You launched the quiz, leads went up noticeably, the report looks great, and revenue didn't budge. Your sales reps say there's no one worth calling. It's the most common complaint after launching a quiz, and it almost always means the same thing: the quiz is good at collecting contacts but doesn't separate people who will buy from people who won't.
Let's look at where unqualified leads come from and how to set up the quiz to filter them out on its own.
Why this happens
A quiz lowers the barrier: that's its strength and also its side effect. Answering four questions is easy, and people who would never have called do it too. Some of them aren't a fit: wrong area, wrong job size, wrong budget, wrong timeline.
A regular form filtered them out on its own, simply because filling it out was a hassle. The quiz removed that barrier and put nothing in its place. You have to add it on purpose.
Five sources of unqualified leads
- Junk traffic. Your ads are shown to the wrong people: searches like "DIY," "free," "jobs," cities where you don't operate. No quiz fixes that; you fix it in your ad account.
- The offer attracts the wrong people. Giveaways, gifts, and big discounts reliably increase the number of leads and just as reliably sink their quality: people come for the prize, not the service.
- The quiz has no qualifying questions. You don't ask about area, job size, or timeline, and you only find out something's off on the call.
- A gap between the ad and reality. The ad promised "from $50," but in practice jobs start at $500. The person submitted with one expectation and will drop out at the first conversation.
- The lead is handled too late. The lead was good, but by the time you called, the person had already gone with someone else. Technically "unqualified"; in reality, lost.
How to set up the filter inside the quiz
The logic is simple: any question whose answer rules out the deal has to come before the contact form, not after.
A question about location
If you don't work everywhere, this is the cheapest filter. Someone from a city you don't serve will see their option isn't there and leave on their own, without taking up a sales rep's time.
A question about job size
Square footage, volume, quantity. It screens out orders that don't work for you and also gives your rep the main price driver. If you have a minimum order, build the answer options so that it's visible.
A question about timeline
"When are you planning to start?" is an underrated question. It doesn't filter so much as prioritize: someone starting this month and someone "just looking" need different handling. Call the first one first.
An honest price range
Stating the ballpark of your prices inside the quiz is a move many businesses are afraid of, and it works: people with mismatched expectations drop out before submitting, not after the conversation. Fewer leads, the same sales or more.
What to do with the offer
If there are lots of leads and no sales, the offer is the second place to look after traffic. The promise has to be valuable to your future customer, not to just anyone: a quote, a free measurement, a selection based on their parameters. A gift unrelated to your service attracts people who want a gift.
The breakdown by type is in the article on quiz offers.
How to tell if you're filtering too much
The main risk is the opposite: overdoing it and filtering out normal customers along with the bad fits. Benchmarks:
- Don't look at quiz conversion; look at the share of leads that turn into sales. If the first goes down while the second goes up, that's a success, not a failure.
- Calculate the cost not of a lead but of a useful lead. Ten leads at $5 with one good one cost more than three at $15 with two good ones.
- Ask your sales reps. They're the first to notice if the mix of incoming leads changes, long before it shows up in the report.
- Check that people aren't dropping off en masse at the qualifying question. If they are, the question may be worded more strictly than your actual policy.
When the problem isn't the quiz
To be honest, part of the problem is often outside the quiz.
- Response speed. In most industries, customers contact several providers, and whoever responds first has a decisive advantage.
- The call script. A rep who opens with "did you submit a request?" throws away everything the quiz collected. The answers are already there; the conversation should start from them.
- No follow-up. Someone who's "just looking" isn't lost; they're just not ready today.
To get answers to your sales rep instantly and in a convenient format, send leads to your CRM: for example, send quiz leads to Kommo (formerly amoCRM).
FAQ
Lots of leads and no sales: where do I start?
First check traffic and the offer: make sure you're not getting people from searches that don't fit you and that you're not promising a gift instead of a service. Then add qualifying questions to the quiz.
Won't the number of leads drop?
It will, and that's expected. The idea is for it to drop by cutting out people who wouldn't have bought anyway. Go by sales, not by lead count.
Which questions filter best?
Location, job size, and timeline. Three questions cover most mismatches, and all three help your sales rep beyond filtering.
Should I show prices inside the quiz?
A range, yes. It filters out people with mismatched expectations before they submit and builds trust. Promising an exact figure without a measurement isn't a good idea.
How do I tell an unqualified lead from a badly handled one?
Look at how long your rep takes to call back. If it's measured in hours and days, a large share of "unqualified" leads are actually lost leads.
