How a Nashville Pest Control Company Increased Connect Rate by 121% and Recovered 38 Lost Estimates in 90 Days

The company and the challenge

Brandon manages sales for a residential pest control company serving Nashville and several surrounding communities. The company generated a steady flow of opportunities.

• New web leads.
• Homeowners requesting quotes.
• Customers asking about termite protection.
• Mosquito treatment inquiries.
• Past customers who had canceled service.
• People who requested pricing but never scheduled.

And hundreds of homeowners who had spoken with the company at some point but never became active customers. The lead volume wasn't the issue. Follow-up was. Before ProspectBoss, Brandon's team averaged approximately 7,300 outbound calls per month. Those calls produced around 336 live conversations, giving the company a connect rate of only 4.6%.

From those conversations, the team averaged:

• 42 service appointments booked
• 31 completed estimates
• 18 new recurring-service customers

Sales reps were making calls all day. But too much of the activity ended with unanswered phones. Several homeowners had also started mentioning that the company's outbound numbers were showing up as Spam Likely. Brandon originally assumed the solution was simply to call more. Instead, the company changed how it called.

Within 90 days of moving its outbound process to ProspectBoss, the team's connect rate increased from 4.6% to 10.2%. Monthly live conversations climbed from 336 to 622. Booked service appointments increased from 42 to 69. New recurring-service customers increased from 18 to 31 per month. And the team recovered 38 previously lost estimates and old leads during the 90-day period.

The company didn't need to double its lead budget. It needed to reach more of the homeowners it had already paid to acquire.

The Company Was Generating Leads Faster Than It Could Properly Follow Up

Pest control is a fast-moving business. A homeowner sees ants in the kitchen. Termites show up near a window. Mosquitoes make the backyard unusable. A rodent gets into the attic. The homeowner wants help quickly. That creates urgency. But it also creates competition. Many homeowners request multiple quotes.

They call the first company they find. They submit forms after business hours. They speak with one provider, then another. If a company doesn't connect quickly or follow up consistently, the opportunity can disappear. Brandon's team understood that. New inquiries were called fast. But as volume increased, older opportunities became harder to manage.

A homeowner who didn't answer the first few times might get pushed down the list. Someone who requested a termite quote and said, "Let me think about it," might receive one follow-up and then disappear. A customer who canceled seasonal service might never hear from the company again.

The database kept growing. The number of unworked opportunities grew with it.

More Calls Were Creating More Activity, Not More Sales

Before ProspectBoss, Brandon focused heavily on outbound call volume. If appointments were low, the team increased call goals. If lead flow slowed, reps worked older lists harder. The logic was simple. More attempts should create more conversations. But the numbers weren't cooperating. The company was placing approximately 7,300 outbound calls per month and reaching only 336 homeowners.

That meant fewer than 5% of attempts became live conversations. A rep could make 160 calls in a day and still speak with fewer than 10 people. That made the sales floor look active. But it didn't create enough booked jobs. Brandon started asking a different question. Was the team actually underperforming?

Or were too many of its calls never getting a fair chance to connect?

Spam Likely Was Making an Already Competitive Sale Harder

Pest control customers are cautious. They don't want aggressive sales calls. They don't want robocalls. And they often don't recognize the number calling them back after filling out an online form. So when a legitimate pest control company appears as Spam Likely, the homeowner has very little reason to answer.

Brandon began hearing comments like:

• "I almost ignored this because it said spam."
• "I thought this was a telemarketer."
• "Why is your number showing up that way?"

That was enough to change his perspective. The company wasn't only competing against other pest control providers. Its calls were sometimes competing against the warning displayed on the homeowner's screen. No sales script could fix that after the call had already been ignored.

ProspectBoss Shifted the Team From Dial Volume to Connect Rate

When Brandon moved the team to ProspectBoss, he changed how outbound performance was measured. Call volume still mattered. But it became one part of a much larger picture. The team began watching:

• Connect rate
• Live conversations
• Appointments booked
• Estimates completed
• Recurring-service conversions
• Follow-up completed
• Outbound number health

DIDs were registered. Calling volume was spread more deliberately across the available number pool. New numbers weren't immediately pushed into maximum usage. Number performance was monitored. If a Caller ID showed signs of declining health, the team could address it rather than continue making thousands of calls through a struggling number.

The goal was not to create the largest number of dials. The goal was to turn more calls into real conversations.

Before ProspectBoss: 7,300 Calls Produced 336 Conversations

Brandon reviewed the team's average monthly performance. Before ProspectBoss, the numbers looked like this:

• 7,300 outbound calls
• 336 live conversations
• 4.6% connect rate
• 42 service appointments booked
• 31 completed estimates
• 18 new recurring-service customers

The team was averaging roughly one live conversation for every 22 call attempts. That was a lot of wasted time. Sales reps weren't spending enough of the day talking about pest problems, treatment options, pricing, scheduling, or recurring service. They were spending too much time listening to rings and voicemail.

Brandon wanted more of the workday spent on conversations that could actually become revenue.

After ProspectBoss: Connect Rate Increased to 10.2%

Within 90 days, monthly call volume decreased from approximately 7,300 to 6,100 attempts. But the connect rate increased from 4.6% to 10.2%. That meant the same sales team was now producing approximately 622 live conversations per month. The team was generating 286 additional homeowner conversations while making 1,200 fewer calls.

The connect rate had improved by approximately 121%. That was the metric Brandon cared about most. His reps were no longer trying to win with brute-force volume. They were getting more selling opportunities from less wasted activity.

Service Appointments Increased From 42 to 69 Per Month

Once more homeowners answered, appointment volume increased quickly. Before ProspectBoss, the team averaged 42 booked service appointments per month. After the new process was established, that number increased to 69. That's a 64% increase. Some appointments were new one-time service calls. Others were termite inspections. Some were mosquito-control consultations.

Several came from homeowners who had originally requested pricing weeks earlier and never scheduled. The company hadn't increased staff. It hadn't dramatically changed its advertising strategy. The biggest difference was that more homeowners were actually getting reached.

Old Estimates Became One of the Team's Best Campaigns

Brandon then turned his attention to an older part of the database. The company had hundreds of people who had previously requested pricing but never moved forward.

• Some had compared competitors.
• Some said treatment was too expensive.
• Some decided to wait.
• Some thought the pest problem had gone away.
• Others simply stopped responding.

Historically, those records received very little attention after the first few attempts. Brandon created a dedicated follow-up campaign. The call wasn't complicated.

"Hey, we gave you a quote a while back for pest control. Did you ever get that issue taken care of?"

That single question reopened a surprising number of conversations. Sometimes the homeowner had already hired someone else. Fine. The company could finally close the record. But many said:

"No, it's still happening."

That was an opportunity.

38 Old Leads and Lost Estimates Turned Into New Customers

Over the 90-day period, Brandon's team recovered 38 customers from old estimates and previously unclosed leads. Those wins included:

• 17 recurring general pest-control plans
• 8 termite-treatment customers
• 7 mosquito-control customers
• 6 one-time or specialty pest-control jobs

The company hadn't generated any of those opportunities during the current month. The leads were already there. The marketing spend had already happened. In many cases, the homeowner had already spoken with the company. What was missing was timing and consistent follow-up. For Brandon, that changed how he thought about his database.

Old leads weren't automatically bad leads. Sometimes they were simply people whose problem hadn't become urgent enough yet.

Pest Control Problems Have a Way of Coming Back

That made pest control follow-up especially valuable. A homeowner might decide not to treat an ant problem in March. Then May arrives and the ants are worse. Someone may ignore a mosquito quote in early spring. By June, they can't use the backyard. A homeowner might delay termite treatment because the signs don't seem serious.

Then they discover more damage. The original sales conversation may have ended. The underlying problem often hadn't. Brandon's team started treating "not now" differently from "never." That created a much larger follow-up pipeline.

AI Call Analysis Helped Brandon See Where Reps Were Losing Easy Opportunities

Improving connectivity solved the first problem. Then Brandon started looking at what happened during the conversations themselves. ProspectBoss's AI-powered call analysis helped the team review call summaries, notes, objections, and key discussion points. Patterns began appearing. Some reps were quoting price too early. Others were explaining treatment plans before understanding the homeowner's actual concern.

A few were ending calls too quickly when someone said:

"I just want a price."

Others weren't clearly explaining the difference between one-time treatment and ongoing service. That gave Brandon specific coaching material from actual customer conversations.

“I Just Want a One-Time Treatment” Was Often an Opportunity to Ask Better Questions

One common objection was:

"I don't want a contract. I just want someone to spray once."

Previously, some reps either accepted that immediately or pushed too hard toward recurring service. Call reviews showed there was a better approach.

• What pest were they dealing with?
• How long had the problem been happening?
• Was it seasonal?
• Were there children or pets in the home?
• Had another company already treated it?
• Was the issue inside, outside, or both?
• Did it keep coming back?

Sometimes a one-time service really was the right fit. Other times, the homeowner didn't understand why the problem kept returning. The goal wasn't to force everyone into recurring service. It was to understand the problem well enough to recommend the appropriate next step. Better questions created better conversations.

New Recurring-Service Customers Increased From 18 to 31 Per Month

At the end of the funnel, Brandon cared about recurring customers. One-time jobs were useful. Recurring pest-control agreements created more predictable revenue. Before ProspectBoss, tracked outbound activity generated approximately 18 new recurring-service customers per month. After the connectivity and follow-up improvements, that average increased to 31. That's approximately a 72% increase.

The reps still had to sell. They had to build trust. They had to explain treatment. They had to answer questions about safety, frequency, pricing, and expectations. But ProspectBoss gave them more opportunities to have those conversations.

Better Notes Made Seasonal Follow-Up More Effective

Timing matters in pest control. A homeowner may not care about mosquitoes in February. That changes in June. Rodent issues can increase as weather changes. Termite concerns can become more urgent after a new inspection or home sale. Brandon's team became more deliberate about documenting why a homeowner wasn't moving forward.

If someone said:

"Call me when it gets warmer."

That became a future follow-up. If they said:

"We're moving next month."

The rep knew not to waste unnecessary attempts. If they wanted to revisit termite treatment after getting another opinion, that context stayed with the lead. The team stopped treating every unanswered or delayed opportunity the same way.

Number Health Became Part of Sales Management

Before ProspectBoss, outbound phone reputation barely appeared in Brandon's sales meetings. Now it's part of the operation. If connect rates start declining, he checks number performance. If a DID starts showing reputation concerns, the team can respond. Calling activity is spread more carefully. Numbers are registered. New numbers are introduced gradually.

The company no longer assumes the same Caller ID can take unlimited outbound volume forever without consequences. Brandon sees number health as the first stage of the sales funnel now. If the phone call never reaches the customer, everything after it becomes irrelevant.

The 90-Day Difference

Plus:

38 old estimates and previously lost leads recovered during the 90-day period. The company reduced monthly calling volume by approximately 16%. The connect rate increased 121%. Live conversations increased 85%. Appointments increased 64%. Completed estimates increased 71%. New recurring-service customers increased 72%. And old opportunities that had been sitting untouched began generating revenue again.

The Company Didn't Need More Leads. It Needed to Waste Fewer of Them.

Brandon still invests in marketing. New leads matter. But the team no longer treats every slow week as a reason to immediately increase lead spend. Sometimes the better question is:

What happened to the leads we already paid for?

• How many didn't answer?
• How many requested pricing but never scheduled?
• How many said they wanted to wait?
• How many canceled?
• How many were never followed up with again?

For Brandon's pest control company, those questions uncovered dozens of customers hiding inside the existing database.

The Best Sales Improvement Wasn't More Dialing

In 90 days, Brandon's team reduced outbound call volume from 7,300 to 6,100 calls per month. At the same time:

The connect rate increased from 4.6% to 10.2%. Live conversations increased from 336 to 622. Appointments climbed from 42 to 69. New recurring-service customers increased from 18 to 31. And 38 old leads and estimates were recovered. The company didn't improve because reps learned how to call faster.

It improved because more calls reached real homeowners, more conversations received proper follow-up, and fewer opportunities disappeared inside the database. For Brandon, the lesson was simple:

You don't always need another pest-control lead. Sometimes you just need to finally reach the one you already have.