The pre-call sequence that gets owners to pick up
Cold calls to contractors mostly hit voicemail. The fix is not a better pitch; it is three touches before the call so the owner has seen your name. The sequence we run, step by step.
The biggest problem in calling contractors is not objections. It is that the owner does not pick up. Gatekeepers, voicemail, a cell that rings in a truck. A better script does nothing if nobody hears it.
What changes the pickup rate is pre-work: touches before the call so the name on the caller ID is familiar. Here is the sequence we run.
Touch one: a 90-second video email
Day one. A plain email, no design, from a real person’s address, with a 90-second video. The video is not about the prospect; it is a 30,000-foot view of what you do and why it is different, like an advertisement with a face. Subject line is specific: their company name and one fact about their market. Open rates on a plain email from a named person run two to three times a designed newsletter.
Touch two: a second email, two days later
Shorter. One finding about their business (something public: a review, a permit, a project), one sentence on how you help companies like theirs, and a link to a longer three-minute video. Still plain text. Still from a person.
Touch three: LinkedIn, same day as touch two
Connect with the owner, or follow and comment on the company page. Not a pitch. A comment on something they posted. This is the touch that makes the name familiar, because it shows up in a feed they actually look at.
Then the call
Only after all three touches does the account move to the call list. The opening names the touches: “I sent you a short video last week and connected on LinkedIn.” Then one specific thing about their company, one sentence on what you do, and the ask: fifteen minutes, a named day three to five days out, not a weekend.
The call is short, relational and direct. It is not “I can get you a cheaper website.”
Why it works
Three touches in a week, in three channels, from one named person, turns a cold call into a warm one. Pickup rates roughly double. Conversations are easier because the owner already has a picture of who is calling.
How it runs without a person doing it
In the sales system we build, the two emails send automatically on schedule when an account enters pre-work; the rep does the LinkedIn touch in a daily block; the account moves itself to the call list when all three are logged. The rep never dials a cold account, and never has to remember where anyone is in the sequence.
A bonus structure for an appointment setter that does not blow up
Pay on held meetings, not dials. Let the rep set the target. No end-of-month forgiveness. The structure we run, the numbers, and the two mistakes that make reps game it or quit.
Custom CRM vs. HubSpot for a 20-person contractor
Off-the-shelf CRMs make you bend your sales process to their pipeline and charge per seat forever. A custom CRM built around your actual cycle now costs less than three years of licences. The honest comparison.
The math on an in-house appointment setter
What a dedicated rep costs, what a realistic month of output looks like, and the cost per held meeting compared with an outsourced agency. Real numbers, nothing rounded in our favor.
Fifteen minutes. No pitch deck.
Tell me what you build and where the leads come from today. I will tell you what I would change, and what it would cost. If it is not a fit, I will say so on the call.