Buying leads: how to find enquiries that fit your business

You have spare capacity, good people and an offer you can be proud of. What’s missing is more of the right customer conversations. Buying leads sounds like the obvious shortcut, and it can be. But only if you know what you’re actually buying, how to check the quality and how to turn an enquiry into an order.

This guide is your starting point. It explains the models on the market, gives you the questions to ask before your first purchase and walks you through the first few weeks. Where a topic goes deeper, we point you to our in-depth guides.

What a lead is and what it isn’t

A lead is a customer enquiry. Someone has a specific project, say a new fence, a heat pump or private health insurance, and wants a provider to contact them about it. A lead typically includes contact details, location and some information about the project.

What a lead isn’t: an address from a list. An address tells you someone exists. A lead tells you someone wants something right now. This difference isn’t just a detail for sales. It also decides whether you’re allowed to call the person at all. More on that in a moment.

Between these two extremes there are many shades of grey. Some providers sell contacts from prize draws or guide downloads, where the actual buying interest is thin. So always ask: what did this person do before their data landed with me? Did they actively request a quote for exactly this service? The clearer the answer, the better you can judge what to expect in the first conversation.

The three models on the market

If you want to buy leads, you’ll essentially come across three models. They sound similar but work very differently.

Lead delivery: A provider generates enquiries, for example through its own portals and advertising, and delivers them to you at a price per lead. You set the industry, area and volume, and the enquiries are sent to you. What matters here is how many businesses receive the same enquiry. At Aroundhome, according to its partner page, it’s a maximum of three specialist partners. At webRichtung, standard enquiries go to no more than three providers, exclusive enquiries to exactly one.

Job posting platform: Customers post their job there, and you decide yourself which jobs to respond to. Payment is usually per contact. At MyHammer, for example, registration is free; according to its terms, a contact fee applies once a confirmed contact with the client is made. Subscriptions with a monthly credit are optional. You work more actively here, but you also compete more visibly with other businesses.

Address trading: Lists of names, phone numbers or email addresses, often filtered by region or characteristics. For advertising to private individuals by phone or email, this is practically a minefield in Germany, because it requires prior express consent. For a trade business or insurance broker looking for private customers, it’s not a sensible route.

Which model suits you depends mainly on how much sales time you have. If you’d rather advise than hunt, lead delivery is usually more relaxed. If you want to review jobs every day and actively pitch for them, a job posting platform can be a good fit. You’ll find a more detailed comparison of buying versus doing your own acquisition in the guide Buy leads or generate your own.

What the law says

Don’t worry, this won’t turn into a legal chapter. But there are two points you should know.

First: the German Act against Unfair Competition explicitly classes advertising by phone call to a consumer without their prior express consent as an unreasonable nuisance (§ 7 Abs. 2 Nr. 1 UWG). For advertising by email, the same principle of prior express consent basically applies (§ 7 Abs. 2 Nr. 2 UWG). So cold calls to private individuals from a bought list aren’t a shortcut, they’re a risk.

Second: with a genuine enquiry, the situation is different. The person asked to be contacted about their project themselves. So you’re not reaching out with advertising out of nowhere, you’re answering an enquiry. Stick to the request: someone who asked about a roof renovation doesn’t also want your newsletter, your prize draw and your special offer on garden furniture.

So ask your provider how the enquiries come about and what the person consented to. A reputable provider can answer that clearly. For your specific case, for example where special industry rules apply, legal advice is the right place to go.

How to spot good leads

Lead quality isn’t a gut feeling. You can pin it down by a few characteristics, and you can do so before you’ve spent a lot of money.

• Origin: Did the person submit an enquiry for exactly your service themselves?
• Project details: Do you learn enough to run the first conversation in a targeted way, such as type of project, location and timeframe?
• Area: Can you define your catchment area precisely, so you don’t get enquiries you can’t serve at all?
• Sharing: How many businesses receive the same enquiry? That affects price, pace and the dynamics of the conversation.
• Cost control: Can you set a cap, and do you see the price before you order?
• Contract: Is there a minimum term or a base fee, and how flexibly can you change volumes and area?

One characteristic is deliberately missing from this list: the promise of orders. No provider can seriously guarantee that an enquiry will turn into an order. Anyone who promises that is selling you a good feeling rather than good leads.

Exclusive or shared?

A shared enquiry goes to several businesses. It’s usually cheaper, but you’re not the only one in the conversation. An exclusive enquiry goes to just one business. It usually costs more, but gives you more breathing room for advice.

The question is less which is better in principle and more which fits your sales setup. If you can respond very quickly and are strong in a head-to-head comparison, shared often works well. If you sell high-value services that need explaining and involve a longer advisory process, exclusive is worth a look. You’ll find the details with worked examples in the guide Exclusive or shared leads.

Work backwards before you buy

The lead price on its own tells you almost nothing. A cheap lead that rarely leads to an order can cost more than an expensive lead that converts well. What counts is what a won order costs you in total: the purchase plus the time for calls, appointments and quotes.

The simple rule of thumb: start with the contribution margin of a typical order. Think about how many enquiries you realistically need for one order, and factor in your sales time. That gives you the maximum a lead can cost for it to be worth it for you. The guide What can leads cost? shows you how to do this step by step.

The first few weeks: how to turn enquiries into orders

Even a good enquiry loses value if it’s left sitting. Someone who waits two days for a call back may well have decided otherwise long ago or already spoken to another business. Handling is the part you control yourself. So plan who does what before your first purchase.

Assign responsibility: One person is in charge of new enquiries, with a clear stand-in for holidays or sick days.

Respond quickly: Get in touch as soon as you can. Whoever calls first and listens well has a real advantage with shared enquiries.

Plan several contact attempts: Not everyone picks up the first time you call. Decide how often and at what times you’ll try, and when a short message gets added.

Start from the request: Open the conversation with what the person asked about. Then clarify the details you need for a good quote.

Follow up: Many orders only come about after the quote, in the second or third conversation. You’ll find a complete conversation and follow-up plan in the guide Following up on purchased leads.

Record results: For each enquiry, note what happened: reached, appointment, quote, order or declined. After a few weeks, you’ll know pretty precisely what an order actually costs you.

Your checklist before your first purchase

Before you order, you should have answers to these questions:

1. Which service do you want to sell through leads, and which jobs do you explicitly not want?
2. Which area do you really serve, including travel time?
3. How many enquiries per month can you handle quickly and carefully?
4. Who takes care of new enquiries, and who stands in?
5. What’s the most a lead can cost, and how big is your starting budget?
6. When will you review the results and decide on the next step?

Once you’ve answered these six questions, you’re better prepared than many who simply order a package and see what happens. And you have a clear basis for deciding after the start whether to buy more, less or differently.

How buying leads works at webRichtung

At webRichtung, you get customer enquiries as a standalone service, currently in over 70 industries, from carports to photovoltaics to insurance. Here’s how it works:

• You create an account for free and get to webRichtung Customer via your welcome email.
• There you choose your industry, area (all of Germany or a postcode with a radius from 25 km), delivery type and a monthly cap.
• Standard enquiries go to no more than three providers, exclusive enquiries to exactly one.
• You see the current price before you confirm your lead order.
• After a one-time approval for your industry, you receive matching enquiries as soon as your order can be delivered and you have enough credit.

The monthly cap is your cost brake, not a promised delivery volume. And the conversation with the customer remains your strength: we bring the enquiry, you turn it into an order.

Choose your industry in the lead overview now and create your account. Bring your answers from the checklist, and your first lead order will be set up in a few minutes.