What an unqualified lead really costs you

Almost every local service business measures cost per lead. Very few measure what it costs to serve the leads that were never going to buy, and that is usually where the money goes.

What the industry data shows

The available public figures are mostly from the US market, so read them as orders of magnitude rather than local prices. The pattern holds regardless.

• An unqualified solar site visit is estimated at $150 to $300 once you count rep time and travel.
• Between 25% and 35% of unqualified solar leads have a property issue that rules out installation outright: ownership, shading, roof condition.
• Sales research suggests reps spend up to half their time on prospects who will not close.
• Companies that prioritise qualification report around 20% higher close rates and 30% less wasted time.
• Shared solar leads sell for $50–150 to five or more installers at once; exclusive ones run $150–400.

Run the numbers on your own business

Take three figures you already have: monthly contacts, the share that turns out not to be viable, and what it costs you to serve one. Multiply.

At 100 contacts a month, 30% not viable, and a conservative $150 per wasted visit or long call, that is $4,500 a month. Around $54,000 a year spent on people who were never going to sign. And that ignores opportunity cost: the hours your rep did not spend on the contacts who were actually good.

That is the number to compare against the cost of filtering earlier — not the price of a tool against zero.

Why filtering early beats filtering late

There are two ways to rule out an unsuitable contact. The first is on the phone or at the property, and it costs a person's time. The second is on the page itself, with three or four questions the visitor answers unaided, and it costs nothing.

The industry figure that makes the point best: verified leads, pre-screened for ownership, credit and roof suitability, sell for roughly 30% more and still get bought, because they cut wasted sales effort by up to half. The market already pays for qualification. The alternative is doing it yourself, on your own landing page.

The questions that disqualify the most

• Ownership status: separates owners from renters and from building-association decisions. This one saves the most visits.
• Decision timeline: someone with no date rarely buys this quarter.
• Indicative budget: avoids the awkward conversation at the end of the process.
• One technical question specific to your trade: roof condition for solar, square metres and scope for renovation, the specific treatment for dental.

Four well-chosen questions do the work your rep currently does in the first ten minutes of every call — except the visitor answers them, and there is no per-contact cost. If you want to see how this format performs against a classic form, here are the conversion numbers.