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The number of leads a contractor should buy is the smallest number allowed by four limits: phone capacity, estimate capacity, crew capacity and acquisition budget. If the office can work 40 inquiries but the estimator can hold only eight additional appointments, buying for 40 complete opportunities creates waste.
There is no defensible weekly lead count for every contractor. Build the number from your own funnel and update it when season, staffing or job mix changes.
Disclosure: theBuildd sells residential homeowner opt-ins. This worksheet explains how to size a purchase. It does not promise a lead count, contact rate, appointment rate or job result.
Start with the outcome the crew can serve
Write down the additional work the business can complete during the buying period. Separate service calls, estimates and larger projects because they consume different calendar and crew capacity.
| Capacity question | Evidence to use | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| How many new calls can the office answer? | Staffed hours and recent call logs | Counting ringing phones as answered calls |
| How many follow-up records can one person work? | Actual attempts and response times | Assuming one call is enough |
| How many estimates can the team hold? | Completed estimate calendar | Counting booked slots that often cancel |
| How many additional jobs can crews serve? | Production schedule by job type | Using revenue goals as available capacity |
| How much acquisition cost can each job carry? | Recent gross profit and chosen allowance | Using job revenue as gross profit |
The tightest constraint sets the ceiling. A roofing company may have estimator capacity but no installation slots. A plumbing company may have technicians available but no one answering after-hours inquiries. Fixing that constraint may be more valuable than buying another source.
Work backward through your own funnel
Use a single historical cohort from a comparable source, trade, territory and season. Keep each stage defined.
- Jobs served: accepted work that entered the production or service calendar.
- Held appointments: calls or estimates that actually occurred.
- Booked appointments: a date and time accepted by the homeowner.
- Two-way contacts: the office and homeowner exchanged information.
- Delivered leads: records that met the agreed delivery definition.
Convert capacity into leads with your observed rates. For example, if the business can serve six more jobs, divide six by the recent lead-to-job rate for the source being evaluated. Perform the calculation in a spreadsheet and preserve the cohort behind the rate. Do not import a provider’s close rate as your forecast.
If the business has no reliable history, do not manufacture a rate. Start with a bounded test, track each stage and use the result to size the next period. The guide to cost per booked job explains the required definitions and attribution controls.
Apply four capacity caps
The response cap
Count the leads the office can answer or work with the agreed number of attempts during staffed hours. Include existing inquiries. A new source joins the queue; it does not get a separate team by default.
If the team uses an outside dispatching service, define what returns to the contractor and who owns failed transfers, reschedules and callbacks. Dispatching can move work, but it does not remove calendar or sales capacity.
The appointment cap
Use held appointments rather than open calendar blocks. If 12 slots are available but only nine can be staffed reliably, nine is the operational cap. Keep emergency service, replacement estimates and maintenance calls in separate lanes when they use different staff.
The sales-cycle cap
Larger projects can stay open for weeks. Count proposals already waiting for follow-up before adding more. An estimator who can hold more visits may still be unable to prepare and chase the resulting proposals.
The production cap
Do not buy against crew hours already committed. Record the type of work the crew can accept, the earliest realistic start window and any geographic limit. A lead is not extra capacity.
Check the acquisition ceiling
Capacity says what the team can work. Economics says what it can afford.
Calculate an allowable acquisition cost per accepted job from the company’s recent gross profit and its chosen acquisition allowance. Then divide the period’s available acquisition budget by that amount. This produces a job-level budget cap, not a promise that the spend will create those jobs.
Compare source proposals using complete committed cost. Include plan fees, setup, dispatching, media charges and attributable intake labor. Keep replacement leads separate from cash credits because a replacement adds another record while a credit reduces spend.
The pay-per-lead versus monthly guide shows how to compare unlike billing models without assuming equal quality.
Use a worksheet before signing
Complete these fields for each buying period:
| Input | Your number or rule |
|---|---|
| Staffed response hours | |
| Maximum new records the office can work | |
| Available estimate or service slots | |
| Additional jobs crews can accept | |
| Accepted job types and ZIPs | |
| Recent contact, held and sold rates | |
| Maximum acquisition cost per accepted job | |
| Complete source budget | |
| Stop, continue and expand rules |
Recalculate after the first complete cohort. Expand only when the office met the response standard, the source fit the written scope and production still has room. Reduce or pause when leads age in the CRM, estimates cannot be held or crews are already full.
Fit the current theBuildd options to the worksheet
theBuildd pricing, checked 23 September 2026, lists a $300 trial for 4-7 opt-ins, an $800 weekly option and monthly plans at $3,000, $6,000, $9,000 and $12,000. Base plans leave qualification with the contractor. Optional dispatching is available on monthly tiers for an added $500, $1,000, $1,500 or $2,000 respectively.
Trial and weekly plans exclude dispatching. Each accepted lead goes to one theBuildd buyer under an agreed trade and ZIP territory. Published pricing does not promise a fixed volume, specialty mix, contact, appointment or job.
Use the trial only if four to seven opt-ins form a useful operational test for the business. Use a monthly plan only if the office, estimator and crews can work the agreed scope throughout the period. Ask about trade and ZIP fit after completing the capacity worksheet.
Where qualification actually happens
Start from the right definition. Each opt-in you buy is permission to have a conversation, and that permission is the thing you are buying. You have a qualified lead only once somebody has actually had the conversation and checked it against your criteria.
For this work, a reached homeowner has to confirm:
- contact inside the hours you are staffed to call
- the project criteria you wrote down before buying
- the service address against your agreed coverage
- estimator capacity to hold the resulting appointment
Decide who owns the qualifying call before you buy, because it changes what you are paying for. With base plans it is your office. With optional monthly dispatching our team contacts and qualifies the reached homeowner, then transfers live or books the appointment. Exclusivity is unchanged: one buyer per accepted opt-in, with no promise of contact, qualification or sale. The qualified contractor leads guide covers how to write the criteria down.