Contractor side here, excavation and dirt work on Vancouver Island. The thing I'd get most out of is the unglamorous middle bit. There's loads out there on getting the phone to ring and plenty on closing, but almost nothing on the stretch between sending a quote and hearing back. That's where I lose the most money and I don't think I'm unusual. Related, and probably more useful for a mixed room: contractors and marketers tend to define a lead completely differently. Marketer counts a form fill, contractor counts someone who'll actually let them on site with a budget. A thread where both sides say what they actually mean would be worth reading. Software recommendations I'd skip unless it's someone saying what they stopped using and why. Those are the useful ones. What's the split in here, more contractors or more marketers?

Agreed on the branding piece — when someone's already seen your work before they call, the whole conversation is different. You're not defending a price, you're agreeing a date. Where I'd add to it from the contractor side: even with good branding, the drop-off after the quote is usually just admin, not doubt. The customer's waiting on a spouse, or a mortgage, or they're away. Nothing's gone wrong, and the contractor reads silence as a no and moves on. The thing that fixed most of it for me wasn't clever, it was putting a date on every quote when it goes out. Not a deadline for them — a note for me to follow up. Most of the ones I'd written off came back when I asked. Probably why I'd find that middle stretch interesting as a topic. It's less exciting than lead gen but it's where the money already is. How do you handle that with the contractors you work with — do you get involved past the lead, or is that their side of the fence?