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, a person qualifies every reply against five checks, and you pay only for the leads 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 five 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 lead, from a contact who has already said yes to a walk-through.
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 five 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 five checks before anything reaches you (more on those below). We also gather the details you need to make the walk-through count: what they want cleaned and how often, who cleans it now, why they are changing, and when their contract ends or 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 lead
Within minutes of passing the checks, the lead reaches you by email, by text and straight into your CRM, and nobody else gets it. It contains:
- The company and the building
- The building type and size
- The contact's name and role
- A direct phone number and email
- What they need and how often
- Who cleans it now
- Why they are changing
- When their contract ends or they want to start
- Notes from the conversation, in their own words
From here it is yours. The contact has already said yes to a walk-through and already knows your company, because every email went out in your name. You pick a time, walk the building and write the quote. The building deals with you from the start, not with a middleman. For what to look at on site, see our commercial cleaning walk-through checklist.
Prefer appointment setting? LeadWharf also does appointment setting. Choose it and we book the walk-through onto your calendar at a confirmed date and time, so the lead arrives with the visit already set. Same five checks, same exclusive area, paid per booked appointment. See janitorial appointment setting.
What are the five checks on every lead?
Every lead is held to five checks, done by a person, and all five 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. |
| They have a reason to change now | The current cleaner is letting them down, the contract is running out, they are moving in, or they have grown. | Idle curiosity, or a contact happy with their cleaner and in no hurry. |
| They are ready for a walk-through | They have already agreed to a walk-through. You are picking a time, not selling a meeting. | A contact who will only take a brochure, or will not agree to show you the building. |
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, has a reason to change now, and has already agreed to a walk-through. 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 does a lead look like?
Every lead arrives within minutes of passing the five checks, by email, text and in your CRM. Here is an example of what lands in your inbox:
| Field | Example lead (illustrative) |
|---|---|
| Company & building | Regional insurance office, name and address included |
| Building type & size | Three-story office, about 38,000 sq ft |
| Contact name & role | Facilities manager, signs the cleaning contract |
| Direct phone & email | Direct line and work email included |
| What they need & how often | Nightly janitorial, 5 nights a week, plus monthly floor care |
| Who cleans it now | A local crew on a month-to-month agreement |
| Why they're changing | Missed nights and no supervisor who answers the phone |
| Contract ends / start date | Wants the new crew in from the 1st of next month |
| Notes, in their words | "Show me you can cover nights without me chasing anyone." |
With appointment setting, the same lead arrives with the walk-through already booked onto your calendar at a confirmed date and time.
What happens when a lead misses a check?
If a lead misses any one of the five checks, it is never invoiced. It simply never appears on your bill. There is nothing to claim and nothing to argue about.
A few examples of what that looks like in practice:
- Wrong area. The building turns out to be a site two counties over. Never invoiced.
- No regular work. The contact only wants a one-time quote to compare against their current cleaner. Never invoiced.
- Wrong person. The contact is an assistant who has to pass everything to someone else, and cannot give a direct line for the person who signs. Never invoiced.
- No reason to change. The contact is happy with their cleaner and just curious about prices. Never invoiced.
- No walk-through. The contact will not agree to show you the building. Never invoiced.
What the checks are 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 how you walk the building, 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?
First leads usually arrive in about two weeks. Most of that time is the email setup warming up so your outreach lands in inboxes. Here is the order things happen in.
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. A person qualifies them against the five checks, and you get the leads that pass within minutes.
When the first lead lands. They have already said yes to a walk-through, so you pick a time, walk the building and write the quote. A lead that misses a check is never invoiced.
How many leads arrive after the first ones 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 look at your patch with you on the call.
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.
- Pick a time with each lead, walk the building and write the quote.
Speed still matters on step 3. A decision-maker who agreed to a walk-through this week is in the frame of mind to talk about cleaning this week. Calling the same day to pick a time, and sending the quote soon after the visit, are habits 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.
