What's the difference between Lead, Quoted, and Sold?
Lead, Quoted, and Sold are the three main stages that track a project from first contact to completion. Understanding the difference matters because it tells you where money actually is—and where it isn't. We'll break down what each stage means and why it matters for your workflow.
Lead: You've Made Contact, Nothing Yet
A Lead is someone who's called, texted, emailed, or walked up to your truck asking for work. They have a problem—a roof needs repair, a kitchen needs plumbing, concrete's cracked. You haven't quoted yet. You might have a rough conversation about scope, but nothing's on paper. This is the beginning of your pipeline. A Lead could turn into work, or it could ghost you in an hour. You have no commitment from them and no liability yet. If you're running multiple crews, Leads represent potential revenue, but they're not dollars in the bank. Treating them seriously means responding fast—a contractor who calls back in 2 hours beats one who calls back in 2 days. But don't confuse activity with money. A hundred Leads with no follow-up is worth zero.
Quoted: You've Put a Price Tag on It
A Quoted job means you've sent an estimate, proposal, or quote with a specific price and scope. The customer has it in hand. They're thinking about it. You've done the work to understand what they need and what it costs. This is where you separate contractors who know their numbers from ones who guess. A good quote includes materials, labor hours, overhead, and profit. Most contractors lose quotes because they take too long to send them or the price is off. Quoted jobs represent real potential revenue—the customer is seriously considering you. They might accept, reject, or ask for changes. This is also where you track your close rate. If you quote 10 jobs and close 2, you know you need to either improve your sales conversation, adjust your pricing, or both. Quoted status tells you which customers are in active decision mode.
Sold: You've Got the Agreement and Money
Sold means the customer accepted the quote, signed the contract, and you've either got their deposit or full payment. This is where potential becomes real work. It's the only stage that goes on your schedule, the only stage that creates work orders for your crews. Until something is Sold, it's not actually in your pipeline—it's just hope. Sold jobs have timelines, crew assignments, material orders, and accountability. This is the stage that runs your business. If you have 12 Sold jobs and 40 Leads, you know exactly what's paying your overhead this month. That's the point. Sold also tells you what to forecast. If you know you have 12 Sold jobs averaging 5 days each, you can predict crew capacity, material spend, and when you'll finish. Leads and Quoted don't do that. They're noise until they convert.
Why These Stages Matter Together
These three stages tell you the health of your business. A healthy pipeline has Leads feeding into Quoted, and Quoted converting to Sold. If you have lots of Leads but no Quoted, your sales process is broken. If you have Quoted jobs sitting for months with no conversion, your pricing or presentation is off. If you have no Leads coming in, your marketing or referrals aren't working. Most contractors mix these up or don't track them at all. Then they're shocked in slow months or can't explain why revenue dropped. Tracking them separately—really tracking them, not just in your head—shows you where the bottleneck is. You can fix what you measure.
Bottom line
Lead is interest, Quoted is investigation, Sold is money. Track all three separately so you know what's actually in your business and what's just potential. Your schedule should only reflect Sold jobs—everything else is either opportunity or distraction.