1.1 The three that matter most

• Give a number. A customer who asks what it costs gets an answer — a range is an answer, silence is not.
• Book first, quote second. Ask for the appointment before you offer to send anything. When a lead books their own slot, ring to confirm it and use that call to get the next step in the diary — and if they don't pick up at the slot, ring again straight after it.
• Ring at the exact time you said you would. A booked slot is a promise, and the lead has already decided to buy from whoever keeps it.

1.2 Ten rules for every call

None of these are complicated, and none of them are about being pushy. They are the handful of habits that separate a call which ends with something in the diary from one that ends with "I'll have a think."

1. Always give a range, never a single price. A range answers the question without committing you to a figure you haven't surveyed, and it tells you straight away whether they can afford the installation at all. Say the grant contribution comes off it, so the number they hear is what they would actually pay.
2. Be straight about the heat loss survey. Say whether it is free or whether it is deductible from the installation price, the first time money comes up. Nobody minds a fee they were told about early — they mind finding it later.
3. Never finish a call without a next step and a decision. A booked appointment or a dated callback, and a clear sense of where they actually stand. "I'll get back to you" is neither, and it is usually a polite no.
4. Ask for the booking three times before you take a no. Come at it from a different angle each time. Most first noes are reflex — people say it before they have really thought about it.
5. Ask, then let the silence do the work. It feels much longer to you than it does to them. Whoever fills it first tends to lose.
6. Hear an objection as a question, not a rejection. If they weren't interested they would have got off the phone. Answer it and go straight back to the booking in the same breath, so there is no gap for them to fill.
7. Ring at the exact time you promised. Two o'clock means two o'clock. They have arranged their day around it, and the company that turns up on time is usually the one that gets the job.
8. If you don't know, say so — and say when you will. "I'd rather not guess, I'll have that for you by Thursday" builds more trust than a confident wrong answer. Never improvise on grant figures.
9. Don't make them repeat what they already typed. Read the enquiry before you dial and open by confirming it: "I've got your enquiry here — can I just check this is all still right?" It takes ten seconds and it tells them they are talking to a person, not a call centre.
10. Write it down as you go. Capture the qualifying detail on the call rather than from memory afterwards, and leave a note on every stage move. If it isn't in the CRM it didn't happen, and the next person to pick this up starts from nothing.

1.3 Speed to lead

How quickly each thing needs to happen. It is split deliberately, because the two halves have different owners — the automated half is set up once and then runs on its own, and the manual half is what the team has to actually do, every day.

Automated Set up once — these fire on their own

Built into the CRM and triggered by the lead's own actions. Nobody has to remember them, and nothing here should ever be sent by hand.

Manual The team does these — every one is a person picking up the phone

This is the half that decides whether the process works. All of it is a call unless it says otherwise.

Nobody rings out of hours. The automated SMS holds the lead until morning, and the first call goes out first thing the next working day.

How many times you chase — eight attempts over fourteen days

Every attempt below is a phone call. The first three days are consecutive, then the gaps widen — someone who hasn't answered by day three is busy rather than avoiding you.

• SMS is your discretion, not a step. Drop one alongside an attempt if it feels right for that lead — but the cadence itself is calls, and a text is not a substitute for one.
• Don't burn eight attempts on a bad number. If it is obviously fake, dead or never going to connect, stop early, mark it disqualified and put the time into a real lead.

When to call — a guideline, not a rule

Domestic homeowners are reachable at fairly predictable points in the day, and this is our read on when. It is most useful when one person is juggling calls around everything else — rather than working a list at whatever moment happens to be free, aim the chasing at the windows where someone is likeliest to actually pick up.

The calling window is 08:30 to 18:00, and the only real rule is that each attempt on a lead lands in a different block from the last one.

If a lead tells you when they are free, that beats all of it — write it in the record and ring then.

1.4 Channels

Sell on whatever channel the lead is happy to reply on. Plenty of people would rather trade messages than take a call, and a quote can be discussed perfectly well over SMS, WhatsApp or email — so meet them where they are, and work towards a phone call rather than insisting on one.

Should Gas Tech open a WhatsApp account for sales?

The reason for keeping it separate is simple: it protects the number you actually run the business on.

• Sales messaging carries a risk that operations messaging doesn't. When you are contacting people who only half-remember filling in a form, a few of them will block or report you, and enough of that can get a number temporarily suspended. You do not want that happening on the line your existing customers use.
• If it does happen, it is recoverable. You can go to Meta directly and ask for the number to be reinstated permanently. It is a fairly common thing on a new business account doing lead follow-up, and it gets sorted — an inconvenience rather than a lost number.
• Practically, you'll need a second number and a device to run it on. WhatsApp Business ties one account to one number, so the sales account can't share the number operations already uses.

1.5 Qualification — the hard gates

Five things stop a lead becoming a job. Each one has a check to do before you write anyone off, because most of them are recoverable and only two are genuinely final. When a lead does fail, mark it Disqualified with the reason so it lands in the Disqualified column and stops being chased.

1 · Are they the homeowner?

Confirm it out loud on the first call — "just a formality, you own the property?" No homeowner means no grant, and no grant means no sale.

If it's a tenant or a relative: ask who the owner is and whether they can be brought onto a call. That is a lead, not a dead end. If the owner won't engage, disqualify.

2 · Is there outdoor space for the external unit?

Do not take "I don't think so" as an answer. Pull the property up on Google Maps and Google Earth before you disqualify anyone — satellite and Street View will show you the side return, the back garden and the wall space in about thirty seconds, and customers routinely underestimate what they have.

Disqualify only when you have confirmed it yourself — flat with no external wall, no garden, nowhere the unit can physically go.

3 · Are they inside the service area?

Confirm the full postcode, not the town, and check it against the service area. Always ring the lead to confirm the property address before booking anything — the address on a form is not always the property the work is for.

4 · Do they think it's free?

This one is an objection, not a disqualification, and it comes up constantly. Handle it, then carry on.

Disqualify only if they genuinely need it for nothing. If the answer is "I can't pay anything at all", they are not a customer — say so warmly and close the file.

5 · Are they actually asking about the right product?

Some enquiries are really about air conditioning, or a straight boiler swap. Don't force it and don't just hang up — explain the difference and let them choose.

Soft flags — none of these is a no

All of them affect the design or the price, and all of them get more expensive the later they surface. Raise them on call one, note them, and let the surveyor deal with them.

• Poor insulation — affects the size of system, not whether they can have one.
• Listed building — possible, but needs checking for consent.
• Conservation area — usually fine with the unit placed thoughtfully.
• Microbore pipework — a real cost line, so find out early.
• No hot water cylinder — a cost line, not a problem.
• All-electric with no existing wet system — ask this every time. Radiators and pipework have to go in as well as the pump, so it is a bigger job and a bigger price — and it is also the property type that saves the most, so lead with that.
• Already quoted by a competitor — ask this every time. Find out who, what they quoted, and what size system, so you can price like for like rather than guess.
• Buying the property, not yet moved in — book it for just after they get the keys.

1.6 KPIs

Measured against the pipeline in section 5. They come in three groups, because speed, progression and leakage each tell you about a different problem.

Speed — how fast the team reacts

Funnel — progression from one stage to the next

Only the funnel stages in 5.1 count here. A lead sitting in a holding stage is neither a win nor a loss and does not belong in these numbers.

Leakage — where leads are going instead

Tracked as volumes and percentages of new leads, never as part of funnel conversion. This is the group that tells you whether the problem is the ads, the calling, or the quote.

Review weekly. If only one number gets looked at, make it New Lead → Introduction Call — it is the transition that everything downstream depends on.

2.1 The three appointments

Everything in this process hangs off three diary bookings. They are separate things, they happen in this order, and each one gets called by its own name — every time, by everyone. The moment two of them get called "a survey", the customer stops knowing what they have agreed to and the fee conversation becomes an argument.

2.2 The funnel in words

Ask for photos before the call — every time

Installer C asks for these in the booking confirmation and again in the reminder. It is the single best idea in their sequence: it costs nothing and it makes the call twice as good.

WhatsApp is the right channel for this — see 1.4.

3.1 Why this is delicate

The rest of the market advertises this survey as free, in writing. Your prospect has almost certainly been told it costs nothing before they speak to you:

Installer A charges £200 for it — but only ever says so on the phone. It never appears in a text.

So a Gas Tech lead arrives having been conditioned by three competitors to expect a free survey. If Gas Tech charges and says nothing until late, the fee doesn't read as a fee. It reads as a catch. That is what produces these:

And over-using "free" creates its own confusion. One customer, on being sent a quote: "Why are you quoting me if it's free? No charge??"

3.2 The root cause: three appointments, one word

Almost all of the damage comes from calling more than one of them "a survey". There are three appointments in this process, they are genuinely different things, and only the last one costs anything.

Fix the language first. Two of these are free and one is not, so the names have to do the work. Say "the call", "the assessment appointment" and "the heat loss survey" — in full, every time. Get that right and most of the fee problem disappears before you have said a number.

3.3 The recommendation

Touch 1 — the form and the slot booking: no fee, because there is no fee yet

The call genuinely is free. Say "free" about the call, and only the call. Do not put a survey price on an ad or a form — it costs you the booking and there is nobody there to frame it. Installer B's booking-first, no-numbers opener is the highest-converting message in the whole dataset.

Touch 2 — the booking confirmation: one line, in writing, the same day they book

Not the T-24h reminder — the confirmation. This is the call most people get wrong.

Put it late in the message, framed as deducted, never as the headline.

Why the confirmation and not later: they have already committed to a free call, so a fee attached to a later step barely threatens that booking. They get time to absorb it. The call is then spent selling instead of recovering from a surprise. And if someone cancels over it, they were never going to pay £8,000 — you got that back as a free slot in the diary instead of a wasted half hour.

Why not earlier: a survey fee on the ad or the form is a price with no context and no person attached. It suppresses the booking that everything else depends on.

Touch 3 — on the call, at the close, in the same breath as asking for the date

Never after they've agreed. Full wording in section 4, step 6.

3.4 If Gas Tech makes the survey free instead

A legitimate choice — Installer C promises it, and Installer B books more appointments than anyone. But it changes two things, and both are non-negotiable:

1. The qualification bar goes up, hard. A free survey with a real surveyor's time behind it is a cost Gas Tech absorbs on every tyre-kicker. The homeowner, space and area gates in 1.5 stop being formalities.
2. "Free survey" then has to be true everywhere — ads, forms, confirmations, scripts. Half-free is worse than either.

4.1 Open — name, company, and why you're calling

Then confirm the property before anything else — the address on the form is not always the house the work is for.

4.2 Ask about other quotes — early, not late

Second or third question in, before any pitch. It tells you who you are up against and it sets up everything that follows.

4.3 Ask permission to be blunt

This is the hinge of the whole call. It buys you the right to say things a salesperson normally wouldn't, and almost nobody says no to it.

4.4 The competitor comparison

Name them, don't dodge them. The energy companies are the main competition and they are beatable on the thing that matters.

Then make it about their bill, not the badge

4.5 Why the price is what it is

Say it before they wonder. It explains the number and it separates you from the outfit that sends a rep.

4.6 The no-pressure contract

Set the terms of the call out loud. It takes the fear out of the price you are about to give, and it is why people stay on the phone for fifteen minutes.

4.7 Qualify — the questions that build the price

Conversational, not a form-read. You are working towards a number, so ask what you need to produce one.

• Are you the homeowner? — the gate the grant depends on.
• What's heating it now, and how old is it? — and crucially what fuel: mains gas, oil, LPG or electric. This sets the grant.
• How many radiators, and what condition? — drives the radiator line in the price.
• How many bedrooms, bathrooms, and how many live there? — sizing and hot water demand.
• Is there a hot water cylinder, or is it a combi?
• Where could the outdoor unit go?

4.8 The grant, and why now

4.9 The price — a real number, with the radiators kept separate

Give the gross, take the grant off in front of them, and land on what they actually pay. Then keep radiators out of it and priced at cost.

4.10 The gate — do they like the number?

4.11 Book the assessment — and it's free

Then get it in the diary with two named options, and confirm who'll be in.

4.12 Pre-frame the £200 — on this call, not later

The survey fee gets mentioned here, on the introduction call, so it is never a surprise. It is not charged now, and it is not charged for the assessment.

4.13 The order, in one line

4.14 What a good call sounds like

• They did most of the talking about their house, and you did most of the talking about the difference between you and an energy company.
• They heard a real number, not a range, and did not flinch.
• They know the assessment is free and the £200 comes later, and they heard both from you rather than finding out.
• You told them at least one thing that was against your own interest — a radiator they don't need to change, or that it might not be right for the house.
• It took 10 to 15 minutes.

5.1 The funnel — forward progression only

These are the stages a lead moves through on its way to an installation. Only these count in funnel conversion. A lead sits in exactly one of them at a time, and every move is forward.

5.2 Holding stages — paused, not lost

A lead here is still alive but is not moving. None of these count in funnel conversion — they are not progressing, so counting them flatters the numbers. Every one of them needs a date on it and a task, or it becomes a parking space.

5.3 Exit stages — terminal

5.4 Stage hygiene

• One opportunity per lead per product. A heat pump and a boiler enquiry from the same household are two opportunities in two pipelines.
• Every stage move gets a note. Otherwise the pipeline tells you where a lead is but nothing about why.
• Nothing sits in a holding stage without a date and a task. That is the single difference between a holding stage and a graveyard.
• Exit stages always carry a reason. "Disqualified" on its own teaches you nothing; "Disqualified — tenant" tells you something about the ads.

6.1 Lead hasn't booked a slot

6.2 Call booked — protecting the slot

6.3 Call held, survey not booked — the money group

6.4 Post-proposal

Day 1 call · day 3 call + proof · day 7 call · day 10 permission-to-close · day 14 → Sales Chase ends with a dated task or a logged loss. Never leave a proposal to rot.

7.1 The four steps

1. Don't flinch. Don't apologise, don't go quiet, don't change your tone. The moment your voice drops they know they've found the soft spot, and they push.
2. Acknowledge in one sentence, then stop. "That's fair." One line. A paragraph of sympathy reads as guilt.
3. Answer with a fact, or ask a question to find the real objection. Facts kill logical objections. Questions kill emotional ones. If you can't tell which, ask.
4. Go straight back to the booking. In the same breath. The commonest mistake is handling an objection beautifully and then leaving a silence for the customer to fill.

7.2 Money

"How much is it? Just give me a rough price."

The bracket buys the appointment. Withholding it loses the lead.

"That's too expensive."

Two completely different problems. Budget → finance and running-cost offset. Competitor → 7.6.

"Is it free? Is the government paying for it?"

Be blunt and be kind. Do not let them find out later.

If they need it free, they are not a customer. Say so warmly and disqualify. An hour of closer time on a free-scheme lead costs more than the lead did.

"Do I have to apply for the grant? Is it a load of paperwork?"

"I'm off oil/LPG — isn't there a bigger grant? Should I wait?"

This is exactly why fuel type is asked before you quote.

"Why is there a charge for the survey?"

On "is it refundable if I don't go ahead": give the true answer, whatever the policy is. Never fudge it. See section 3 for when to raise it in the first place.

7.3 Trust and legitimacy

"Who are you? Which company is this?"

Then one proof point — years trading, MCS certification, local, reviews — and move on. No defensiveness.

"Are you a bot? Is this AI?"

7.4 Timing and decision makers

"I'm just looking / not ready yet."

"Ring me back in three months."

Read the room. Bereavement, illness, redundancy — back off warmly, log a date, mean it. Always leave with a date.

"We're moving / buying the property."

"I need to speak to my wife/husband/partner."

Prevent it on call one. Once it's said after a quote, you're already behind.

7.5 Suitability and technical doubt

"My house isn't insulated well enough."

They've disqualified themselves off something they read. Don't accept it.

If they genuinely have no loft insulation, be straight: the grant in England & Wales requires an EPC without outstanding loft/cavity recommendations, and doing that first is cheap. Sell the sequence, not a no.

"It's a listed building / conservation area."

"I don't have the space."

Genuinely none → disqualify honestly.

"I've got storage heaters / no radiators / it's all electric."

Be honest on call one. These leads died late in every account we looked at, because nobody told them the truth early.

"Does it do hot water too? Do I keep the boiler? Does it cool?"

"Are they actually efficient enough?"

Don't argue. Concede the framing, then reframe.

7.6 Competition and the polite no

"I've got other quotes / I'm speaking to Octopus."

Never badmouth them. Get information instead.

"I can get the unit myself for £2k and fit it."

"What brand do you fit?"

"Not interested, thanks."

Earn one more question. One.

Then actually close it.

"Send me some information by email."

The most common soft no in the whole dataset. There is no information pack that sells a heat pump.

"Stop contacting me."

No pitch, no last try. Do Not Contact, immediately. Non-negotiable.

7.7 The cheat sheet

8.1 In the CRM

1. Pipeline — add the five new stages and rename stage 12 (section 5).
2. Custom fields the qualification set needs and Gas Tech lacks: All decision makers available, Outdoor space confirmed, Existing emitter type, Cylinder location, EPC status, Survey fee reaction, Disqualification reason.
3. Calendars — the discovery call and the heat loss survey, each with confirmation + T-24h + T-2h reminders.
4. Workflows — Sales Chase, Discovery-Call-Held follow-up, and the no-slot-booked chase in 6.1.
5. Snippets — load every script and objection response here so handlers can fire them from the conversation window.

8.2 Channels

1. Confirm the WhatsApp Business Platform route — number, setup, approved templates, pricing (1.4).
2. Write and submit the templates: enquiry response, booking confirmation, T-24h reminder, T-2h reminder, photo request.
3. Keep SMS as the fallback for everyone not opted into WhatsApp.

8.3 Process

1. Close the nine open decisions at the top of this document and lock the numbers into the scripts.
2. Decide the survey fee position — charge and deduct, or free with a higher qualification bar (section 3). Then make the language consistent everywhere.
3. Train by role-play, not read-through. Scripts read once are scripts never used.
4. Measure the callback discipline. Ring-on-the-minute is the cheapest revenue in this document.