Exclusive or shared?
This is the first question and it matters more than price. A shared lead is sold to several detailers at once. You will be the third person to ring, the customer will be irritated, and the conversation will be about price. An exclusive lead goes to you alone.
Run the arithmetic. A shared lead at $20 converting at one in ten costs you $200 per job. An exclusive lead at $45 converting at one in three costs you $135. The cheaper lead is the more expensive one.
Where do the leads actually come from?
Ask directly. Enquiries generated from search - someone typing "car detailing [suburb]" into Google right now - are people with intent to book. Enquiries generated from a competition entry, a discount popup or a rented email list are not.
Both get called a lead. They are not the same product and they should not command the same price.
What counts as a billable lead?
Get this defined in writing before you start. Reasonable exclusions include wrong numbers, telemarketers, people outside your service area, duplicate enquiries from the same customer, and anyone asking for a service you do not offer.
If a provider will not put exclusions in writing, that tells you what their billing is going to look like.
What is the contract term?
Twelve-month lock-ins exist because they protect the provider from the consequences of underperforming. A provider confident in their own results does not need one. Look for month-to-month with reasonable notice.
Territory exclusivity
If a provider can sign your competitor two suburbs over, their incentive is to sign as many detailers as possible in your city, which dilutes what each of you receives. Exclusive territory means fewer clients for them and more work for you. Ask what the boundaries are and get them written down.
Who owns the customer?
Once you have detailed someone's car, that relationship should be yours - their details in your system, your reminders, your repeat work. Some arrangements keep the customer relationship with the provider. That turns a one-off cost into a permanent tax on your own customer base.
Work these out before you call anyone
Know your average job value and your closing rate on phone enquiries. Without those two numbers you cannot tell whether any lead price is good or bad, and you will end up judging providers on how confident they sound.
With them, the arithmetic answers the question for you. If you want the wider picture first, our guide to getting detailing leads covers the channels you can run yourself, and how our service works sets out our own terms against every question above.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fair price for an exclusive car detailing lead?
In most Australian metro markets, exclusive detailing enquiries land somewhere between $30 and $70 depending on the city and the service. Ceramic coating and paint correction enquiries sit at the higher end because the job values are higher. Judge it against your own average job value rather than against other providers prices.
Should I pay per lead or a monthly retainer?
Per lead ties the provider income to your results, which is usually the safer structure for an operator. Retainers can work out cheaper once volume is high, but they pay the same whether you get forty enquiries or four.
What happens if the leads are bad?
A reasonable provider credits genuinely unqualified enquiries - wrong number, out of area, not a detailing job. Ask how credits are handled before you sign, not after the first bad week. If the answer is vague, assume there is no process.
Can I stop and restart later?
With us, yes, though we cannot guarantee your territory will still be free when you come back - if someone else has taken it in the meantime, it is theirs. Providers that hold your area open indefinitely are usually not selling exclusivity at all.