Lead Recovery Strategies for Home Service Contractors

The average contractor has over $1 million in unsold estimates sitting in their CRM. Most of it never gets a second look.

One ServiceTitan client found $25 million in open estimates in a single month. Converting just 10% of that would add $2.5 million in revenue without spending another dollar on ads.

Lead recovery extracts more value from leads you already paid for. Zero new ad spend required.

The three types of lost leads

Unsold estimates are leads where you gave a quote and the homeowner went quiet. These are the warmest leads in your database because they already expressed enough interest to request pricing.

Website visitors who never converted represent 97% of traffic. Some had intent but got distracted. They’re interested but invisible.

Slow follow-up casualties happen when a lead comes in at 9 PM on a Friday and you call back Monday morning. By then, they’ve already hired someone else. 78% of customers hire the first company to respond.

Each type requires a different recovery strategy.

Recovering unsold estimates

Unsold estimates are the lowest-hanging fruit. These people already wanted your service. Something stopped them from saying yes.

Estimates go unsold for predictable reasons. Price seems high and no one offered financing. Timing was wrong because they’re waiting for a tax refund or bonus.

Other priorities took over and life happened. Weeks passed, urgency faded, and they simply forgot. Others are still comparing quotes and remain undecided.

80% of sales require five or more follow-up attempts. But 44% of salespeople quit after one call. The math explains why most estimates stay unsold.

What actually works is multi-channel sequences. Text has a 98% open rate. Email documents the details. Phone creates personal connection. Use all three.

Financing follow-ups remove the price objection: “Did you know we offer financing as low as $X/month?”

Calendar-based outreach creates urgency: “Your estimate from last fall is expiring at the end of the month. Want me to honor the same price before it updates?”

Setting expectations upfront helps too. Ask at the estimate: “Do you mind if I follow up next Tuesday?” Now calling keeps a commitment rather than feeling pushy.

One HVAC company that implemented systematic estimate follow-up added $1 million in annual revenue from leads they would have otherwise ignored.

Recovering anonymous website visitors

97% of visitors leave without converting. That’s demand walking out the door.

Visitor identification tools can match 15-25% of traffic to names and addresses. You get a list of people who looked at your services—people you can reach with direct mail or email.

Even unidentified visitors can see your ads again. Retargeting campaigns keep you top of mind until they’re ready to act.

Partial submission tools save information as visitors type, even when forms go incomplete. If someone enters their phone number but leaves before submitting, you can still follow up.

Exit-intent popups trigger when someone moves to leave. “Wait—get $50 off your first service” captures some percentage of people about to disappear.

The goal is to recover the visitors who had real intent but left before taking action.

Recovering slow-response leads

Speed determines close rate. Responding within 5 minutes makes you 21x more likely to qualify a lead than waiting 30 minutes.

Responding in 5 minutes is sometimes impossible. Leads come in after hours. You’re on a job.

Instant auto-text buys you time while signaling you’re responsive: “Thanks for reaching out! We got your message and will call within the hour. Can I confirm this is the best number?”

After-hours answering services answer 24/7 and book appointments directly into your calendar. The lead becomes a scheduled job before you even see the request.

Sort overnight leads by value. A $500 drain clearing can wait. A $10,000 HVAC replacement gets called at 8 AM sharp.

When immediate calls are impossible, text with a specific commitment: “I’m finishing up a job and will call you at 3 PM today. Does that work?”

Speed saves most leads, though some will still choose the first responder. Systematic fast response converts more than hoping you remember to call back.

Building a lead recovery system

Random follow-up fails. You need a system that runs whether you’re paying attention or elsewhere.

Start by auditing your unsold estimates. Pull every estimate from the past 12 months that didn’t close, sort by value, and start with the biggest.

Create follow-up sequences with 8-12 touches over 2-4 weeks. Mix text, email, and phone. Automate as much as possible.

Track response by salesperson. Best performers hit 60-90% response rates on estimate follow-up. Worst performers hit 18%. Identify who needs training.

Set up visitor identification to find leads you didn’t have before. Even 15-25% identification adds new opportunities. Compare the available tools.

Implement retargeting to stay visible to visitors who left. When they’re ready, you’re the contractor they remember.

Finally, measure cost per recovered customer. Track separately from new lead acquisition. The cost is usually much lower because you’re not paying for new clicks.

The revenue math

Say you have 500 unsold estimates worth an average of $2,000 each. Add 10,000 monthly visitors with 20% identification rate (2,000 identified) and assume 5% of identified visitors need service soon (100 warm leads).

If you close 10% of unsold estimates, that’s 50 jobs at $2,000 each for $100,000. Close 20% of identified warm leads and that’s 20 jobs at $1,500 each for $30,000.

That’s $130,000 in recovered revenue from leads you already had. No additional ad spend. Just better follow-through.

What recovery costs

Unsold estimate follow-up costs mostly time. CRM automation helps and ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, and Jobber all have estimate follow-up features built in.

Visitor identification runs $79-700/month depending on tool and traffic volume. Compare options here.

Retargeting is variable based on impression volume, typically $200-1,000/month for local contractors. Answering services run $1-2 per call or $200-500/month flat rate.

Compare these costs to acquiring new leads at $50-150 each. Recovery almost always beats new acquisition on ROI.

Start here

If you’re not following up on unsold estimates, start there. It’s the fastest win with zero additional marketing spend.

If you’re already following up, add visitor identification to capture the 97% who leave without converting.

If you’re doing both, implement systematic retargeting and after-hours answering.

Each layer recovers more of the demand you’re already generating. The leads exist. They just need a system to capture them.