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Much of a company’s success or failure with new leads happens at the point of inquiry, and how your team responds to each possible type of outcome. It is important to write down what happens if you don’t schedule the prospect. It is important to determine the elapsed time your team takes to call the prospect back. As the Internet becomes a critical tool in the selling process, it is also vital that your people attempt to get each prospect’s e-mail address, even if they don’t schedule an appointment, so they can be sent your quarterly or monthly e-newsletter. If you schedule a demonstration but do not end up running the lead, make sure the reason for not running the lead is well documented.

In every company there should be a person designated to follow up on lost opportunities. One possible pitfall is having the same person who scheduled the opportunity also be the person checking for errors. If that is the case, you will have problems 100 percent of the time.

Home improvement companies are in a lead game, constantly fighting marketing costs and looking for more leads. Making a lead map for your business should be the first thing you do before you increase your advertising spending or add a different type of media.

Without a lead map, most companies let those 30 percent of “dead” inquiries remain that way. At Lifetyme Exteriors, we have seen big benefits from the understanding gained by mapping our leads through our system and continually improving the weak points in our process. We learn by asking these questions and properly categorizing the leads.

Each of the exterior contractors for whom we’ve helped create a lead map has discovered huge areas for improvement. In fact, most owners will increase their lead flow within two weeks. Even more impressive is that leads harvested through proper mapping tend to be as good, if not better, than your average lead.