Lead Follow-up and Booking

Call new leads within five minutes, follow up for a week, and confirm every appointment with a call the day before.

For contractors and agency owners10 principles7 playbook steps

Ads make leads. Follow-up turns leads into booked appointments. This job works with any CRM, any phone system, and any calendar, as long as every lead reaches a person fast.

Every job also follows the 12 ground rules.

How to use this page: read the principles, or copy the starter prompt into ChatGPT or Claude. Other ways

Principles

Call every new lead within five minutes.
Why
A homeowner who just filled out a form is thinking about the project right now. An hour later they have moved on or called someone else.
How to apply
Send every lead into your CRM and alert the person who calls, by text and email, the moment it arrives. Call within five minutes during business hours. After hours, send a text right away and call first thing in the morning. If the homeowner asked for a price report, send the report first, and call as soon as it arrives.
GoodA lead comes in at 10:02. The office gets a text alert, and the homeowner gets a call at 10:04.
BadLeads sit in an inbox until someone checks it at the end of the day.
Follow up more than once.
Why
Most leads do not answer the first call. Stopping after one try throws away leads the ads already paid for.
How to apply
Use a set sequence of calls and texts over about a week. Call and text only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the homeowner's time zone, or inside a stricter state limit. Stop when they book, or when they ask you to stop.
GoodA call and a text in the first five minutes, a call that afternoon, a text the next morning, a call on day three, and a last text on day seven.
BadOne voicemail, and then the lead is marked dead.
Give the homeowner what they asked for first.
Why
If the form promised a price, a call that skips the price feels like a bait and switch.
How to apply
Send the price range or the report before or during the first call. Then ask to book a time to measure and confirm the price.
GoodThe caller opens with the price range the homeowner asked for, answers questions, and then offers two times to measure and confirm the price.
BadThe caller refuses to give a price until someone visits the house.
Decide who books before the ads go live.
Why
When nobody owns booking, leads fall through. When two people own it, homeowners get double calls.
How to apply
Pick one: the homeowner books online, a call team books, or the business books from its own CRM calendar. Turn on online booking only if you chose it, with the right calendar and time zone.
GoodThe business books from its own CRM calendar, so online booking stays off and the form ends on a thank-you page.
BadOnline booking is on because a calendar exists, and a call team also calls every lead, so homeowners book twice.
Confirm every appointment, and call the day before.
Why
People forget appointments they booked days ago. A call the day before cuts no-shows, and it makes sure everyone who decides on the project will be home.
How to apply
Confirm by text and email right after booking. Call the day before to confirm the time, and ask that everyone who decides on the project be home. Text a reminder about two hours before. If the homeowner does not show, call within the hour to book a new time. The same people who book send the confirmations.
GoodBooked for Thursday at 3. A confirmation goes out right away, a call Wednesday afternoon confirms the time and that both owners will be home, and a text goes out Thursday at 1.
BadThe appointment is booked a week out with no message until the estimator knocks on the door, and only one of the two owners is home.
Make sure your calls and texts are not marked as spam.
Why
A call that shows a spam warning does not get answered.
How to apply
Register the caller ID name for the numbers you call from. Complete business texting registration with the business's real legal details.
GoodThe homeowner's phone shows the business name when the office calls.
BadThe phone shows spam likely, and the homeowner declines the call.
Send every lead into the CRM with every field filled.
Why
A lead without a phone number or address cannot be called or booked.
How to apply
Map name, phone, email, address, the service asked for, and the ad or campaign the lead came from. Prove it with a test lead, then delete the test lead.
GoodA test lead lands in the CRM with the address, the service, and the campaign name filled in.
BadLeads arrive in the CRM with only a first name.
Never switch off a working lead connection until the new one has carried a real lead.
Why
A connection that looks right can still drop leads. Turning off the old one first can lose a day of leads.
How to apply
Run the new connection beside the old one. Turn the old one off only after a real lead arrives through the new one. Do not replace a working connection just to tidy up.
GoodThe new CRM connection carries a real lead on Tuesday, and the old one is turned off on Wednesday.
BadThe old connection is turned off at the same moment the new one is turned on, and the new one has a typo in the field names.
Count booked appointments next to leads every week.
Why
Leads that never book point to a follow-up problem, not an ad problem. You can only see that if you count both.
How to apply
Every week, count leads, leads reached, appointments booked, and appointments kept.
GoodForty leads, thirty reached, twelve booked, ten kept. The gap between leads and reached says to call faster.
BadThe business counts only leads and blames the ads for slow sales.
Ask every customer for a review after the work is done.
Why
Reviews help the business show up on Google and give the next homeowner a reason to trust it.
How to apply
Text the business's Google review link when the work is finished. Ask every customer. Never pay for reviews, and never ask only the happy ones.
GoodEvery finished project gets one text with the review link and a thank-you.
BadThe business only asks customers it knows are happy and offers a discount for five stars.

Agent playbook

Steps an AI agent can run in order. Each step names what it needs and what it hands to the next step.

Map the lead path.
Inputs
The landing page, the CRM, the phone system, and who calls.
Output
A short list of where a lead goes from form to CRM to the person who calls, with the alert each step sends.
Write the first text.
Inputs
The offer and the business's name.
Output
One text sent the moment a lead arrives. It names the business, what they asked for, and when someone will call.
Write the follow-up sequence.
Inputs
The offer and the business hours.
Output
Five touches over seven days. Each has the day, the time, the channel, and the exact message or call notes.
Write the call opener.
Inputs
The offer and the price or report the homeowner asked for.
Output
A short call guide: who is calling, what they asked for, the price range or starting price, two questions, and the booking question with two times to offer.
Write the confirmation and reminders.
Inputs
The appointment details.
Output
A confirmation text and email, a call script for the day before, a reminder about two hours before, and a text to book a new time after a no-show.
Test the path.
Inputs
The live page and the CRM.
Output
Proof that a test lead arrived with every field, triggered the alert, and got the first text. Delete the test lead afterward.
Set up the weekly count.
Inputs
The CRM and its reports.
Output
A weekly table of leads, leads reached, appointments booked, and appointments kept.

Final output

The first text
A follow-up sequence with day, time, channel, and message
The call opener
The booking confirmation
The day-before call script and the reminder two hours before
The no-show text
The weekly lead and appointment table

Starter prompt

Read https://byminyona.com/brain/playbook.md first and follow its Lead Follow-up and Booking rules and its ground rules. Write a 5-touch follow-up sequence for new <service> leads who asked for <offer>. Include the first text, call notes, a booking confirmation, a call script for the day before, and a reminder two hours before.

If your AI cannot open links, paste this page's principles into the chat with the prompt. You can also paste the whole playbook or download AGENTS.md.

Next job: Client Communication (for agencies)

Principles

Agent playbook

Final output

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