Frequently Asked Questions About Trady Web Guys Modern Marketing System
21 answers covering everything from basics to advanced usage.
// Basics
What does 'the lead is never the problem' actually mean?
It means that in most contractor businesses, conversion is killed by holes in the bucket — poor discovery, no follow-up process, no CRM — long before ad spend becomes the constraint. When a business says 'the leads are terrible,' the data almost always reveals the leads weren't worked: under 10 contact attempts, no budget discussion, no qualified discovery. Fix the system before buying more leads.
What is the difference between a QSO, MQL, and SQL?
A QSO (Qualified Sales Opportunity) has inquired and asked to be contacted — it gets the full 30–40 attempt follow-up. An MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) has shown interest but isn't sales-ready, so it goes into automated nurture and is never deleted. An SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) has completed discovery with confirmed budget, serviceable location, and decision-maker availability, and is in active sales.
What is Conditional Closing and when do I use it?
Conditional Closing is a discovery-call technique where you ask: 'If everything aligns on price, timeline, and scope when I come out, is there any reason you wouldn't want to proceed?' Use it at the end of the discovery call, before booking the site visit. It plants commitment in the prospect's mind and prompts both decision-makers to align in advance, reducing cancellations.
What is the Sequoia vs. Bonsai question?
It's a framing question every owner must answer: do you want a large, high-volume, fast-scaling business (sequoia) or a smaller, higher-margin, curated operation (bonsai)? Both are valid, but your marketing strategy, LTV targets, and operational build-out differ completely depending on which you choose. Deciding this first prevents building a system that pulls you toward a business you never wanted.
// How To
How do I calculate Lifetime Value for my trade business?
Connect your financial software (like QuickBooks) to your CRM or project management tool to trace revenue per customer over time — not just the first job. Include repeat work, maintenance contracts, and referrals generated. Segment by customer type to find which generates the highest LTV. This number becomes the foundation for every acquisition cost and qualification decision downstream.
How do I define my Ideal Customer Profile as a contractor?
Build it from answerable screening questions, not aspirations. Ask: Can we service this location? Does the prospect have the budget? Does the job fall within a timeframe we can deliver? These must be answered before any site visit is booked. You can't promote 'premium' in ad copy — you screen for fit through concrete qualifying questions.
How do I introduce the Priority Program without scaring off prospects?
Introduce it during the discovery call as an expected next step — never spring it on-site. Frame it as giving the prospect 'the priority they deserve' and explain the fee is credited back on the first invoice. Position it as the mechanism that moves them to a detailed proposal, render, or analysis. If they balk at $400–$500, they were never going to spend $30,000.
How do I retrain my CSR to focus on qualified calls instead of booked visits?
Shift their KPI from 'site visits booked' to 'qualified discovery calls completed where budget and location are confirmed.' Incentivizing visits booked drives unqualified volume into your pipeline and destroys margin when your crew drives to prospects who can't afford you. Give them a discovery script covering location serviceability, budget range, and decision-maker availability before any visit is scheduled.
How long before I know if a paid campaign is working?
Use 90-day (quarter) blocks as the minimum meaningful measurement period. Measuring over days or weeks produces reactive, misleading conclusions and tempts you into the hammer-and-brake pattern. A full quarter lets the algorithm optimize, the follow-up cadence complete across multiple lead cohorts, and enough data accumulate to determine whether results are genuine or a fluke.
// Troubleshooting
My Facebook ads are producing terrible leads — should I cancel them?
Not before checking your CRM data. Count contact attempts per lead (under 10 means they weren't worked), verify whether both decision-makers were confirmed at visits, and check if budget was discussed in discovery and a Priority Program offered. In most cases the leads aren't the problem — the process is. Rebuild discovery and follow-up, then re-run the same spend for 90 days before concluding.
My team is overwhelmed with too many leads — what do I do?
That's a capacity and qualification problem, not a lead generation one. Pause paid acquisition temporarily. Tighten your ICP screening with tighter geography and a minimum job-value threshold in discovery. Use the Priority Program to filter low-intent inquiries. Calculate LTV to prioritize your best segments, then build a 12-month road map with crew-scaling milestones before reactivating ads at a higher quality threshold.
Why do my leads go cold after one or two calls?
Because you're giving up far too early. The majority of discovery calls are booked around the 10th contact attempt — roughly day 4–5 of a 7–10 business day window. Most contractors quit after one or two unanswered calls, which is exactly why there's revenue sitting on the table. Build a cadence of 30–40 attempts and route it to a dedicated follow-up person.
Why does scaling ad spend up and down hurt my results?
Aggressively scaling spend then abruptly pausing — the hammer-and-brake pattern — destroys ad platform algorithms, creates feast-famine cycles, and prevents meaningful data from accumulating. Algorithms need consistency to optimize. Instead, set a 12-month road map with steady scaling and measure in 90-day blocks. Only increase spend or add crew after hitting targets consistently for three months.
// Comparisons
How does the Priority Program compare to offering a free consultation?
A free consultation attracts everyone, including tire-kickers who have no budget or intent, and leaves you chasing dead prospects for months. The Priority Program flips this: a small credited fee self-selects genuine buyers and eliminates the smoke-screen cancellations. The free model funds your competitor's decision-making; the Priority Program ensures only serious prospects consume your resources.
How does this system differ from traditional churn-and-burn marketing?
Churn and burn focuses on constantly acquiring new customers at the expense of existing relationships. This system is built on 'better, better, better — longer, longer, longer': maximizing lifetime value by deepening relationships, cross-selling, and nurturing your database. Because LTV justifies higher acquisition costs, you can deploy loss leaders strategically and outcompete churn-and-burn operators who can only afford cheap, one-off customers.
How does ROAS compare to ROI and which should I track first?
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is the pure ratio of revenue to platform ad spend — the agency-controlled metric, unblurred by operational costs. ROI (Return on Investment) adds salesperson time, campaign management, and overhead. Start with ROAS as your primary metric to establish a baseline, then build toward ROI as operational costs are layered in over the first few 90-day blocks.
// Advanced
What is GEO and why should contractors care about it now?
GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the emerging practice of ensuring your business appears favorably in AI/LLM search results like ChatGPT and Perplexity when prospects research solutions. Before booking, prospects now query LLMs alongside Google and reviews. As an extension of SEO into the AI research layer, GEO is becoming part of the brand research layer that self-qualifies prospects before they ever contact you.
How do I match my lead generation channel to my average job size?
Match the channel to average job size (AJS). Low AJS (lawn care, window cleaning) suits high-volume, phone-close, routing-intensive models. Mid AJS ($5K–$50K painting, roofing, landscaping) works well with Meta/Facebook ads and a discovery-first quote process. High AJS ($50K+ renovations, new builds, commercial) needs a longer sales cycle, deeper nurture, content-led authority, and increasingly GEO/SEO.
When does a loss leader make sense for a contractor?
A loss leader — a first job where acquisition cost exceeds that job's revenue — makes sense only when LTV justifies the upfront deficit. If a customer is worth $15,000–$20,000 over 10 years through repeat work and referrals, accepting a break-even or small-loss first job to win them is sound math. This is why calculating LTV before any ad decision is non-negotiable.
Why must the CRM be deployed before any campaign runs?
Without aggregate data, you can't distinguish a bad lead from a bad process, can't calculate true ROAS or ROI, and can't make the decisions needed to reach the next stage of your road map. Data before decisions. If you run ads without a CRM capturing every QSO, MQL, and SQL, poor results will always get blamed on the leads — and you'll never find the real constraint.
What should I prepare my team for when moving from referrals to cold traffic?
Prepare them for a psychological shift: cold leads won't know, like, or trust you the way referrals do, and 50%+ will be disqualified upfront. This is not a failure — it's the game. Without this preparation, your team will interpret normal disqualification rates as proof the leads are bad and sabotage the campaign before the data matures.