The three pricing models, and what each one actually buys
There are three ways commercial cleaning companies pay for leads, and they are not interchangeable. Pay-per-lead (PPL) means you pay a fixed price per qualified lead delivered, and nothing when nothing is delivered; at Prospectr Digital that price is $200 and the lead is exclusive to you in your radius. A retainer means you pay a monthly fee for a managed outbound program, typically $600 to $1,000 per month for cold email, and the leads it produces are yours without a per-lead charge; volume depends on your radius and offer. Shared marketplace leads, the Thumbtack and Angi model, cost $15 to $80 each but the same lead is sold to three to five cleaners simultaneously, so you are bidding against competitors on price before the first conversation.
Why exclusive leads cost more than shared leads, and why that is the point
A $30 shared lead looks cheaper than a $200 exclusive lead until you count what it takes to close one. Shared leads are typically residential or very small commercial, often contact-form submissions from someone comparing prices, and by the time you call, two other cleaners already have. Close rates on shared commercial leads commonly run in the low single digits. An exclusive lead from outbound is a facility decision maker who replied to a specific message about their building, has been qualified by a human, and is talking to only you. Close rates from qualified outbound leads for cleaning operators typically land in the 10 to 25 percent range depending on the operator's sales follow-through. The math favors exclusive leads at almost any realistic close-rate assumption.
What a qualified lead should include
If you are paying $200 for a lead, it should carry the facility name and address, the decision maker's name, title and direct contact, the facility type and approximate square footage, the current cleaning arrangement where the prospect shared it, the specific service interest, and an agreed next step, usually a walkthrough or quote request. Anything less is a contact, not a lead. Our definition also includes credits: a lead outside your fenced radius or misrepresented on qualification is credited, not billed.
Hidden costs to ask about
Setup fees ($0 to $2,500 across the industry; ours is $1,000 one-time for the retainer program), minimum monthly lead commitments, contract length (avoid 12-month lock-ins for an unproven vendor), whether replies are qualified by a human or by an AI 'interest' score, and whether the vendor resells leads in your territory. The last one matters most. If the vendor sells your city to three cleaners, the leads are not exclusive no matter what the contract says.
Commercial cleaning lead pricing models compared
| Model | Typical price | Exclusive? | Who qualifies the lead | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay-per-lead (Prospectr) | $200 per lead | Yes, one operator per radius | Human inside-sales team | Operators who want to pay only for results |
| Managed cold email retainer | $600-$1,000/mo + $1,000 setup | Yes | Human inside-sales team | Operators who want predictable volume and control |
| Inside sales add-on | From $1,111/mo | Yes | Dedicated caller books the walkthrough | Operators with no in-house sales bandwidth |
| Shared marketplace (Thumbtack, Angi) | $15-$80 per lead | No, sold to 3-5 cleaners | Nobody; form submission | Residential and very small commercial |
| In-house SDR | $4,000-$6,500/mo loaded | Yes | Your employee | Operators with $100K+ monthly recurring revenue |
The bottom line
A typical janitorial contract runs $2,000 to $5,000 per month, and commercial accounts commonly stay two to four years. Take the low end: a $2,000-per-month account held for 24 months is $48,000 in revenue. If you close one in every five $200 leads, your cost per new account is $1,000, against $48,000 in contract value. Even at one close in ten, the cost per account is $2,000, which the account repays in the first month. This is why serious cleaning operators stop comparing lead prices and start comparing cost per signed account.