Tradesmen Buying Leads...

[Prestige-SEO]

I'm interested to talk to a few tradesmen who have purchased leads before, Im currently developing a system which allows me to send you leads with contracts, upfront fees, or any of the rubbish you are use to. No website is needed, SEO or any of that either.

If you would like to help with market research, please let me know!

 

[super chip]

what do you need to know ?

 

[CeeVee]

I'm a plasterer, and I've bought leads before.

The main thing that got my goat up was that the lead was sold to three different tradesmen....so I bought the leads and STILL had competition!

 

[lawrence147]

I buy leads at the moment. I didn't pay upfront and they checked some of my references.

They basically got me through Xmas so I can't complain.

I'm using this, together with other adverts and referrals to get work atm.

If you want more info, let me know.

 

[Elekfix]

I've bought a few. Ratedpeople's site is really good - really user friendly. The problem is the crippling costs of leads, I don't really use it so much now due to this. Five jobs can cost you over £100 just to be one of three people going to quote for a job that the customer may or may not want completed. Sometimes they just have nothing better to do than give the site a go.


All these sites have sprung up because of the recession, so it will be interesting to watch their progress once (if) things start picking up again.

 

[Elekfix]

P.S. If you could make a site with NO LEADS COST, then that would be a hit. Customers and Tradesmen with ratings, all free. Then get advertising sold to all the wholesalers and whoever else.

Do that please!

 

[avalanche]

For me the problem with lead sites is it makes it too easy for people to find work
finding work comes from years of earned experience.
If someone can setup on a monday and get job leads the same day how much time have they spent working out their costs?
This to me leads to jobs being under priced which effects 3 people:
The customer ends up with a rushed botch job
The new tradesman looses money
The professional tradesman looses a potential job

and it then gives the building trade more of a bad name.

The only people who gain are the middle men site developers who charge for the lead.

 

[J.White]

i agree with avalanche in a way. i have used rated people as well as other websites like it and I hate them. i am always drawn back though when I am struggling for work. I think most of the problems have already been stated; crippling costs of leads (Which by the way has gone up!), I hate the fact that I can pay £50.00 for a lead and still have to compete with a complete cowboy who undercuts me massively and provides a botch job.
However, for some people who are just starting out on their own (but may have a lot of experience working with other tradesmen), this can be a good way to pick up bits and pieces and build a bit of a reputation for themselves. I myself am just going through the process of trying to build my own business so I do know how it feels.
If there was a service which supplied leads free of charge, to maybe 2 tradesmen (got to give the clients a bit of choice), tradesmen would be a lot happier to use that service. which would mean huge amounts of potential traffic leading to companies wanting to advertise on your site.

 

[roythehandyman]

I would never pay for leads, What puzzles me is that an employment agency can’t charge you a fee for finding or trying to find you work, A website doing just that (albeit for the self emplyed) can ! Just seems strange to me.

If I was given a lead on the understanding that I would pay a commission should I gain the job (and get paid for it ) then that would be acceptable to me, and allow the website to fall in line with employment agency's.

No offence intended but i view sites offering leads as parasites feeding of other peoples need to work.

 

[Talay]

As a consumer, I once posted a job on one of those places and what I got were forceful and pushy request from tradesmen.

I wrongly assumed they paid a fee to join or some small commission. I certainly didn't expect they were paying daft money and to be honest, had I know that, I would never have posted the job.

Again as a consumer, I am horrified to think that the guy coming round to do work for me has paid a serious amount of money for the lead which will skew his pricing as he seeks to recover not only his costs and a profit from me but also an introduction fee.

I won't be touching them again with a bargepole.

 

[roythehandyman]

As a consumer, I once posted a job on one of those places and what I got were forceful and pushy request from tradesmen.

I wrongly assumed they paid a fee to join or some small commission. I certainly didn't expect they were paying daft money and to be honest, had I know that, I would never have posted the job.

Again as a consumer, I am horrified to think that the guy coming round to do work for me has paid a serious amount of money for the lead which will skew his pricing as he seeks to recover not only his costs and a profit from me but also an introduction fee.

I won't be touching them again with a bargepole.

Good for you, better to seek out a local tradesman via net or press.

 

[futurex]

Yes It truly make Sense. If you are paying for lead, then why the hell you should have competition? The Best way for Lead Generation is Classified sites, Flyer Distribution and Of course, Telemarketing.

 

[iConversion]

Without a doubt lead generation companies have made a bad name for themselves. But it seems like some people have actually benefited from using lead generation.

Let's face it, we could say the same about trades people right? You just need to be smart and do your homework or test something before committing yourself.

From a vast experience with working with independent and small trade companies is that, overall they have limited knowledge of the internet, add in the recession + being bombarded by sales people selling you either leads or selling you a website and saying they will put you on the first page of google.

I am fortunate to have seen first hand what companies are doing on both lead generation and selling you website and google marketing. To be honest, sometimes I think why do people fall for it, but we are in a recession people are desperately looking to make money, and unfortunately when a salesmen comes calling, out of desperation and shrewd sales delivery it's hard to say know when you understand both sides.

I have read all the comments on this thread in detail, if anyone is spending a huge amount on buying leads and is interested in generating there own exclusive leads OR spending huge amounts on internet marketing trying to generate your own leads then PM me.

If you have any question about generating your own leads then fee free to send me a PM.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

P.S. If you could make a site with NO LEADS COST, then that would be a hit. Customers and Tradesmen with ratings, all free. Then get advertising sold to all the wholesalers and whoever else.

Do that please!

Freeindex!

 

[PDW Electrical Services]

These companies are set up to go hand in hand with all the two week, short course tradesmen that have sprung up due to being laid off and 'retraining' during this recession
No company will take them on as they have no experience, they cant get much work in the usual ways as they have no real contacts in the industry so they use these sites

As said allready the only winners are the middle men and the biggest losers are usually the homeowners, as they are basically paying to have an unsupervised trainee attempting to learn his chosen profession on their house

 

[JamesL456]

I would never pay for leads, What puzzles me is that an employment agency can’t charge you a fee for finding or trying to find you work, A website doing just that (albeit for the self emplyed) can ! Just seems strange to me.

If I was given a lead on the understanding that I would pay a commission should I gain the job (and get paid for it ) then that would be acceptable to me, and allow the website to fall in line with employment agency's.

No offence intended but i view sites offering leads as parasites feeding of other peoples need to work.

Hi Roy,

Just to resurrect a whole thread, I am interested in the idea of how a commission based lead site could work.

What would be seen as a fair commission figure for securing a job? As a percentage of the value of the job secured, say? And would it have to be exclusive of the materials cost?

Any thoughts from anybody on the matter would be appreciated.

Thanks

J

 

[telemax]

Hi Roy,

Just to resurrect a whole thread, I am interested in the idea of how a commission based lead site could work.

What would be seen as a fair commission figure for securing a job? As a percentage of the value of the job secured, say? And would it have to be exclusive of the materials cost?

Any thoughts from anybody on the matter would be appreciated.

Thanks

J

How would you know that the tradesman was being truthful about the value of the job?

I'm amazed that people are surprised that when they pay £20 per lead they find it's been flogged to all and sundry. Every one is looking for a cheap way to do everything and it just ends up being a waste of time.

Half a day door knocking for a tradesman = £100
A day's telemarketing = £100
3 Evenings a week Networking = £100

All the above will probably work out at around 1 decent job for £100. Why would some dodgy, anonymous website suddenly have all the solution for a fifth of the cost?

 

[JamesL456]

How would you know that the tradesman was being truthful about the value of the job?

I'm amazed that people are surprised that when they pay £20 per lead they find it's been flogged to all and sundry. Every one is looking for a cheap way to do everything and it just ends up being a waste of time.

Half a day door knocking for a tradesman = £100
A day's telemarketing = £100
3 Evenings a week Networking = £100

All the above will probably work out at around 1 decent job for £100. Why would some dodgy, anonymous website suddenly have all the solution for a fifth of the cost?

You raise a valid point re knowing job values. And indeed, a tradesperson could potentially claim not to have secured the job at all to avoid commission payments.

Contracts would be signed prior to leads passed over and there would have to be a verification stage with the lead to confirm that a job has gone ahead/not gone ahead. But it's still a point of concern.

Despite the niggly factors, the bottom line benefit to the tradesperson is that they pay for results and the idea has been well received by the tradespeople I've spoken to so far.

 

[S Isaac]

Ignore me sorry!

 

[vickster517]

Hi I know this is prob the wrong forum for this but would you know where to point me in the right direction .
Hi can anyone help me ? I am just starting up my own business selling on ebay from home, I wondered if anyone had an idea of where I can buy my stock from ?
I use a local (ish) auction house at the moment but I would really like to be able to order the same stock each time.
I am looking to sell childrens wear, toys/accessories and cosmetics.
any info would be greatly appreciated .
thanks
vicky