B2B Services
Business energy is the most contract-timed category we work in. A business outside its renewal window is not a prospect, however unhappy it is with its supplier, and no amount of persuasion changes that. We build acquisition for suppliers and brokers who measure success at contract signed rather than quote issued.
Two things dominate, and the first is timing.
Commercial energy contracts have fixed end dates and a switching window, typically opening several months out. Approach too early and the supplier cannot quote a meaningful price. Approach too late and the contract has rolled over, often onto out-of-contract rates that are punitive and, awkwardly, mean the business is now paying enough to be very interested and contractually unable to move. A campaign generating enquiries at random moments in that cycle will produce mostly people who cannot act.
The second is saturation, and it is worse in this category than in any other we handle. Business energy broking has a well-earned reputation for relentless cold calling. Small businesses receive these calls constantly, and the accumulated irritation is now part of the operating environment. A prospect who fills in a form and then receives a call has, in their mind, joined a queue of people who have been bothering them for years.
That has a direct consequence for lead quality. Aged and resold data performs terribly here, because by the fifth call the business has stopped being polite. Fresh, single-source, genuinely consented enquiries are worth considerably more per unit, and the gap between the two is wider than in almost any other vertical.
Calls, with an important caveat about how they are generated.
The product suits a conversation. Comparing commercial energy involves consumption profiles, meter types, contract lengths and standing charges, and most small business owners neither know nor want to know the detail. A broker can resolve in four minutes what a comparison form cannot resolve at all.
IVR qualification handles the timing problem. Contract end date, or at least an approximate renewal month, asked before an agent is engaged. Combined with meter type and rough consumption, that removes most of the volume that cannot transact.
Hot-key transfer works well when consent is genuine. The distinction matters here more than anywhere. In a category where consumers have been trained to expect nuisance calls, a transfer the prospect actively agreed to converts well, and one they did not damages the brand doing the calling.
Forms suit larger and multi-site users. Industrial and commercial consumption, half-hourly metering, multi-site portfolios and anything requiring a letter of authority and full consumption data runs on a longer, more documented process.
Because calls bill on connected duration past a buffer, filtering on renewal timing before the call reaches the floor is the single biggest lever on channel economics in this vertical.
Paid search. Captures businesses actively looking, usually triggered by a renewal notice or a price shock. "Business electricity quotes", "commercial gas prices", "compare business energy". Intent is genuine and timing is often good, because people search when the letter arrives.
Owned comparison properties. We operate comparison and review properties, so business energy demand can be met on our own estate with consent language and call expectations we control end to end. In a category defined by consent problems, controlling the source is worth more than the traffic itself.
Pay-per-call networks. Strong, provided the sourcing is clean. This is the vertical where supplier quality varies most dramatically and where cheap volume is most likely to be recycled data.
Content and organic. Underused and genuinely effective. What out-of-contract rates actually cost, how standing charges work, what a letter of authority does, when to start looking before renewal. Business owners searching this are pre-qualifying themselves.
Email and consented outbound. The channel best matched to the timing problem, since a sequence arriving three to four months before a known renewal date reaches the buyer exactly when they can act.
Paid social. Useful for business-owner reach and retargeting, weaker for cold acquisition given the timing dependency.
The last row on the qualifying side is the most valuable position in this category. A business sitting on out-of-contract or deemed rates is overpaying substantially, can usually move quickly, and is highly motivated once someone explains what they are actually being charged.
This category is under active regulatory reform, and any supplier working in it should be operating ahead of the rules rather than behind them.
In the UK, Ofgem has tightened requirements on third party intermediaries, with obligations around transparency of commission, clarity about whose interests the broker represents, and access to redress. The Energy Ombudsman's remit has been extended so that eligible business customers can escalate complaints about brokers, which changes the risk profile of sloppy practice considerably.
Consent is the other pressure point. Cold calling businesses is subject to PECR and the CTPS, and the "we bought this data from a partner" defence has become progressively less credible. Consent provenance needs to be documented to source.
Our position: no undisclosed commission framing, no implied affiliation with a supplier or with Ofgem, no pressure tactics around renewal deadlines, and consent tracked to origin. Where a broker's commission is embedded in the unit rate, the customer should be able to find that out without a fight.
The commercial argument is simple. Suppliers audit the brokers who introduce business to them, and a channel producing complaints ends abruptly.
Quote volume is close to meaningless here, because quoting a business that cannot switch costs time and produces nothing.
We report on:
Cost per contacted enquiry. The first honest figure
Cost per in-window enquiry. The metric that defines this category. An enquiry outside the switching window is a nurture contact, not an opportunity
Cost per LOA received. Where the prospect has committed enough to authorise action
Cost per contract signed
Complaint and TPS breach rate by source. Tracked deliberately, because it is the leading indicator of a channel about to become a regulatory problem
Renewal-window accuracy by source. Exposes suppliers passing off aged data as fresh enquiries
Signed-contract and in-window outcomes are fed back to the platforms rather than form submissions, so campaigns optimise toward businesses that can actually transact.
Inside the switching window, typically several months before contract end. Outside it, suppliers cannot quote meaningfully and the enquiry becomes a nurture contact rather than an opportunity.
Because aged and multiply-resold data is common. By the fifth call a business has stopped engaging, so fresh single-source enquiries perform dramatically better than the price difference suggests.
Calls, for small and mid-sized businesses where a broker can resolve consumption and contract questions quickly. Forms suit half-hourly metered and multi-site users who need a documented process.
Inside the renewal window or on out-of-contract rates, commercial meter, consumption above your minimum, decision-maker reached, and consent documented to source.
By operating to current transparency expectations on commission and representation, and by tracking consent provenance. The regulatory direction has been consistently toward greater disclosure.
That segment is the most motivated in the category, since the overpayment is usually significant and the business can often move quickly once someone explains the position clearly.
Through documented consent, CTPS screening, and not using aged data. This is the category where consent practice most directly determines whether a channel survives.
Yes, though half-hourly and multi-site users require a different process with letters of authority and full consumption data, and a longer cycle.
Contract end date or renewal month, meter type, approximate consumption, business type, and consent record. Renewal timing predicts conversion better than anything else available.
Consumer Genius operates across 11 markets. Energy market structure, broker regulation and contract norms differ substantially, so campaigns are built per market rather than translated.
Book a growth strategy call and we will map how much of your pipeline is outside the switching window, what your consent position looks like, and what to change first.
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