Free tool · Plan my marketing
How many inquiries and estimates would we need to win the jobs we want?
Work back from the jobs you want to the estimates and genuine inquiries they take, and check that against crew capacity.
How many inquiries and estimates would we need to win the jobs we want?
Model inquiries, completed estimates, won jobs and delivery capacity for one period using your own rates. Browser-only calculation; no website scan or data upload.
Who this planner is for
This planner is for a contractor owner, estimator or office manager connecting genuine inquiries, completed estimates and won jobs. Use one compatible sales group and a job or crew-day capacity definition that matches the work you actually deliver.
How to use this tool
Bring: A job goal, inquiry-to-estimate and estimate-to-job rates or compatible historical counts, job revenue, variable delivery cost and currency. Capacity, marketing budget, retained contribution and estimate-cost treatment are optional.
- Use one currency, period and compatible definition of a genuine inquiry, completed estimate and won job. Enter stage rates or historical counts without inventing missing performance.
- Enter the number of jobs you want, average revenue per job and variable delivery cost per job. The calculation rounds completed estimates up before working back to whole inquiries.
- Check capacity using available crew-days and crew-days per job, or an entered job capacity. Leave unknown capacity blank; do not treat it as unlimited.
- Record your marketing budget, retained contribution per job and whether estimate costs are already included. If they are excluded, supply their cost explicitly; unknown excluded costs prevent a complete allowance. Review infeasible or over-capacity goals before buying demand.
Hypothetical example — fictional inputs, not a forecast
| Inputs | Value |
|---|---|
| Jobs wanted | 10 |
| Inquiries that reach a completed estimate | 50% |
| Estimates that become jobs | 25% |
| Revenue per job | $5,000 |
| Variable delivery cost per job | $3,000 |
| Capacity | 24 crew-days, at 3 crew-days per job |
| Marketing budget | $4,000 |
| Contribution to keep per job | $1,200 |
| Cost of one completed estimate | $50 (not included in delivery or marketing costs) |
| Results | Value |
|---|---|
| Completed estimates needed | 40 (10 divided by 25%) |
| Genuine inquiries needed | 80 (40 divided by 50%) |
| Crew-days needed | 30 (10 times 3). Capacity of 24 crew-days covers 8 jobs, so the goal is 2 jobs over capacity |
| Contribution before marketing and overhead | $20,000 (10 times $2,000). Not net profit |
| Estimate costs | $2,000 (40 times $50) |
| Contribution to keep | $12,000 (10 times $1,200) |
| Acquisition allowance | $6,000 ($20,000 minus $12,000 minus $2,000) |
| Allowance per inquiry | $75 ($6,000 divided by 80) |
| Marketing budget per inquiry | $50 ($4,000 divided by 80) |
| Budget compared with the allowance | $2,000 under the allowance ($6,000 minus $4,000) |
| Contribution left after budget and estimate costs | $14,000 ($20,000 minus $4,000 minus $2,000), which is $2,000 above the $12,000 to keep |
In this example, the acquisition allowance is the most that could be spent on marketing while still paying for the estimates and keeping the contribution chosen above. It is not a forecast and it is not net profit.
Replace these deliberately supplied example values with your own consistent inputs. The example is not a benchmark or recommendation.
Read the result in context
Staged rounding preserves whole completed estimates and genuine inquiries. Budget per inquiry is a planning ratio, not a market lead price. A positive allowance does not override an eight-job delivery limit. Separate partial contribution-minus-marketing figures from complete figures that also include excluded estimate costs.
Questions owners ask
Why does the planner round each sales stage upward?
Completed estimates and genuine inquiries are whole workload units. It rounds the estimate requirement up before calculating the inquiry requirement, so it does not plan around a fraction of a completed estimate.
Can I use last month’s inquiries and this month’s jobs?
Only if they represent a compatible group and timing. Otherwise treat the rate as an explicit assumption and reconcile the records; the tool does not fix attribution or sales-cycle differences.
What if estimate preparation is already included in delivery cost?
Mark that explicitly. The calculation uses zero incremental estimate cost rather than charging it twice. If excluded costs are unknown, the complete allowance and remaining contribution stay unknown.
Does a positive allowance mean the job goal is feasible?
No. A goal may have positive modeled contribution but exceed crew capacity. The capacity warning remains a separate constraint.
Is the marketing budget per inquiry a market price?
No. It divides your entered budget by modeled inquiry requirements. It does not predict inquiry cost, availability, quality or job wins.
Work through the decisions
- Plan the path from contractor inquiry to estimate to job →
Work back from a contractor job goal through completed estimates and genuine inquiries. Keep stage definitions, rounding and delivery capacity visible.
- Check contribution and crew capacity before contractor ad spend →
Compare a contractor job goal with crew-days, job contribution and estimate-preparation costs before modeling a larger acquisition budget.
Keep a planning report
Download a fictional example report (PDF) — illustrative figures only, not client results or a forecast.
Run the planner with a named period and consistent currency, then review warnings and unknowns before using Download planning report. You can optionally add a business name for your own report; keep it free of personal information. Generation stays local and requires no email address.
Copy and Print private summary remain separate choices. A browser print dialog is not itself a direct PDF download. Your report should preserve the entered inputs, units, assumptions and generation time; it is a planning snapshot, not a business forecast. Notes you add do not change the calculation. Treat any saved or shared file as your own business information.
Connect the plan to your marketing
Home-services and contractor marketing → is a relevant next conversation when you want help with the customer journey. For an explicitly funded campaign, review PPC advertising services →. Bring the assumptions behind your result; sharing the report is your choice.
Assumptions and limitations
- Your own stage rates do not establish available demand, seasonality, weather or actual advertising performance.
- An inquiry that does not become a job is not automatically worthless. Definitions, periods and follow-up timing must be compatible.
- Unknown excluded estimate costs block the complete remaining-contribution and acquisition-allowance calculation. Explicitly included estimate costs are not charged twice. Contribution is not net profit.
Your information
Entries, scenarios and report drafts stay in this browser session unless you explicitly copy, download or print them. No account or email gate is required. Do not enter client names, contact details, patient information or confidential personal data. These statements describe the tool code; other website scripts have their own privacy practices.
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