What the shared model looks like from the consumer's side, why the number is rarely disclosed, and how to work out what you are competing against.
Brokers buying shared supply usually do not know how many other brokers received the same record. Suppliers rarely volunteer it, and the reason is straightforward: the number is a lever rather than a specification.
Because it is how the supplier manages yield. A record that has not sold can be offered to more buyers. A record in a competitive category can be split further. Publishing a fixed number would remove the flexibility that makes the model work.
That is not necessarily dishonest, and it does mean a broker who was told "usually two or three" has been told about an average rather than a commitment.
The question that gets a usable answer: Ask for the contractual maximum number of buyers per record, in writing. A supplier who will commit to a ceiling is selling you something you can price. One who will only describe the typical case is describing a variable.
A person fills in one form and their phone rings several times over the following hour from numbers they do not recognise. By the third call they are no longer evaluating advisers, they are managing an interruption.
That is the real cost of shared supply, and it lands on whoever calls after the first. The consumer's tone with caller four is a product of callers one to three.
Ask every consumer you reach how many other brokers have contacted them about this enquiry, and log the answer in a structured field. After thirty or forty records you have a distribution rather than an impression, and it is evidence you can raise with a supplier.
Record the answer even when it is zero, because the zeros are what make the average meaningful.
It changes the contact-rate input in your cost-per-client model, which is the input the model is most sensitive to. If you are one of four buyers and dial speed decides who connects, your effective contact rate on that supply is a fraction of what the same record would produce exclusively.
The time cost does not fall correspondingly. A shared record still takes around 35 minutes to work through a six-attempt cadence, so the adviser hours per settled client rise even as the unit price falls.
It varies by supplier and by record, and it is rarely published because it is a commercial lever rather than a fixed specification. Commonly it is between two and five, though the useful thing to obtain is the contractual maximum in writing rather than a typical figure that can move without notice.
Because the number is how they manage yield. A record that has not sold can be offered more widely, and a competitive category can be split further. A fixed published number would remove that flexibility, which is why you are usually offered a typical case rather than a ceiling.
Ask every consumer you reach how many others have contacted them about the enquiry, and log the answer as a structured field rather than in call notes. After thirty or forty records you have a distribution you can put in front of the supplier, including the zeros.
The unit price is lower and the adviser hours per settled client are usually higher, because a shared record still takes a full six-attempt cadence to work while carrying a much lower chance of connecting first. For a capacity-constrained broker the second effect frequently outweighs the first.