Ten leads will not prove that a provider, a grade or a market “works.” Ten leads can show you whether your buy box is clear, whether you actually make the calls, and what a lead really costs once credits and follow-up are counted. Run them as a staged test: write the rules, cap the cash, buy in three small batches, and stop at each gate to decide whether the next batch is justified.
The number ten is a planning example. Use five or fifteen if that matches your cash and your calendar. What matters is that you decide the size before you start, not after the first good or bad call.
Ready before you open any lead feed
- A written buy box. If you do not have one, stop and do Set a buy box first.
- A cash limit for the whole test, written down, that you can lose without it changing your next decision.
- A named person and blocked time for first contact and follow-up.
- A copy of the lead-test log, opened before the first purchase.
- The current bad-lead policy of the provider you are testing, read in full, with the deadline noted.
Six steps, three batches
1. Write the rules, the cap and a stop rule
Write the buy box before you open the feed. Then write three numbers on the top line of your log: the total test cap, the most you will pay for any single lead, and the number of leads you will buy in each batch.
Write a stop rule too. A useful one: “If I cannot reach and log a first contact attempt on every lead within the window I set, I stop buying until I can.”
2. Buy 3, then 3, then 4
Split the test into three stages. A common shape is 3, 3, then 4. The point of the stages is that you learn something about your own process before the money is gone.
| Stage | Leads | What you are checking before the next stage |
|---|---|---|
| Batch 1 | 3 | Did every lead match the buy box once you spoke to the seller? Did you make contact attempts on time? |
| Batch 2 | 3 | Are the same mismatches repeating? Is your follow-up keeping up? Are any credit requests pending? |
| Batch 3 | 4 | Is the remaining budget still worth spending under the same rules, or do the rules need changing first? |
3. Write a reason for every pass
Read each card against your buy box. A pass is a decision, not a failure. Write down why you passed, because a pile of “passed: wrong area” notes tells you the feed or the market does not fit before you spend anything.
Do not fill a gap on the card with a guess. If the card states the seller’s timeline but not the property condition in the detail you need, that is an unknown to resolve on the call. See Evaluate a lead card for the field-by-field method.
4. Check the calendar before each batch
Every lead you buy creates work: a first contact attempt, notes, follow-up and a decision. Before each batch, check your calendar. If you cannot work the next three leads properly this week, do not buy them this week.
Buying more leads than you can call is the most expensive way to run a test: you won’t know whether a lead was weak or simply not worked.
5. Log charge, credit and stage on one row
Log each purchase the moment it happens: your own reference (not the seller’s name), the date, the grade, the price charged, and any other cost. When a credit is approved, log the amount and date on the same row. Keep a separate column for contact, qualification, signed contract and closing, and leave any unknown as “open.”
6. Judge each gate on your own counts, not benchmarks
At each gate, count what actually happened. Do not compare your results with an industry “conversion rate” you read somewhere. No benchmark from another investor, market or year tells you how your leads, your calls and your offers performed. The weekly pipeline review shows how to count without mixing denominators.
Ten-lead budget at listed grade prices (illustrative)
Suppose you plan ten DrivenSellers exclusive leads: two at grade A ($249 each), five at grade B ($169) and three at grade C ($99).
| Line | Arithmetic | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|---|
| Grade A leads | 2 × $249 | $498 |
| Grade B leads | 5 × $169 | $845 |
| Grade C leads | 3 × $99 | $297 |
| Planned lead charges | sum | $1,640 |
| Batch 1 (1 A, 2 B) | $249 + 2 × $169 | $587 |
Now suppose one lead in batch 1 turns out not to match what the card described, you file an eligible request within the window, and it is approved. DrivenSellers’ stated policy: 5 days from purchase to report an exclusive lead as not as described; an approved request credits the price back to the wallet. That credit is money back in your wallet, not cash in your bank account. In the log, record the charge and the credit on the same row so your net lead cost is the charge minus the approved credit, and the credit is counted once.
Two traps in this arithmetic:
- Plan fees are not lead costs. No membership is required to buy a lead; paid plans are optional. The optional plans: Starter $99, Growth $299 and Scale $999 a month; each plan fee is added to the wallet as credit. A plan gives no per-lead discount; leads stay at their listed grade price. Log a plan payment as wallet funding, then log each lead charge as it is consumed. Counting both double-counts the same money.
- Your time is a cost. Log the hours, even without a dollar figure. Twenty hours of calling to work ten leads tells you something a price table never will.
Gate checklist: continue, change one rule, or stop
Use this checklist at the end of each batch. Answer every line in writing.
- Every lead bought in this batch has a logged first contact attempt.
- Every lead that did not match the card has been checked against the provider’s current policy, and any eligible request was filed before the deadline.
- Passed leads have a written reason.
- Net spend so far (charges minus approved credits) is under the cap.
- The buy box still describes what you actually want after the seller conversations.
- You have the time to work the next batch this week.
Then choose one: continue with the same rules, change one rule and continue, or stop the test. Changing three things at once leaves you with nothing to learn from.
Six ways first tests teach nothing
- Buying all ten on day one. You lose the chance to fix the buy box after the first calls.
- Treating a grade as a forecast. DrivenSellers describes A+ as most likely to sell soon and C as not likely or without a clear plan. That is the vendor’s description. The scoring model behind it is published, but it scores what the seller said and has not been tested against outcomes, so a grade is not a measured probability that a seller will sign. Across your first ten leads, log the grade next to each outcome so you can see what it means for your market.
- Calling an open lead a loss. A seller who said “call me in two months” is open, not lost. Leave the row open and set the next action.
- Forgetting the credit deadline. Note it at purchase. A window you discover after it closes is no help.
- Changing the cap mid-test. If a good call tempts you to double the budget, finish the batch first and decide at the gate.
- Assuming contact rules are someone else’s job. The buyer is responsible for following federal and state calling and texting rules, including Do-Not-Call lists, once a lead is bought. This is general information, not legal advice. Check your own obligations before the first call.
The log to open before purchase one
Print or open the lead-test log before your first purchase. It has columns for net cost, approved credits and each outcome stage, and its totals keep cost per signed contract separate from cost per closed deal. Pair it with the buy-box worksheet and the lead decision scorecard.
Running the test on a preview-first source
This plan works with any provider whose terms you have read. It fits most naturally where you can read each lead before you buy it and know its price in advance, because the gates depend on choosing each purchase rather than receiving whatever a territory delivers.
DrivenSellers documents this in its public materials. Before purchase the card shows the grade, listed price, area, motivation, timeline, occupancy, repairs, listing status and equity; the seller name, phone and exact address unlock after purchase. Each exclusive lead is priced by grade: C $99, B $169, A $249 and A+ $349 per exclusive lead. Each exclusive lead is sold once, to one buyer, through DrivenSellers and leaves the feed when bought. Bought leads land in MyCRM, with stages from New to Closed, follow-up dates and CSV export. That gives you a place to keep stage and follow-up dates, though your test log should still hold the cost and outcome columns. If you would rather receive leads automatically across a territory, a bid-based provider may suit you better; the provider fit picker lays out those trade-offs.
To see the purchase path step by step before spending, read the DrivenSellers walkthrough.
Choose each of the ten at a listed price
Run your first batch of three on DrivenSellers
DrivenSellers is our recommended starting point if you want to read an exclusive seller lead's card, choose it individually and pay a listed grade price, without a required membership.
- Price before purchase: listed by grade, $99 (C) to $349 (A+), shown on the card.
- No plan needed: optional plans credit their fee to your wallet; they do not discount leads.
- One buyer per lead through DrivenSellers; the card shows motivation, timeline, occupancy, repairs and equity before you pay.
Limits: Inventory varies by market. Grades score the seller's stated answers; they do not guarantee a contract or closing and have not been validated against outcomes. You have 5 days to report a lead as not as described; approved requests are wallet credit, and some providers state longer windows.