How many leads does it take to land one customer? Adam and Elisabeth say that's the wrong question. The number that matters is how many leads you're losing after the phone already rang.

In our second Listener Q&A, we answer five real questions from pest control owners. We cover lead leaks and close rates, why review recency matters as much as review count, how long SEO really takes, what happens to your rankings when you move your office, and what to add first when your business runs on referrals.

Three Key Takeaways

1. It's a leak problem, not a lead volume problem. Your real close rate, booked jobs divided by leads, tells you more than any lead count.
2. SEO is a 6 to 12 month channel, and that's the argument for starting now. Waiting until you're bigger just starts the clock a year late.
3. When referrals stall, add something you own before something you rent: a site that converts, a complete Google Business Profile, and a real way to ask for reviews.

What We Cover

• Three to five cold leads per customer, and why most shops lose leads after the phone rings
• How starting prices on your site filter out tire kickers
• Nurture sequences for leads who don't book right away
• Why a stalled review count hurts, even with hundreds of reviews
• Texting review requests: about a 98% open rate vs. about 20% for email
• Why "wait until $1M to do SEO" is expensive advice
• SEO fast wins that move in weeks
• Moving your office: proximity, re-verification, NAP consistency, and duplicate profiles
• Why referred customers still Google you before they call

One Thing to Fix This Week

Pull last month's leads and last month's booked jobs. Divide booked jobs by leads. That's your real close rate. If you can't get the numbers in 15 minutes, add a lead source field to your job software.

Resources

• Free pest control marketing audit: marketingthatactuallyworks.ai
• Free Cube Score, see how your site looks to AI search: thecubescore.com
• The Leak Check Worksheet (Episode 40 download)
• 20-Point Pest Control Marketing Checklist

Related Episodes

• Episode 8: Word-of-Mouth Marketing Isn't Enough Anymore
• Episode 16: The Customer Review System That Generates 20 Reviews a Month
• Episode 24: Local SEO Beyond Google Business Profile
• Episode 32: Listener Q&A Part 1

Next Tuesday: Creating a Marketing Calendar That Actually Gets Executed

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