The 5-minute rule
Call new leads within 5 minutes of receiving them. Not 5 hours, not the next day. Five minutes.
Why it matters:
The homeowner just filled out a form. Their phone is in their hand.
They probably submitted forms on 2-3 sites at once. First contractor to talk to them wins.
After 30 minutes, your odds of even connecting on a call drop by more than half.
If you can't personally answer the phone that fast, set up your dashboard notifications, SMS alerts, or an integration to push leads directly to whoever handles your inbound calls.
What to say on the first call
A simple opening that works:
"Hi, this is [Your Name] with [Your Company]. I see you just submitted a request for a [trade] [job type]. I wanted to call you back quickly to learn a bit more about what you're looking for and see if we can help."
Key things to cover on the first call:
Confirm the project details they submitted
Ask about timing (urgent, this month, this quarter)
Ask if they've gotten other quotes
Set up an appointment to look at the job
The goal of the first call is the appointment, not the sale.
Follow-up cadence
Most contractors call once, leave a voicemail, and give up if they don't hear back. The contractors who close the most jobs follow up consistently for at least 10 days.
A simple cadence that works:
Day 1: Initial call within 5 minutes. If no answer, leave a voicemail and send a text.
Day 1-10: Call twice per day. Once in the morning (9-11am), once in the afternoon (4-6pm). Vary your timing slightly so you're not hitting the same hour every day.
After day 10: Move to weekly check-ins for another 30 days if they're still not responding.
Yes, this feels like a lot. But the data is clear: most homeowners take 5-7 contact attempts before they respond. The contractor who keeps following up is the one who books the job.
Text messages work
Some homeowners respond faster to texts than calls. A short, friendly text after a missed call helps:
"Hi [Name], this is [Your Name] from [Your Company]. I tried you earlier about your [trade] project. Whenever you have a minute, give me a shout. Happy to set up a free quote."
Keep texts short and professional. No emojis, no aggressive selling.
Tracking leads in your system
If you're using an integration like GoHighLevel or Zapier to push leads into your CRM, mark each lead's status as you work it:
New
Contacted
Appointment set
Quoted
Won / Lost
After a few weeks you'll have data on your close rate, your time-to-close, and your average job value. This is what tells you whether your campaign pricing is profitable.
When a lead goes cold
If after 10 days of consistent follow-up the homeowner hasn't responded, move on. Mark it lost in your CRM and stop spending time on it. Lead gen is volume work. You don't win every one.
That said, do not dispute a lead just because the homeowner didn't answer your calls. Disputes are for leads with bad data (wrong number, spam, fake submission). See the next article for what qualifies for a dispute.
What's next
When a lead has a real problem (wrong number, spam, duplicate), you can dispute it for a credit. Here's how.