Most first calls to a facility manager die on one sentence. “Do you have any electrical work coming up” asks them to go and find you a project, and finding you a project isn’t their job.
A commercial electrical contractor calls a facility manager. They pick up, which is already a small win. The contractor says they wanted to introduce themselves and ask whether there’s any electrical work coming up. The answer comes back: nothing right now, send me your information.
Forty seconds, and nothing happened.
That wasn’t a bad facility manager. It was a bad question, and the fix isn’t a better tone or a third follow-up. It’s asking about something that already exists.
In short
- “Any work coming up” asks the facility manager to do your qualifying for you. They won’t.
- Ask about something that exists in the building right now. Equipment, records, a condition, an obligation.
- Electrical has an obligation most facility managers haven’t caught up with, and it’s the strongest opening in the trade.
Why “any work coming up” fails
The question sounds harmless. It fails for a mechanical reason.
It asks the facility manager to scan everything they’re responsible for, guess which parts might be electrical, guess which of those might be big enough to interest a stranger, and then volunteer it. That’s work. It’s work with no benefit to them, requested by somebody they have never met.
So they give the answer that costs nothing, which is that nothing is coming up. Often it’s even true, because projects aren’t sitting in a drawer waiting to be mentioned. They’re in a budget, or a condition report, or somebody’s head.
Asks them to do the work
- “Any electrical work coming up?”
- “Do you have any projects lined up?”
- “Who handles electrical for you?”
Asks about something real
- “Does the building have an electrical maintenance program?”
- “When was the gear last thermally scanned?”
- “Are the panel schedules current?”
The obligation most facility managers haven’t caught up with
Electrical contractors have a legitimate reason to call that has nothing to do with whether a project exists, and most of them never use it.
NFPA publishes NFPA 70B, the Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance. NFPA describes it as detailing preventive maintenance for electrical, electronic and communication systems and equipment, including those used in institutional and commercial buildings, to prevent equipment failures and worker injuries.
Two things about it are worth knowing precisely, because precision is what makes the call land.
It’s a Standard now, not a recommendation. For most of its life 70B was a Recommended Practice. NFPA now titles it a Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance, which changes the language inside it from what a facility should do to what it shall do.
The current edition is 2026. Issued 19 November 2025, effective 9 December 2025. Almost everything written about 70B online still discusses the 2023 edition, and a good deal of it still calls the document a Recommended Practice.
That gives you an opening that’s true, current, specific to their building, and impossible to answer with “nothing right now.”
“I’m not calling about a project. Does the building have a written electrical maintenance program, and has anyone looked at it against the current edition of 70B? It moved to a standard, and the edition changed again recently.”
Most of the time the answer is no, or an honest I don’t know. Both are useful, and neither is a rejection. You have handed a facility manager something they’re supposed to have and probably don’t, without implying they’re bad at their job.
More facility managers, fewer dials
Abstrakt sets appointments with the facility managers, property managers, and directors who approve electrical work, so your team is walking buildings instead of dialing main lines. The walkthrough, the number, the proposal, and the contract are yours.
Other questions about things that already exist
The maintenance program is the strongest opening, but the principle generalizes. Ask about a thing, never about an intention.
| Ask this | Why it works |
|---|---|
| “When was the switchgear last thermally scanned?” | Either there’s a report or there’s not. Both answers lead somewhere |
| “Are the panel schedules accurate?” | They almost never are, and everybody in the building knows it |
| “Is there anything on emergency power you can’t test without shutting down?” | Names a real constraint that has been quietly deferred |
| “Has anything tripped that nobody could explain?” | Invites a story instead of a decision |
| “Which panels are original to the building?” | Age is a fact, not an opinion, and it sets up a planning conversation |
Each one can be answered in a sentence by somebody standing in a corridor. That’s the test.
Three variations, depending on who picks up
The same principle, adjusted for what the person can actually answer.
A facility manager or chief engineer. Go straight at the equipment. They know the gear, they know what is deferred, and they respect a question that shows you understand a building has a history.
A property manager. Go at records and liability. They may not know what switchgear is, but they know what a missing report is, and they know who asks them for one.
An owner or operations lead in a smaller company. Go at consequence. What stops if this fails, and how long would it stop for. They think in downtime, not equipment.
When they say “send me something”
This isn’t a no. It’s the most common yes you’ll get, and most contractors waste it by sending a capability brochure.
Send one page about their building. What you asked, what they said, what it usually means, and one specific next step. If you haven’t been on site yet, send the question list instead and offer to walk it with them.
“I’ll send one page. It’s the four things I would check in a building like yours and why. If any of it looks relevant I can walk it with you, and if not you have a checklist for whoever does.”
A page about their property gets read. A brochure about your company gets filed, which is a polite word for deleted.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should you ask a facility manager on a first call?
Something that already exists in the building. Whether there’s a written electrical maintenance program, when the gear was last thermally scanned, whether the panel schedules are accurate. Asking whether they have work coming up makes them do your qualifying, and they will decline.
What is NFPA 70B?
NFPA 70B is the Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance. NFPA describes it as detailing preventive maintenance for electrical, electronic and communication systems and equipment, including in commercial and institutional buildings, to prevent equipment failures and worker injuries. It was a Recommended Practice for most of its history and is now titled a standard.
Which edition of NFPA 70B is current?
The 2026 edition, issued 19 November 2025 and effective 9 December 2025. Most published commentary still discusses the 2023 edition, so knowing the current one is a small but real credibility signal on a call.
Why does asking about work coming up fail?
Because it asks the facility manager to search everything they’re responsible for, guess what might qualify, and volunteer it to a stranger. That’s unpaid work with no benefit to them, so they give the answer that costs nothing.
What do you do when they ask you to send information?
Send one page about their building, not a brochure about your company. What you asked, what they said, what it typically means, and one specific next step. If you haven’t been on site, send the checklist you would use and offer to walk it with them.
Does this work for trades other than electrical?
The principle does. Ask about a thing that exists instead of an intention that might. Every trade has its own version: a restore test, a backflow record, a roof warranty, a pavement condition. Electrical happens to have an unusually clear one in 70B.
Keep going
- Commercial electrical lead generation
- How to bid commercial electrical jobs
- Which buildings are worth a walkthrough
- Commercial construction leads before the bid
- Cold calling services
About this article
Jeff Winters is Chief Executive Officer at Abstrakt. Reviewed by Neil Erker, Chief Marketing Officer. Abstrakt sets appointments for commercial electrical contractors and the rest of the trades, and the calls described here come from that work.
Jeff Winters is the CEO of Abstrakt Marketing Group, a U.S.-based B2B lead generation and appointment-setting company that books qualified sales meetings for clients across the commercial trades, IT and managed services, manufacturing, and B2B services. He has spent his career building and running outbound sales programs at scale, and he breaks down what actually works in sales and lead generation on Abstrakt's podcast, The Grow Show.
