Commercial finance leads for whole-of-market brokers

Loanleaf commercial finance leads are enquiries from UK limited companies and LLPs that completed our online form, stating how much they need, what it is for and how soon. Each lead is sold to one broker only and costs £15 to £250 in credits, priced by how fundable the request looks.

What commercial finance leads from Loanleaf are

Every lead is a business owner who found Loanleaf through search, content or paid online advertising, then filled in our enquiry form. There is no bought-in data, no scraped lists and no cold contacts. The owner ticks two separate consent boxes before submitting, and the exact wording and timestamp come with the lead.

The form filters before anything is sold. Only limited companies and LLPs trading for at least 6 months with annual revenue of £50,000 or more get through. Sole traders, ordinary partnerships and businesses not yet trading are turned away at the form.

Each lead goes to one broker and is never resold. Once you buy it, it disappears for everyone else on Loanleaf Platform.

Why a whole-of-market broker reads a lead differently

A single-product broker asks one question of a lead: does it fit my product? A whole-of-market broker asks a better one: which of my products, and which lenders on my panel, fit this business? That makes the purpose field the most useful line on the summary.

Business owners rarely ask for a product by name. They say they need money for stock, for a van, for a VAT bill, or to grow. Turning that need into the right facility is your job, and the lead data is built to give you a head start on it.

This page walks through that process. If you are still comparing lead providers in general, our guide to business loan leads covers what to look for when choosing one.

Mapping lead purpose to products

The form offers eight purposes. Below is how each one commonly maps to the products a broker arranges. These are starting points for the first call, not conclusions, and the right answer depends on what you learn about the business.

• Growth and expansion: unsecured business loans and revenue-based finance are the usual first look. Larger asks from established businesses may open up secured options too.
• Cash flow: working capital loans, revolving credit facilities, invoice finance and merchant cash advance. Whether the business invoices other businesses or takes card payments decides a lot here.
• Equipment or vehicles: asset finance, hire purchase and leasing. You will need to find out what the asset is, whether it is new or used, and whether they want to own it at the end.
• Stock and inventory: stock finance and trade finance, alongside shorter-term working capital where the cycle is quick.
• Commercial property (buy, build or refurbish): commercial mortgages for longer-term purchases and bridging for speed, refurbishment or a gap before refinance.
• Refinance existing debt: consolidation or replacement facilities. The existing finance fields on the lead tell you what they owe and what they pay each month.
• Tax or VAT bill: tax loans and VAT loans, usually short-term and time-sensitive.
• Something else: treat this as an open brief and qualify it from scratch on the call.

Property enquiries need extra qualification because the form does not capture property details. Our pages on commercial mortgage leads and bridging finance leads go into those specifically.

What the form tells you, and what it leaves for the call

Each lead arrives with the loan amount (from £5,000 to £2m+), purpose and timeline (as soon as possible, within 2 weeks, within a month, or just exploring options). It also carries the company structure, annual revenue band, time trading band, any missed payments, defaults or CCJs in the last 6 years (no, yes or not sure), and existing finance with amount left to repay and monthly repayment bands.

You also get the contact name, business name, a UK mobile checked as valid, an email whose domain was checked as able to receive mail, the source page, timestamp, consent record and a quality score from 0 to 100.

Being clear about the gaps saves time. The form does not ask about:

• card takings or card machine turnover, which matters for merchant cash advance
• property value, loan to value, property address, whether it is residential or commercial investment, or planning status
• sector or industry, director names, or bank statements

A whole-of-market broker will cover these on the first call anyway. Knowing in advance which questions you need to ask, given the purpose, makes that call shorter.

Using the lead data to plan lenders before you dial

The fields on a lead let you narrow your panel before you pick up the phone. That way the first call confirms a shortlist rather than starting from nothing.

Revenue band and time trading tell you which lenders' minimum criteria the business is likely to meet. A business with 6 to 12 months trading and £50k to £100k revenue points to a different set of lenders than one with 5+ years and £1m to £5m.

Credit history narrows it further. A clean answer keeps mainstream options open, a yes points you towards lenders comfortable with adverse history, and not sure tells you to check early.

Existing finance matters for affordability and for refinancing. The amount left to repay and monthly repayments bands give you a rough sense of how much headroom there is.

Timeline helps you set the order of calls. An as soon as possible tax bill wants a fast decision, while a just exploring growth enquiry may suit a slower, better-priced facility.

A simple habit works well: before dialling, write down two or three likely products and the lenders you would approach for each. Then use the call to fill in the gaps the form leaves open.

Setting criteria and auto-buy to match your product mix

Loanleaf Platform shows a summary of every live lead before you buy: amount, purpose, timeline, revenue, trading time, credit history, existing finance, quality score and masked contact details. The business name and full contact details unlock on purchase.

You can buy one at a time in manual mode, with an email alert when a matching lead arrives. Or you can switch on auto-buy and let the platform buy matching leads the moment they come in. If several brokers match the same lead, a fair rotation decides who gets it.

For a broker with several products, the criteria are where you shape the flow:

• Purposes: select only the purposes your panel serves well. If you do not arrange property finance, leave commercial property off.
• Loan size range: set a floor and ceiling that match where your lenders are strongest.
• Revenue bands and time trading: align these with your lenders' typical minimums.
• Clean credit only: switch this on if your panel has little appetite for adverse history.
• Limits: cap leads per day, credits per day, credits per month and maximum credits per lead.

Leads priced above your per-lead maximum are left for manual buying and you get an email alert, so larger opportunities are not missed. Bought leads arrive instantly on the platform, by email and by webhook to your CRM (JSON, working with Zapier, Make, HubSpot, Pipedrive and any CRM that accepts webhooks).

How pricing works

One credit equals £1 of lead value. Each lead costs £15 to £250 in credits, set by a scoring model that looks at loan size, revenue, time trading, credit history and affordability, meaning whether the amount asked for is realistic for the revenue.

A sensible ask from an established business costs more. A long shot costs the minimum. Some examples from the live model:

• £25k loan, £100k to £250k revenue, 1 to 2 years trading: 35 credits
• £100k loan, £250k to £500k revenue, 2 to 5 years: 95 credits
• £250k loan, £1m to £5m revenue, 5+ years: 165 credits
• £1m loan, £1m to £5m revenue, 2 to 5 years: 205 credits
• £5m ask, 6 to 12 months trading, £100k to £250k revenue: 15 credits

Plans run monthly, prices excluding VAT: Starter £2,000 for 2,000 credits, Growth £3,500 for 3,850 credits, Scale £5,000 for 5,750 credits, and Custom from £6,000 in £1,000 steps with a 15% bonus. New partners can start with a first month of 1,000 credits for £1,000 + VAT, then move to Starter. Unused credits roll over while you are subscribed, and you can cancel any time.

Buying finance leads versus running your own ads

Many brokers run their own search or social campaigns, and it can work. It also means paying for clicks whether or not they convert, building and maintaining landing pages, capturing consent properly and filtering out enquiries you cannot place, such as sole traders or businesses not yet trading.

With bought finance leads, that work happens before you pay. The form filters for structure, trading time and revenue, checks the mobile and email domain, and blocks repeat enquiries from the same phone or email within 90 days. You pay per lead, and the price reflects how fundable the request looks.

The trade-off is control. Your own ads let you target niches the form does not separate, such as a particular sector. Loanleaf gives you predictable cost per lead, exclusive contacts and no campaign management. Some brokers use both, with Loanleaf filling gaps in their own pipeline.

Refunds are narrow and clear: within 72 hours of purchase, if the phone number is not in service or belongs to someone else, or the email address does not exist. There are no refunds for any other reason, so it is worth setting your criteria carefully.

Working the pipeline and staying compliant

The platform includes a simple pipeline (New, Contacted, Application, Funded, Lost) with notes and CSV export, so you can track which purposes and price points turn into funded deals. Over time that tells you where to tighten or widen your criteria.

Loanleaf is an introducer. It is not a lender or a broker, does not give advice, is not authorised by the FCA and takes no commission from lenders on leads sold to partners. You are responsible for your own regulatory position, including FCA authorisation where your activities require it. Because leads are limited companies and LLPs, they stay focused on commercial lending.

You can read more about how the partner programme works on our partners page.