Most cleaning company owners have bought leads before, and most of them remember the same thing: a form fill, sold to several companies at once, and a race to call first. The way pay per lead cleaning leads work at LeadWharf is different at every stage. We build outreach for one company in one area, we qualify every reply against three checks, and you pay only for the ones that pass.
This page walks through the whole process in order. It covers what we do, what you do, what a lead looks like when it lands, and what happens when one misses. If you want the short version first, the pay per lead cleaning leads page sets out the offer, and the pricing page explains how the fee is worked out.
How do pay per lead cleaning leads work at LeadWharf?
A pay per lead cleaning lead is a qualified contact you pay for one at a time, with no monthly fee behind it. At LeadWharf there is a one-time setup, then a flat fee for each lead that clears three checks. Nothing monthly, no retainer, no contract, and you can stop whenever you like with no notice period.
Everything else on this page is how we get from your first call to that qualified contact.
The seven steps, in order
1. We agree your patch
It starts with a short call. You tell us three things: the area you cover, the buildings you want, and the smallest job worth sending a crew to.
The area can be a list of cities, a set of ZIP or postal codes, or a radius around your yard. The buildings can be as broad as "any commercial property" or as tight as "dental practices and outpatient clinics." The smallest worthwhile job is your call. For one company it is a nightly office clean, for another it is a weekly wipe-down of a small retail unit.
Everything after this is built on those three answers. They also become the first of the three checks, because a lead has to sit inside the area you drew.
2. We learn your pitch
Next comes a short form. We ask what you do, what you are better at than the last cleaner the building had, what kind of buildings you already look after, and where your pricing starts.
This matters because the outreach goes out in your name. If you are strong on medical cleaning standards, the emails to clinics should say so. If you are the company that shows up when the last one did not, that is the line we lead with. We would rather put your company forward accurately than make it sound like everyone else.
3. We build the sending setup
Before a single email goes out, we build a dedicated, warmed email sending setup for your campaign. That means separate sending domains and inboxes, configured and warmed up over time so that mail providers trust them.
It is the unglamorous part, and it decides whether your emails land in an inbox or in spam. Warm-up takes as long as it takes, and we do not skip it. A campaign that burns its sending reputation in week one does not produce leads in week three.
4. We find the decision-makers
With the setup warming, we source the people who actually sign off on cleaning inside your area. For an office building that might be the office manager or the facility manager. For a multi-site owner it might be a property manager or an operations director. For a clinic it is often the practice manager.
We verify names, job titles and addresses before anything goes out. Nothing is scraped and forwarded as-is. If the person has moved on or the building sits outside your patch, they do not go into the campaign.
5. We go out in your name
Now the outreach starts. Personalized emails pitch your company to each decision-maker, written for the kind of building they run. A warehouse manager reads about floor care and dust control. A property manager reads about one contact covering several buildings.
It is not a blast, and it is not a template with a name dropped in. Follow-ups go out on a set cadence, because most replies come after the first message rather than to it. If you want to see how this kind of outreach is put together, our guide to cold email for cleaning companies covers the approach.
6. We qualify the replies
When someone replies with interest, a real person on our side picks up the conversation. We confirm the three checks before anything reaches you (more on those below). We also gather the details you need to make the first call count: what they want cleaned, how often, and when they want to start.
Replies that do not clear the checks stay with us. You never see them, and you are never charged for them.
7. You get the contact
A qualified lead lands in your inbox and in nobody else's. It contains:
- The company and the building
- The contact's name and role
- A direct phone number and email
- What they need
- How often they want it
- When they want to start
From here it is yours. You book the walk-through and you write the quote. We hand off the contact and step back, because the building should be dealing with you from the start, not with a middleman. For what to look at on site, see our commercial cleaning walk-through checklist.
What are the three checks on every lead?
Every lead is held to three checks, and all three must be true before you pay for it.
| Check | What it means | What fails it |
|---|---|---|
| It is in your area | The building sits inside the service area you drew for us. | A building in the next metro over, or outside the codes or radius you set. |
| They want regular work | The contact has said, in their own words, they want recurring cleaning at your frequency and job size. | A maybe, a price-shopper with no intent to switch, or a job below the size you set. |
| You get the person who signs | A named decision-maker with a direct line. | A receptionist taking a message, or a general inbox nobody reads. |
A qualified cleaning lead, in our terms, is a named decision-maker for a building in your area who has said they want recurring cleaning at your frequency and job size. That definition is the product. It is also why we do not price by the form fill.
If you want to apply the same thinking to leads from any source, our guide on how to qualify a cleaning lead walks through the questions.
What happens when a lead misses a check?
If a lead misses any one of the three checks, it is credited, with no argument. You tell us which check it missed. We look at it, and the credit is applied against your next lead.
A few examples of what that looks like in practice:
- Wrong area. The contact said the building was in your city, but on your call it turns out to be a site two counties over. Credited.
- No regular work. The contact told us they wanted weekly cleaning, but on your call they only want a one-time quote to compare against their current cleaner. Credited.
- Wrong person. The contact turns out to be an assistant who has to pass everything to someone else, and cannot give you that person's direct line. Credited.
What a credit is not: a promise that you win the contract. A qualified lead is a real conversation with the right person about the right work. Whether you win it comes down to your walk-through, your price, and your follow-up. Our guides on how to bid a janitorial job and how to follow up on a cleaning bid are there for that part.
Is every lead exclusive to me?
Yes. An exclusive cleaning lead is a lead sold to one company only, and every lead we send is exclusive. It is never resold, shared or syndicated, and you are not racing three other crews to call first.
Your area is also locked to you while you are with us. We do not run the same campaign for a competitor inside your territory. That is the difference between this and a lead marketplace, and the exclusive cleaning leads page goes into it in more detail.
What do the first 30 days look like?
The first month is mostly setup, and how fast leads start to arrive depends on your area. Here is the order things happen in, without dates we cannot promise.
The first few days. We have the call, agree your patch, and you fill in the short pitch form. We start building your sending setup and your list of decision-makers straight away.
While the setup warms. The sending domains and inboxes warm up. In parallel we verify contacts in your area and write the first campaign. You may see a draft of how your company is being put forward, and you can correct anything that reads wrong.
Once outreach starts. Emails go out in your name, with follow-ups on a set cadence. Replies start to come in. We qualify them against the three checks and send you the ones that pass.
When the first lead lands. You call, book the walk-through, and write the quote. If it misses a check, you tell us and it is credited.
How many leads arrive, and how soon, depends on your area and the buildings you want. A dense downtown full of offices and clinics behaves differently from a spread-out county with a handful of business parks. The mix of buildings, how many decision-makers there are to reach, and how often buildings in your market change cleaners all play a part. We would rather look at your patch with you on the call than invent a number.
What do I need to do?
Your part is small, and it is concentrated at the start and the end.
- Take the first call and tell us your area, buildings and smallest worthwhile job.
- Fill in the short pitch form.
- Call each lead promptly, book the walk-through, and write the quote.
- Tell us if a lead missed a check, so it can be credited.
Speed matters on step 3. A decision-maker who replied this week is in the frame of mind to talk about cleaning this week. Calling the same day is a habit worth building.
Does it work for trades other than janitorial?
Yes. The process is the same whichever trade you are in, because it is built on finding the person who decides and confirming they want the work. Window cleaners, carpet and floor care companies, pressure washers, pest control operators and facility maintenance firms all sell into the same buildings. Browse the trades we generate leads for or the building types by industry to see how the brief changes.
How do I get started?
Book a call. Bring your service area, the buildings you want, the smallest job worth sending a crew to, and a sense of how much new work your crews can take on. We will walk through your area honestly and tell you whether it is still open. Head to the contact page to book, or read the FAQ first if you have more questions.
