How to Stop Wasting Time on Tyre Kickers (And Focus on Real Jobs)

Here's a number that'll make you crook: the average tradie wastes 8-12 hours a week on leads that were never going to convert. That's a full day of billable work gone to someone who was "just getting a few quotes" with no intention of actually hiring anyone.

If you're turning over $100-150 an hour on the tools, that's $800-1,800 a week walking out the door. Every week. For years.

Let's fix that.

What a Tyre Kicker Actually Looks Like

Forget the obvious ones — the bloke who wants a full bathroom reno for $500. Those are easy to spot. The real time-wasters are subtler:

The Price Collector They're getting 6+ quotes. They tell you "we're just exploring our options" and ask for a detailed written quote before you've even seen the site. They have no timeline, no budget figure, and no urgency. They'll take your quote, use it to beat down whoever they were always going to hire, and ghost you.

The Dreamer Big plans, no money. They want a full outdoor entertainment area, pool, landscaping, the works. But when you mention ballpark figures, there's a long pause. "Oh, we were thinking more like... a third of that." They haven't done any research on what things cost and they're not ready to face reality.

The Negotiator Everything you quote, they want cheaper. They've "seen it done for less" (they haven't). They want you to match some made-up number from a bloke who doesn't exist. They'll burn hours of your time trying to shave 30% off a fair price.

The Ghost Enthusiastic initial contact. Keen to get the job done ASAP. You spend an hour driving to the site, another hour measuring and quoting. Then... nothing. No reply to your quote. No returned calls. They've vanished.

The Real Cost of Bad Leads

Let's do the maths on one tyre kicker:

• Drive to site: 30-60 minutes (plus fuel)
• On-site assessment: 30-60 minutes
• Writing the quote: 30-60 minutes
• Follow-up calls/texts: 15-30 minutes
• Total time burned: 2-4 hours

At $120/hour, that's $240-480 per dead lead. Get three of those a week and you're losing $700-1,400 in productive time.

And that's just the direct cost. There's also:

• Opportunity cost — you were quoting the tyre kicker instead of doing a real job
• Mental cost — getting ghosted repeatedly kills your motivation
• Cash flow impact — time not billing means money not coming in

How to Filter Before You Waste Time

Ask the Right Questions Early

Before you drive anywhere, get answers to these:

1. "What's your timeline for getting this done?" — No timeline = no urgency = low conversion
2. "Have you got a rough budget in mind?" — Refusal to discuss budget = price shopping
3. "How many other quotes are you getting?" — 5+ quotes = you're a number, not a contender
4. "Is there anything that might delay the project?" — Council approvals, partner agreement, funding — if any of these are unresolved, they're not ready

Score Your Leads

Not all leads are equal. A genuine lead looks like this:

• Specific about what they want done
• Has a realistic timeline (next 2-4 weeks)
• Willing to discuss budget range
• Responsive to communication
• Referred by someone, or found you through your own marketing

A tyre kicker looks like this:

• Vague about scope ("just want to get an idea")
• No timeline ("sometime this year maybe")
• Won't discuss budget ("just give me a number")
• Slow to respond or only available at odd times
• Found you on a marketplace where they're getting 5+ quotes

Use Technology to Do the Filtering for You

This is where it gets interesting. AI lead scoring tools can now analyse an enquiry — the words someone uses, how much detail they provide, how quickly they respond — and give you a score before you've picked up the phone.

High score? Call them back immediately. Low score? Send a templated reply and don't lose sleep over it.

QuoteShield does exactly this. It sits on your website or socials, scores every lead with AI, and tells you whether it's worth your time. The hot leads get your attention. The tyre kickers get a polite auto-response.

No more driving 45 minutes to quote a job for someone who was never going to hire you.

The 80/20 Rule for Tradies

Here's the thing most tradies don't think about: roughly 20% of your leads generate 80% of your revenue. The other 80% of enquiries are tyre kickers, dreamers, price collectors, and ghosts.

The tradies who are making the most money aren't the ones who quote every single job. They're the ones who've figured out which leads are worth their time — and they ignore the rest.

That might sound harsh. But your time has a dollar value. Every hour you spend chasing a dead lead is an hour you're not spending on a paying customer.

What to Do Right Now

1. Track your conversion rate — How many quotes do you send vs. how many you win? If it's under 30%, you've got a filtering problem.
2. Create a qualifying checklist — 4-5 questions you ask every new enquiry before committing time
3. Set a response hierarchy — Hot leads get called back in 5 minutes. Cold leads get a template email. Everything else falls in between.
4. Consider AI scoring — Tools like QuoteShield automate the qualification so you don't have to rely on gut feeling

The tradies who figure this out stop working 60-hour weeks for 40 hours of pay. They work smarter, earn more per hour, and actually enjoy the work because they're spending time on customers who value what they do.

Stop chasing tyre kickers. Let them waste someone else's time.