How to get more jobs as a tradesperson (UK, 2026) —
every lead source ranked by what it really costs you.

Full disclosure: Quick Lead is our product, so read this with that in mind — this is our website, not a neutral directory. What we promise instead of neutrality: every price and feature claim about another product was checked against that vendor’s own website in September 2026, sources are linked, and we say plainly when a rival is the better pick. Spot an error? [email protected].

1. Repeat customers and referrals

Cost: nothing but doing good work and asking. Effort: a habit, not a project.

The best job you will ever get is the neighbour of the last one. What most sole traders do badly is the asking: a text the day after the job saying thank you, with a link to leave a review and a line saying you are taking on work in the area. Keep every customer’s details somewhere you can search, so when the boiler you fitted is due a service you are the one who reminds them, not the other way round.

2. Google Business Profile

Cost: free. Effort: one evening to set up, ten minutes a week after.

When someone types “emergency electrician near me” the map results are the whole first screen on a phone. Getting into them needs a verified profile with the right category, your real service area, opening hours you honour, photos of actual work, and reviews that keep arriving. Answer every review, including the bad one. Most of your local competitors have an unclaimed or abandoned profile, which is the opportunity.

3. Letting agents and landlords (gas and electrical trades)

Cost: free to win, but they pay on account terms. Effort: a few visits to local agents, then relentless paperwork discipline.

Every rented home needs an annual Landlord Gas Safety Record and, in England, an EICR at least every five years. That is work on a calendar, from a customer who is legally obliged to buy it. Agents choose contractors on three things: you turn up, you send the certificate as a clean PDF the same day, and you tell them before the next one is due. Get those right and one agent is worth more than any lead site. Our letting agent page goes deeper.

4. Checkatrade

Cost: a monthly membership, with enquiries included. Effort: vetting to join, then replying fast.

Checkatrade is a public profile homeowners browse and contact directly, paid for by subscription rather than per lead. The value is the reviews you accumulate on it; the cost is that an enquiry sitting unanswered in your inbox is membership money you have already spent. See what to do with a Checkatrade lead.

5. MyBuilder

Cost: you pay when the homeowner shortlists you. Effort: express interest quickly and specifically.

Homeowners post the job, trades express interest, the homeowner shortlists a few and you pay for the shortlist. The trades who win are the ones whose interest note reads like they read the job. Templates lose. See the MyBuilder page.

6. Rated People

Cost: per lead, paid before you know if you have won. Effort: low to buy, high to convert.

You buy the lead, and so do up to two other trades. The economics only work if you phone within minutes, because the homeowner books whoever calls first and sounds competent. A lead bought at lunchtime and phoned at seven is a donation. See the Rated People page.

7. Bark

Cost: credits per response, priced by job type and demand. Effort: low, which is the problem.

Bark shows you the credit cost before you respond and covers many trades, including ones the others do not. Because it is easy to spend credits, it is easy to spend them on enquiries you never follow up. Track every credit against a job outcome for a month before deciding. See the Bark page.

Every paid platform above sends the same enquiry to more than one trade, and every one of them tells its members to respond quickly because enquiries go cold. The homeowner is not comparing quotes at leisure; they are booking the first competent person who gets back to them. Which means the lead you win is rarely the cheapest one — it is the one you answered from the van in the two minutes between jobs.

The practical problem is that the lead arrives as an email while you are working, in an inbox with the supplier invoices and the newsletters, and by the time you sit down that evening there are eleven of them and three have gone cold. Fixing this is not a marketing problem, it is an admin one, and it is worth more than another lead subscription.

What to do about it, whatever software you use:

1. Give every platform a single dedicated address, so leads never share an inbox with anything else. How to auto-forward from Gmail and Outlook.
2. Have a two-line reply ready that asks the one question you need answered and offers two time slots.
3. Send a booking link rather than playing phone tag; let them pick the slot.
4. Log every lead with its source and outcome. After a month you will know which platform to cancel.

Quick Lead exists to do steps one to four for you: a dedicated [email protected] address, AI that turns each lead email into a job card with the customer’s details, a WhatsApp booking link, and a record of where the job came from. It will not find the lead. It will make sure you are the first to answer it.

Be the first to reply, from the van

Forward one real lead email to your Quick Lead address during the 14-day trial and see how long it takes to turn into a booked job. No card, no contract.

No card needed · Cancel anytime · Questions? [email protected]