How lead portals really work
ePoptávka, NejŘemeslníci, Wilio and similar sites all promise the same thing: “We have customers looking for a tradesman.” Sounds great. But the model is almost always the same: you pay up front (credits to see an enquiry, a monthly flat fee, on some portals a commission on the job as well) and only then do you find out whether anything comes of it.
And above all: the same enquiry you have just “bought” is seen by dozens of other firms too. The customer gets a pile of quotes within a single day. You spend an evening on an honest quote, and meanwhile they have picked whoever wrote the lowest number.
Three reasons it does not work out
1. The only thing being competed on is price. The customer does not know you. They have not seen your work, they have not heard a recommendation, all they have in front of them is a list of numbers. The winner is whoever goes furthest below cost, not whoever does honest work. Unless you want to “work for free”, you are at a disadvantage from the start.
2. You pay for a chance, not for a job. You spend credit on every enquiry you reply to, including the ones where the customer has already decided elsewhere or never replies at all. Nobody gives that money and time back.
3. The best customers are not there. People who look for a tradesman through recommendations and references do not go to portals. Portals mainly attract people who are “just comparing prices”, and that is exactly the game you cannot win on quality.
When a portal does make sense
To be fair: at the very start, when you have no clientele and no recommendations yet, a portal can bring the first jobs, and from them the first happy customers who recommend you on. But treat it as a temporary crutch, not a foundation. Once you have a few jobs behind you, every koruna invested in your own visibility earns more.
On a portal you compete with dozens of firms for the lowest price. On your own website you are the only one the customer sees.
What works instead of portals
A Google Business Profile. Free, and done in an evening. When someone searches “plumber + your town”, a profile with reviews is the first thing they see. I have written up how to set one up in How to set up your Google Business Profile.
Your own website with photos of your work. A simple one-page site is enough: what you do, where you work, photos of finished jobs, fair prices and a big “Call” button. A customer who comes this way has chosen you directly: no competition, no credits, no commission. What exactly a tradesman’s website should do is in A website for tradesmen: how to turn it into a source of jobs.
Recommendations that keep working. A website and a profile do not clash with recommendations, quite the opposite. A happy customer recommends you to a friend, the friend googles you… and if they find a website with photos and reviews, they call. If they find nothing, they would rather call someone else.
What it costs compared with a portal
A one-page website from me costs CZK 5,900 once and for all, with no monthly fees, no credits, and it is entirely yours. That is less than a year’s flat fee with credits swallows on the portals. The difference: the website works for you alone and nobody can switch it off. More on the websites for tradesmen page.