What 'qualified' means for you
A qualified lead is someone you can serve, who may need you soon, and whom you're allowed to contact. Miss any one of the three and the lead won't turn into a job.
Write your own definition down: your service area, the services you sell, the smallest job worth taking, and who you don't work with. Every check below starts from that list.
The one-minute checklist
If a lead fails any of these, set it aside before you spend more on it.
- Outside your area. Check the address or ZIP against where you actually work.
- Wrong service. A window-cleaning lead is no use to a roofer.
- Already your customer. Check your CRM before you pay for, or mail, someone you already serve.
- A duplicate. The same person or property twice, often with a slightly different spelling.
- Stale. A home that sold eight months ago or a permit from last year isn't ready now.
- No reason. If nobody can tell you why this lead needs you now, you're guessing.
- No source. If you can't see where it came from and when, you can't judge it.
- Can't be reached legally. A homeowner's cell number with no written consent is not a text lead, and numbers on the Do-Not-Call list are off limits for sales calls.
- Closed or gone. A business that has shut down, or an address mail can't reach.
Red flags in how leads are sold
Sometimes the problem is the seller, not the lead.
- The seller won't say whether the lead is sold to anyone else.
- There's no written rule for what counts as a bad lead, or replacing one takes a fight.
- You pay in advance for credits or points that expire.
- The seller can't tell you where its data comes from.
- Results are promised, like "10x your revenue", with no proof behind them.
Track what bad leads cost you
Each time you set a lead aside, note the reason from the checklist. After a month you'll see which reasons come up most and which sources cause them.
An example with made-up numbers: you buy 100 leads at $20 each and 30 fail the checklist. That's $600 spent on leads that never had a chance, and your real cost per usable lead is about $28.57, not $20.
Share that tally with whoever sells you leads. A good seller fixes the filter instead of arguing.
How ReadyKnock handles it
Before a lead reaches you, ReadyKnock checks it against your area, your services, your customer list and your do-not-contact list, then scores fit, signal strength and freshness from 0 to 100. Only leads above your quality bar count.
Every lead shows its source, the date it was pulled and a plain-English reason it's ready. Homeowner leads come with mail and ad options only, never cold calls or texts.
Under our proposed terms, if a lead has a wrong or undeliverable address, is already your customer, is outside your territory, is a duplicate, or the business has closed, flag it within 14 days and we replace it. The final terms are in your order form.