You have 150 contractor leads in a spreadsheet. How do you know which ones to call first? If you're guessing, you're wasting time on bad leads while missing the hot ones. Here's the scoring framework contractors and agencies use to separate the gold from the noise.
Why Scoring Matters
Cold outbound is a numbers game, but it doesn't have to be a blind numbers game. If you call 100 random contractors, you might close 1–2. If you call 100 contractors scored and sorted by quality signals, you might close 5–10.
That's a 5x difference in productivity. The difference between scoring and not scoring is the difference between a sustainable outbound process and one that burns you out.
The Four Scoring Dimensions
Contractor quality comes down to four things:
1. Contact Quality (30 points)
Can you actually reach this person?
- Phone number: +10 points. If they have a phone number, you can call them. Obvious, but critical. Skip anyone without a phone.
- Website: +8 points. Websites signal professionalism and commitment. A contractor with a website is more serious than one without.
- Email: +7 points. Email means you have multiple contact methods. More likely to reach them.
- Multiple platforms: +5 points bonus. If they're on Yelp, Google, AND Facebook, they're legitimately established. Not a side gig.
Max score: 30. A contractor with phone + website + email + multiple platforms gets 30/30.
Why this matters: You can't sell to someone you can't reach. Contact quality filters out the phantom listings.
2. Review Signals (25 points)
Does the market trust them?
- Review count (0–10 points): More reviews = more sales. Score it logarithmically: 1–2 reviews = 2pts, 3–5 reviews = 4pts, 6–15 reviews = 6pts, 16+ reviews = 10pts. A contractor with zero reviews is worth 0pts. One with 50 reviews is worth 10pts.
- Review rating (0–8 points): 5.0 stars = 8pts, 4.5–4.9 = 6pts, 4.0–4.4 = 4pts, 3.5–3.9 = 2pts, <3.5 = 0pts. Bad reviews are worse than no reviews.
- Review recency (0–7 points): Recent reviews = active business. Within 30 days = 7pts, 30–90 days = 5pts, 90–180 days = 3pts, >180 days = 1pt. A contractor with no recent reviews might be out of business.
Max score: 25.
Why this matters: Reviews are proxy for: (1) they actually do work, (2) they're good at it, (3) they're still in business. High-review contractors close easier.
3. Business Maturity (25 points)
How legitimate and established are they?
- Years listed (0–10 points): How long have they been on Google/Yelp? 0–1 years = 2pts, 1–3 years = 5pts, 3–5 years = 7pts, 5+ years = 10pts. Contractors who have been around for 5+ years are serious.
- Photos (0–5 points): Do they have actual work photos? +5 if they have 5+ photos of completed work, +2 if they have 1–4 photos, 0 if none. Photos signal they do real work and document it.
- Verified/certified (0–5 points): Are they verified on Google or licensed? +5 if verified, 0 if not.
- Multi-service (0–5 points): Do they offer more services (plumbing + electrical + HVAC, for example)? +5 if they're a general contractor, +2 if they offer 2–3 services, 0 if they're single-service. Generalists are more stable.
Max score: 25.
Why this matters: Established contractors are less risky. They're less likely to ghost, more likely to be professional, more likely to close.
4. Negative Signals (-15 points)
Red flags that disqualify or heavily penalize.
- No address on file: -5 points. If you can't find a service area, they're hiding something.
- Single platform presence: -5 points. Only on Yelp? Only on Google? Seems like a side gig.
- Suspicious reviews: -10 points. If 50% of recent reviews are 1 star, or if reviews look fake ("Amazing!!! Five stars!!!" with no detail), they're trouble. Trust your gut here.
Putting It All Together
Total possible score: 80 points (30 + 25 + 25).
Subtract any negative signals.
Scoring tiers:
- Hot (65–80): Call first. These are the highest-quality leads. Hot contractors are established, well-reviewed, and verifiable. Close rate: 5–10%.
- Warm (50–64): Call second. Good leads with minor gaps (maybe fewer reviews, or newer). Close rate: 2–4%.
- Nurture (35–49): Nurture for later. Decent contacts but rough around the edges. Missing one major quality signal (reviews, years, contact info). Close rate: 0.5–1.5%.
- Skip (<35): Don't call. Either they're missing critical contact info or they have red flags. Wasting your time.
Real Example
Contractor A: General Contractor, Austin, TX
- Contact Quality: Phone + website + email = 25/30
- Reviews: 42 reviews, 4.8 stars, last review 15 days ago = 10 + 8 + 7 = 25/25
- Maturity: 8 years listed, 12 work photos, Google verified, offers 4 services = 10 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 25/25
- Negative signals: None = 0
- Total: 75/80 — HOT
Contractor B: Plumber, Austin, TX
- Contact Quality: Phone only = 10/30
- Reviews: 6 reviews, 4.2 stars, last review 120 days ago = 4 + 4 + 3 = 11/25
- Maturity: 2 years listed, 0 work photos, not verified, single service = 5 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 5/25
- Negative signals: No website, single platform = -5
- Total: 21/80 — SKIP
How to Score Without a CRM
If you're using a spreadsheet (Google Sheets, Excel), add columns for each scoring dimension, calculate the total, and sort by score DESC. Takes 30 seconds per lead once you set up the formula.
Example columns:
| Name | Phone | Website | Reviews | Rating | Years | Score | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin General | ✓ | ✓ | 42 | 4.8 | 8 | 75 | HOT |
| John Plumbing | ✓ | 6 | 4.2 | 2 | 21 | SKIP |
Then sort by score, highest first. Call the 75s. If you exhaust them, call the 60s. Don't bother with 35s.
How LeadTrawl Does It
If you don't want to score manually, LeadTrawl does this automatically. It pulls contractor listings from Yelp and Google Places, scores each one against the 11-signal model above, and returns them sorted by tier (Hot, Warm, Nurture, Skip).
Instead of spending 2 hours scoring 100 leads, you get them pre-scored and ready to call in 5 minutes. The framework is the same — contact quality, reviews, maturity — but applied at scale.
The Payoff
Contractors who score their leads see:
- 2–3x improvement in close rate (from 1% to 2–3% on cold calls)
- 50% reduction in wasted call time (not calling low-quality leads)
- Better conversation quality (you're calling established, vetted businesses)
- Repeatable process (every week you can pull and score new leads the same way)
The scoring takes 30 seconds per lead in a spreadsheet, or is automated if you use a tool. Either way, it's the fastest ROI improvement you can make to an outbound pipeline.