcing the customer to make their decision based entirely on price because you haven't given them anything else to judge you on other than the meeting that you had, which they may have forgotten about by now. A proper quote presentation is a sales document. It should include a breakdown of the value you're providing. It should include photos of similar projects you've done. It should include your guarantee, it should include testimonials, warranty, all of that information. And that way you aren't just sending a price, you're presenting a solution. When you present your quote professionally, you stop competing on price and start competing on value, you reinforce the authority of your brand. And that's how you close more deals and get a better return on your marketing investment and stop leaking sales in your pipeline. Now, before I wrap up, I want to address something that is probably sitting in the back of your mind right now. And I see this in a lot of tradies that they're uncomforta they're uncomfortable with the idea of having a sales process. They feel like it's pushy, they feel like they're being sleazy car salesman, like following up three times make makes them look desperate. But here's the truth following up is not pushy, it's actually really professional. When a homeowner submits an inquiry, they want to hear from you. They are not annoyed when you call back. They're annoyed when you don't. And that's what they tell their friends about that, oh, I inquired with this business, but they never even got back to me. You've probably heard that before. These people have submitted a form because they have a real problem and they need someone to solve it. Your job is to be the person who shows up and says, hey, I can help you. The tradies who are uncomfortable with sales are the ones who think selling means convincing someone to buy something they don't want or need. And that's not what this is. You're not cold calling strangers, you're calling people who put their hand up and ask for help. That's not sleazy sales. That's providing a solution and a service. And when you present a professional quote, when you show them your past work, your guarantee, your warranty, your process, you're not being pushy. You're gonna give them the confidence and the information that they need to make a decision. And that's your job in your sales process. So three things I want you to take away from this episode. Number one, your marketing is probably working better than you think. The problem usually isn't lead volume and lead quality if you're with a good provider, it's lead waste. Number two, do the maths for your own business. Take all the leads you generated last month, remove the ones that you closed into jobs, and then calculate how much lost revenue is in the leads that never converted and be honest, is it because the leads were bad or because you didn't follow up effectively? And number three is that the sales process is just three steps. Respond in five minutes, follow up relentlessly, and present your quotes professionally. If you want us to audit your lead flow and show you exactly where your money's going or leaking right now, head over to our website or click the links in the description. You can access free trainings, you can book a talk call with me and my team, or you can even just share this with a trading mate who's spending money on marketing and wondering why it's not working. There's a good chance the marketing's fine. The bucket just has holes in it. So hope this episode was helpful and I'll see you guys next time. 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, could call with my team using the link below and let's see how we can happen.