How Do I Know If a Lead Is Worth Pursuing?

1. Does the work fit the business?

Check the service, geography, project size, customer type, risk, and delivery method.

Work outside the normal model often requires more estimating, travel, supervision, exceptions, and rework than the quote captures.

A lead is stronger when the business already knows how to price, deliver, and support the work well.

2. What contribution could the work produce?

Contribution is the revenue left after direct and variable costs such as labor, materials, commissions, subcontractors, travel, and job-specific expenses.

It is the amount available to cover overhead, owner pay, debt, and profit.

A $20,000 opportunity is not automatically stronger than an $8,000 opportunity. If the larger job produces $3,000 of contribution and the smaller one produces $2,800 while using half the capacity, the smaller opportunity may be better.

3. How strong are the payment and decision paths?

Ask who makes the decision, what approvals are required, when the decision should occur, and how the business will be paid.

A lead that cannot identify the decision-maker, budget process, deposit, payment timing, or next step may not deserve a detailed proposal yet.

A signed quote does not eliminate cash risk when the business must fund labor and materials for weeks before collecting.

4. Does the timing fit your capacity?

Consider whether the business can complete the work without displacing better jobs, creating excessive overtime, or lowering quality.

Urgency can represent a real need, but it can also be a customer transferring an emergency onto you.

A rush job may require stronger pricing, tighter scope, faster payment, or a decline if accepting it would damage existing commitments.

5. What is the broader value of the relationship?

Consider credible repeat work, referrals, route density, strategic fit, or access to the kind of customer the business wants more of.

Do not use vague "future potential" to excuse weak economics.

There should be a specific reason the relationship changes the value of the first job, such as documented recurring work or several nearby locations that can be served efficiently.

6. What will it cost to pursue?

Count the owner and employee time required before a decision: site visits, technical review, design, supplier pricing, revisions, meetings, and follow-up.

The question is not merely whether the job is profitable if won. It is whether the expected value justifies the cost of trying to win it.

Use pursuit cost to decide how much effort to invest, not as an automatic rejection rule.

Lead A

• Expected revenue: $15,000
• Expected contribution: $3,000
• Pursuit time: 10 owner hours
• Fit: Unusual scope outside the company's normal service mix
• Decision path: Three people involved; final decision-maker has not joined the discussion
• Payment: 20% deposit, balance 45 days after completion
• Capacity: Requires moving two confirmed jobs
• Future value: A property manager has mentioned possible future work, but no additional locations, timing, or scope has been confirmed

Lead B

• Expected revenue: $9,000
• Expected contribution: $2,700
• Pursuit time: two owner hours
• Fit: Standard work the company completes regularly
• Decision path: Owner is the decision-maker and plans to decide Friday
• Payment: 50% deposit, balance at completion
• Capacity: Fits an open week
• Future value: Likely quarterly work at two locations

Lead A produces $300 of expected contribution per pursuit hour:

$3,000 contribution / 10 hours = $300 per pursuit hour

Lead B produces $1,350 per pursuit hour:

$2,700 contribution / 2 hours = $1,350 per pursuit hour

That ratio is useful, but it is not a universal pass-or-fail score. A high-dollar opportunity can justify more sales time, and a standard job may be worth pursuing even at a lower hourly figure.

The calculation should be read with the other tests.

Lead A has slightly more total contribution and a potentially valuable property-manager relationship, but the scope is unusual, payment is slow, decision access is incomplete, and the capacity requirement is disruptive. It should not receive a full proposal yet. The correct outcome is qualify first.

Lead B has strong fit, clear decision access, favorable payment timing, low pursuit cost, and clean capacity fit. The correct outcome is respond now.

The larger quote is not the stronger lead.

Respond now

Use this when business fit, contribution, payment and decision path, capacity timing, relationship value, and pursuit cost are all acceptable.

The lead does not need to be perfect. It needs a credible path to healthy work.

Qualify first

Use this when the opportunity could be valuable but one or more important facts are unresolved.

Ask only the questions needed to decide whether a site visit, estimate, or detailed proposal is justified.

Nurture later

Use this when fit is strong but timing, budget, authority, or readiness is not yet in place.

Record the reason, next contact date, and condition that would make the lead active again.

Decline or refer

Use this when the work is outside your capabilities, unsafe, unlikely to pay properly, unprofitable, unlawful, or too disruptive for its likely value.

A prompt, respectful decline protects both the customer and the business.