Shared, exclusive and ping-post leads: what you are actually buying

Lead suppliers describe what they sell in language that is easy to misread. 'Qualified', 'verified' and 'premium' say nothing about distribution, and distribution is the thing that decides how your team's day goes. There are three models.

1 Shared

One enquiry is sold to several buyers, usually three to five. Everyone gets the same name and number at roughly the same moment, and the homeowner fields several calls in quick succession.

• Cheapest per lead by a wide margin
• Contact rates fall as the homeowner tires of calls
• Conversations start on price, because the homeowner is already comparing
• Rewards whoever calls first, which pushes teams towards speed over quality of conversation

2 Exclusive

One enquiry is sold once, to one buyer. Nobody else receives it, and it is not resold later or recycled into a different campaign.

• Highest price per lead
• You are the only company calling, so the conversation is about the job rather than the queue
• Wasted sales time drops sharply, because fewer attempts are needed per contact
• Puts the burden on you: if you do not call it, nobody does

3 Ping-post

The lead is offered in real time to a series of buyers, and the first to accept the price takes it. It is sold as exclusive, and in a narrow sense it is — one buyer ends up with it. What it does not tell you is how many buyers saw and declined it first, or what happens to a lead nobody accepts.

4 Comparing them fairly

5 Four questions that reveal the model

• How many buyers receive this exact enquiry?
• Is it ever resold, recycled or re-offered afterwards, at any price?
• What happens to a lead nobody accepts?
• Will you put the answer to the first two in the contract?

That last one matters more than the first three. Every supplier will describe their leads warmly on a call. Considerably fewer will write the distribution model into a supply agreement, and the ones who will are the ones worth testing.

6 Which should you buy?

If you run a large phone room with cheap calling capacity and you win on price, shared leads can work. If you sell on service, survey quality or speed of installation, they will fight you constantly, because every conversation opens with the homeowner comparing you to three other quotes before you have seen the job.

Whatever you choose, choose it deliberately, and get the supplier to say in writing which kind you are buying.