The owner can't run the crew and the phone at the same time.
Sam is on a job site by 7 AM and he doesn't come off it. But he's also the only person at Ironwood who can scope a remodel and book an estimate. So calls went to voicemail all day, he returned them at night exhausted, and half of them turned out to be price-shoppers with no budget or projects he doesn't even take.
The double cost: real leads — kitchen and bath remodels, additions, whole-home renovations — slipped away while he was framing a wall, and the leads he did chase down at night were as likely to be dead ends as deals.
Taiso pre-qualifies every lead before it ever hits Sam's calendar.
Ironwood put Taiso on the line for every inbound call. Taiso asks what the project is, the scope, the rough budget range, the timeline, and whether they own the home — then books an estimate consult only when the job actually fits what Ironwood does. The unqualified calls get a polite, helpful answer and never burn a slot.
Sam opens his calendar to find real consults already booked, each one tagged with the project details, so he shows up to the estimate already knowing what he's walking into.
What Taiso does for Ironwood specifically:
- Qualifies project type, scope, budget range, timeline, and ownership
- Books estimate consults only for jobs Ironwood actually takes
- Tags each consult with the project details so Sam arrives prepared
- Handles price-shoppers and out-of-scope calls without booking a slot
- Answers all day while the owner stays on the job site
"I used to spend my nights driving to estimates that were never going to happen. Now every consult on my calendar is real. I get my evenings back and I close more work."
Illustrative — not an actual customerThe compounding effect.
Qualified bids close better than cold ones. Because Sam now walks into every estimate already briefed on scope and budget, his proposals land sharper and faster. His bid-to-contract rate rose from 34% to 49% — fewer estimates, more of them turning into signed jobs, and a calendar that finally respects his time on the site.