Inbound lead qualification and routing that answers every inquiry
A system you own replies to every new inquiry inside the window you set, asks your qualifying questions and sends each lead to the person who should have it.
$3,000, credited in full toward your install if you go ahead within 30 days.
TL;DR
An inbound lead qualification and routing system replies to each new inquiry inside a window you set. It asks your qualifying questions and sends the lead to whoever should have it. Leads that aren't ready go into scheduled follow-up. In a slow month it works back through old bids and past customers. It doesn't generate new demand. Strategyc's $3,000 audit is credited in full toward a $12,000 to $35,000 install if you go ahead within 30 days.
What is inbound lead qualification and routing?
Inbound lead qualification and routing is a system that replies to every new inquiry, asks your qualifying questions, scores the answers against your criteria and sends each lead to the right person or into follow-up.
For a commercial subcontractor, much of the inbound is a bid invite from a general contractor, and qualifying it is the bid or no-bid call. That call has rules: scope fit, job size against your bonding capacity, estimator workload against the due date, prevailing-wage requirements and distance. For a residential trade the inbound is a web form or a missed call, and the questions are about the job, the address and the timing.
Which part of feast or famine can a system fix?
Feast or famine is two problems, and a routing system fixes one of them.
In a busy stretch, leads arrive faster than anyone can answer them. Replies slip to the next day. The good ones go to whoever called back first, and nobody remembers who was promised a site visit. A system fixes that.
In a slow stretch, there isn't enough work coming in. A system can help a little by going back to general contractors you haven't heard from in six months, to bids where you came in second and to past customers. It can't create demand that isn't there.
What four checks does every new lead go through?
Every inquiry goes through the same four checks in the same order. You set the pass line for each one.
- 1
Answered
A first reply goes out inside the window you set, day or night, from your business.
- 2
Qualified
The system asks your questions about scope, size, location and timing, plus anything else you use to decide.
- 3
Scored
The answers are checked against your criteria, such as your bid or no-bid rules, service area and minimum job size.
- 4
Routed
Good fits go to the estimator or salesperson who should have them, with the answers attached. The rest go into follow-up or get a polite no.
What happens to a lead that comes in during a busy week?
It gets the same reply time it would get in a quiet week, because nobody has to be free to send it.
The lead reaches the right person already qualified. If nobody picks it up within the time you set, the system flags it to you.
Do we need a CRM for this?
No. If you have one, the system works with it wherever the CRM allows outside connections, and that gets checked before anything is scoped.
If you don't have one, a shared spreadsheet or inbox your team already uses can hold the record. The routing works either way.
Should you rent, buy or build lead qualification and routing?
There are three ways to get every lead answered and sorted. Each one suits a different business.
| Comparison area | Rent an agency | Buy software | Build and own (Strategyc install) |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | An answering service or appointment-setting agency working your leads on their systems | Lead-routing or CRM software your team configures and keeps up | A system that answers, qualifies and routes leads by your rules, on your accounts |
| Who sets it up | The agency | You or your office manager | Strategyc, from your audit, with your team trained to work what it sends them |
| What it costs | A monthly retainer. At $5,000 a month, that's $60,000 a year, every year. | Per seat or per month, for as long as you use it | $12,000 to $35,000 per system, one time, after a $3,000 audit credited in full if you go ahead within 30 days |
| What you own | Nothing, once you stop paying | Your data, inside their product | The system, the accounts, the data and the runbook |
| If you stop paying | It stops the same day | You lose the tool and the setup your team put into it | It keeps running. Managed operations is optional and you can cancel anytime. |
| Best when | You mostly need the phones answered and the questions are simple | Your CRM already routes leads and the gap is setting it up | Your qualifying rules are specific, like bid or no-bid criteria, and you want them applied the same way every time |
Whoever you talk to, ask what still runs the day you stop paying them.
How does Strategyc build lead qualification and routing?
We scope it from the audit and connect it to the channels your leads actually arrive on. Your team is trained to work what it sends them.
The audit is one working session with Alastair, then a written map of where AI removes cost, hours or lag in your operation. It names the systems, ranks them by payback and puts them in build order, with a buy-vs-build call on each. If the numbers don't clear the bar for an install, you get that in writing too.
What it costs
- AI Opportunity Audit: $3,000. It becomes your first payment on the build if you go ahead within 30 days, while the map is current.
- AI System Install: $12,000 to $35,000 per system, one time.
- Managed AI Operations: optional, $1,500 to $6,000 a month, cancel anytime. The system keeps running if you cancel.
Every install is scoped by proposal from your audit, and the price changes only if the scope does.
The guarantee
Two numbers go in your scope document: how many minutes a new inquiry waits for its first reply, and how many inquiries go unanswered on the channels you list. You set the first. The second is zero.
Your scope document sets a go-live date and a pass-or-fail line for every system in it. Miss the date and we keep building at our own cost until it works as scoped. If we still can't deliver it, we refund the install and you keep everything we built, in your accounts, with the documentation.
We take on two to three installs per quarter. Build weeks are blocked in advance, so installs start on fixed dates.
Every install is scoped and led by Alastair Macartney, Strategyc's founder. He's a former British Army Major who directed the UK's Defence Courier Service. More about Alastair
The full offer, the audit and how the guarantee works are laid out on our AI implementation partner page.
What do owners ask about lead routing?
The audit is $3,000, credited in full toward the install if you go ahead within 30 days. A lead routing install runs $12,000 to $35,000, one time, depending mostly on how many channels and tools it connects.
No. It makes sure the leads you already get are answered, qualified and followed up. If too few leads come in, that's a marketing problem, and the audit will say so.
The audit takes one to two weeks. The build is typically a few weeks once it's scoped. The go-live date goes in your scope document, and the guarantee is tied to that date.
Because a lead problem can be slow replies, bad routing, missing follow-up or too few inquiries, and this system fixes only the first three. The audit works out which one you have before you spend anything on a build.
Less than you might hope. If your work comes through relationships, the gain is in bid invites: logging them, applying your bid or no-bid rules and following up after bid day. If that volume is small, the audit will point you at a system that pays back faster.
Yes. The system says so. Replies are written in your voice and hand off to a person as soon as the lead looks like a fit.
How many of your leads are waiting?
Before the call
Count last month's inquiries that waited until the next day for a reply.
Apply for the AI Opportunity Audit
A working session with the founder, plus a written map of where AI pays off in your specific operation, ranked by payback. $3,000, credited in full toward your install if you go ahead within 30 days. We run a small number of these each month. If your numbers clearly fit, you'll see the calendar straight away. If it's not obvious either way, Alastair reads the application himself and replies within one business day.