Has Anyone Tried Any Of The Net Job Lead Services?

aps

I'd welcome any stories of contractors who have tried the online services for job leads like service magic etc...
I'd like to know have they really given you jobs and is it worth the time to sign up with them
Any ones better than others?
thanks for any info you can give me

asp

Grumpy

LOl I think if you do some searching on this site you will find some indepth lists and reports from yours truly.

impainting

ServiceMagic is 80% of our leads. Closing percentage at 47% currently.
Pay $1,000 month for leads. We have had alot of success, but you have to put your time in to get the 4-5 star rating, took us a year.

Int/Ext painting estimator
CK

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Cole

Yeah do a search and u will find numerous topics about Online Lead Services.

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dougchips

Make sure you understand their definition of "a qualified lead" before you start. My personal definition is: a real person who answers the phone or will return calls/e-mails, and has a need for my services. "Their" definition and mine are worlds apart. good luck!

brentsid

I have used ServiceMagic also but they suck in my opinion. They just run me around and demand a bunch of trade references of which I only use a plumber and electrician and do the rest of the remodels myself. Just took my money then and kept it because I didn't have 4 trade references to send them. In the business of collecting fees I'd say.

I use Contractors.com now and get very few leads from them but I am not in a major city. Most leads are tirekickers also, just wanting to know what it "would" cost to do something. But some are serious as well. Most "real" jobs I have gotten from them are people living elsewhere who will soon move to a home in my are and need a contractor.

Good luck and let us know how you fair.

Brent

dougchips

Try myfreeestimates.com. They seem to generate plenty of leads. If you want low quality leads. If you want quality leads then try qualitysmith, they will set the apt with the customer. The price for a window lead is 75, but you have a real prescreened apt/customer. With most of the other lead services I pay 35ish but I schedule only around 35% (mostly tire kickers and bad phone #'s). Constructiondeal.com offers leads for $35 per month, but I have been a member for 2 months and not one good lead yet.

marc

For what it's worth..............

YTD with Service Magic we have set 95 appt.
That means they have sent me at least 190 leads

We have sold $233,409.00
This has cost us approx. $6400.00

That's 2.74% lead cost.............I'll take that all day long
My average lead cost is close to 10%
Service Magic out performs even my own Google Adword (pay per click)
We haven't figured that one out yet

ApgarNJ

I'd rather not even work for a homeowner who even thinks of calling SM or any other company like that. why not just get word of mouth referrals for a good contractor, no matter what the job is. my whole business has been built on word of mouth and i don't do anything to advertise nor do i have to purchase any leads. just isn't worth it imo. only thing i've ever done for advertising is business cards, and company tshirts that get handed out.

i get these emails all the time from some company trying to get me to pay them, just so i can bid on a big job somewehre and maybe not even get the job. no thanks.

marc

I'd rather not even work for a homeowner who even thinks of calling SM or any other company like that. why not just get word of mouth referrals for a good contractor, no matter what the job is. my whole business has been built on word of mouth and i don't do anything to advertise nor do i have to purchase any leads. just isn't worth it imo. only thing i've ever done for advertising is business cards, and company tshirts that get handed out.

i get these emails all the time from some company trying to get me to pay them, just so i can bid on a big job somewehre and maybe not even get the job. no thanks.


I used to feel the same way........As a matter of fact I did it your way from 1986 to 1999. Then I decided I wanted to grow the business (or creat one) What I had before was a job.
The most I could produce was $380K the old way.
In 1999 I took myself out of the field and decided to grow a business. Last year we produced just over $3,100,000. You just are not going to do that with referrals only. Last year 37% of our business came from referrals and past customers..........Thats $1,147,000 in referral business but I want A LOT more so we now budget a full 10% for marketing. This years marketing budget is $450,000 put who cares how much you spend on marketing? The customers pay for it......YOU DON'T. I comend you for not spending anything on marketing and if you want to stay small (and that could be a good thing) a lot less headaches.
Old saying.........Keep doing what you've always done and you'll keep getting what you've always got.
A better way of saying that may be the definition of insanity........Doing the same things but expecting diferent results

vinylguy

yes and you better conform to this way of business now cause its what they industry is coming to

Steve3ten

Try Jobsitemail.com.. They'll help you generate some leads pretty cheaply

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Service CEO software
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Grumpy

Jeez steve, that link suck sweat sack. I say that with the utmost pitty on the website designer. That stupid talking flash animation I couldn't shut up and I immediately left the site. Actually I clicked a few pages trying to get some information without listing to the robot voice, but the stupid animation was on every page.

I bet their service has value, but their website is worthless until they remove that voice or give us an option to turn it off.

ProughMarc

I tried signing up my business for some free local listings on Yahoo Local and Google Local, but my ad listing just got buried and never seen by anyone (page 47 of General Contractors in my area)

I just started using Pay Per Call advertising. They display my business listing across several online search sites like AOL.com, Yellowpages.com, and others. And they only charge you when you get a phone call lead....there's not fees or anything, you just put money into your account. Right now, I am paying only $3 per call. I've recieved about 5 phone calls in the past 2 weeks...4 of them turned into bids.

you can check them out at : ppcall.bizhype.com

good luck

Cole

I'm going to check that out.

Thanks for the link.

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