Before You Buy More Leads, Fix Your Booking Rate

Are you really short on leads or just failing to convert the ones you already have? Too often business owners blame marketing when revenue slows. They buy more leads, spend more money, and hope volume fixes the issue. But if your booking rate is weak, you’re not growing, you’re wasting money.

In this week’s episode of Cracking the Code, Zach Wilson of Lokal breaks down the real cost of unbooked calls, how AI-driven call analysis exposes operational gaps, and why more leads rarely solve a conversion problem. From CSR performance to white glove service, he unpacks what it actually takes to make marketing dollars turn into profitable jobs.

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00:00:00:01 – 00:00:21:08
Unknown
Ten fold requests for new systems. And guess what? You didn’t book any of those. You can either adapt and change, or you can continue holding up those $100 bills and just lighting them on fire, because that’s exactly what you do it. You.

00:00:21:10 – 00:00:43:23
Unknown
Welcome to cracking the code, Zach. Good to see you again. You know, last week we were just in Las Vegas at Epic 2026. Tell me what you thought of the conference and how did local do out there? And the vendor marketplace? Yeah, the conference is great. The space was great. The Bellagio was gorgeous. It’s a really great show.

00:00:43:23 – 00:01:13:05
Unknown
And, it was it was a great success for us. Contractors aren’t going to buy solutions to problems that they don’t perceive that they have. Just like anybody know you wouldn’t do it either. You wouldn’t buy something if you didn’t need it, right? So if if you were having a conversation and you just had a whole bunch of conversations with contractors, I mean, what are what are some of the the problems that that the local team is trying to help contractors solve?

00:01:13:07 – 00:01:44:09
Unknown
One of the really valuable things that we bring to the table is bringing people into this, this the software that we’ve been developing over the last couple of years, which was it’s kind of an accident. The original intent of the software was, to be a check and balance for owners, contractors to say, hey, we’re spending this much money in market.

00:01:44:11 – 00:02:09:13
Unknown
And, you know, most people say, oh, my, my advertising isn’t working. Well, we developed this to say, why? Why is your advertising not working? And we were we were qualifying every single call, etc. and saying, well, it’s not working for the same reasons I just talked about, but we’ve developed a, with all of the evolutions now of AI.

00:02:09:13 – 00:02:43:17
Unknown
We’ve developed this, we call it a, and an and a lead engine. And the lead engine actually uses AI to listen to every single call, determine what’s actually happening in that call from an intent disposition. Summary of that call. Recommendations on, you know, what you’re getting a lot of quote requests, etc..

00:02:43:19 – 00:03:14:21
Unknown
And so now we’re using that tool, with our contractors and not only to report on performance of what’s happening in market, but also to help educate them and make them aware of these issues that are actually happening, that are keeping them, keeping them held back or holding them back in terms of, okay, well, I need more leads.

00:03:14:23 – 00:03:46:05
Unknown
Okay. Well, if you need more leads and people are you need to advertise, right? Then you also need to empower your CSRs with information so that the answer to every single call is an I’m sorry, we don’t do that. We need to send out a technician for $79. That is that is that is no longer an acceptable answer for the majority of people in market that are looking for service.

00:03:46:07 – 00:04:07:15
Unknown
Well, and that’s you know, that really is kind of the key. And I think, you know, what I hear you saying is that, you know, are a variety of ways to get the phone to ring. And, you know, the the idea of like referrals to me, referrals, testimonials, five star reviews, all those kind of things. Those are all social proof that you know what you’re doing.

00:04:07:17 – 00:04:29:18
Unknown
Right. And to the extent that you can get that social proof out there and and then be responsive to the questions that are being asked, because, I mean, this is no different than it was in the 80s when I was running. Well, the 90s, early 90s when I was running my dad’s business here in Georgia. You know, customers would call all the time, say, what’s going to cost to replace my fill in the blank, you know, what’s it going to cost for a pound of refrigerant?

00:04:29:19 – 00:04:47:02
Unknown
You know, they didn’t say refrigerant. They said freon back in the day. You know what? What’s kind of what’s a pound of freon cost. What’s your labor rate. You know, all these kind of customers are they want to be informed. And that’s not anything new. That’s been that’s been the case forever. And it will continue to be the case forever.

00:04:47:04 – 00:05:04:23
Unknown
And, you know, even with, you know, some of the stuff that Google’s doing now we’re Google’s got bots that are calling around asking for pricing numbers and things like that. It’s like, dude, you’ve got to be able to answer those questions and you’ve got to be you’ve got to be responsive to the concerns of the homeowner, without a doubt.

00:05:04:23 – 00:05:32:02
Unknown
You know, you’ve got to be able to serve from the beginning, right from the very beginning. You’ve got to serve them in ways they want to be served. And this is, you know, this goes back to, our role, in my opinion, as the partner and marketing company is, is we now have the information and the tools available to help you.

00:05:32:04 – 00:05:56:15
Unknown
David, owner of said company, to empower you with the knowledge and and and and we you know, again we can’t I can’t do it for you, but I can give you 8 million examples of how to do it and ideas on what to do. And you can either choose to implement them or you can’t. You know that like one one.

00:05:56:17 – 00:06:26:16
Unknown
I mean, on this quote, thing one one big insight that the tool will reveal is, is how many calls are you getting that are asking for price? There’s quote specific quote requests and we can use that to expose, my, my easiest example is on the plumbing side, which is very, very common. But on the plumbing side is people say, well, my toilet is not working.

00:06:26:16 – 00:06:54:02
Unknown
How much for repair? Most plumbing companies have a flat rate toilet repair cost. So instead of telling somebody it’s the same thing as the capacitor, instead of telling someone $79, just say our toilet repair costs 295 flat rate. Period. End of conversation. Done. If there’s another problem, the tech will walk through you, whatever that problem is, and you know, explain it to you and give you an estimate.

00:06:54:02 – 00:07:30:21
Unknown
Whatever would you like to send someone out? That’s it. It’s that simple. And and and and and they just they just want to know how much it’s going to cost to get their toilet working or and it’s, it just it. And so the, the, the, the, the the insights in the tool can aggregate all these calls over a month or over a week, depending on your call volume and say, here’s all the quote requests, calls you’re getting and we can go through them and say, okay, you know, you got you got ten quote requests for new systems.

00:07:30:23 – 00:08:01:10
Unknown
And guess what? You didn’t book any of those so that there there is a problem. You you can either adapt and change or you can continue holding up those $100 bills and just lighting them on fire, because that’s exactly what you’re doing. If you’re having buying problems from the CSRs or objections or whatever from your CSRs, share the data with them, share with them.

00:08:01:12 – 00:08:51:07
Unknown
Here’s how much it it is costing us a $150 to get a qualified customer to call you Sally when you are laissez faire. About that call and not, you know, not providing them white glove service, right? Doing everything you can to book that call. Not only might you not be meeting your requirement right, but you’re also hurting the business and hurting everybody else because this is very expensive to make the phone ring and when what I’ve seen is when people start to do that and they share with their team how expensive everything is, then they’re the everybody takes things a little bit more serious.

00:08:51:07 – 00:09:25:02
Unknown
And then so the example, that example is $150, right. Let’s say your booking rate for paid calls about 50% okay. Because this is easy math. So that means if I’m booking 50% of those calls and those calls are costing me $150 just to get the person to call David’s Hvac, right? Well, now it’s costing me $300 in marketing costs $300 to get the technician to the home.

00:09:25:04 – 00:09:55:14
Unknown
Now you’re you’re you’re out of pocket, $300. Is the owner just getting the technician to show up for that appointment? Right. And everybody needs to know that because then the the techs are going to walk into the home and take their, their, their checklist a heck of a lot more seriously because that 20 point inspection checklist could unveil, unveil, you know, an old blower motor that might be on its way out right?

00:09:55:14 – 00:10:21:13
Unknown
Or, you know, a capacitor that’s, that’s low, etc., which instead of then being the $99 trip fee to, you know, flip on the kill switch that got shut off by some kid or whatever. And now it turned into a 15, 800, $100 ticket because there’s something that’s going to on its way out that you can recommend that should be changed.

00:10:21:15 – 00:10:46:13
Unknown
And, and it turned in from, not lost job to a profitable job. Yeah. Relationships are the difference. Right. So if you’re if you’re just getting a, you know, a price call or a price chopper, if you’re just getting someone who is doing their research, you don’t have a relationship with them yet. So if you, you used the word stonewall earlier.

00:10:46:13 – 00:11:16:12
Unknown
And I love that, because if you’re stonewalling them and not being a servant, you’re not serving them the way they want to be served. You’re initial relationship with them is very strained, and most likely you will not have them as a customer. But if you if you seek to serve them, if you look through their eyes and understand that most homeowners look at contractors through the lens of the first three letters of the word contractor con.

00:11:16:14 – 00:11:46:07
Unknown
Right. They look at you as, somebody who’s going to try to give them a lowball price and then come in and do the work and say, oh, I didn’t see this. It’s going to be another thousand dollars or whatever. There’s they’re concerned about all those stories that they’ve heard. They’re looking for social proof that to say that you are who you say you are, you are a quality and integrity based business that really does care for the safety, health, comfort and efficiency of my home.

00:11:46:09 – 00:12:05:07
Unknown
You want to make sure that you’re delivering on the promises of the manufacturer’s brand, whatever the equipment is going to do, that if it’s going to be high efficiency, that when you install it, it’s going to operate in a highly efficient manner. They’re looking for that social proof that says you actually do what you say you’re going to do.

00:12:05:09 – 00:12:28:22
Unknown
So Magnus is all about measure. Don’t guess. We’re measuring to prove to you that we’re doing what we said we’re going to do. That’s up to you to do what you need to do to convert those incoming leads. It’s because someone someone asked me this, at IGA, actually, and they said, well, do you, do you come in and do the training?

00:12:29:02 – 00:12:59:19
Unknown
And the answer is no, right? The answer is no. We’re not, we’re not, we’re not we’re not here to be consultants only. We’re here to deploy the marketing, make the marketing work, but also provide insights and value and information as to why it might not be working right. And, and and there there are there are so many. I mean, I gave two of them, right?

00:12:59:21 – 00:13:15:18
Unknown
There’s so many reasons, why it could not be working. And, and, and the, the whole tenant that we stand behind is, is data is power and people.

00:13:15:20 – 00:13:40:19
Unknown
Tend to be afraid of data because sometimes it tells you things you don’t want to know. Yeah. Like when I step on the scale in the bathroom, right. Yeah. You know what mine says? It says you’re too short for your weight. That’s what it says. This is a great example because the the solution there’s two solutions. One of them is don’t step on the scale, which is if you don’t step on the scale, you don’t have the data.

00:13:40:19 – 00:14:00:20
Unknown
You don’t aren’t you aren’t you aren’t gaining a pound every single month right at the end of the year, or you’re not magically 10 pounds heavier because you never stepped on the scale. But if you empower yourself with the information, you can start changing your habits. You can start walking. You can start going to the gym, you can start calorie counting, whatever.

00:14:00:22 – 00:14:31:02
Unknown
It’s the same thing if you don’t know, your booking rate is 18%. So, whether it’s paid or unpaid or whatever, you are so screwed. You are so screwed because you have massive, massive, massive operational problems. And some of you and you know, this is, I mean, what what one, one, one great thing and terrible thing Service Titan does is, is provides people with booking rates.

00:14:31:08 – 00:14:54:18
Unknown
Great, great thing. It does provide them. Bad thing it does is it allows you to manipulate them. House call pro you more or less can’t do it right. You it doesn’t. It doesn’t have the power to do that. So so this example is especially true when we get house call pro people in because they have no idea.

00:14:54:20 – 00:15:22:04
Unknown
They just assume that things are all rosy and everything’s great. They have no idea that all of a sudden you can, you know, you can start seeing summaries of your call. You can quantify dispositions. You can, see your booking rates, you can see all this information that you couldn’t necessary for service. Time is a little different. It it’s it it it it’s it’s again good.

00:15:22:06 – 00:15:52:10
Unknown
It’s it’s better and worse in some cases because service tightens where you get all this sort of like this, this, these maniacal, sort of egotistical people that are like, my booking rate’s 98%. I’m like, no, it’s not, no, it’s not like if if you are maybe evaluating one little segment that’s only referrals from, you know, the neighbor Sally, maybe it’s 98%, but as a whole it it’s I assure you it is not 98%.

00:15:52:16 – 00:16:17:13
Unknown
So so let’s do this. Zach, let’s say that I’m David Holt’s service company, and and I’m I’m intrigued and I’m ready to to to engage with you guys. What’s the process? What do I need to do and how do you take me through that process to get me started? So we do a, a discovery and strategy call and we take them top down, big, big intake big.

00:16:17:13 – 00:16:52:21
Unknown
A lot of questions in terms of, really in terms of goals, budgets, existing budgets, utilization, size, how many trucks they’ve got on the road, and if we can get some information, in what they were spending, how they were utilizing, utilizing that money, most of the time we don’t have that information. So we can guess, but then we move forward and kind of do this, a utilization analysis and say, okay, well where from an advertising standpoint, like where does this come in, do you need this.

00:16:52:23 – 00:17:20:13
Unknown
And in some cases we can quickly I can quickly we can quickly diagnose through either house call pro or service Titan that says you actually you don’t need advertising. So then we can look at we can look at other other packages, other tactics which are, you know, increasing organic visibility. We have something called, well, you at the common name is rehashing, re-engagement, reactivation.

00:17:20:13 – 00:17:58:07
Unknown
Right. Going within your database, to build loyalty, and nurture people. Additionally, depending on where you are in your journey, we’re also doing a lot of, YouTube, advertising right now, which is, extraordinarily, extraordinarily powerful, for brand building and lead generation. It’s, my, my sort of sleeper tactic that we have right now that nobody else is doing, and, and, and.

00:17:58:07 – 00:18:23:22
Unknown
Yeah. So there’s and then, then then there’s this other piece where you might need it. Right. Like we just onboarded someone last week that was that. Their the, the first goal out of the gate is to get utilization up to like 70, 80% because based on our intake, their utilization, they’re way over staffed. The utilization is like 30%.

00:18:24:00 – 00:18:58:14
Unknown
One thing that’s really, really important that we do differently than a lot of agencies is I actually don’t really want to depending on where you’re at, I don’t want to spend money on advertising if we don’t have to. And I sort of alluded to that earlier. But like if you’ve got if you’re utilization in capacity is 20, 30%, David, you have no choice then to go to market and start finding more leads to fill the board or else you are going to be fighting to put dinner on the table for you and your team.

00:18:58:16 – 00:19:21:22
Unknown
So you’ve got to make some hard choices. You’ve got either got to get rid of some people and make sure you know the rest of everybody get fed, or we’re going to have to go to market and start spending money to bring those people in. And then the really hard question becomes, again, when you’re spending $150 call, are you operationally ready to do this?

00:19:22:00 – 00:19:54:16
Unknown
Right? Like, can you can you handle these calls? Are your CSRs sophisticated enough, sophisticated, well trained enough to to do this? Because we know they’re really hard calls. And the reality is most people aren’t there. They’re just they’re they’re not they’re not ready for that. Which then puts us and them in a tough situation because you’re going to get you’re going to get mad at me when you know you’re spending all this money and it’s not working.

00:19:54:18 – 00:20:19:17
Unknown
But really, you know, the problem ultimately will end up being because you’re not operationally sound enough to be in market spending this money because your team is not trained well enough. Right. And just so you know, we do have a lot of that online training actually. So we have all kind of CSR training on the contracting university platform.

00:20:19:17 – 00:20:41:23
Unknown
So you can definitely point to that to to help people get started. And of course we have other other partners that actually do have some very, very valuable training for CSRs and so forth. So, so, Zach, how do people get in touch with local if they’re ready to, to start investigating this thing? Sure. Website local hq.com.

00:20:42:01 – 00:21:07:10
Unknown
Facebook is great. Local Zach at local Zach is is a great way. And and of course, you can, you know, go to the website, call us if you’d like. Or, just thought the, contact us, our request, marketing assessment, whatever you’re looking for. And we’d, we’d love to talk to you and see if, we can.

00:21:07:10 – 00:21:33:22
Unknown
We can we can help you. Okay, so it’s local, local loc, IL hq.com. Is that correct? There you go. Local hq.com. So go to the website. Got all the contact forms and so forth. Zach will be in touch or his team will be in touch depending on what your needs are and guarantee you they will look at it through a microscope and help you get where you need to be.

00:21:33:22 – 00:22:07:09
Unknown
From a marketing standpoint. Zach, let’s close this thing out. What would you, challenge contractors to do going forward? Big challenge. I posted about this on Facebook. I think the 2026 is the year of operational efficiency. That’s that’s what that’s what’s going to make you better as an owner or a contractor is start looking within your organization and filling leaks, gaps, you know, stop the serve.

00:22:07:09 – 00:23:00:00
Unknown
Right? I mean, that’s that’s what it is be. But most people are looking for more leads and more leads in most cases are not the problem. It’s it’s answering the phone. Answering the phone. Well, I heard this actually, last week, and we had, we were out and right before, gig at, any our tour and there, I was actually, on the tour with their head recruiter and, they said someone asked a question about recruiting, and they said the number one thing we’re looking for in all areas of the business is can you, wherever we’re looking to hire you, provide white glove service end to end, wherever you stand, whether

00:23:00:00 – 00:23:29:11
Unknown
you’re, you know, responding to text messages, whether you’re in the rehab department, whether you’re a technician, whether you’re installer, whether you’re an excavator, whether you’re a CSR, whether you’re a general manager, white glove service, end to end. And I, I genuinely believe that if people do one and one and one thing only, it’s leaning into that throughout their organization.

00:23:29:11 – 00:23:58:06
Unknown
And emphasizing to their team that they need to put the customer first and provide that white glove service at all points in time throughout the process. And that at the end of the day, is going to bring you more loyalty and more retention than any other marketing tactic that any anyone in anyone in this world can provide. You.

00:23:58:08 – 00:24:42:08
Unknown
And and that’s the name of the game. And that’s this is why this is how you can make advertising work, which is something people don’t understand. How are people making it work for $300 a book job? How are you making the economics work? It’s not it’s not that you’re charging more money. It’s that once you acquire that customer for $300, you are providing them the exceptional and extraordinary services service, end to end, to ensure that the next time that they make the phone call, they are calling you directly and it’s it’s it it it sounds stupid, but it is that simple.

00:24:42:13 – 00:25:04:23
Unknown
It is that simple. Zach. Man, appreciate the heck out of you being here with us today and sharing all these awesome insights. Hope that, folks that are listening to this will go ahead and hit the local hq.com website, get more information about the program, and, and get engaged. And like Zach Spin say, man, it’s a it’s up to us as contractors to get it done.

00:25:05:02 – 00:25:22:02
Unknown
They can help us. They can guide us. Local can help us. They can guide us from marketing standpoint. But it’s up to us to execute. When we get that lead, it’s up to us to execute cleanly, effectively and efficiently so that we can keep our crews busy year round, not just when it’s super hot outside or super cold outside.

00:25:22:04 – 00:25:39:11
Unknown
Keep them busy year round. Keep that labor utilization at 100%, not 110, not 120, not 70. I want to feed my people 12 months out of the year. I know you do too, Zach. We appreciate the effort. Thanks so much for being on cracking the code. Look forward to talking to you again soon. Thank you David.