Shared Leads for Tradesmen: Why Paying for a Job Four Other Firms Also Got Is a Bad Deal

A homeowner types their job into a lead site. The site then sells that job to a handful of local trades. Everyone who pays gets the customer's details, and they can all be ringing that customer within minutes of each other.

This is not a secret, the sites say it themselves. Bark's own help centre says up to five professionals can respond to any one customer. So when you buy a Bark lead, you are buying a one in five chance, at best, and the other four are ringing the same number while you're still in the van.

Bark sells leads for credits. Its help centre puts the current price at £1.80 per credit, and the number of credits per lead depends on the trade, the size of the job and the area. Credits bought since 1 November 2025 run out three months after you buy them, and unused credits cannot be refunded.

MyBuilder charges a lead fee when a customer shortlists you. Its support pages say the fee can start from £7, and they say plainly that they cannot guarantee you will make contact, get to quote or win the job. You pay for the shortlist either way.

Checkatrade works differently. It is a membership, and its basic plan starts from £30 plus VAT a month, but on that plan, in its own words, "We don't provide you with sales leads". Plans that send you leads cost more and vary by trade and area.

Here is a worked example. Say a Bark lead for your trade costs 10 credits. At £1.80 a credit that is £18. Five firms can respond, so if you win one job in five you have spent £90 in leads to land one job, before your time ringing the four that went elsewhere.

Win one in five, ten times a month, and that is £900 a month in leads for ten jobs. And on every one of those jobs you were chosen on price, against four others who were also chasing it.

That is the real problem. A shared lead turns every job into a price war, because the customer has several quotes on the table and price is the easiest way to choose between strangers.

When you stop paying, the leads stop. Nothing you spent last year helps you this year. The customer found the lead site, not you, and next time they need a trade they will go back to the lead site, not to you.

Compare that with a customer who finds you directly: on Google, on your own site, or from a review. That customer rang you and only you. There is no one else on the call, so the conversation is about the job, not about who is cheapest.

Owning your own enquiries comes down to three things.

First, be found. Your Google Business Profile filled in properly, and your own site with your real reviews at the top, so a customer searching your town sees you rather than a lead site.

Second, answer every enquiry. Only around 38% of calls to small firms are answered live, according to the 411 Locals study from 2024, and 85% of people who don't get through never ring back. If you're up a ladder when your own customer rings, you've lost them just as surely as a shared lead.

Third, keep every customer. A job that came to you directly can bring you a review, a repeat job and a referral, all of which cost nothing next time.

That is what we set up at Nero Engine: reviews at the top of the page, every call and message answered day or night, and the job details sent straight to your phone while the customer is still keen. The enquiries are yours, not shared with four other firms. It is £299 a month, and one extra job a month covers it.