> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.aresdeploy.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Lead lifecycle

> How Ares turns a raw lead into a booked estimate, from capture to calendar.

Speed to lead wins jobs. Most home-service leads submit to two or three companies in the same sitting, and the first real response usually gets the estimate. Ares exists to make sure that response is yours, every time, and that the follow-up never stops until there is an answer.

## The lifecycle

<Steps>
  <Step title="Capture">
    A lead arrives from your ads, your website forms, or directly into your CRM. Ares sees it the moment it lands, regardless of source, and creates or updates the contact with everything known: name, phone, service interest, and where it came from.
  </Step>

  <Step title="First touch">
    Within seconds the lead gets a short, personal-sounding message acknowledging their request and moving toward scheduling. While your competitors are checking voicemail after work, your lead already has a conversation going.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Conversation">
    Replies are handled in context. Questions get answered, qualification happens naturally, and every exchange steers toward one goal: the booked estimate. Pricing questions get deflected to the estimate visit, where you close on your terms. See [Booking](/leads/booking).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Nurture">
    No reply? Ares follows up on a persistence schedule measured in weeks, not days, spacing touches so it stays present without becoming annoying. Most booked estimates come from a later touch, not the first message. See [Follow-up](/leads/follow-up).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Book">
    When the lead is ready, Ares drives to a concrete time on your calendar, confirms it, and moves the opportunity to the booked stage in your pipeline.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Resolve">
    Every lead ends in a definite state: booked, declined, or parked cold with a tag. Nothing is deleted, and nothing sits in limbo.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Ground rules baked into Ares

* **The objective is the booking.** No price quotes over text. The number that matters is estimates on the calendar.
* **Every message is deduplicated.** No lead gets the same message twice or gets double-texted by overlapping sequences, even when multiple triggers fire at once.
* **Opt-outs are honored instantly** and recorded in your CRM permanently. See [Compliance](/leads/compliance).
* **Leads are never deleted.** Cold leads get tagged and parked. They come back into play if they ever reply, and they remain yours for future campaigns.
* **Human replies take precedence.** If you or your team jump into a conversation, Ares reads it and adjusts instead of talking over you.

## Where leads come from

| Source                | How Ares handles it                                                                                                  |
| --------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Meta ad instant forms | Pulled in within seconds of submission, tagged with campaign attribution                                             |
| Website forms         | Received via your CRM's forms and webhooks                                                                           |
| Manual entry          | Add a contact in the CRM; Ares treats it like any new lead                                                           |
| Older lists           | Ask Ares in chat before re-engaging an old list; volume and consent rules apply. See [Compliance](/leads/compliance) |

## What you see

The [dashboard](/using/dashboard) shows lead volume, sources, and pipeline movement. For anything deeper, ask in [chat](/using/chat): "who went quiet this week?" returns names and last messages, not a chart.