I spent three months arguing with a number.
It was the lead score on my Take the Leads dashboard. HomeAdvisor was sending me jobs scored in the 60s and 70s, and I was taking every single one. My mindset: a lead is a lead. If someone called asking for HVAC work, I'd quote it.
Then I got curious about something simple: which leads actually turned into money?
The Experiment
I pulled my closed jobs from the last six months and cross-referenced them with their original lead scores. What I found was embarrassing.
Jobs from leads scored 80+: 34% close rate. Jobs from leads scored 70-79: 18% close rate. Jobs from leads scored below 70: 8% close rate.
That's not a trend. That's a signal.
I was spending the same amount of time quoting a 65-score lead as a 92-score lead. But the 92-score lead was four times more likely to hire me. Every hour I spent on a weak lead was an hour I wasn't spending on a strong one.
What the Score Actually Means
The lead scoring algorithm isn't magic. It's measuring real things: how quickly the customer reached out after posting, whether they're contacting multiple contractors or just you, whether they're asking for price or details, how complete their project description is.
High-score leads are serious. They're ready to move.
Low-score leads might be window shopping, comparing prices, or testing the water before they actually commit to work.
Neither is bad. But they require different strategies.
The System I Built
After I saw my close rate data, I changed how I work:
- Morning batch (80+ leads): Quote within 20 minutes. These are conversion-ready. Speed matters here more than anywhere else in my pipeline.
- Midday batch (70-79 leads): Quote within 2 hours. Serious, but less urgent. I'm thorough with these but not panicked.
- Afternoon batch (below 70 leads): Quote if I have time. These get professional follow-up, but I don't rearrange my schedule for them.
I also set a minimum threshold in my settings. Anything below 65 gets marked "Not Interested" automatically unless it's a slow week. That freed up hours every month.
The ROI Shift
After three months of running this system, my numbers changed:
- Cost-per-close job: Down from $340 to $208.
- Time spent quoting: Down 22 hours per month.
- Close rate overall: Up from 19% to 26%.
I didn't get better at selling. I got better at choosing what to sell.
The Counterintuitive Part
I'm now turning down more leads than I used to. But I'm closing more jobs.
That still feels weird to type. My instinct as a contractor is to chase volume. More leads = more jobs. But that math breaks down when you factor in time and conversion rates.
If I spend 30 minutes on a 65-score lead with an 8% close rate, I'm investing 6+ minutes per actual job in lead cost. If I spend 30 minutes on an 85-score lead with a 35% close rate, I'm investing 51 seconds per job.
The math isn't subtle.
How to Find Your Own Number
You probably have the data already in your Take the Leads dashboard. Here's how to find your threshold:
- Go to Analytics → Performance.
- Filter by lead score ranges (60-69, 70-79, 80-89, 90+).
- Look at your close rate for each range.
- Find the score where close rate drops below 15%. That's your cutoff.
Mine is 65. Yours might be 72. It depends on your market, your service type, and your sales approach.
Once you have it, set it in your Settings → Lead Preferences → Minimum Score. Anything below that still comes through, but it's deprioritized.
One More Thing
The score isn't permanent. It updates as the lead shows more or less engagement. A customer who doesn't respond the first day might engage the next. Keep that window open.
But don't waste prime selling hours on low-probability leads while high-probability leads sit in your inbox. The algorithm saw the same information you did. It just got there faster.
My job is to listen to it.