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Stop Losing Bids: One Inbox, Auto Follow-Up for Trades

Stop Losing Bids: One Inbox, Auto Follow-Up for Trades

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Marisol lost a full master bath job — herringbone floor, zellige shower — because the estimate sat in a notebook in a truck that wasn't with her. Eric argues the problem isn't discipline; it's a system built from four inboxes and a whiteboard nobody opens. In this episode: The "I lost another one" text: how a broken saw and a borrowed truck cost a signed zellige master bathWhy leads coming from Facebook, personal texts, the shop line, and referrals create four inboxes no one can run cleanThe real cost of losing two to three measured jobs a month — leads you already paid for with your timeWhy "follow up harder" fails: decision-making is the most expensive thing you do all dayInstant-reply texts from a number that looks like yours, sent in under a minute whether you're on a roof or asleepAuto pings at 48 hours and soft customer check-ins written once in your voice, then forgottenThe roofer case study: two crews, one job a week lost, fixed with three ordered movesThe five-stage measure-to-quote board: Contacted → Measured → Quote Sent → Won/Lost, plus keeping your personal number personal Subscribe: workingsmarter.jgiebz.com Full transcript Eric: So you texted me last week and the message just said "I lost another one." And I knew EXACTLY what you meant, but for people listening... tell me what happened. Marisol Trevino: Okay so, a woman calls me on a Tuesday. She wants a full master bath redone, herringbone floor, the whole shower in this beautiful zellige. Nice job. I go out Thursday, I measure everything, I write the numbers in my notebook, I tell her I'll get her a price by Monday. Eric: And Monday comes. Marisol Trevino: Monday comes, and I'm on a job in Portland, the neighborhood not Oregon, and a saw goes down, and one of my guys cuts his hand, not bad but bad enough, and by the time I get home it's Wednesday and the notebook is in the truck and the truck is at my cousin's because he was borrowing it. Eric: Oh no. Marisol Trevino: And I remembered her on SATURDAY. Saturday morning. I called, she was very nice, and she said they'd already signed with somebody else. Eric: How much was that job, roughly? Marisol Trevino: It would've been one of the bigger ones this quarter. I don't want to say the number because my husband listens to these things now, but... it hurt. Eric: And this isn't the first one. Marisol Trevino: Eric. It is not the first one. It's not the fifth one. I lose two, sometimes three good ones a month like this. And the crazy part is I HAD the lead. She called ME. I went out. I did the work of measuring. Eric: Right, you paid for the lead with your time already. Marisol Trevino: Exactly. The marketing worked. My referrals work. Facebook works. It's the part AFTER that's broken. Eric: Okay so before we get into what to do, let me just say back what I'm hearing, because I think a lot of folks listening are nodding right now. You've got leads coming in through, what, three or four channels? Marisol Trevino: Facebook messages, texts to my personal phone, calls to the shop line, and referrals which usually come in as a text from whoever referred them saying "hey my friend's gonna call you." Eric: Four inboxes. Marisol Trevino: Four inboxes. Eric: And then the estimate lives in a paper notebook in a truck that sometimes is not with you. Marisol Trevino: When you say it like that. Eric: I'm not making fun, I'm just... this is the thing I want people to hear. The problem isn't you. The problem is the SYSTEM is four inboxes and a notebook. Nobody could run that clean. Marisol Trevino: My husband says the same thing. Nicer than you though. Eric: Fair. Okay. So here's what I think is actually going wrong, and then I want to walk you through what we did with a client who had basically your exact situation, different trade but same shape. Marisol Trevino: Please. Eric: The thing that's going wrong is not that you're forgetting to follow up. It's that "follow up" is a decision you have to MAKE every single day, on top of running crews, on top of your kids, on top of the saw breaking. And decision-making is the most expensive thing you do all day. Marisol Trevino: Huh. Eric: So the fix isn't "try harder to remember." The fix is you take the follow-up decision off your plate entirely. Marisol Trevino: Okay, but how, because I've tried spreadsheets, I've tried a whiteboard in the shop... Eric: Yeah, and those all put the work back on you. Every morning you have to LOOK at the whiteboard. Every morning you have to open the spreadsheet. Marisol Trevino: I never open the spreadsheet. Eric: Nobody opens the spreadsheet. So here's what we do at the agency, and it's what we set up for this client I'm gonna tell you about. We run everything, and I mean everything, through one all-in-one ops platform. It's the platform we use for our own business and for clients. All the inboxes feed into it, all the follow-up runs out of it, and the estimate lives in it. Marisol Trevino: One place. Eric: One ...
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