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A First Look at 2026: Leveraging AI to Boost Lead Handling and Drive Better Results
More leads don’t matter if they aren’t answered or followed up with at the right time. What happens when clients don't answer inbound leads? How do you prove marketing ROI when leads don’t turn into booked appointments? How much revenue, or trust, is lost to slow response times? 👈 Register to learn how agencies are using AI to respond faster and convert more leads. You’re Driving Leads. Now, Get Recognition For Conversion. You’re sending leads. The campaigns are working. But somewhere between the phone ringing and the follow-up, things are breaking down. Clients miss calls. Replies come too late. Leads go cold. And when conversions don’t happen, the question quietly turns back to your agency. In this session, Anthony Milia, President of Milia Marketing, and Bailey Beckham Constantino, Senior Partner Marketing Manager at CallRail, break down how AI is transforming lead handling, speed-to-lead, and client communication. You’ll Learn: What to do when clients don’t follow up on leads How to make sure calls, forms, and chats don’t get missed when clients are busy. How to improve speed-to-lead What actually gets leads contacted faster—without adding more work for your clients. How to show real conversion results Simple ways to connect your leads to booked appointments and revenue. How to stop being seen as just a lead source How agencies are using AI to earn trust and long-term client buy-in. You’ll walk away with practical frameworks and real-world examples you can apply immediately to improve conversion outcomes and retention. Register now to get a first look at how AI-driven lead handling will define agency performance in 2026. 🛑 Can’t make it live? Register anyway, and we’ll send you the on-demand recording.
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A First Look at 2026: Leveraging AI to Boost Lead Handling and Drive Better Results
- 2. Leveraging AI to BoostLead Handling and Drive Better Results First Look at 2026
- 3. Leveraging AI toBoost Lead Handling and Drive Better Results First Look at 2026 :
- 4. 4 © Confidential 2025 AnthonyMilia President Milia Marketing Bailey Beckham Sr. Marketing Manager CallRail Meet Your Speakers
- 5. 5 © Confidential 2025 AboutCallRail CallRail is the lead engagement platform that makes it easy for businesses to optimize their marketing, attract quality leads, and convert more customers.
- 6. 6 © Confidential 2025 CallRail’sProven Track-Record v v Top-rated by 220,000 businesses (and counting) allows us to give measurable insights to our clients to prove our conversions rates. It’s a game changer. Bailey S., Agency Owner & CallRail Customer, G2 review Founded in 2011, AI provider since 2016.
- 7. What are yourtop challenges moving into 2026? Audience Poll
- 8. 8 © Confidential 2025 WhatYou’ll Learn Today v See how we thought about your lead handling strategy in the past, especially the phone call. Then learn about what cutting- edge AI tools marketers are using to button up their strategy. The past & future of lead handling v How to use AI to uncover the holes in your own marketing strategy and identify quick-wins to become more effective and efficient. Gaps in your own marketing strategy v In this section we will be taking a deeper dive into the major challenge, explaining the solution, and showing you some real-life examples. How to think about your lead strategy v Learn AI tools that are available to you today to help you capture, track, analyze, and convert every lead before they move on to your competition. Tips & tools that will help you beat the competition
- 9. Are You/Your ClientsCurrently Using AI To Generate And Convert Leads? Audience Poll
- 10. 10 © Confidential 2025 HowCan You Close The Gaps Between Leads And Results? ▪ Unclear or low ROI ▪ Rising CPL ▪ Ineffective lead handling The Problem ▪ Spending more ≠ growth ▪ Misalignment in lead handoff process The Paradox ▪ Shared accountability ▪ High quality, high intent, low cost leads (often calls) ▪ Handle leads effectively The Solution Transparency and shared visibility becomes key
- 11. 11 © Confidential 2025 SpeakingOf Conversions Of agencies say their top operational and marketing challenges in 2026 is lead follow-up and conversion 73%
- 12. 12 © Confidential 2025 CommonConversion Blockers Frontline teams aren’t picking up the phone When they do, calls are being handled poorly Lead follow-up is slipping through the cracks
- 13. 13 © Confidential 2025 TheConversion Leaks: Auditing Your Front Line Speed to Quote The First Touch Logging Discipline and Accuracy Speed to Reply Follow-Through Activity Quote Expiration/BAMFAM
- 14. 14 © Confidential 2025 TotalLead Volume: 3,743 leads Phone calls: 2,979 (79.6%) Form submissions: 764 (20.4%) Total Revenue Potential: $28,072,500
- 15. 15 © Confidential 2025 LeadSource Performance Analysis Where Your $28M+ in Potential Revenue is Coming From PHONE CALLS (2,979 leads - $22.3M potential) Rank Source Volume % of Calls Revenue Potential 1 Google Ads 1,097 36.8% $8,227,500 2 Google Organic 665 22.3% $4,987,500 3 Direct 398 13.4% $2,985,000 4 Google My Business 198 6.6% $1,485,000 5 Facebook Ads 189 6.3% $1,417,500
- 16. 16 © Confidential 2025 TheShocking Reality Your team successfully answers 90% of calls but fails to collect the basic information needed to convert them into sales. Summary of Data Collection Disasters: ❌ 38.8% don't get full names ❌ 15% don't confirm callback numbers ❌ 96.4% don't get email addresses ❌ 100% don't get project addresses ❌ 100% don't schedule/track appointments ❌ 85.5% don't properly qualify leads ❌ 100% don't capture project detail
- 17. 17 © Confidential 2025 CriticalRevenue Leaks 1. Call Performance Issues ● Answer Rate: 90.2% (2,687 answered) ● Missed Calls: 270 calls (9.4%) = $2,100,000 ● Total Call Potential Revenue Loss: $2,100,000 2. After-Hours Opportunity ● After-Hours Calls: 254 calls (8.5%) ● Missed Revenue Potential: $1,905,000 ● Recommendation: Extended hours or after-hours service could capture significant revenue
- 18.
- 19. 19 © Confidential 2025 ReceptionistBehavior Analysis
- 20. 20 © Confidential 2025 RealCall Transcripts
- 21. 21 © Confidential 2025 Dispatchervs. Sales Enabler
- 22.
- 24.
- 25. It’s not aboutAI. It’s about what you do with it. We Always Say
- 26. 26 © Confidential 2025 AISurfaces Conversation Insights You Can Use For… v ▪ Best leads from your best marketing sources ▪ Automated workflows for lead follow-up ▪ Complete context on leads, recommended next steps to convert Lead Conversion v ▪ Answer calls at any time ▪ Full picture of lead journey and interactions ▪ Relevant, personalized interactions with customers ▪ Swift follow-up Customer Experience v ▪ Coaching tips on call handling ▪ Aggregated insights across calls or by agent ▪ Patterns or trends in positive or negative sentiment Agent Performance v ▪ AI-powered insights across CRM, MA and other systems ▪ Complete picture of lead journey and outcomes (digital, offline) ▪ Better lead quality and marketing ROI Marketing Optimization
- 27. 27 © Confidential 2025 Whatit means for you ▪ Every lead is captured ▪ Ensure that leads are properly handled ▪ Respond to claims of low lead quality ▪ Gather VOC insights at your fingertips Marketer ▪ No missed leads ▪ Stay close to your client and customers ▪ Identify patterns in performance across channels, campaigns, locations ▪ Position yourself as a consultant / trusted partner Agency ▪ Gain first hand knowledge of what customers (and agents are saying) ▪ Selectively drill down into areas requiring attention ▪ Elevate your focus on strategic matters versus being in the weeds Business Owner
- 28. 28 © Confidential 2025 VoiceAssist: The new AI receptionist Never miss a lead again: Voice Assist answers, captures, and qualifies inbound calls 24/7. Maximize every ad dollar: Stop wasting spend on missed calls and turn every call into measurable results. Drive better outcomes: Boost conversions, lower cost-per-lead, and prove true marketing impact. Start getting results tomorrow: Fast to launch, easy to customize, and fully integrated with CallRail’s tracking and attribution
- 29. 29 © Confidential 2025 EliminateWasted Ad Spend With 24/7 Call Answering Lower your CPL and increase ROAS: Every missed call is wasted ad spend Rank higher on LSAs & Google Maps: Answer speed impacts your rankings Build better audiences & smarter targeting: Use call intelligence to make your ads more efficient.
- 30. 30 © Confidential 2025 CallRail’sAI Connects The Dots Marketing Campaign Performance Lead quality and Conversation handling Customer growth Faster growth and higher ROI
- 31. 31 © Confidential 2025 Usethe QR code to the right to learn more and start your 14- day free trial (no credit card required). Get started for FREE Ready to give CallRail a try?
- 33.
Editor's Notes
- #2 Heather
- #4 Bailey & Anthony Anthony
- #5 Bailey
- #6 Bailey
- #7 Bailey Increased competition Keeping up with technology Declining sales Low staff/resources Rising operational costs
- #8 Bailey
- #9 Bailey Yes No I don’t know
- #10 Bailey - peppering in from Anthony The Core Concerns (Businesses Are Worried About) Shrinking ROI & Rising Costs: Difficulty demonstrating clear Return on Investment (ROI). Increasing Cost-Per-Lead (CPL). Inefficient Lead Handling: Slow "Speed to Lead" for high-intent prospects (e.g., phone calls). High effort in chasing form-fill leads. Clients struggling with lead nurturing and conversion. Lack of Transparency & Accountability: Uncertainty about what's truly performing. Misalignment on lead quality and client follow-up. II. The Growth Paradox: Spending More, Achieving Less Increased budget doesn't always equal increased efficiency. "Holes in the process" hinder scalable growth. III. The Path Forward: Shared Responsibility & Actionable Insights Marketing / Agency: Provide quality leads at a low cost. Sales / Client: Effectively handle and convert leads. The Synergistic Approach: Both parties must actively engage for success.
- #11 Bailey *Source: Salesforce
- #12 Bailey Ties back to relationship with clients / and marketing ROI / hurts clients
- #13 Anthony "Before we dive into the data, let me show you what we're looking for. When we audit swe're specifically looking at six major conversion leaks in the funnel. Six places where revenue walks out the door. One - The first touch. How quickly are you responding to that initial contact? Speed matters. Two - Logging discipline and accuracy. Is every lead getting captured in your system, or are things falling through the cracks? Three - Speed to reply. Related to first touch, but this is about that initial response time. Five minutes versus five hours makes a massive difference. Four - Follow-through activity. Are you actually following up multiple times, or is it one email and done? Five - Speed to quote. How fast are you getting quotes out the door once someone requests one? Six - Quote expiration and BAMFAM. Are your quotes sitting forever, or do they have urgency built in? And are you bringing them back when they don't close. These are the six leaks we're going to walk through today. And we're going to show you real data following these. Let me paint the picture with some actual numbers."
- #14 "Alright, so let me paint the picture. We analyzed data from a business for over a 12-month period - we're talking about 3,743 total leads. Real leads. People who either called or filled out a form because they wanted a quote. Here's the breakdown: Almost 80% of those leads - 2,979 to be exact - came in through phone calls. The other 20%, about 764 leads, came through form submissions on the website. Now here's where it gets interesting. If we apply a conservative average project value of $7,500 per job, we're looking at over $28 million in potential revenue. Twenty-eight million dollars worth of people saying 'I want to work with you.'
- #16 "All this lead generation looks great on paper, right? People are calling you. People are filling out forms. They are walking into your showroom. Are you capturing the information above? Our data shows that most businesses aren’t. But what's happening after they make contact is where most shops are absolutely hemorrhaging revenue. Let me show you the numbers."
- #17 "We're going to walk through the major leaks that are costing you money every single day. The leaks: missed calls, after-hours calls, poor qualification and intake, and slow or non-existent follow-up. "Missed calls. Out of 2,979 phone calls, these shops answered 2,687 of them. That's a 90.2% answer rate. Some of you are thinking, '90% sounds pretty good! But here's reality - 270 people called wanting to do business and got no answer. Straight to Voicemail. At $7,500 per project, that's over $2 million in potential revenue that went straight to voicemail. Here's the problem - when someone is ready to buy, they're not calling just you. They're calling three, four, maybe five businesses. And whoever picks up first or replies first has a massive advantage. A 60% higher chance to close the job purely based on speed to lead and speed to reply. While your phone is ringing and going to voicemail, your competitor is answering, building rapport, and setting an appointment. Every missed call is potential revenue - and usually it's walking straight to the competition." "Now let's talk after-hours. Out of those 2,979 calls, 254 came in outside business hours. That's 8.5% of all calls. That's almost $2 million in potential revenue from people trying to reach you when you're closed. And think about when people research for your products and services. In this example, They're not doing it during their lunch break on Tuesday. They're doing it at 7 PM Wednesday after the kids are in bed. They're doing it Saturday morning while they're planning their renovation with coffee in hand. If they can't reach you, but they can reach one of your competitors who has an after-hours service? You just lost that lead. So we're already at $4 million in lost revenue just from call handling.
- #18 Let me show you what this looks like in real life. This is an actual call pattern I see in their data. That lead is now dead in the water. No follow-up capability. No urgency. No qualification. It becomes a hope and a prayer."
- #21 Now looking at the graphic above, what type of person do you have? A Dispatcher treats every call the same. Their job is to collect information and move on. They’re efficient. But they're not selling anything. They're just dispatching information. “Let me transfer you to sales” A Sales Enabler is completely different. They're asking questions to understand the opportunity and move the deal forward. They're building rapport. They're qualifying the lead. They're identifying urgency. And most importantly - they're setting the next step. The Dispatcher collects information. The Sales Enabler moves the deal forward.
- #22 Bridging the gap between your customer and your team. Analyzed the language in the calls. Here's what customers are actually saying: 73% immediately mention cost or price. Only 12% mention quality. Think about that. When 3 out of 4 customers lead with price, your team responds with price. Price war, low margins. 28% ask about financing - that's a budget concern. 31% use the word 'cheap.' These are signals about their buying psychology, and if you miss them, you lose control of the conversation."
- #23 Now here's what most people miss - customers tell you exactly where they are in the buying process through the language they use. You just have to know what to listen for. The problem is, if you're a Dispatcher, all of these sound the same. You're just collecting emails and saying 'We'll send you information.' But if you're a Sales Enabler, you're listening for these signals. You're adjusting your approach based on where they are. You're prioritizing the hot leads and nurturing the cold ones. This is what lead qualification actually means. It's not just asking questions - it's listening to the answers and knowing what to do with that information."
- #25 Bailey (this through slide 20)
- #26 Bailey + Anthony So let’s summarize why you should care about the insights in your conversation data.
- #27 Bailey (this slide & 32) So if all of this is leaving you asking “Why should I care?” – Here are some thoughts.. If you’re a Marketer, we know that your leads are only as good as their ability to convert. Even the highest quality leads won’t convert if they’re poorly handled. Marketers should be invested in how phone leads are managed and AI insights are a way to monitor that with little effort. In fact it’s a good way to investigate and respond to claims of low lead quality. And as Ryan mentioned, AI can provide valuable VOC insights at your fingertips If you’re with an Agency, AI-powered conversation insights: Allow you to stay close to your client’s business and what their customers are saying. Quickly see patterns – negative or positive – that you can act on with your client. And at the end of the day, have insights that help position you as a consultant or trusted partner. If you’re a Business Owner or manager, we know your time is your scarcest resource. AI-powered insights enables you to spend your time working on the business rather than in the business. If gives you first hand knowledge of what your customers and agents are saying, but without being in the weeds. AI elevates your focus on strategic matters like what delights your customers and what turns them off. Use your scarce time wisely – selectively drill down into the areas where you should spend your time (e.g., groups of negative sentiment calls)
- #28 Bailey (this through slide 38)
- #29 Bailey (this through slide 43) Lower CPLs and increase ROAS Capture 100% of inbound calls, even after hours Increase ROAS by turning first time callers into customers Qualify leads on the first call & cut retargeting costs Rank higher on LSAs & PPC ads Beat competitors with 24/7 availability Guarantee the fastest connection Win more top-of-page placements and high intent leads Build better audiences & smarter targeting Send conversion signals back to Google Ads Use full attribution data to build high-quality lookalike audiences Continuously refine targeting and improve performance
- #30 Bailey (this through slide 43)
- #31 Bailey/Heather (prompt Q&A)
- #33 Both