Most advice on how to get commercial roofing leads stops at “call the building.” The budget for a roof belongs to one specific title, and which title it is changes with the building type.
Every commercial roofing contractor has made this call. You reach the front desk of an office park, ask who handles the roof, and get transferred to a maintenance tech who has never seen a capital plan. He is a nice guy. He does not own a budget. Nobody is putting your re-roof number in a spreadsheet because you talked to him.
The budget for a roof lives with a specific title. Which title depends on the building you are standing in front of, and getting that one thing right is most of the difference between a list of addresses and a list of commercial roofing leads.
In short
- The roofing budget in a commercial building belongs to a specific title, and the title changes with the building type.
- Sort your twenty buildings into single, portfolio, owner-occupied, and institutional before you call, then get a name for each.
- Capital plans go to ownership in November, so the right name has to be on your list this month.
The four building types and who holds the money
Nearly every commercial building you would want to quote falls into one of four ownership structures. Each one puts the roofing budget in a different pair of hands.
| Building type | Who owns the roofing budget | What they care about most |
|---|---|---|
| Single property, third-party managed | Property manager, or the on-site facility manager in a larger building | Not being surprised. A leak in a tenant space in February, after December approval, is a bad week. |
| Portfolio, multiple properties | Director of facilities or regional property manager, above the site-level manager | Sequencing. Eleven roofs, money for three. Which one cannot wait another season. |
| Owner-occupied | The owner, or the plant manager in a larger operation | Downtime and total cost. Doing it right once versus patching it twice. |
| Institutional | Facilities director builds it, a board or committee approves on a published schedule | Paperwork. A scope, a range, and a justification their board will accept. |
Single property, third-party managed
A standalone office building, a strip center, or a warehouse run by a management company. The roofing budget is built by the property manager, or by the facility manager if the building is large enough to have one on site. They walk the building, list what is failing, and submit the capital plan to the owner. They do not write the check. They write the line the check is based on, which is the part that matters to you.
Portfolio, multiple properties
A REIT, a regional developer, or a management company with fifteen buildings in two states. The site-level property manager reports up to a director of facilities or a regional property manager. The site person knows the roof is leaking. The regional person decides whether it gets replaced or patched again. Get both names, and understand that budget authority sits with the second one.
Owner-occupied
A manufacturer that owns its plant, a distributor that owns its warehouse. There is no property manager. The roofing budget belongs to the owner or, in a larger operation, the plant manager. These are the fastest conversations you will have, because the person across the table feels the leak in their own P&L.
Institutional
Schools, hospitals, churches, municipal buildings. The facilities director builds the capital plan, but a board or committee approves it on a published schedule. The facilities director is your walkthrough contact. The board calendar is your deadline. Miss the November submission and the roof waits a year.
Skip the front desk
Abstrakt sets appointments with the property managers, directors of facilities, and plant managers planning commercial roofing work. You walk the roof. We find the name.
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What each budget owner cares about, and how it changes your opening line
They all care about the roof. They do not all care about it the same way, and the opening line that works on one will lose the other.
The property manager cares about not being surprised. Give them a straight read on which sections have two years left and which have five. If you want published standards behind that read, the National Roofing Contractors Association publishes its roofing guidelines and technical library.
The director of facilities cares about sequencing. They have eleven roofs and money for three. Help them rank. Tell them which building is the one that cannot wait, and which can take another season with a repair.
The owner or plant manager cares about downtime and total cost. When can you do it without shutting down the line, and what does it cost to do it right once versus patch it twice?
The facilities director at an institution cares about the paperwork. Their board wants a scope, a range, and a justification. Hand them that in October and you have written their submission for them.
How to get commercial roofing leads out of a building list this week
01
Sort your twenty buildings by type
Single, portfolio, owner-occupied, institutional. Do this before you make one call. It tells you which title to ask for.
02
Get the name, not the department
Management company on the entrance sign or lease listing. Portfolios often list a regional facilities contact. Owner-occupied buildings name the owner in the state business filing. Institutions publish a staff directory.
03
Ask the site contact who approves
If you reach a maintenance lead, do not hang up. Ask who signs off when a roof replacement goes in the capital plan, then ask for an introduction.
04
Write the title next to the name
The title matters as much as the phone number. It tells you which of the four conversations to have when they pick up.
That third step is the one most contractors skip, and it is the cheapest lead source in this article. The maintenance lead you were about to hang up on knows exactly who owns the money.
Say it like this
“When a roof replacement goes in the capital plan, who signs off on it?”
One question, no pitch, and it costs them nothing to answer.
The honest part
Sometimes the org chart is a mess. The property manager left in July, the regional is covering four extra buildings, and nobody is sure who owns the capital plan this year. That is fine. Find the person who is stuck writing the plan and make their job easier.
You will also call buildings where the answer is a roofer they have used for nine years. That is not a wasted call if you leave with the name and the renewal timing, because the next roof on that portfolio is a different building on a different schedule.
Commercial roofing leads come out of twenty buildings, twenty names, and the right title written next to each one. The budget for the roof has a name on it, and your job this month is to find out what that name is.
Before November
Capital plans go to ownership in November. Abstrakt books the walkthroughs while the plan is still being written, so your estimators spend the fall on roofs instead of on hold. The walkthrough, the number, and the job are yours.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who decides the roofing budget for a commercial building?
It depends on the building type. A third-party managed property runs through the property manager. A portfolio runs through the director of facilities or a regional property manager. An owner-occupied plant runs through the owner or plant manager. An institution runs through a facilities director who builds the plan and a board that approves it. The site contact and the budget owner are frequently not the same person.
How do you get commercial roofing leads without buying a list?
Start from buildings rather than from contacts. Pick twenty commercial properties where you can see the roof work coming, sort them by ownership type, and find the named person who owns each capital budget. Call in September or October and ask what already needs attention next year. Purchased lists give you contacts who are being called by everyone. Working the budget calendar gives you the roof before it goes out to bid.
How do I find the property manager for a commercial building?
Look for the management company on the entrance sign or the lease listing, call the main line, and ask for the property manager assigned to that address. For portfolios, the company website often lists a regional facilities contact. For owner-occupied buildings, the state business filing names the owner. For schools, hospitals, and municipal buildings, the facilities director is usually in the published staff directory.
What should a roofer say when they reach the maintenance tech?
Do not hang up. Ask one question: when a roof replacement goes in the capital plan, who signs off on it? The maintenance lead will usually tell you, and you can ask for an introduction to that person. They walk the roof every week and they know exactly who owns the money.
When should a commercial roofer start calling about next year’s work?
September and October, before capital plans are submitted to ownership in November. Property and facility managers on a calendar fiscal year are writing next year’s list during those two months, and a number you give them then becomes the number in the plan. Schools, hospitals, and municipal buildings often run a July to June fiscal year, which moves the same window to spring.
Does the property manager or the owner approve a commercial roof replacement?
Usually both, in sequence. The property manager or facility manager builds the capital plan and puts a number against the roof. Ownership trims the list and approves what is left. That is why the property manager is the person to reach first even though they do not sign the check: the roof has to be on their list before ownership can approve it at all.
Keep going
- Commercial roofing lead generation
- The job you bid in March was decided in September
- Outsourced SDR services
- Cold calling services
- Best lead generation strategies
About this article
Jeff Winters is Chief Executive Officer at Abstrakt Marketing Group. Reviewed by Neil Erker, Chief Marketing Officer. Abstrakt sets appointments for commercial contractors across roofing, HVAC, paving, electrical, and the rest of the trades, and the patterns here come from that calling.
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.
