What a commercial cleaning lead is worth: the math on one building
By Travis Heurtelou · 6 min read · Updated September 12, 2026
The short version
- Work backwards from the account: monthly billing, margin after labor, how long accounts stay.
- One typical building is worth thousands in gross profit over its life.
- That means you can pay a few hundred dollars per real opportunity and still be enormously ahead.
- The number that decides it is your own close rate from walkthrough to signed account.
Start from the account, not the lead
The question isn't what a lead costs. It's what a signed account is worth, and what share of leads become one. Three numbers get you there, and you already have all of them.
1. What a building bills
Commercial cleaning is priced per square foot per month, scaling with frequency. A 5,000 square foot office cleaned three nights a week bills around $500 to $800 a month in most US markets. A 20,000 square foot building cleaned nightly bills $2,500 to $4,000. Metro matters: coastal and union markets sit above those bands, the midwest below. Most independent operators hold accounts that average somewhere in the low thousands a month.
2. What you keep
After labor, supplies and insurance, most janitorial accounts run 25 to 40 percent gross margin. Call it 30. A $2,000 a month account throws off about $600 a month in gross profit.
3. How long it stays
Accounts sign twelve-month terms with a thirty to sixty day out, and most of them renew. Two to three years is typical. At two years, that $2,000 account is worth about $14,400 in gross profit. At three, over $21,000. And a happy account refers the building next door, which is worth more than the arithmetic.
So what is a lead worth paying for
Take the low end: $14,000 of gross profit from one building. If one in five leads becomes an account, each lead is worth $2,800 to you before you've paid for it. If one in ten, $1,400. At either rate, a fee that works out to a few hundred dollars a real opportunity is not close to the line. The price is almost never the problem. What decides the math is the conversion, and that's yours.
Our price: one flat monthly fee with every lead included, scoped on the call in about four minutes. Hold the number you're quoted against that $14,000 for one building.
The number that's actually yours
Close rate from walkthrough to signed account. Nobody can tell you that number from outside; it depends on how fast you answer, how you walk a building, and whether you leave a quote the same day with a method behind it. Track it from your first walkthrough. If it's low, no lead source will save you and the fix is on your side. If it's healthy, almost any lead source at almost any reasonable price is worth running.
Run it on your own numbers
Put your average account value, your margin, and your walkthrough close rate into the calculator and it will tell you whether a month of leads out-earns a month of fees, including when the answer is no.
What we do, if you'd rather not build it
We run cold email to the facility, office and property managers in your service area, in your company's name, and screen every reply. You get a meeting-ready lead: a manager who fits the profile you wrote down and replied wanting a quote or a walkthrough, with the whole thread. One flat monthly fee with every lead included, scoped on the call in about four minutes. Month to month, no minimum term. Cold email only; we don't call and we don't do LinkedIn.
Thirty minutes. We count the buildings in your service area and check the numbers on your contract size.
Book a discovery callQuestions
What is a good customer acquisition cost for a cleaning company?
Compare it to the gross profit the account will produce over its life, not to the first month's invoice. If an account is worth thousands in gross profit, an acquisition cost in the hundreds is healthy and one in the low thousands can still work.
How long does a commercial cleaning account last?
Most sign twelve-month terms and renew. Two to three years is typical, longer where the service is reliable and the manager doesn't change.
What margin should a commercial cleaning contract make?
Most run 25 to 40 percent gross margin after labor, supplies and insurance. Specialty work like floors, carpets and windows usually runs higher.