Pay per lead / Coatings · Painting · Permanent lighting
The lead arrived.
Who takes it next?
A useful pay-per-lead workflow gives every enquiry a responsible person, an accurate status and a next action. That makes the work visible when the owner is on a job or the office changes shifts. Start with a simple shared record your team will actually maintain, then add reminders or software where they solve a specific handover problem.
Key takeaways
- Assign one person to each enquiry and a backup for times they are unavailable.
- Keep attempted contact, a homeowner conversation, a booked estimate and a sale as different stages.
- Record the next action and time before handing an enquiry to another person.
- This is a suggested contractor workflow. LMC PPL supplies exclusive enquiries; your team handles calling, qualification and booking.
01 / Your PPL follow-up workflow
Decide who covers the inbox before it gets busy.
Write down who owns new enquiries during each staffed period. If that person is unavailable, name a backup who can see the same record. An alert sent to three people is not the same as one person accepting responsibility.
Keep the coverage plan realistic. If the owner is applying a coating or a painting crew is working at height, the workflow should not depend on them stopping to answer every notification. Decide who can take the first conversation and when the estimator can call back.
ServiceTitan’s follow-up coordinator guidance emphasizes assigning incoming calls and a backup, capturing the conversation and keeping a defined follow-up process. The suggested record below applies that general idea to contractor-managed PPL; it is not a promise about response or closing rates.
02 / Your PPL follow-up workflow
Use stages that describe what actually happened.
Choose names your team understands. The following is a suggested sequence, not a required CRM setup or an LMC billing rule.
| Stage | What it means | What to record next |
|---|---|---|
| New | The enquiry arrived and has an assigned owner. | Who will contact the homeowner and when. |
| Attempted contact | You tried, but no conversation has happened. | Attempt details and the next suitable follow-up. |
| Connected | The homeowner responded. | Actual project details and their preferred next step. |
| Estimate booked | A date and time were agreed. | Assigned estimator, location and agreed visit details. |
| Quote sent | Your proposal was delivered. | Quote reference and agreed review or callback. |
| Won, lost or later | The outcome or future timing is known. | The factual outcome, reason and any requested future action. |
An acknowledgment message is not a conversation. A delivered quote is not an accepted quote. If you track estimate attendance separately, record it explicitly rather than assuming every booking took place.
Put suspected wrong numbers, duplicates or area mismatches into a separate review status. Keep the original record. Our lead replacement guide explains LMC’s confirmed categories; an unanswered valid enquiry remains payable.
03 / Your PPL follow-up workflow
Leave a note the next person can act on.
A useful handover is short enough to read before calling. It should separate what the homeowner said from what still needs checking. Keep it in the approved shared system rather than spreading private contact information across personal messages.
Reusable handover note
Enquiry reference: [Internal ID]
Assigned owner / backup: [Names]
Current stage: [What actually happened]
Homeowner’s request: [Their words, summarized accurately]
Confirmed details: [Project type, area and timing discussed]
Still to check: [Missing facts, not assumptions]
Last action: [Date, time and result]
Next action: [Person, task and agreed or appropriate time]
A handover is complete when the next owner can see the task and accepts it. Check that an existing callback or booked estimate is visible before starting another sequence. This avoids two team members independently chasing the same homeowner.
04 / Your PPL follow-up workflow
Keep the project detail specific to the trade.
These fictional examples illustrate recordkeeping. They do not describe LMC clients, measured outcomes or guaranteed lead contents.
- Coatings: ‘Homeowner asked about a basement floor. Location confirmed in our area. Existing surface and moisture conditions are unknown. Estimator to discuss the project at the requested callback.’ The form is not enough to promise a suitable coating system or final price.
- Painting: ‘Interior enquiry for two rooms. Homeowner asked whether ceilings and trim can be included. Office to confirm scope and arrange an estimate.’ Record what is included rather than handing over only ‘painting lead.’
- Permanent lighting: ‘Homeowner wants lights that stay installed year-round. Roofline details and access still need checking. Requested an estimate before choosing an installation date.’ Do not treat an estimate booking as a reserved installation slot.
Use the existing trade guides for the wider planning questions: coatings, painting and permanent lighting. The handover should give the next person enough context to continue the conversation, not force them to ask everything again.
05 / Your PPL follow-up workflow
Follow the conversation, then review the queue.
For a fresh unanswered enquiry, use a contact plan through the channels the homeowner agreed to use and at suitable local times. We already provide a suggested first-week follow-up sequence. Adapt the project wording and any requested callback time; its schedule is guidance, not a proven optimum for every trade.
Once the homeowner responds, stop treating the enquiry as unanswered. Record the actual conversation. If they ask for a later callback, make that the next action. If they decline, give a wrong-number response or ask you to stop, update the record accordingly rather than continuing an automated chase.
At each handover, look for unassigned enquiries, missed callbacks, estimate changes and quotes awaiting a next step. When the same problem repeats, fix the responsible stage: missing notifications, unclear ownership, absent details or more enquiries than the team can work.
If you use software, look for assignment, stage tracking and reminders that match this process. For example, Jobber’s sales pipeline documentation describes those capabilities. This is an example, not a required purchase or an LMC integration claim. A shared system only helps if the team keeps its records accurate.
06 / Your PPL follow-up workflow
Use the records to make the next campaign decision.
Review lead batches by received date and source. Keep open enquiries separate from losses and distinguish a booked estimate from an attended visit or won job. The PPL results guide and free lead-to-job tracker cover the measurement side.
If the office cannot keep up, discuss volume before adding more enquiries. LMC allows weekly volume adjustments and pauses on request, with your arrangement agreed together. Do not assume changing volume fixes a missed handover or an unanswered callback.
With LMC pay per lead, we fund and manage the ads and supply exclusive homeowner enquiries. Your team owns this follow-up work. Our separate appointment service uses human setters to call, qualify and book; the contractor still handles estimates, sales and fulfillment.
Common questions.
Do I need a new CRM before buying leads?
You need a reliable way to assign enquiries, record what happened and see the next action. Your existing system may already do that. Choose new software only if it solves a specific gap in your team’s process.
Can an automatic acknowledgment mark a lead as contacted?
Keep it separate from a real homeowner response. An acknowledgment confirms a message was sent; it does not establish that you had a conversation, qualified the project or booked an estimate.
Does LMC call the leads under pay per lead?
Under PPL, LMC generates and delivers exclusive enquiries and your team handles calls, qualification and booking. Human appointment setting is part of LMC’s separate appointment service.
Ready to put exclusive leads to work?
We fund and manage the ads. Your team follows up with exclusive homeowner enquiries.