How to Qualify a Contractor Lead

The Real Goal Protect the two most expensive resources a contractor has — travel time and estimating time — before either gets spent.

Ask This, Not That

Ask “Is this the kind of work we handle?” — first, before anything else. Trade fit decided late wastes everyone’s morning. Ask “Roughly how big is the project — square footage, number of rooms, number of openings?” — not a vague “Tell me about the project” that produces twenty minutes of conversation and no usable scope. Ask “Are you hoping to start soon, or is this more of a next-year plan?” — not treat every lead as equally urgent. Readiness changes how the opportunity should be prioritized, not whether it’s worth taking.

The Follow-Through Trade fit, distance, and project size together decide whether this belongs in the active sales pipeline, a review queue, or a polite decline. Readiness and decision structure (who actually approves the work) shape how fast and how hard to follow up.

Skip This If Skip asking for exhaustive project detail before the trade fit is even confirmed — there’s no reason to learn the square footage of a job the company doesn’t perform.