# Trace your last 300 inquiries before you buy more leads

By Ali Peivandizadeh, business growth and AI implementation specialist.
Published Nov 13, 2026. Last checked Nov 13, 2026. Last changed Nov 13, 2026.
Section: Marketing. Verdict: ACT
Who it is for: Battery and solar sellers, backup power dealers. 5 to 100 people. Owner, sales manager.

Before you buy more leads, follow your last 300 inquiries to the end. Count how many became a finished, paid job. Fix the step where the most people drop out.

## Why
A marketer described a solar installer that got 10 to 20 inquiries a month. During one campaign it got about 3,300 a month. More inquiries put more load on the same follow-up steps. Her advice is to audit what happens after the form is sent, before the ad budget grows. A study in Harvard Business Review tested 2,241 US companies with real inquiries. It found that 23% never answered. The count below shows the cost of each finished, paid job, which a cost for each lead never shows.

## Steps
1. Pull the last 300 inquiries from every source: web forms, calls, bought leads, door to door and referrals.
2. For each one, write the time it arrived and the time a person first answered.
3. Mark where each one ended: no answer, appointment, proposal, signed, canceled, installed, or paid.
4. Count the inquiries at each step. Find the step with the largest drop.
5. Count the inquiries that arrived at night or on a weekend, and how long they waited.
6. Work out the cost of one finished, paid job for each source.
7. Stop the source with the highest cost for each paid job.
8. Fix the largest drop before you buy more leads.

## Cost and time
No cost. About one day for the sales manager, with the customer records you already have.

## The rule to check
Call or text an inquiry only if the person gave permission, and stop when the person asks. A lead you bought needs proof of that permission from the lead seller. Keep the list inside the company.

## What can go wrong
Records in spreadsheets and on paper make the count slow, and some sources will be unknown. Start with the last 100 if 300 is too many. Cancellations appear weeks after signing, so use inquiries that are at least 90 days old.

## Sources
- HackerNoon, article by Andra Ciucescu, practitioner article, Nov 10, 2026: https://hackernoon.com/before-you-spend-more-on-ads-find-out-what-happened-to-your-last-300-leads

General information, not legal, financial or engineering advice.

Page: https://energygrowthjournal.com/marketing/trace-your-last-300-inquiries-to-paid-jobs/