Home Services Franchise Owner Built a Local Call List Overnight Using Intent Data and Skip Tracing
A home services franchise owner combined keyword intent data with skip tracing to build a direct-dial call list of homeowners actively searching for his services — generating exclusive leads every week without a lead generation vendor.
The Situation
A home services franchise owner was paying a lead generation company $180 per lead for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical inquiries — leads that were being sold to multiple contractors simultaneously. By the time he called, two or three competitors had already made contact. High cost, no exclusivity, and conversion rates reflected it.
How It Was Done — Step by Step
Built Weekly Intent Audience Around Home Service Keywords
Every Friday he pulled an intent audience of homeowners in his service area who had researched HVAC repair, plumber near me, electrical panel upgrade, and related service keywords within the past 7 days. People actively looking for his services, right now, in his zip codes.
Filtered to Homeowners Only
The raw intent audience was filtered to include only homeowners — removing renters who weren’t decision-makers for service upgrades and repairs. This kept the list commercially relevant and reduced wasted outreach.
Skip Traced Each Contact to a Direct Mobile Number
Each identified homeowner was run through a skip trace to append a verified direct mobile number. He received a call list with name, address, and mobile number — everything his team needed to make a personalized first call.
Deployed the List to His Dispatch Team Every Monday Morning
The call list was formatted and delivered to his three-person dispatch team every Monday morning. Each team member had a prioritized list of homeowners who had been searching for services in the past week. Every Monday started with warm outreach, not random dialing.
Tracked Which Intent Keywords Converted Best
Over several months he tracked which keyword categories drove the highest booking rates — HVAC emergency intent converted at 4x the rate of general HVAC browsing. He weighted future pulls toward emergency-signal keywords and reallocated spend accordingly.
The Result
Exclusive, intent-matched leads at $28 each — compared to $180 for shared leads from a vendor. The franchise owner eliminated third-party lead dependency entirely within 90 days, building his own proprietary lead generation system that no competitor had access to.
“I was paying $180 for a lead that three other contractors already called. Now I’m paying $28 for a lead that’s mine alone and they’re actively searching for what I do. That’s not even a close comparison.”
Franchise Owner — Home Services Franchise
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