Think about every enquiry your business has had in the last two or three years. The quote requests that went quiet. The calls where someone said "I'll think about it". The website forms that got one reply and nothing more. The people who weren't ready then, but might be now.
You paid to get every one of those people to contact you, through ads, your website, your reputation or years of word of mouth. Most of them never said no. They just stopped hearing from you.
Why old enquiries go cold
Usually it's timing, not interest. The renovation got pushed to next year. The budget wasn't approved. They were busy, missed your call back, and nobody tried again. Meanwhile your team moved on to newer, warmer enquiries, which is fair enough.
The result is a list of people who already know your name and once wanted what you sell, sitting untouched in an inbox, a spreadsheet or an old quoting tool.
A worked example you can redo
This is illustrative, not a forecast. The numbers are made up so you can see the method. Then swap in your own.
Say you find 500 old enquiries from the last two years. You send each of them a short, personal message. Say 1 in 20 replies with interest, which is 25 people. Say you win 1 in 5 of those, which is 5 jobs. If your average job is worth $4,000, that's 5 jobs at $4,000 each, or $20,000 of work from people who had already found you.
Now do it with your own numbers:
- Old enquiries: count only the ones you can actually find, with a name and a phone number or email.
- Reply rate: pick a cautious guess. If you're unsure, start low.
- Win rate: use your normal rate for enquiries you get to speak to.
- Average job value: use your real average, not your best job.
Multiply them together: old enquiries × reply rate × win rate × average job value. If the answer is worth an afternoon of your time, it's worth doing.
How to re-engage them
Gather the list
Pull enquiries from everywhere they live: your email, website form notifications, missed calls, your quoting or job system, and any spreadsheet someone kept. Put them into one list with the name, contact details, what they asked about and roughly when.
Clean it
Take out anyone who became a customer, anyone who asked not to be contacted, and anyone you'd rather not work with. Check the rules on marketing messages where you operate, make it clear who you are, and give people an easy way to opt out.
Write a short, honest message
Not a sales blast. Something a person would send, such as: "Hi [name], it's [your name] from [your business]. You asked us about a new deck last year. Is that still on the cards? Happy to help if it is." One question, easy to answer. Send it the way they first contacted you, or by text if you have their mobile.
Send in batches and be ready to reply
Don't send 500 messages on a Friday afternoon. Send in batches your team can handle, and make sure someone replies quickly when people answer. A warm reply that waits two days goes cold again.
Follow up, then stop
One message is easy to miss. A couple of polite follow-ups over a few weeks is reasonable. After that, leave people alone and keep them on your list for next time.
Stop the pile growing again
A one-off campaign is useful. A system that never lets enquiries go cold is better. In our CRM every lead sits in one pipeline, and anything that goes quiet for 30 days re-enters the follow-up sequence automatically, so nobody has to remember. Database re-engagement campaigns across your old enquiries are included from our Leverage plan, at $7,500 a month.
Whether you do it yourself or have us run it, start by counting. Find your old enquiries, do the sum above with your own numbers, and you'll know whether it's worth doing.