Cleaning & janitorial
Cleaning Lead Value Calculator
Work out what a commercial cleaning lead is worth given contract value and win rate.
Result
This is gross profit, not revenue, and it counts the whole relationship rather than the first job. It assumes the repeat work is real for your business, which is worth checking against your own records before spending against it.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Win rate on bids, which in tendered work is low.
- Average annual contract value and expected term.
- Cost of bidding, including the site survey and proposal time.
Where this one goes wrong
Ignoring the cost of bidding. A commercial bid requires a site survey and a written proposal, which is real time spent on every opportunity including the ones lost, and at a typical win rate that is several bids per contract.
Questions
About this calculator
What does a commercial bid cost to produce?
A site survey, a costing exercise and a written proposal. Across a low win rate that is a substantial acquisition cost per contract won.
Should I bid for everything?
No. Qualifying out of opportunities you are unlikely to win or that do not suit your operation is how bid cost is controlled.
How should lead sources be compared?
By win rate and contract value, not by lead count. A source producing fewer better-qualified opportunities is worth more than one producing many.
The formula
lead value = close rate x first job profit x (1 + repeat jobs)
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How to use this calculator
- Share of leads you win (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 32%.
- Average first job ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $195.
- Gross margin (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 42%.
- Extra jobs over the relationship. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 2.4.
- Share of value you will spend (%). Spending the whole value leaves nothing for the business.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to value of one lead, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Share of leads you win | 32% |
| Average first job | $195 |
| Gross margin | 42% |
| Extra jobs over the relationship | 2.4 |
| Share of value you will spend | 25% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Value of one lead main result | $89.11 |
| From the first job alone | $26.21 |
| Value of one customer | $278.46 |
| Most to pay per lead | $22.28 |
One lead is worth $89.11 in gross profit once the close rate and repeat work are counted. Paying more than $22.28 for one leaves too little behind to be worth doing.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only average first job, this is what happens to value of one lead. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Average first job ($) | Value of one lead |
|---|---|
| $98 | $44.78 |
| $146 | $66.72 |
| $195 example above | $89.11 |
| $293 | $133.89 |
| $390 | $178.21 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Share of leads you win (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 100, starting at 32%.
- Average first job ($)
- A money amount, starting at $195.
- Gross margin (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 95, starting at 42%.
- Extra jobs over the relationship
- A number, between 0 and 50, starting at 2.4.
- Share of value you will spend (%)
- Spending the whole value leaves nothing for the business.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Value of one lead | The headline result. A money figure. |
| From the first job alone | A money figure. |
| Value of one customer | A money figure. |
| Most to pay per lead | A money figure. |
Time is the variable that bites
Pricing that works out on paper fails when the job takes longer than quoted. First cleans, heavily soiled sites and access problems all run over, so it is worth pricing the first visit separately from the recurring one.
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.