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2026 has been a tougher year for most trade contractors.
Tax day (April 15th) is the unofficial kickoff to busy season for many trade contractors. Consumers have tax refund checks in their pockets, the weather is improving, and it’s time to begin spring & summer projects.
Well, we’re about 6 weeks into “busy season” and it’s been a slog compared to prior years. I’ve talked to a handful of folks in a variety of trades & geographies — the common theme is lead volume (and conversion) has been TOUGH this season.
For big ticket upgrades (pools, generators, landscape construction, etc.), I’m hearing anything from 10-30% declines in year-over-year lead volumes.
Maintenance service businesses are faring better, ranging from down 10% to flat/up 5%. But the common sentiment I’ve heard is that staying flat is harder than ever.
In an operating environment where leads are harder to come by, managing your lead funnel efficiently is more important than ever. In today’s post, we’ll discuss mapping your lead funnel and some considerations around optimizing each element of it.
To be clear, we’re nowhere near optimized at Blooma — this is a constant improvement type of thing. But I spend a TON of time reading, thinking & talking about this topic.
So hopefully there’s even just one idea or tidbit here that you can take away and focus on in your business next week!
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