Compare the unit you are buying
Shared leads, exclusive leads and booked solar appointments are different products. Compare them using the same acceptance definition and the full cost of a completed installation. A lower price per contact can be expensive when your team cannot reach people or surveys rarely become suitable projects.
A shared enquiry may go to several installers. An exclusive lead should come with a clear definition of who else can receive it and for how long. A booked appointment adds a scheduled time; it does not necessarily mean the customer attends, fits your service area or has agreed to a technical assessment.
Do not assume a supplier’s word “qualified” matches your team’s rules. Ask for the accepted project type, geography, buying stage, contact permission, duplicate policy and replacement conditions in writing.
Use this comparison before signing
Ask what happens when a customer reschedules, is outside the agreed area or already exists in your CRM. A replacement is not a refund unless the contract says so. If appointments are invoiced on booking, the economic risk of no-shows remains different from a held-appointment offer.
| Offer | Ask before buying | What to measure |
|---|---|---|
| Shared enquiry | How many installers receive it? When was it collected? | Contact, suitability and installation outcomes |
| Exclusive enquiry | Exclusive to whom, for what territory and period? | Duplicates, suitability and total acquisition cost |
| Booked appointment | Booked or attended? Sales call or site survey? | Attendance, acceptance and installation outcomes |
| Your own campaigns | Who owns the accounts, landing pages and records? | All-in campaign cost and completed-project contribution |
Calculate from the same cohort
Use acquisition cost divided by completed installations for a matured project cohort. Acquisition cost should include the supplier or media bill, allocated campaign/management cost and sales or survey costs you include in your accounting. Use one currency and one cost definition across offers.
For an early estimate, cost per held appointment divided by the held-to-completed-installation rate gives acquisition cost per installation only if the appointment cost already includes the relevant costs. Treat the rate as uncertain. A forecast is not a completed-installation result.
The break-even calculation also needs contribution per installation: revenue less the delivery costs you define, including equipment, labour and other variable obligations. Gross contract value is not the amount available to pay for acquisition.
A cheaper lead can still cost more
Illustrative USD example, not market pricing or client results: Offer A supplies 100 shared leads at $30 each. If that matured cohort produces three completed installations, its supplier-only cost is $1,000 per installation. Offer B supplies 50 exclusive leads at $80 each. If six become completed installations, its supplier-only cost is about $667 per installation.
Now add sales and survey effort. If A required another $1,200 and B required $600, the corresponding costs become $1,400 and about $767. The outcome reverses if B produces only two installations: its all-in cost becomes $2,300. The label “exclusive” cannot decide the purchase for you.
Repeat the arithmetic with your own KES costs for a Kenyan campaign; do not convert these made-up USD prices into a Kenyan benchmark. Keep currency, taxes and scope consistent when comparing local supplier quotes.
Check the denominator before trusting the report
Create one record for each valid enquiry and link it to its appointments and project outcome. Mark duplicates and cancellations separately. An opportunity that reschedules three times should not appear as three different customers.
Compare cohorts old enough to pass through your real buying and installation cycle. This month’s leads may still be pending while last month’s leads have completed installations. Reporting only completed projects from the newest cohort can make a supplier look worse—or hiding the pending count can make it look better.
Ask to inspect a small sample of acceptance and rejection decisions. If the sales team declines good projects because the diary is full, that is a capacity problem. Buying more leads will not resolve it.
Start with a bounded supplier test
Set the geography, accepted project type, spend limit and review date before buying. Keep a record of every included cost and rejected lead. Where possible, use the same sales handling so the supplier comparison is not really a comparison between different response processes.
Choose based on completed-project economics and suitable opportunities, while stating how many outcomes are still pending. If the sample is small, report the counts rather than calling a modest rate difference a winner.
The worksheet below contains a quote-comparison checklist and the calculation fields. Rainlight’s pipeline review can help identify whether your next constraint is acquisition, contact handling, assessment attendance or installation capacity.