Live Transfer Leads: What They Are and How They Work in the UK
A live transfer puts a qualified homeowner through to your team while they're still on the phone. How it works, what to check, and what UK suppliers publish.
A live transfer lead is a homeowner who has been qualified on the phone by a lead supplier's call team and put straight through to your sales line while they're still on the call. You pay for a connected conversation rather than a form, and none of the five UK suppliers we checked on 2 November 2026 publishes a price for one, POCKLA included.
So a live transfer isn't a better lead. It's a lead with the first call already made, handed to you while the homeowner is still on the phone. Whether that's worth more than a web lead depends on who made the call, what they checked and whether your team can pick up.
What is a live transfer lead?
It's an enquiry handed over by phone rather than by data. The supplier finds the homeowner, usually through ads and a form, rings them, checks them against your criteria and then dials your sales line with the homeowner still on the call.
The names vary. As published on 2 November 2026, Convrsion says live transfers are also called hot or warm transfers, and Sales Fuel calls its live call transfers hotkeys. Lead Pronto labels a live transfer a hot key too, but its solar page lists booked hotkeys from £130 alongside appointments. Some suppliers also transfer inbound calls: at Salesfeed, customers ring its number and are put through to yours.
So "hot key" can mean a live call at one supplier and a booked appointment at another. Ask which you're buying.
How does a live transfer work, step by step?
- The homeowner enquires. Usually through an ad and a form, sometimes by ringing a number in an ad.
- The supplier's agent rings them. The sooner the better, for the reasons in our guide to speed to lead.
- The agent qualifies them. Your criteria, asked on the phone: the job, the postcode, ownership, the timeframe.
- The agent asks to put them through. The homeowner should hear your business's name and agree to speak to you.
- The agent dials your line. On a warm transfer they brief your closer, introduce the homeowner and drop off. On a cold one, the call is simply connected.
- Your closer takes over. Usually to book a survey, because few home-improvement jobs are priced on a first call.
- The transfer is counted, and the record follows. Several suppliers count a transfer only once it passes a minimum connected time. The homeowner's answers and consent record should reach your CRM.
What's the difference between a warm and a cold transfer?
On a warm transfer, the agent stays on the line long enough to introduce the homeowner by name and pass on what they've said: "This is Mrs Patel in WA4, she owns a semi, she's after a quote for panels before the spring." Your closer starts from the third question, not the first.
On a cold transfer, the call is put through and the agent leaves. Your closer has to ask everything again, and the homeowner, who has just answered the same questions, notices.
A warm transfer takes longer per call, which may show in the price. A cold one is cheaper to run and easier to get wrong. Ask which you're buying, and listen to some recordings before you decide whether the difference matters to your team.
What should you check before buying live transfers?
What did the homeowner agree to, and in whose name?
PECR, the regulations on electronic marketing, covers live calls made for direct marketing. As published on 2 November 2026, the ICO's guidance on live marketing calls says:
- A call is solicited if the person "specifically asks you to call them with marketing information". Most PECR rules, including the TPS check, then don't apply.
- Agreeing to calls, or not objecting to them, doesn't make a call solicited.
- For unsolicited live calls, numbers must be screened against the Telephone Preference Service. A number on the TPS can still be called if that person has specifically told the caller they want its calls, and that notification must name the caller.
- A marketing caller must display a number and must not withhold it.
The ICO says this guidance is under review because of changes made by the Data (Use and Access) Act, which became law on 19 June 2025. It's the regulator's guidance, not legal advice. Our guide to buying leads legally covers the rest of PECR, UK GDPR and recent ICO fines.
In practice, ask the supplier three things. Did the homeowner ask to be called, or only agree to it? If they didn't ask, is the number screened against the TPS? And does the consent record name your business, for any calls, texts or emails you make afterwards? Ask for the wording and the time with every transfer.
Is the call recorded, and do you get the recording?
A recording of the qualifying call is the surest way to know what the homeowner was told and asked before they reached you. It also settles disputes about whether a transfer should count. Ask whether every call is recorded, whether you get the recording for each transfer you pay for, and whether the homeowner is told the call is recorded. Our guide to call analytics covers how to use recordings fairly with a supplier.
Who qualifies the homeowner, and against what?
Ask who the agents are, what script they follow and whether you can see it. Ask how they're paid, too: an agent paid per transfer has a reason to put through a borderline call. The questions should be your criteria, asked the way your best rep would ask them; our guide to lead qualification questions sets out what to ask by product.
What counts as a billable transfer?
This is the term that decides the price. As published on 2 November 2026, Lead Pronto lists what it agrees per campaign before launch: the minimum connected time before a transfer counts, who at your end can accept one, and what happens when a call drops, arrives out of hours or is disputed. Convrsion charges per transferred call that lasts a minimum length agreed before launch. Salesfeed bills a telephone lead only once the call passes a minimum duration. None of the three publishes the minimum itself, so get yours in writing.
Can your team take the call?
A transfer only works if someone picks up. Agree the hours transfers can be sent, the number they go to and what happens when nobody answers. If your closer is also your surveyor, and is up a ladder at 2pm, a transfer at 2pm is wasted.
How do live transfers compare with web leads?
| Qualified web lead | Live transfer | |
|---|---|---|
| What arrives | The homeowner's details and answers, in your CRM | The homeowner, on the phone |
| First conversation | Your rep's call, minutes or hours later | Already happening when it reaches you |
| Who qualifies | The form and any follow-up, then your rep | The supplier's agent, then your closer |
| What you pay for | Each lead that meets the agreed criteria | Each transfer that meets the agreed minimum |
| What your team needs | Someone to call back fast | A closer free during transfer hours |
| What you can check | The form answers, the times and the consent record | The recording, the answers and the consent record |
| Main risk | The homeowner doesn't answer when you ring | The agent pushed a weak call through |
A web lead you call back within minutes and a live transfer can end in the same place: a homeowner on the phone with your rep. The transfer removes the chance that they don't pick up. You pay for that certainty, and you hand the first impression to someone else's agent.
What do live transfer leads cost in the UK?
None of the UK suppliers below publishes a live transfer price. We read each one's own website on 2 November 2026.
What UK suppliers publish about live transfers
Price, billing and minimums, as each one publishes them
| Supplier | What it calls them | Published price | How a transfer is counted | Minimums |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convrsion | Live transfers, also called hot or warm transfers | Not published; rate given on request | Each transferred call over a minimum length agreed before launch | Not stated |
| Lead Pronto | Live transfer (hot key), under pay per appointment | Not published; appointments from £130 | Minimum connected time, dropped calls and disputes agreed per campaign | Not stated |
| POCKLA | Live transfers | Not published; priced on your criteria, area and volume | Not published | Not published |
| Sales Fuel | Hotkeys, described as live call transfers; solar only | Not published | Not stated | 10 a week |
| Salesfeed | Telephone leads: customers ring its number and are put through to you | Not published | Billed once a call passes a minimum duration | Not stated |
Sales Fuel's pricing page says hotkeys and confirmed appointments typically cost more per lead; its FAQ puts a standard lead at around £25 plus VAT at base. Lead Pronto adds that a transfer needs a closer free to take the call in your hours. Leads 2 Trade lists hotkey delivery under its Premium membership without saying what it involves. We haven't estimated anyone's price.
What moves a transfer price is the same as for a web lead bought on pay per lead, plus two things of its own:
- Your criteria and your area. Tighter criteria and harder-to-reach postcodes mean more calls per transfer.
- Your hours. Transfers can only be sent when you can take them, so narrow hours mean fewer transfers from the same work.
- The minimum connected time. A transfer that counts at 30 seconds is a different product from one that counts at three minutes.
Do live transfers work for solar and home improvement?
They can, with two caveats specific to these jobs.
First, most home-improvement sales need a survey. The transfer's job is to book one with a homeowner who's ready, not to sell a system on the phone. Judge transfers by surveys booked, not calls taken.
Second, the call centre's words are your first impression. The ASA's advice on lead generation marketing, dated 17 April 2025, records action against ads promoting "solar funding schemes" and grants that the advertisers couldn't show were genuine. A homeowner transferred after hearing about a grant expects one. Ask to see the ad and hear the script.
Of the suppliers above, Sales Fuel offers hotkeys to solar clients only, and Convrsion lists solar, boilers, and windows and doors among its popular sectors (as published on 2 November 2026). Our comparisons of solar lead suppliers and double glazing lead suppliers cover their other terms.
When are live transfers the wrong buy?
- Nobody can reliably answer in transfer hours. A missed transfer is a lead you paid for and a homeowner who now trusts you less.
- Your team already calls web leads within minutes. You'd be paying a supplier to make a call your team already makes.
- You can't get recordings or consent records. You'd have no way to judge quality or show what the homeowner agreed to.
- You're testing a new area. Web leads, worked by your own team, give you cleaner numbers on contact and survey rates.
How do you judge reviews of a live transfer supplier? Reviews tell you how it treats buyers. They don't tell you what its calls sound like. Before a long commitment, run a short trial with every transfer recorded, and listen to them yourself.
Where POCKLA fits
POCKLA offers live transfers alongside qualified web leads. The homeowner is put through to your team while they're still on the line, with your criteria agreed before launch, and the price set on your criteria, area and volume. There's no public price for transfers.
Most buyers start with web leads, which have a published indicative band per product on our pricing page: £20–£50 for solar, for example. Each web lead is followed up on WhatsApp or by SMS in your business's name and delivered into your CRM or POCKLA Desk, where calls made from Desk get free call analytics.
If you're weighing a transfer against a web lead you'd call back fast, put the questions in this guide to us as you would to anyone else.