Field Manual / Troubleshooting / USA Insulation

Something's off.
Now what?

Start with the symptom, in your own words. This walks you back from what you're seeing to what's actually causing it — and tells you where to look to prove it.

Start from the six numbers

These are the six inputs — the only things the business actually produces. Everything else is calculated from them.

01
Marketing SpendWhat you put in.
02
LeadsSomeone raised a hand.
03
Appts SetIt got on the calendar.
04
Appts RunThe demo happened.
05
SalesThey bought.
06
Sold RevenueWhat it was worth.
Sold Revenue= Leads× Set rate× Run rate× Close rate× Avg Sale

Those rates aren't numbers you collect — they're computed from the six inputs, and each one is the gap between two of them. Which is why revenue never breaks on its own: it breaks because a step between two inputs got worse. The whole job is finding out which step. Fix the wrong one and you spend money solving a problem you don't have.

But read the Field first. These six numbers describe your machine. They say nothing about the market the machine is running in — the buyers, the weather, the economy, what people actually care about this year. Start every diagnosis by asking whether the market moved before you assume the machine broke.

Filter by stage

Leads are down. Something must be broken.

Field
Before you touch anything — five things cause this, and only three are your machine
  • Field. Fewer qualified buyers are active. A mild winter killed the urgency. Consumer spending softened. A competitor introduced financing. The market moved — not your marketing.
  • Field mismatch. Buyers care about comfort and you've been selling energy savings. The demand is there; you're speaking to the wrong motivation, the wrong buyer, or the wrong geography.
  • Hunt. Too little education and awareness. Nobody's planting, so not enough people have realized they have the problem.
  • Catch. People are searching, and your visibility or landing page is losing them.
  • Trust. They find you, compare, and pick someone with better proof.
  • Same symptom. Five very different actions. And two of them aren't in this dashboard at all.
Where to look
Hot Zones The one screen that reads the Field rather than your machine — housing stock, income, ownership. Is the ground itself weaker than you assumed? Month Compare Year over year. If last February was strong and this February isn't, and nothing changed internally, look outside the building. Calendar Freshness If fresh demand is drying up across every source at once, that's a Field or Hunt signal — not a process problem. Not on any screen The weather. The economy. What buyers actually care about this year. Whether your message matches it. No dashboard will tell you this. Ask your reps, read your lost-sale notes, listen to the calls.
The tell

Every source, every market, every rep is down together → that's almost never a machine failure. That's the Field.

Your conversion rates all held but volume fell → the funnel is working fine. Fewer people entered it.

Competitors are also struggling → Field. Competitors are fine and you aren't → mismatch, or your machine.

Leads down and the rehash roster untouched → you're about to buy the most expensive new leads of the year while the cheap ones sit on the floor. This is the most common expensive mistake in a soft market.

And the one worth pinning above the desk: a weak result doesn't always mean the market is bad. It may mean the company is reading the market badly.

Do this

Read the Field before you spend a dollar or blame a channel. Did the market change, or did we misread it? If it's a Field condition, adjust timing, expectations and message. If it's a mismatch, fix the strategy — not the spend.

And a weak Field doesn't lower the bar — it raises the skill required. Work the pile: your ghosts and unsold estimates are demand you already paid for, and a soft market cannot take them away from you. Lean on Trust, because the few who are buying get pickier. And protect Hunt — Recovery is a reservoir, not a spring. It buys time to fix Hunt; it doesn't replace it.

We're behind. Revenue is down.

Whole funnel
This isn't a problem — it's a symptom
  • Revenue is an output. Something upstream moved and this is where it surfaced.
  • Exactly one of five things changed: fewer leads, worse set rate, worse run rate, worse close rate, or a smaller ticket.
  • Often the number that moved is small and early — a 5-point drop in set rate feels invisible and costs you a month.
Where to look
Your Summary Read the conversion percentages top to bottom. The first one that looks wrong is your stage. Overview Scan down each conversion column across the months. You're looking for the one that's drifting, not the one that had a bad month. Month Compare Compare to the same month last year, not to last month. This business is seasonal.
The tell

If leads held steady but revenue fell, you have a conversion problem — do not buy more leads.

If leads fell and every conversion rate held, you have a demand problem — the funnel is fine, the top of it is starved.

If everything held but revenue fell, look at average ticket. You're selling smaller jobs.

Do this

Name the stage before you spend a dollar or call a meeting. Then jump to that symptom below.

The phone isn't ringing. We're not getting leads.

Hunt
Usually one of these
  • Spend actually went down. Check this first. It's the most common cause and the most commonly overlooked — a card expired, a budget capped out, someone paused a campaign.
  • One channel broke. Leads rarely fall everywhere at once. An Angi account got paused, ads got disapproved, a form stopped submitting.
  • It's the season. Insulation demand moves with the weather and the calendar. February is not October.
  • The auction got more expensive. Someone else is bidding on your channels. Same spend, fewer leads.
  • Brand erosion. The slow one. Your spend is now buying maintenance instead of growth — flat leads on rising spend is the signature.
  • You've already reached this year's buyers. Saturation. Real, and more common than owners think.
Where to look
By Source Which source dropped? It's almost never all of them. Compare this month's leads per source against a normal month. Lead Aggregators Is cost per lead rising? That's auction pressure, not a lead problem — you're paying more for the same thing. Month Compare Same month last year. Kills the seasonality question in one glance. Digital KPIs Search visibility drops before lead count does. If this is soft, the lead dip has a few more months to run.
The tell

One source down, others normal → that channel broke. Go fix that channel; the funnel is fine.

All sources down together → season, market, or something systemic (your phone number, your website, your listings).

Spend flat, leads down, CPL up → competitive pressure. You didn't get worse; the auction got more expensive.

Spend up, leads flat → saturation or erosion. More money is not the answer here, and this is exactly when owners spend more.

Do this

Verify spend actually went out the door before you diagnose anything else. Then fix the specific source that dropped. Resist the urge to raise budgets across the board — that treats a broken channel by overpaying for the working ones.

People are searching for what we do. They're not finding us — or they're not picking us.

Catch
Catch has three jobs. Any one of them can be the leak.
  • Get found. If you don't rank, don't show in the map pack, or aren't on the directory when someone searches "insulation company near me" — the demand exists and it goes to a competitor. You never see it.
  • Get chosen. They found you and three other people. Reviews, recency, photos, proof, a website that looks alive. This is where Trust does its work.
  • Capture it. They decided to contact you — and then the form failed, the call rang out, the chat never loaded, or the lead landed somewhere nobody looks.
Where to look
Digital KPIs Search visibility. This is "get found" — the front door. It softens months before your lead count does. Lead Aggregators Angi and Modernize are pure Catch. Cost per sale, not per lead, tells you whether you're winning the intercept. By Source The Directories and Online rows. If those are soft while your Hunt channels are steady, the intercept is failing, not the demand. Not visible Everything before the lead exists — form abandonment, rung-out calls, routing errors, overwritten source. ServiceBridge can't see it, because there's no record to see.
The tell

Your ad platform reports more leads than ServiceBridge has records → that gap is Catch loss. You paid for every one of them.

A large "Unattributed" bucket → source is being lost between the lead and the record. Every ROI number that touches it is understated, and you're about to cut something that works.

Visibility down but demand steady → you're losing the intercept. The customers are still out there; they're finding someone else.

Good visibility, weak lead volume → you're getting found and not getting chosen. That's a Trust problem — reviews, proof, the landing page — not a spend problem.

Do this

Fixing Catch is usually the cheapest revenue in the building — it's demand you've already paid for and are throwing away. And until capture is properly instrumented, treat every lead count as a floor, not a fact.

We've got leads, but nobody's booking them.

Convert
Usually one of these
  • Speed. This is the answer far more often than anything else. A lead called back in five minutes and a lead called back in five hours are not the same lead. They shopped, they moved on, they forgot.
  • Nobody's answering. Coverage gaps — evenings, weekends, lunch. Leads don't wait for business hours.
  • Lead quality shifted. A channel started sending worse leads. Same count, less intent.
  • The script or the offer changed and nobody told you.
Where to look
Sales Cycle The lead-created → appointment-set lag. If that gap is stretching, you've found it. By Source Is the set rate down for one source or every source? This single question splits the diagnosis. Calendar Freshness Are you booking fresh leads or old ones? If Fresh is shrinking, new leads are dying before they get booked.
The tell

Set rate down on one source only → lead quality from that source. The problem is what you're buying, not how you handle it.

Set rate down on every source → it's your process, not the leads. Look at speed and coverage first.

Created-to-set lag stretching → speed. This is the single cheapest thing to fix in the entire funnel, and it pays immediately.

Do this

Fix speed before anything else. Every hour a lead sits, it gets harder to book. You already paid for that lead — letting it go cold is the most expensive thing in this business, and the cheapest to stop.

Appointments are on the calendar, but they're not happening.

Convert
Usually one of these
  • You booked it too far out. The longer between setting and running, the more fall off. Distance is decay.
  • No confirmation. An appointment nobody reconfirmed is an appointment that might not happen.
  • Only one decision-maker will be home. The demo runs, nothing can be decided, and it counts as run — but it was never going to close.
  • Someone booked to hit a number. An appointment set on a lead that was never real still shows up as set. It just never runs.
Where to look
Sales Cycle The set → run gap. How many days out are you booking, and is that number growing? Overview The Run % column. Compare it across months — this is the rate that quietly erodes.
The tell

Run rate falling while set rate holds → you're booking appointments that don't stick. Either they're too far out, or the quality of the booking is soft.

Both set and run falling → that's not a Convert problem. Go back up to Catch.

Do this

Shorten the gap and confirm every appointment. Then require both decision-makers present at booking — it feels like it costs you appointments, and it does. It buys you closes.

We're running demos but we're not selling.

Sales
Usually one of these
  • One rep is dragging the average. The team number hides individuals. Always split it.
  • Lead quality. Worse leads close worse. A channel that got cheaper probably got worse.
  • Price pressure. A competitor moved, or the value story stopped landing.
  • The market itself. Some markets simply close lower on every source — and that is a completely different problem from a rep problem.
Where to look
Sales Reps Is it one person or everyone? Compare close rate, not revenue — revenue punishes whoever got the thinner territory. By Source Is close rate down on one source or all of them? Territory Compare Is one market closing lower on every source? That's the signature of a market-level conversion problem.
The tell

One rep low, everyone else normal → coaching, or a ride-along. It's a person, not a system.

One source closing low, others fine → you're buying worse leads. The reps are fine.

One market low across every source and every rep → this is the big one. That's a market-level conversion problem, and buying more leads will not fix it. Growth there comes from raising the conversion rate, not from filling the top of the funnel.

Do this

Split the number before you act. "Close rate is down" is never actionable. "Close rate is down for one rep on directory leads in one market" is a Tuesday.

Marketing isn't paying off. These leads cost too much.

HuntSales
Usually one of these
  • You're looking at cost per lead instead of cost per sale. A $40 lead that never closes is infinitely more expensive than a $200 lead that does. Cost per lead is a vanity number.
  • You're judging a month that hasn't finished happening. A lead from March might not close until June. Recent months always look bad.
  • Your spend isn't entered. If the ROI column is blank, that's not a bad channel — that's missing data.
  • A channel genuinely doesn't work in your market. Which is not the same as it not working anywhere.
Where to look
By Source The ROI column, not the CPL column. And the close rate beside it — that's what turns a lead into money. Cohorts The honest scoreboard. Revenue gets credited back to the month that generated the lead. Check the maturity column before you write anything off.
The tell

High CPL but high ROI → that's a good channel. Expensive leads that close are cheap customers. Leave it alone.

Low CPL but low ROI → you're buying volume, not customers. This is the trap that feels like a win.

A recent month looks terrible → check maturity. If it's under 50%, the story isn't finished and you're about to cut something that was working.

Do this

Judge every channel on ROI and cost per sale. As a working rule: 7x and up, add spend. 5–7x, hold. Under 5x, fix it or cut it. And keep total marketing under 15% of revenue — that's the ceiling, not the target.

One market is dragging the whole thing down.

Whole funnel
There are only two possibilities
  • A demand problem. There simply aren't as many leads available there — smaller population, less spend, weaker channels, tougher competition.
  • A conversion problem. The leads are there. They just don't turn into money at the same rate.
  • These look identical on a revenue chart and have opposite fixes. Getting this wrong is the single most expensive mistake in multi-market marketing.
Where to look
Territory Compare Compare conversion rates, not lead counts. Set %, run %, close % — market against market. Hot Zones Is the territory itself weaker — newer homes, lower incomes, more renters? Some markets are just harder ground. By Source Filter to that market. Does it underperform on every source, or just one?
The tell

Similar leads, worse conversion, on every single source → a conversion problem. It's people and process, not marketing. More leads poured into it will convert at the same bad rate and you'll have spent the money to prove it.

Fewer leads, but conversion holds → a demand problem. Now more spend actually does help.

Weak on one source only → not a market problem at all. That channel just doesn't work there.

Do this

Never buy your way out of a conversion problem. If the market closes worse on everything, the fix is in the field — training, staffing, follow-up — not in the ad budget.

Revenue looks fine, but something feels off.

HuntConvert
Trust the feeling. Here's what it usually is.
  • You're living off the old pile. Revenue is holding because you're booking appointments from leads that came in months or years ago — not from demand you generated this month.
  • That pile is finite. It feels like a business right up until the day it runs out, and then it collapses fast.
  • Revenue is a lagging indicator. It's the last thing to tell you marketing stopped working — usually by about a quarter.
Where to look
Calendar Freshness The one screen that catches this. For every appointment you set, how old was the lead? Fresh (≤14 days) means marketing is working right now.
The tell

Fresh share falling, Ghost and Zombie rising → new demand is drying up and the revenue hasn't caught up to it yet. This is the earliest warning the dashboard can give you, and it comes months before the revenue chart does.

Fresh share high and holding → the machine is genuinely working. Whatever's bothering you is somewhere else.

Do this

If Fresh is sliding, go fix Hunt now — while the revenue still looks good and you still have the money and the calm to do it properly. Nobody fixes their marketing in the month the revenue falls off; there's no time and no nerve left.

We spent more and nothing happened.

Hunt
Usually one of these
  • Diminishing returns. You've reached everyone in that channel who was going to raise a hand. The next dollar buys a worse lead than the last one.
  • The money went somewhere that doesn't convert. More leads, same sales.
  • Brand erosion. Flat results on rising spend means your spend is now buying maintenance. You're paying to stay still.
  • It hasn't happened yet. Insulation isn't an impulse buy. The money you spent in March may show up in June.
Where to look
By Source Did leads actually rise with the spend? And what happened to ROI and CPL as you scaled? Cohorts Look at the month you spent more. Did that cohort return the money? Check maturity before judging. Growth Plan Does the market even have the demand you're trying to buy?
The tell

Spend up, leads up, revenue flat → you bought worse leads. Volume without intent.

Spend up, leads flat → saturation, or the channel is broken. Adding more money here is lighting it on fire.

Spend up, CPL up, leads up a little → diminishing returns. You're at the edge of what this channel can give you. That's not failure — it's a ceiling, and it's information.

Do this

Push a channel until its marginal return approaches your floor, then stop and move the money. The goal is never to spend more — it's to spend until the next dollar stops paying.

We're busy, but we're not making money.

Sales
Usually one of these
  • The jobs got smaller. Selling one room instead of the whole home. Same effort, a fraction of the revenue.
  • Discounting. Reps closing on price instead of value. The close rate looks great and the P&L doesn't.
  • A lead source that brings small jobs. Some channels attract shoppers, not projects.
Where to look
Overview The Avg Sale column, month over month. This is the multiplier nobody watches. By Source Average ticket by channel. They are not the same, and the gap is usually big. Sales Reps Average ticket by rep. A rep closing at a high rate and a low ticket is discounting.
The tell

High close rate, falling ticket → discounting. You're buying the close.

Ticket falling on one source only → that channel sends smaller jobs. Price it accordingly, or expect less from it.

Ticket falling everywhere → the whole-home story isn't landing. That's a sales-process problem, not a pricing one.

Do this

Sell the house, not the room. The consultative whole-home conversation is the difference between a job and a project — and it's where the ticket lives.

I need more sales, but I don't want to spend more.

Recovery
You already own the answer
  • Every person who got a demo and didn't buy is still sitting there. You paid for that lead. You paid for that appointment. You paid for that demo.
  • They had the problem, they let you in the house, and they heard the price. Almost none of them stopped having the problem. They just didn't buy that day.
  • Revived leads routinely close at rates that beat fresh ones — because they're pre-qualified in a way no new lead ever is.
  • The cost of working this list is a phone call.
Where to look
Rehash Roster The list itself. How big is it? Who owns each one, and how long has it been sitting? Recovery Oversight Is anyone actually working it? Activity, dispositions, and what's been recovered. Calendar Freshness The close rate on Revived Ghost and Zombie appointments — proof of what this list is worth in your business.
The tell

Big roster, near-zero recovery → you don't have a lead problem. You have money on the floor and nobody bending down.

Revived leads closing well but volume is tiny → the motion works, it's just not staffed. That's the easiest yes in this entire guide.

Do this

Give the list an owner and a rule. Somebody's name, a defined window, and a commission that makes them want it. An unworked rehash list is the most expensive spreadsheet in the business.

And work it hardest when the market is worst. Fresh demand depends on the Field. This pile doesn't — these people already had the problem and already heard the price. When leads dry up everywhere, this is the one bucket a soft market cannot drain.

Our awareness spend doesn't work. The numbers say directories and search are all that pay.

HuntCatch
Careful. This is the most expensive mistake in marketing.
  • Someone sees your TV spot or your video → notices their upstairs is freezing → searches "insulation near me" → clicks Angi → submits a lead. Your CRM records the source as ANGI.
  • Angi caught that lead. Your TV ad created it. Angi gets 100% of the credit, because last-touch attribution can only see where demand was captured — never where it was created.
  • Paying Angi more does not make one additional homeowner care about insulation. It buys you better access to people who already do. Catch channels harvest. They don't plant.
  • So the reporting quietly teaches you a lie: search works, directories work, awareness doesn't.
Where to look
By Source Read it by stage, not as one ranked list. Directories and Online are Catch. TV, Social, Events, Signage are Hunt. They are doing different jobs and cannot be compared on the same ROI column. Halo The only screen that tries to measure Hunt honestly — TV's lift on everything else. That lift is seeds germinating in someone else's field. Calendar Freshness The lagging proof. When Hunt is starved, Fresh appointments dry up months before revenue does.
The tell

Every Hunt channel on your By Source table is understated. Every Catch channel is overstated. A Hunt channel at 4x and a Catch channel at 8x are not two versions of the same thing being compared fairly.

Catch channels saturating — spend up, leads flat → you've reached everyone who's looking. That's the ceiling, and no amount of money raises it. Only Hunt raises it, by creating more people who look.

The trap in one line: most businesses don't have a balanced marketing engine — they have an overfunded Catch system harvesting demand that too little Hunt is replenishing.

Do this

Never cut a Hunt channel on last-touch ROI alone. Cut Hunt to fund Catch and you become extremely efficient at capturing a shrinking pool — right up until everyone in your category is standing at the bottom of the funnel with expensive buckets, fighting over the same water, and nobody is making rain.

I've got money to spend. Where do I put it?

Hunt
The order of operations
  • Fix conversion before you buy volume. A 2-point close-rate gain is free revenue on leads you already have. More leads into a leaky funnel just leak faster.
  • Then work what you already own. The rehash list costs nothing.
  • Then buy more of what's already paying. Not what's cheapest — what returns the most.
  • And know that a channel that's a dog in one market can be a hero in another. Channel performance is partly a property of the territory, not the operator. Don't copy another owner's mix.
Where to look
By Source ROI by channel and market. Your ranked list of where the next dollar goes. Growth Plan What the target actually requires — leads, conversion, cost — and whether the market can supply it. Hot Zones The good ZIPs you're not winning yet. Demand that already exists and isn't yours.
The tell

A channel above 7x with room to grow → that's where the money goes. Push it until the marginal return starts sliding toward your floor.

Everything is at or below 5x → you don't have a spending decision, you have a conversion problem. Buying more leads will make it worse, faster.

Do this

7x and up: add. 5–7x: hold. Under 5x: fix or cut. And keep total marketing under 15% of revenue — that's the ceiling. Inside that ceiling, spend as much as the math keeps paying for.

No symptoms in that stage. Try another filter.