THE SHORT ANSWER
Shared leads win on price per enquiry and lose on total cost per job. A EUR 25 shared lead sold to four contractors converts at roughly 8 to 12 percent; a EUR 75 exclusive lead converts at 20 to 33 percent. Once you add the loaded cost of surveys and quotations, the shared route costs around EUR 1,200 per job won against roughly EUR 780 exclusive, and the shared job is typically signed at a 4 to 8 percent lower price.
The shared lead model is not a scam and pretending otherwise makes the comparison useless. It is a genuinely lower price for a genuinely lower probability, and for a firm with spare estimating capacity and a strong appetite for competitive pitching, it can work. The problem is that almost nobody prices in the estimating capacity.
Set both models out with the same cost lines and the ranking usually inverts. What follows is that comparison, using conservative assumptions in favour of the shared model, so you can substitute your own numbers and see where the crossover sits for your business. That crossover is real and it moves, which makes this a question to revisit every year rather than a position to hold.
The numbers, at a glance
Shared lead economics: around EUR 25 per enquiry, sold to three or four contractors, closing at 8 to 12 percent
Exclusive lead economics: EUR 60 to EUR 90 per enquiry, sold once, closing at 20 to 33 percent
Loaded cost of one survey and quotation: EUR 120 to EUR 250 in travel, estimating and admin time
Total cost per job won: roughly EUR 1,200 on shared volume against roughly EUR 780 on exclusive, at the midpoints above
The comparison with every cost line included
Shared route: to win one job at a 10 percent close rate you need ten enquiries, costing EUR 250. Of those ten you will realistically survey and quote six, since the other four have already committed elsewhere or stopped answering. Six quotations at EUR 160 each is EUR 960. Total cost per job won: EUR 1,210.
Exclusive route: at a 25 percent close rate you need four enquiries, costing EUR 300. You will quote three of the four, because nobody else has spoken to them. Three quotations at EUR 160 is EUR 480. Total cost per job won: EUR 780. The exclusive lead is three times the sticker price and 35 percent cheaper in the outcome that matters.
The cost that never appears on any invoice: price erosion
A homeowner holding four quotes behaves differently from one holding two. In a four-way race the winning price sits noticeably below the winner's normal rate, because the process has been framed as a price comparison from the first phone call. Across the trades we model, the gap runs at 4 to 8 percent of contract value.
On a EUR 10,000 job at 24 percent margin, a 6 percent discount removes EUR 600, which is a quarter of the gross margin. That single line is usually larger than the entire lead-price saving that motivated the shared purchase in the first place.
Where shared volume genuinely wins
Idle estimating capacity. If quotations cost you nothing incremental because the owner writes them on Sunday evening, the EUR 160 line collapses and the arithmetic flips towards shared.
Very fast response. The first contractor to call a shared enquiry wins far more often than the fourth. A firm that answers within two minutes, every time, converts shared volume closer to 18 percent and changes the whole calculation.
Commodity work with rigid pricing. Where the job is standardised and your price is genuinely the lowest sustainable one in the market, being compared is an advantage rather than a risk.
Filling a hole this month. Shared volume is available immediately and in quantity, which is worth something when a cancellation has left a crew empty next week.
The question that settles it for most firms
Ask what your estimating hour is worth. If you or your best salesperson is the bottleneck in the business, every survey spent on a job you had a one-in-ten chance of winning is an hour not spent on one you had a one-in-three chance of winning. That opportunity cost does not show up in either invoice and it is usually the deciding term.
If instead your bottleneck is enquiry volume and you have people sitting waiting, shared leads are a rational way to load the front of the funnel. The mistake is applying one answer permanently: the correct model changes as the bottleneck moves.
Work out which model fits your business right now
Calculate your true loaded cost of one survey plus one written quotation.
Measure your close rate on shared and exclusive volume separately over sixty leads each.
Compare average signed price on competitively pitched jobs against your normal rate.
Identify your current bottleneck honestly: enquiries, estimating time or crew capacity.
Rerun the total cost per job won for both models using your own four numbers, then choose.
How these figures were built
These figures are a benchmark model, not a survey. They combine an industry base range observed across Western European home-improvement campaigns with a country multiplier for local auction pressure. Treat them as a band to negotiate against, not a quote.
How Flock Leads prices this
Exclusivity is the whole reason the conversion side of that arithmetic holds, so it is priced in rather than sold as an upgrade.
Starter - 10 leads for EUR 750, which is EUR 75 per lead
Growth - 25 leads for EUR 1,750, which is EUR 70 per lead
Scale - 45 leads for EUR 2,925, which is EUR 65 per lead
Pro - 70 leads for EUR 4,340, which is EUR 62 per lead
Max - 90 leads for EUR 5,400, which is EUR 60 per lead
No retainer, no contract term, and no lead sent to a second business. Unused volume rolls over under the Flock Lead Promise.
Want leads like this in your pipeline?
Flock runs the campaigns, screens the enquiries and hands you only the ones that match your service area, job size and capacity. You pay per lead, not per month.
Book a 15-minute fit check | See lead package pricing
Related answers
Frequently asked questions
How many contractors typically receive a shared lead?
Three or four is standard and some marketplaces go to five. Ask for the number in writing before buying, and ask whether it is a cap or an average, because an average of three can include enquiries sent to six.
Can I tell whether a lead was shared?
Usually within the first call. Homeowners mention other quotes, or you find they have already booked two surveys. If more than a fifth of supposedly exclusive leads behave that way, the exclusivity claim is not being honoured. Log it as a field rather than a memory, because the pattern only becomes arguable once you can put sixty rows in front of the supplier.
Is a semi-exclusive lead a reasonable compromise?
It is shared volume with better marketing. Two contractors instead of four roughly halves the disadvantage rather than removing it. Price it as shared and judge it on close rate, not on the label. If the price sits nearer exclusive than shared, you are paying an exclusivity premium for something that is not exclusive.
Do shared leads damage reputation?
They can, indirectly. Homeowners who receive four unexpected calls in an hour associate the intrusion with whoever calls loudest. The commercial risk is smaller than the arithmetic risk, but it is not zero in small towns. Weigh it locally: in a city it is invisible, in a town of eight thousand it is a conversation at the school gate.
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