You get leads. You don't get customers.

Most owners we meet don't have a traffic problem. The phone rings, the form gets filled, someone messages on Instagram at 9pm. The problem is what happens in the next 48 hours. Here are the five leaks we find in almost every audit, in the order they cost you money.

1. Nobody answers in the first five minutes

A lead that gets a reply within five minutes is many times more likely to become a customer than one that waits an hour. Not because people are impatient — because they contacted three companies, and the first one to answer gets the conversation.

Fix: an instant text back to every form and missed call. "Hi, this is Sam from Northside Roofing — got your request, calling you in 10 minutes." That one message, automated, lifts booking rates more than any redesign we have ever done.

2. The lead lives in four places

Website form in one inbox, Facebook messages in another, phone calls in someone's head, quotes in a spreadsheet. Nobody owns the lead, so nobody follows up on Tuesday when it goes quiet.

Fix: one pipeline. Every enquiry, from any channel, lands in the same list with a stage: New, Contacted, Quoted, Won, Lost. You look at the list once a day. That's the whole system.

3. The quote goes out and the conversation ends

A quote is not a close. People get busy, compare, forget. Most businesses send the number and wait.

Fix: three follow-ups, spaced over ten days, written once and sent automatically. Day 2: "Any questions on the quote?" Day 5: a short answer to the most common objection. Day 10: "Should I keep the spot or release it?" Polite, human, relentless.

4. Old leads are treated as dead

The homeowner who asked about a deck last spring is far more likely to buy a deck this spring than a stranger seeing your ad. They already know you.

Fix: a reactivation message every season to everyone who didn't buy. "We have two openings in May — still thinking about the deck?" This is usually the cheapest revenue of the year.

5. Nobody asks for the review

Reviews are the last step of the sale and the first step of the next one. Most teams skip it because it feels awkward.

Fix: the day the job is done, an automatic text with the direct Google review link. Reply rates are high because the work is fresh.

What this looks like in practice

For a trades or clinic business all five fixes live in one place: a CRM with the website form, phone and socials connected, a handful of automations, and a pipeline you open every morning. It takes a couple of weeks to set up properly and then it runs. If you want it done for you, that's what we do.