What Questions Should You Ask Before Buying Painting Leads?

The painting business is one of the top local contractor services that buys leads to get more customers. Everyday hundreds of painters search Google to buy painting leads.

This list of questions can save you $1,000s and $1,000s of dollars with painting leads.

1. They want the name, phone number & email of someone who wants or needs their house or business painted.
2. They want the person to be serious.
3. They want someone who is ready to buy and is looking for quality work.
4. They want that lead to be a good customer.
5. They want that lead to be in their area.
6. They want that lead to ultimate become a good paying customer.
7. They want leads fast.

1. They don’t want to buy a lead that was sold to a bunch of other painting contractors.
2. They don’t want to buy a lead that is just price shopping.
3. They don’t want to buy a lead that isn’t in their service area.
4. They don’t want to buy a lead that isn’t really interested in their services.
5. They don’t want to buy a lead that doesn’t answer their phone.
6. They don’t want to buy a lead that isn’t really read for painting.
7. They don’t want to buy a lead that doesn’t have the money to pay for good painting services.

Question #1: How many people are you selling these leads to that I buy?

Home Advisor is pretty well known for doing this. Here is a page dedicated to people sharing reviews about Home Advisor and their bad leads and their shady tactics of how they sell leads.

Most lead generation companies increase their profits by selling one lead to multiple competing companies in the same industry and area. This is great for them but terrible for the company that is buying the lead. Why? Because it automatically puts the company in a position where they have to compete with anywhere from 3 – 10 other companies.

When this happens the ball is in the court of the customer. Which means that they start picking the company that offers the lowest price. If you are a company that offers superior services at a higher price, then this can hurt your business and it is not the type of situation you want to get yourself in.

Question #2: How quickly does the lead come to me?

*In 2014 InsiderSales.com produced a research report about lead response time where they stated that “50% of buyers choose the vendor that responds first. So the question is, are you beating your competitors to the punch?”

Leads are very sensitive and there are many local industries that just 2 minutes could spoil a lead. If the lead company is delivering leads to you that are old, you might as well have just burnt your money.

Make sure that the lead company is delivering the lead to you immediately and that you respond immediately.

In fact, because most local businesses are locally owned and owner operated it makes it almost impossible to quickly respond to every lead. That means that many leads go unanswered, get old, and don’t convert into a paying customer.

Question #3: How is the lead delivered to me?

This is important. Most lead companies offer many different options for lead delivery. The more the better. The absolute best way to get a lead is via a direct phone call. This is rare because it means that the lead company can’t sell the lead to multiple companies.

Some awesome ways to get leads are phone calls, text messages, and then emails. I would be careful about paying for leads that just come in as emails…especially if they are selling that lead to multiple painters/contractors.

Question #4: How did you get the person’s information in the first place?

Here is a quick video showing you how Home Advisor Collects the leads they sell to contractors:

Here is another video showing you how thumbtack generates leads that they sell to contractors…including painting contractors:

This is huge. Lead companies really work hard to get someone to leave detailed information about their home project. They sometimes use tactics that get an uninterested person to submit information via an email form. At times the person didn’t even realize they were asking to be called or contacted by contractors. When they do get contacted they can get upset and frustrated that they were tricked in becoming a lead.

The best way to get someone’s information is having them call in and request a quote.

Question #5: How much is the lead going to cost me?

eWebify has used other companies and purchased leads from them for clients. We have been very careful with this question when doing so in order to make sure the cost per lead wasn’t too high.

However, even after asking all the right “how much does it cost…questions” the real number was completely different (a lot higher) after the contract was signed and agreement was made. So high that there was no room for profit.

Be careful of “about” numbers.

Question #6: Is there a contract?

Sorry to say it but this one is often tied with lead companies. Contracts are okay but they should offer a substantial trial offer first. Make sure the company at least offers a 15 to 30 day trial before the contract goes live.

Question #7: What is your refund policy?

This one is so real. For example, if you have ever paid money to Google via Google Adwords and have later learned that the click wasn’t accurate or real there is basically no way you will get your money back.

If you do it will require hours of over the phone debate, followup, and stress. Make sure you understand their refund policy before entering any agreement.

Question #8: Is there a monthly fee?

Monthly fees are pretty common in the industry. Just make sure you know what it is and why?

Question #9: How many other painters are you selling leads to in my area?

I talked a little about this one above. Here is an example of what this means. Let’s say you pay for a cookie from a local baker. You pay the full retail price of $3. When the baker hands you a cookie they only hand you an 8th of that cookie. Stunned you look at the baker and ask what just happened.

They proceed to inform you that you purchased the cookie and so did 8 other customers.

That is what is happening in the lead industry. A majority of lead companies get a lead and then sell it to 3 – 10 other contractors. Just like this would make the baker $24 off one cookie it often makes the lead generation company anywhere from $100 – $1000+ from one lead.

Smart on their part but bad for local painters and contractors.

Question #10: Will you be bidding on keywords via Google to get these leads?

Many local business owners that buy leads are also running ad campaigns via Google. If this is you, then you should be aware that many lead generation companies get leads by running Google Ads. So basically you are paying xyz lead generation to compete against your ads in the same space.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it is something that you should be aware of.

Question #11: Can I call some of your other painters to get their feedback of your leads?

Be worried if a lead generation company won’t let you get real feedback from their customers. Many lead generation companies have a lot of bad customer experience and you should know about that.

Don’t be scared to go out and do your own research. The internet is full of people who have shared their two cents about their personal experiences.

Question #12: Are you associated with any other lead companies…? A.K.A. Are you a parent company or owner of other lead generation companies?

Like father like son. The big companies often buy up smaller lead generation companies. For example, CraftJack was a private small lead generation company. But it was later sold by Home Advisor which used to be Service Magic.

If you have had a bad experience with a lead generation company, it is best to make sure they don’t also own the other lead generation company you want to try.

Question #13: Can I get any price lock guarantees on the leads?

See if you can get the lead generation company to give you fixed lead rates. It is extremely hard to get a ROI off of marketing and if the lead price can dramatically change overnight, then you should be aware of it and try to prevent it.

Question #15: If you collect leads via email forms and the person filled out a form saying they needed more than one professional service, did you break that information up and sell it to multiple companies in multiple industries?

EXAMPLE: Sara visits a website and submits information about how they are thinking about remodeling their kitchen, bathroom, redoing their deck, etc. The lead company then says…”Okay this person needs a painter, a tile guy, a shower guy, a plumber, a deck builder, etc and then sells that lead to each industry plus sells it to multiple tile experts, shower guys, plumbers, painters, etc.

I think this one is self explanatory. The more times that lead gets sold the less value it has for you.

Question #16: Do I get a profile on your site with a dofollow backlink to my website?

There are some values that can be had via a lead generation company that don’t directly relate to the leads sold. For example, let’s say xyz leads has an amazing site and they offer their clients a small space in their directory where they can list their website (dofollow link). DoFollow links are important and are a huge part of SEO. If you don’t know what SEO is, here is an article explaining what SEO stands for and details about it. This link can ultimately help the client’s own website rank higher on Google.

Question #17: Is there a place to leave reviews on your website and get a dofollow backlink to my website?

This is a lot like #16. If the company has a testimonial section on the website, is their an option to share your testimonial there and get a reference back to your main website. If yes, this too can help you rank higher in Google which in turns means free leads to you.

Question #18: Do you have any free trial offers?

You don’t really know if something works until you try it. See if the company has a free trial offer. You can also use Google to see if there are any coupon codes or deals that they have available.

- As always we write our articles from a boots on the ground perspective. When it comes to leads, lead generation, marketing, and local businesses we do this all day everyday.

- Google search.

- We collected data and video samples when doing searches on popular lead generation websites such as Home Advisor & Thumbtack.