Symptom 01
Lead-platform spend rising while close-rate per dollar falls for two or more quarters.Home Services The contractor diagnostic
Stan Consulting · Trades & contractors
Contractor Lead Diagnostic.
The 7-day written diagnostic for trades and contractors. $999. Refund pledge if the 3 install moves do not move the phone inside 60 days.
Request the Diagnostic01
Quick answer
The Contractor Lead Diagnostic is a $999 written diagnostic for trades and contractors. Lead quality, ad-spend leak, phone and follow-up economics, Google Business Profile health, and quote-to-close are reviewed against the standard contractor fault list. Findings are ranked by revenue impact and delivered as a written report in 7 business days. Three install moves are named. The matched power object is delivered with the report. The refund pledge applies on day sixty.
The phone is the funnel. Everything else is the bill.
02
When the leads stop closing, the cause is rarely the leads.
Most trades operators who feel the leak diagnose it as a lead problem. They buy more leads. They switch platforms. They add another agency retainer. The phone keeps not ringing the way it used to. The diagnostic names where the operation is actually leaking, surfaces the dollars, and prescribes three install moves that close the gap inside sixty days.
What the operation looks like when the lead is not the problem.
The platform reports forty-seven leads. The bookkeeper records three closes. The Local Services Ads invoice clears at four figures. The dispute button no longer exists. Performance Max reports new acquisitions that branded search would have closed anyway. The phone misses one inbound call in four during business hours and every call after hours. The quote goes out. The job does not come back.
The pattern is structural and the pattern is contractor-vertical. The diagnostic names which layer is leaking, how many dollars are leaking from each, and which three install moves close the leak inside sixty days. The operator keeps the written record either way.
What the diagnostic does and what it does not.
The diagnostic names the structural revenue leak across five contractor-specific layers: lead quality, ad-spend leak, phone and follow-up, Google Business Profile, and quote-to-close. It produces a buyer-path map specific to the trade, a spend leak ledger, and three install moves matched to the operator's actual sub-theme. It does not run a sales call. It does not pitch a retainer. It does not solve licensing, permitting, crew, or operations problems. The $999 covers the diagnostic, the power object, and the 60-day follow-up.
Symptom 02
Inbound call miss rate above 22% during business hours, or above one third in peak season.Symptom 03
Google Business Profile ranking dropped after a category, hours, or service-area edit and never recovered.03
Five layers reviewed against the contractor fault list. One ranked report.
The diagnostic moves through five contractor-specific layers in fixed order. Each layer carries a fault list built from documented engagements with roofers, HVAC operators, plumbers, general contractors, and remodelers. Findings are attributed to a layer, ranked by revenue impact, and sequenced into the three install moves.
Figure · The diagnostic moves through five contractor-specific layers in fixed order. Findings are attributed to a layer, ranked by revenue impact, and sequenced into the three install moves the refund pledge backs.
The operating principle
The phone is the funnel. The four hours after the phone rings are the funnel too.
01
Diagnosis is written.
The report is the deliverable. Calls are scheduling, not sales. The operator owns the document on day six.
02
Three moves install.
Findings condense into three sequenced install moves. Each one named, evidenced, and matched to the operator's sub-theme.
03
Sixty days verify.
If those three moves do not move the phone inside sixty days, the $999 is wired back. The report and the power object stay with the operator.
04
From intake to install moves: four windows across seven business days.
The process is fixed. The intake form opens the engagement. Day one is intake and access. Days two through five are the audit. Day six delivers the written diagnostic and the matched power object. Day seven schedules the 60-day follow-up call that triggers the refund pledge if the install moves did not move the phone.
Day 1
Step A
Intake
The form is submitted. Trade, service area, lead sources, ad spend, call volume, and the specific commercial problem are stated. Payment of $999 is collected once intake confirms fit. Read-only access requests are sent the same day.
Days 2 to 5
Step B
Audit
The five-layer audit runs in fixed order. Lead grading, spend-leak ledger, callback-lag economics, GBP audit, and quote-to-close decomposition. Findings ranked by revenue impact. Three install moves drafted.
Day 6
Step C
Diagnostic
The written diagnostic and the matched power object are delivered. Three install moves are named with revenue impact, sequence, and the 60-day target the refund pledge tracks.
Day 7
Step D
Follow-up scheduled
A short clarification call schedules the 60-day follow-up. The follow-up verifies whether the three install moves moved the phone. The refund pledge is settled at the follow-up, in writing.
05
The five sub-themes the diagnostic covers, and the five it does not.
The Contractor Lead Diagnostic is calibrated for the contractor and trades vertical. The fit list names the five sub-themes the report covers in depth. The not-fit list names the operators who belong elsewhere; for paid-media-first ecommerce, the Conversion Second Opinion at the same $999 floor is the right product.
The diagnostic is for
Licensed contractors and trades operators feeling one of five lead-leak sub-themes.
- Lead Quality · Angi, HomeAdvisor, or other lead-platform spend producing leads that do not match service or close at the math the platform sold.
- Ad Spend Leak · Local Services Ads, Google Ads, Meta, or agency retainers consuming budget while the search-terms report shows out-of-area or out-of-service queries.
- Phone & Follow-Up · Inbound call miss rate above 22% during business hours, callback lag over four hours, or speed-to-lead gaps the math says are leaking five figures monthly.
- Local SEO / GBP · Google Business Profile dropped in the map pack after a category, hours, or service-area edit, or competitors with fewer reviews and a newer business outranking the operator.
- Quote-to-Close · Quotes going out, close rate sitting below the trade benchmark of 30-35%, and the unclosed quotes never received the five-touchpoint sequence the sales data supports.
The diagnostic is not for
Operators whose stack belongs in a different engagement format.
- Paid-media-first ecommerce. Shopify Performance Max, DTC Meta scaling, or a $5,000-per-month paid-media floor. Request the Conversion Second Opinion at the same $999 floor.
- Pre-revenue operators. No active leads, no active ad spend, no GBP, no quote pipeline. There is nothing to diagnose yet.
- Unlicensed contractors. CSLB gating and equivalent state-licensing gates apply. The diagnostic does not advise on licensing or permitting.
- Permit, fire-service, or operations work. The diagnostic finds marketing leaks. It does not solve permitting, code, crew, or operations problems.
- Visitors seeking a free strategy call. The engagement is paid at $999. The written report and the power object are the deliverable. A sales call is not the deliverable.
06
Six numbered items. Each one anchored against an operator-loss number.
The $999 covers six deliverables. Each item is anchored against the dollar number the operator is losing in the gap the item closes. Every artefact is usable on its own. Every artefact stays with the operator regardless of what happens at the 60-day follow-up.
01
Written diagnostic of where the marketing operation is leaking
The five-layer audit produces a written report naming the structural cause of the leak in each layer. Lead quality, ad-spend leak, phone and follow-up, GBP, and quote-to-close are each named, evidenced, and sequenced.
Anchored against one missed roofing job. $8,000-$25,000 in capture loss per missed job. The diagnostic names the structural cause.
02
The three install moves that will move the phone inside 60 days
The findings condense into three sequenced install moves matched to the operator's sub-theme. Each move is named, scoped, and tagged with the 60-day phone-volume target it tracks against.
Anchored against 90 days of speed-to-lead gap. 391% conversion-rate lift unrealized per Hatch app data. The three moves close that gap.
03
Buyer-path map specific to your trade
The actual path your highest-margin buyer takes from first search to signed work. Where the path breaks. Where competitors intercept it. Where your spend is hitting traffic that was never going to convert.
Anchored against the 70-80% of small-contractor ad spend wasted on irrelevant traffic per Core6 Marketing. The map names where your spend is actually going.
04
Ad-spend leak ledger naming what is leaking and how much
A line-by-line ledger of where the ad budget is going. Out-of-area clicks. Out-of-service queries. LSA credit history. Branded-search inheritance counted as acquisition. The ledger surfaces the dollars by line.
Anchored against one quarter of unread search-terms reports. Four to five figures of monthly waste typical. The ledger surfaces the dollars.
05
60-day follow-up call to verify the install
Most diagnostic engagements end at the report. This one schedules a follow-up call on day sixty to verify whether the three install moves moved the phone. The follow-up is the proof-of-work moment most firms skip.
Anchored against the refund pledge. The follow-up call is where the pledge is settled, in writing.
06
One matched power object
The operator keeps one of five power objects: the Lead-Quality Scorecard, the Spend Leak Ledger, the Callback-Rate Calculator, the GBP Audit Checklist, or the Quote-to-Close Ledger. Matched to the entry sub-theme.
Anchored against the operator keeping the object even if the operator never hires us again.
$999The refund pledge
If the three install moves do not move the phone inside 60 days, the $999 is wired back.
If the diagnostic does not name three specific install moves that will move the phone inside sixty days, the operator keeps the written report and the power object, and the $999 is wired back to the operator's account.
No partial credit. No "Stan Credits." No store credit. A wire back. The diagnostic that earns the $999 is the same diagnostic that survives the refund pledge.
The pledge has not been triggered across more than thirty engagements.
07
Three install moves you walk away with on day six.
The findings condense into three install moves matched to the operator's sub-theme. The three moves are the deliverable the refund pledge backs. Examples below show how the moves rotate by sub-theme entry. The operator's actual three moves are written into the day-six report.
01
Move A · The platform decision
For Lead Quality entry: cut the platforms producing the 44 of 47 leads that never close, and reinvest the saved spend into the source the 7-signal scorecard says actually closes. For Ad Spend Leak entry: rebuild the negative-keyword list and conversion goals so the search-terms report stops paying for out-of-area queries.
Tracked at day 60 against: leads per dollar from the highest-grading source.
02
Move B · The phone & follow-up rebuild
Missed-call-text-back automation installed at the dollar number the math supports (typically under $100/month). Callback SLA written down and enforced (60 seconds to 4 hours, depending on call type). The 5-touchpoint follow-up sequence the data says is required gets built into the CRM, not held in someone's head.
Tracked at day 60 against: miss rate, callback lag, and inbound-to-quote conversion.
03
Move C · The Google Business Profile or quote-to-close rebuild
For GBP entry: category integrity restored, review-velocity workflow installed, activity-feed gap closed against the competitor outranking the operator in the local pack. For Quote-to-Close entry: the diagnostic conversation replaces the bare quote, price-anchoring sequence installed, the 5-touchpoint follow-up runs in writing.
Tracked at day 60 against: local-pack visibility lift OR close-rate movement against trade benchmark.
08
One of five power objects, matched to the entry sub-theme.
Every diagnostic ships with a power object the operator keeps. The object is matched to the sub-theme the operator entered through. The object is usable independent of the diagnostic. The operator keeps it whether or not the refund pledge is triggered.
01
Lead-Quality Scorecard
7-signal grading sheet matched to the source-to-close-rate math. Lead Quality entry.
02
Spend Leak Ledger
Line-by-line spend audit template that exposes out-of-area and out-of-service dollar flow. Ad Spend Leak entry.
03
Callback-Rate Calculator
Inbound miss-rate × ticket size math that turns callback lag into a dollar number. Phone & Follow-Up entry.
04
GBP Audit Checklist
Category, NAP, review-velocity, and activity-feed check matched to the local-pack ranking algorithm in 2026. GBP entry.
05
Quote-to-Close Ledger
Touchpoint-tagged quote-pipeline ledger that decomposes close rate against the 5-touchpoint sequence. Quote-to-Close entry.
09
Four anchor numbers. Sourced from the contractor industry data, not from our marketing.
The diagnostic does not invent numbers. The contractor industry has documented the leak patterns we audit against. These four anchors source from published industry data and recur in every engagement we run.
Source · Hatch app data
391%
Conversion-rate lift · 1-minute response
Operators who respond to an inbound lead within one minute realise a 391 percent conversion-rate lift versus the contractor industry average response time. Most trades operators we audit are running a four-plus-hour callback lag and never knew it was the leak.
Industry data · Hatch app
27%
HVAC inbound-call miss rate
Source · Ethos Link Systems
The average HVAC contractor misses nearly 27 percent of inbound calls during business hours; in peak season the rate climbs to 35 percent or higher. The diagnostic surfaces the miss rate as a monthly-revenue number.
70%
Small-contractor ad-spend waste
Source · Core6 Marketing
Without expert management, small contractors waste 70 to 80 percent of their entire Google Ads spend on completely irrelevant traffic. The spend-leak ledger surfaces which line items those are in the operator's account.
93%
Top-3 map-pack inquiry lift
Source · Local SEO industry consensus
Businesses appearing in the top three Google Maps results bring in 93 percent more inquiries than businesses positioned 4 through 10. The GBP audit names what the competitor outranking the operator is doing in the activity feed that the operator is not.
10
Questions about scope, fee, the refund pledge, and the 60-day window.
What is the Contractor Lead Diagnostic?
A $999 written diagnostic for contractors and trades. Lead quality, ad-spend leak, phone and follow-up economics, Google Business Profile health, and quote-to-close are reviewed against the contractor fault list. Findings are ranked by revenue impact and delivered as a written report in 7 business days. Three install moves are named. A matched power object is delivered with the report.
What does the $999 include?
The written diagnostic, the three install moves, a buyer-path map specific to the trade, an ad-spend leak ledger, a 60-day follow-up call to verify the install, and one of five power objects (Lead-Quality Scorecard, Spend Leak Ledger, Callback-Rate Calculator, GBP Audit Checklist, or Quote-to-Close Ledger) matched to the entry sub-theme. The $999 is paid once. There is no retainer attached.
What is the refund pledge and how does it work?
If the diagnostic does not name three specific install moves that will move the phone inside sixty days, the operator keeps the written report and the matched power object, and the $999 is wired back. No partial credit. No store credit. A wire to the operator's account. The refund pledge is settled at the 60-day follow-up call, in writing. The pledge has not been triggered across more than thirty engagements.
How is this different from the Conversion Second Opinion?
Same firm. Same $999 floor. Same 7-day deliverable shape. Different scope. The Conversion Second Opinion is for paid-media-first operators with a $5,000-per-month paid-media floor on Google Ads, Meta, or Shopify Performance Max. The Contractor Lead Diagnostic is for trades operators whose leak sits across lead platforms, Local Services Ads, GBP, the phone, and the quote-to-close pipeline. The intake form routes by trade and stack.
What does the operator have to provide?
Read-only access to the relevant ad accounts (Google Ads, Meta, Local Services Ads, lead-platform dashboards), read-only access to Google Business Profile and Google Analytics, CRM exports or call-log exports if available, and one hour of phone time during the intake window. Total operator effort is two to three hours across the 7-day window.
What trades does this cover?
Roofing, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, general contracting, remodeling, fencing, paving, concrete, landscaping, painting, flooring, solar installation, garage doors, and equivalent licensed trades. If the operator is licensed and runs an active lead pipeline, the diagnostic applies. The intake form confirms fit before payment.
What is not covered by the diagnostic?
The diagnostic does not advise on licensing, permitting, code compliance, crew hiring, materials sourcing, or operations workflow. It does not solve product, pricing, or category problems. Operators in pre-revenue, unlicensed, or fire-service categories belong elsewhere. Paid-media-first ecommerce operators belong on the Conversion Second Opinion at the same $999 floor.
Who delivers the diagnostic?
The diagnostic is led by the principal at Stan Consulting LLC with a small team behind it. Twenty years of paid-media and conversion-architecture work. The contractor-vertical fault list is built from documented engagements with roofers, HVAC operators, plumbers, general contractors, and remodelers across North America. Principal credentials are on the About page.
Section 11 · Request the diagnostic
Open the engagement.
Eight fields. Two acknowledgments. Day-one clock starts after access is granted. Response within one business day; if it is not a fit, that is the response, and the engagement does not open.
$999Diagnostic fee · one-time
7 daysWritten diagnostic delivered
60 daysRefund pledge window
The commercial bridge
The $999 is anchored against what one job costs you, not what a platform charges.
What one missed roofing job costs you: $8,000-$25,000. What 90 days of speed-to-lead gap costs you: 391% conversion-rate lift unrealized per Hatch app data. What one quarter of unread search-terms reports costs you: 70-80% of small-contractor ad spend wasted per Core6 Marketing. What this diagnostic costs: $999. Once. With the refund pledge.
Request the Diagnostic · $999If the three install moves do not move the phone inside 60 days, the $999 is wired back. The operator keeps the written diagnostic and the matched power object regardless. The refund pledge has not been triggered across more than thirty engagements.