Leads and follow-up. Reviewed October 29, 2026
Sales funnel
Also called: Contractor funnel, Pipeline
A sales funnel is the sequence from stranger to paying customer: searches, visits, leads, booked estimates, closed jobs, with a conversion rate at each step.
In practice
Written as numbers it shows where the money leaks. A thousand visits, 40 leads, 20 booked, 8 closed is a 4 percent, 50 percent, 40 percent funnel, and doubling any one step doubles revenue.
Marketing works on the top. The phone and the estimators work on the rest. Most companies buy more top when the middle is the problem.
Related terms
- Conversion rateConversion rate is the share of visitors who take the action a page exists for, such as calling or submitting a form, and doubling it is worth as much as doubling traffic at a fraction of the cost.
- Booking rateBooking rate is the share of leads that turn into a scheduled appointment or estimate, and it is the first place to look when leads are up but revenue is not.
- Close rateClose rate is the share of estimates or quotes that become paid jobs.
Go deeper
More leads and follow-up terms
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