Finance leads by loan size: what changes between a $50K enquiry and a $5M one
Loan size changes almost everything about a finance lead except the fields you should insist on. Here is what shifts between a small business enquiry and a large commercial one, and how to decide which band you should be buying.
Loan size quietly rewrites everything else about a finance lead: which fields matter, where on your panel the file goes, how long it takes to settle, how many exist in a given month, and how fast you need to pick up the phone. A small business enquiry is a volume game decided by speed and process. A large commercial enquiry is a scarce, slow, high-commission file decided by structure and patience.
This page treats the two enquiries in the title as a hypothetical pair, a $50K working-capital request and a $5M industrial refinance, and walks through what moves between them. Treat roughly $500K as the illustrative line between small business and commercial-sized: a way to organise the page, not a market statistic.
Small business: working capital, equipment, expansion
Mostly SMEs after working capital, equipment or expansion finance, many ending up unsecured. The average business loan enquiry is about $149,000. The file is decided on ABN, GST status, time trading, amount, purpose and timeframe, usually by one owner, usually quickly.
Commercial with a property or facility behind it
Commercial property purchases, owner-occupied and investment commercial loans, debt restructures. The amount is larger, but the real shift is that there is now an asset or an existing facility to assess, so property type, approximate value and LVR range enter the file.
Large commercial refinance
The commercial property refinance flow runs $1M to $10M+. At this size the asset, its income and the current facility are already on paper, so the file starts from a known position rather than a discovery call. Fewer enquiries, longer files, far larger commission per settlement.
The exception: ATO tax debt
ATO tax-debt situations start from $50,000, which by amount alone sits in the small band. By complexity it is a commercial conversation, because the debt position shapes the whole structure. Loan size is the first sort, not the only one.
Put the hypothetical $50K and $5M enquiries side by side and five things move:
- The qualifying fields. At $50K the decision rests on ABN, GST status, time trading, amount, purpose and timeframe. At $5M, property type, approximate value, LVR range, the existing lender and the reason for moving decide whether the file is writable.
- The panel. Small unsecured deals go to lenders built for speed; large refinances need majors accreditation or strong non-bank access. Buy a band your panel cannot place and you pay to learn that on the phone.
- The cycle. A small business loan can run from first call to settlement quickly. A large refinance involves valuations, financials, sometimes a second decision-maker, and often a facility expiry that sets the real deadline.
- The first call. Small enquiries reward immediate contact; the owner may be comparing options the same afternoon. Large enquiries reward a prepared call; the borrower is judging whether you understand the structure, not whether you rang first.
- The economics. One settled large file can carry the commission of many small ones, so the only fair unit of comparison across bands is cost per settled deal, never cost per lead.
Far more owners need $50K this month than $5M, and every lead channel, paid or organic, inherits that shape: a campaign aimed at the large band produces fewer enquiries per week, and each takes longer to resolve.
Judge a large-band campaign on settled files per quarter, not week-one volume, and keep something else moving while those files mature: your database, referral partners, or a small-band campaign alongside. Development scenarios, such as a site coming off construction debt, arrive inside the commercial and refinance mix rather than as a separate product, and sit at the slow, rare end of that curve.
The decision is about fit, not ambition. Work through these in order:
- Start with your panel, not your preference. List who you are accredited with and what they actually fund. If the large band is not covered, you will be referring the strongest files away.
- Match the band to your cash flow. Small business files settle faster and smooth income; large commercial files pay more per deal and arrive irregularly. A thin pipeline usually needs the small band first.
- Match the band to your capacity. Small enquiries need someone free to call straight away in business hours. Large enquiries need someone who can sit with a set of financials for a morning.
- Insist on the fields for the band. Hold any sample against what a qualified commercial lead includes. A large-band lead without property, value and LVR is a small-band lead with a bigger number typed in.
- Check verification holds at every size. A dead mobile on a $5M enquiry costs more than one on a $50K enquiry. Ask whether every mobile is confirmed by SMS before delivery, whatever the band.
If the first three point to small business, buy there and move up once panel and capacity catch up. If you already settle deals in the $1M to $10M+ range most months, the large band is where a verified, exclusive enquiry earns its keep. The maths for comparing bands is in the finance leads cost guide.
La Vitesse sells the two bands as separate products, because they are: business loan leads for the small band, where the average enquiry is about $149,000, and commercial finance leads for the band with a property, a facility or a debt position behind it, with a dedicated commercial property refinance deal flow at $1M to $10M+. Whatever the size, every lead is exclusive, SMS-verified and delivered in real time with loan amount, purpose and timeframe captured. Pricing is quoted on a call by niche and volume, with no lock-in contracts, no setup fees and no monthly retainers, so you can buy the band you can place this quarter and change it later.