01 · Ownership
Name the person before the lead arrives.
“The office” and “whoever sees it” are not owners. Each source needs one primary responder, one backup, operating hours, and an escalation rule. The system should answer five questions without a meeting: who received it, when they saw it, what happened next, what the lead needs, and whether the opportunity is still open.
02 · Minimum workflow
Keep the first version brutally simple.
- 01
Acknowledge.
Send a clear confirmation in under 60 seconds when the source and consent allow it. Say the request was received and what happens next. Do not pretend an automated reply is a human conversation.
- 02
Alert.
Notify the assigned contractor or office responder with service, territory, contact route, received time, and the relevant project details.
- 03
Call.
Aim for the first human attempt within five minutes during operating hours. Record the actual time instead of assuming “fast.”
- 04
Retry with restraint.
Use a defined sequence across permitted channels, stop after the planned attempts, and honor replies, opt-outs, wrong numbers, and other stop signals.
- 05
Close the status.
Every record ends in a usable disposition: invalid, unable to reach, not qualified, estimate set, estimate lost, sold, completed, or another clearly defined state.
03 · Qualification
Qualification protects the calendar and the scorecard.
A valid lead is not automatically qualified. Confirm the service, location, timing, project facts, and whether the work meets the contractor’s operating and economic boundaries. Do not collect information that does not change the decision.
A real person supplied a usable contact route and asked about the promoted service.
The property sits inside the exact service boundary used for the campaign.
The requested work is actually provided and can be evaluated safely.
The timing and job profile work for the current crew and business.
04 · Status language
Use words that two people interpret the same way.
- New
- Received but no human attempt has occurred.
- Attempted
- At least one permitted human contact attempt is recorded.
- Contacted
- A two-way exchange occurred with the lead or authorized decision-maker.
- Qualified
- The opportunity passes the agreed service, territory, timing, and capacity rules.
- Estimate
- An estimate was set or delivered, with the date recorded.
- Sold / lost
- The final sales decision is known. Lost records carry a reason when known.
05 · Measurement
Separate marketing quality from response quality.
Track valid-lead rate, median first-human-attempt time, contact rate, qualification rate, estimate rate, close rate, collected revenue, acquisition cost, and gross-margin context. Then segment by source, campaign, service, territory, and responder.
If leads are invalid, fix targeting or capture. If valid leads are not reached, fix response. If qualified leads do not become estimates, inspect discovery and scheduling. If estimates do not close, inspect price, trust, timing, and sales—not the ad click.
06 · Automation boundary
Automate the handoff, not the accountability.
Automation can acknowledge, alert, route, timestamp, and remind. It cannot make an unverified claim, ignore consent, erase an opt-out, or turn a failed handoff into a customer. Start with a workflow the team can operate manually and understand. Add automation only where it removes a clear failure point.
Lerrow does not include appointment setting in the first-phase pilot. That capability stays held until lead flow and response operations are stable.