A facility manager can’t get a recurring line approved for something that might prevent a problem. They can get one approved for a document that arrives four times a year with their equipment listed on it. Sell the document.
Preventive maintenance agreements are the best revenue a commercial HVAC contractor can have. Recurring, predictable, and they put you in the building before anything breaks, which means you get the call when it does.
Most proposals for them fail, and they fail the same way. A list of tasks, a frequency, and a monthly price. The manager reads it, agrees it sounds sensible, and does nothing, because there’s no way to defend a new recurring cost upward with a task list.
In short
- Name the equipment individually. An agreement covering “the HVAC system” is unreadable to whoever approves it.
- Write the exclusions as carefully as the inclusions. Surprise invoices kill renewals.
- The report after each visit is the thing the manager is actually buying, because it’s what they can show upward.
What the manager has to do with your proposal
They have to justify an ongoing cost to somebody who wasn’t in the mechanical room. That person will ask what the building gets for it, and the honest answer with most agreements is that things don’t break as often, which is unprovable in advance.
A document changes that. Four times a year the manager receives a written record of every unit, its condition, what was done and what is coming. They can forward it. They can point at it in a budget meeting. It’s evidence the building is being looked after, with their name on the decision to buy it.
That’s why the deliverable belongs on page one of the proposal and the task list belongs on page two.
What makes it signable
| Element | What it has to say | Why the manager needs it |
|---|---|---|
| The equipment list | Every unit by tag, location, make, model, and age off the nameplate | Most buildings have never had this written down |
| The schedule | Visit months, what happens on each, how long it takes | Goes straight into their calendar |
| The exclusions | Refrigerant, parts, after-hours, anything above a stated value | Prevents the invoice that ends the relationship |
| The report | What arrives after each visit and what it contains | The artifact they show upward |
| Response terms | Response time for a covered breakdown, and the rate if it’s not covered | The reason to sign instead of calling around |
| The out | Notice period and what happens to the records | Makes signing feel small |
Row one does most of the work. A contractor who walks in with every rooftop unit tagged, aged and listed has already done something the building could not do for itself, before anybody has agreed to anything.
Why exclusions help you
Contractors bury exclusions because they read as things the customer doesn’t get. Managers read them the opposite way, as the list of surprises that won’t arrive.
The relationship-ending moment in this business is an unexpected invoice for something the manager believed was covered. They then have to explain to their boss that the agreement they championed didn’t include the thing that broke. Once is usually enough.
State it plainly instead. Refrigerant is billed separately. Parts above a stated value need approval. After-hours carries a different rate. Compressor replacement isn’t covered. Written clearly, that page makes you look more trustworthy, not less generous.
Get in the mechanical room first
Abstrakt sets appointments with the facility managers, directors of facilities, and plant managers who sign commercial HVAC agreements, so your technicians spend the day on site instead of on hold. The walkthrough, the number, and the agreement are yours.
Book a Strategy Call See how commercial HVAC lead generation works
Where the equipment list comes from
You build it on a walkthrough, before anybody has signed anything, and you leave a copy whether or not they buy.
Every unit gets a tag, a location, a make and model taken from the nameplate, plus an age. Add a line on condition and a line on anything that’s going to need money in the next couple of years. That page is useful to the manager immediately, and it’s the spine of the agreement you’re about to propose.
Leaving it behind unconditionally is the part contractors resist and the part that works. A manager holding a complete inventory of their own equipment, produced by somebody who asked for nothing, takes the next conversation differently.
Pricing it so the comparison is fair
Price per unit with the visit frequency stated, instead of one monthly figure for the building. A single number invites a competitor to quote a smaller single number for a smaller scope nobody notices is smaller.
Per unit and per visit also lets the manager scale the agreement to what they can approve this year. Six units now and the rest next year is a real answer, and it’s a much easier first signature than all or nothing.
When they won’t sign anything
Some buildings are structurally unable to commit to recurring spend. A property in receivership, a tenant on a short lease with no renewal, a building about to be sold. None of those is a bad manager and none of them will sign a multi-year agreement.
Offer a single paid inspection with the same report instead. You get into the room, you produce the document, and you’re the obvious call when the ownership question settles. Insisting on the agreement in those buildings loses both.
Commercial HVAC sales beyond the agreement
A signable agreement is worth little if you are only writing one or two a year.
Commercial HVAC sales largely come from facility managers and building owners contacted before equipment fails, because a building in the middle of a breakdown calls whoever it already has. Reaching them in the quiet months is what puts you in position.
That is steady, repetitive contact rather than a campaign, and it competes directly with service calls for your time. It is also the reason maintenance agreements concentrate with a handful of contractors in most markets rather than spreading evenly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do commercial HVAC contractors get more maintenance agreements?
By reaching facility managers and owners before equipment fails. A building dealing with a breakdown calls whoever it already uses, so the agreement conversation has to happen in the quiet months.
Is cold calling worth it for commercial HVAC?
It still works, because facility and operations people are reachable by phone and rarely respond to email from contractors they do not know. It takes consistent volume over months, which is where most contractors run out of time.
Should an HVAC contractor hire a salesperson or outsource appointment setting?
The in-house comparison is not a salary against a retainer. It is salary plus payroll taxes, benefits, software, ramp time and somebody to manage them. Outsourcing trades that for a fixed monthly cost and a faster start. Which is right depends on whether you can keep a salesperson busy and managed.
Keep going
- HVAC lead generation
- What to say when they tell you it’s still under warranty
- The first 30 seconds of a commercial HVAC call
- Which properties are worth a commercial HVAC walkthrough
- What to say when you cold call a facility manager
About this article
Jeff Winters is Chief Executive Officer at Abstrakt. Reviewed by Neil Erker, Chief Marketing Officer. Abstrakt sets appointments for commercial HVAC contractors and the wider trades, and the patterns here come from that calling.
Abstrakt is a technology-enabled outsourced sales development company that books 100,000+ meetings a year for 2,000 clients.
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