Commercial lead generation and B2B appointment setting in Boston

Boston-Cambridge has 12,333 business sites with 20 or more people on site in the categories commercial trades sell to, #10 of the 100 markets we cover, and 1.45 times the national concentration of commercial property managers. Private business establishments grew 1.2% from 2025 Q1 to 2026 Q1. Abstrakt's U.S.-based reps prospect those buyers by phone, email and LinkedIn and book meetings with the people who sign.

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Local B2B snapshot

How many businesses are in Boston-Cambridge, and which ones buy

Boston-Cambridge has 58,253 establishments in the categories commercial trades sell to, 12,333 of them with 20 or more people on site. Compared with the national mix it over-indexes on commercial property managers (1.45x) and grocery stores (1.37x). Added over the past year: medical, dental and outpatient offices (+310), restaurants (+206) and manufacturing plants (+30). Down: wholesale distributors (-256) and retail stores (-247).

  • 58,253 establishments in the 21 categories commercial trades sell to

    Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023

  • 12,333 of them with 20 or more people on site, where a prospecting list starts

    Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023

  • +1.2% private business establishments, 2025 Q1 to 2026 Q1 (177,979 now; U.S. +3.6%)

    Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, private ownership, 2026 Q1

  • 1.45x the national concentration of commercial property managers

    Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, private ownership, 2026 Q1

  • 13,068 decision-maker records Abstrakt can prospect for a construction and roofing program (territory: Boston)

    Source: Abstrakt territory record counts, October 2026

An establishment is one physical location, so a company with three sites counts three times; decision-maker records are contacts, not companies; open programs are not reservations.

Largest buyer groups in Boston-Cambridge

  1. Restaurants3,550
  2. Retail stores2,737
  3. Medical, dental and outpatient offices1,444
  4. Manufacturing plants1,317
  5. Wholesale distributors968
  6. Senior living and nursing607
  7. Grocery stores 1.37x the U.S. mix495
  8. Bank and credit union offices312

Sites with 20 or more people on site, U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023; concentration, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, private ownership, 2026 Q1.

All 21 categories, with establishments, concentration and one-year change
Business categories in Boston-Cambridge: larger sites, all establishments, concentration and one-year change
CategorySites with 20+All establishmentsvs. U.S. mix1-yr change
Restaurants 3,55012,319 1.04x +206
Retail stores 2,73715,568 0.92x -247
Medical, dental and outpatient offices 1,4449,306 0.79x +310
Manufacturing plants 1,3174,046 0.77x +30
Wholesale distributors 9684,982 0.74x -256
Senior living and nursing 6071,990 1.11x -2
Grocery stores (also counted in retail) 4953,514 1.37x -1
Bank and credit union offices 3122,553 0.86x -48
Auto dealerships (also counted in retail) 269696 0.89x +3
Hotels 250499 0.57x +8
Private K-12 schools 243412 0.81x +2
Churches and religious organizations 1711,983 0.15x -4
Trucking companies 1461,324 0.43x -23
Hosting and data processing companies 133434 0.87x -71
Apartment and residential property managers 1051,263 0.87x +3
Hospitals 8899 0.65x -8
Golf courses and country clubs 68162 0.99x +1
Warehousing and distribution 64197 0.49x +2
Colleges and universities 5478 0.69x -9
Commercial property managers 48407 1.45x -8
Nonresidential building owners 28631 0.92x -15
Total, each site once12,33358,253

Sites and establishments: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023; concentration (location quotient) and one-year change in establishments: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, private ownership, 2026 Q1, summed across the metro's counties.

Your industry in Boston

What Industry Are You Growing In?

Pick your trade to see the Boston-Cambridge buyers, competition, decision-makers and projects for it. The estimator and the assessment form below follow your choice.

Choose an industry

Every trade in Boston at a glance

Largest buyer groups (sites with 20+ people)

  1. Restaurants3,550
  2. Retail stores2,737
  3. Medical, dental and outpatient offices1,444
  4. Manufacturing plants1,317
  5. Wholesale distributors968

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023.

Most room per contractor

  1. Fire Protection#12 of 96
  2. Commercial Roofing#15 of 89
  3. Commercial Construction#17 of 100

Larger buyer sites per contractor, ranked across up to 100 markets. Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, private ownership, 2026 Q1.

Trade panels: buyer sites, U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023; contractors, their one-year change and employment, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, private ownership, 2026 Q1; decision-maker records, Abstrakt territory record counts, October 2026; open programs, Abstrakt territory availability.

Compare all 11 trades in Boston

Ranked by larger buyer sites per contractor against up to 100 markets (only markets with 10 or more contractors in a trade are ranked; n/r means not ranked). A higher rank means more buildings worth calling for every competitor working them.

Commercial trades in Boston: contractors, buyer sites and rank
TradeContractors1-yr changeLarger buyer sitesPer contractorRankDecision-maker records
Fire Protection
Largest buyer group: restaurants
 118 +5 7,843 66.5 #12 not counted
Commercial Roofing
Largest buyer group: retail stores
 78 +2 7,083 90.8 #15 13,068
Commercial Construction
Largest buyer group: manufacturing companies
 557 +7 4,037 7.2 #17 13,068
Paving & Asphalt
Largest buyer group: retail stores
 135 +5 7,113 52.7 #18 not counted
Commercial Cleaning & Janitorial
Largest buyer group: ambulatory health care: physician, dental, outpatient and urgent care
 1,285 +3 5,372 4.2 #38 4,246
Commercial Painting & Coatings
Largest buyer group: retail stores
 101 +1 7,519 74.4 #33 not counted
Commercial Electrical
Largest buyer group: retail stores
 580 0 6,038 10.4 #50 not counted
Commercial Flooring
Largest buyer group: ambulatory health care: physician, dental, outpatient and urgent care
 71 +3 5,070 71.4 #34 not counted
Managed Service Providers
Largest buyer group: medical, dental and outpatient practices
 2,614 -112 7,160 2.7 #51 not counted
Commercial HVAC & Mechanical
Largest buyer group: medical and dental office buildings
 520 -13 4,607 8.9 #59 5,399
Commercial Landscaping
Largest buyer group: retail stores
 2,652 +60 7,632 2.9 #79 not counted

Sources: contractors and change, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, private ownership, 2026 Q1; buyer sites, U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 (each trade's own buyer categories, each site counted once); decision-maker records, Abstrakt territory record counts, October 2026.

Growth and trends

Is Boston-Cambridge adding businesses? Five years of counts

Private business establishments in the metro's counties went from 175,736 in 2021 to 178,771 in 2025 (+1.7%), while private employment moved +4.2% to 2,387,157. In the Census Bureau's latest count, 11,780 establishments opened and 10,394 closed in a year. New sites start without an incumbent vendor.

Private establishments and employment, 2021 to 2025

Private establishments, employment and average weekly wage by year, Boston-Cambridge
YearEstablishmentsEmploymentAvg weekly wage
2021175,7362,290,563$1,882
2022182,1232,381,434$1,917
2023181,2882,407,764$1,935
2024174,1222,404,877$2,031
2025178,7712,387,157$2,118

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (opens in a new tab), private ownership, 2021 to 2025 annual averages, 7 counties summed. n/a: BLS withholds the figure for at least one county.

Establishments opened and closed each year

Establishment openings and closings by year, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
Year to MarchOpenedRateClosedRate
201910,5648.9%9,1767.7%
202010,4738.7%10,2378.5%
202110,6288.9%12,87410.8%
202212,96310.9%10,1838.5%
202311,7809.7%10,3948.6%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics (opens in a new tab), 2023 release, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH. Each year runs March to March; rates are per 100 establishments.

New business applications

60,790 applications for an employer ID number were filed in the metro's counties in 2025, +35.7% on 2019 (44,796): Middlesex County 19,183, Suffolk County 13,092, Essex County 8,613, Norfolk County 8,350, Plymouth County 5,427, Rockingham County 4,767, Strafford County 1,358. Applications include sole proprietors and filings that never hire, so they measure new business activity, not new buyers.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics (county annual) (opens in a new tab), calendar 2025, retrieved 2026-10-15.

Contractors by trade, 2021 to 2025
Contractor establishments by trade, 2021 and 2025, Boston-Cambridge
Trade20212025Change
Commercial Landscaping2,5952,659+64 (+2.5%)
Paving & Asphalt129131+2 (+1.6%)
Commercial Flooring70700 (0.0%)
Commercial Painting & Coatings1031030 (0.0%)
Managed Service Providers2,7412,719-22 (-0.8%)
Commercial Construction564557-7 (-1.2%)
Commercial Electrical599583-16 (-2.7%)
Commercial Cleaning & Janitorial1,3491,304-45 (-3.3%)
Fire Protection120115-5 (-4.2%)
Commercial Roofing7975-4 (-5.1%)
Commercial HVAC & Mechanical572531-41 (-7.2%)

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, annual averages, the same NAICS codes as the trade comparison above. More contractors means more competition for the same buyers; fewer means more room for outbound.

When to prospect: the Boston calendar

Cooling demand peaks in July (224 cooling degree days in a normal year), and 78% of the 873 severe hail and wind reports from 2015 to 2024 fell in July, August and June. Start roofing and HVAC prospecting ahead of those months.

Average high temperature, cooling degree days and severe storm reports by month, Boston-Cambridge
MonthAvg high (F)Cooling degree daysHail and wind reports
January3600
February38037
March46014
April5800
May68851
June7781186
July83224300
August81181191
September743765
October62119
November5107
December4103

Sources: NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county monthly series, 1991-2020 averages (opens in a new tab); NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database (opens in a new tab), 2015 to 2024. Reports of hail 1 inch or larger and thunderstorm wind of 58 mph or more, by month, across the market counties.

Buying signals

Where the money is moving in Boston-Cambridge

Federal contracts and building permits are early signs that a building is changing: new construction, a renovation, a re-roof.

Federal contracts performed in the metro

Federal agencies obligated $18.53 billion in contracts with a place of performance in Boston-Cambridge's counties in federal fiscal year 2026 (October 2025 to September 2026), against $19.16 billion in fiscal 2025 (-3.3%). Construction (NAICS 23) took $370.2 million.

Contract obligations by county
CountyFY2026FY2025
Norfolk County$288.2 million$549.1 million
Plymouth County$155.9 million$149.3 million
Suffolk County$1.24 billion$1.55 billion
Essex County$7.23 billion$6.19 billion
Middlesex County$8.92 billion$9.64 billion
Rockingham County$671.8 million$1.04 billion
Strafford County$17.6 million$33.1 million
Metro counties$18.53 billion$19.16 billion
FY2026 obligations in each trade's own NAICS code
TradeNAICSFY2026
Commercial Construction236220$238.1 million
Managed Service Providers541512$70.8 million
Commercial Cleaning & Janitorial561720$8.8 million
Commercial Roofing238160$8.4 million
Fire Protection561621$6.4 million
Commercial Electrical238210$3.3 million
Commercial HVAC & Mechanical238220$2.7 million
Commercial Landscaping561730$2.3 million
Paving & Asphalt237310$1.4 million
Commercial Painting & Coatings238320$66,547
Commercial Flooring238330$53,758

Source: USAspending.gov (U.S. Department of the Treasury) (opens in a new tab), contract award types A to D, obligations dated October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, by place of performance; data as of 2026-10-15. Defense contract actions are published 90 days late, so fiscal 2026 will still rise. Place of performance is coded by the contracting officer.

Territory intelligence

Where the Boston buyers are

Middlesex County, Suffolk County and Norfolk County hold 64% of the metro's 12,333 larger business sites, so most programs start there and add the rest of the metro for larger accounts, depending on how far your crews travel.

Larger business sites (20+ people) by county, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
CountySitesShare
Middlesex County 3,98532%
Suffolk County 2,01316%
Norfolk County 1,87815%
Essex County 1,78814%
Plymouth County 1,2019.7%
Rockingham County, New Hampshire 9777.9%
Strafford County, New Hampshire 2742.2%
Not assigned to a county by Census2171.8%
Metro total12,333100%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, metro and county files, summed across the buyer categories on this page (each site counted once). County files withhold some size-class counts that the metro file reports, so 217 sites cannot be placed in a county.

Abstrakt territories in this market

Boston, MA. A strategist confirms which one your program would hold.

The owners that anchor Boston-Cambridge

Each fact links to its source, checked 2026-10.

Health system

Mass General Brigham

Boston, Suffolk County

Mass General Brigham says it is the largest private employer in Massachusetts, with 85,000+ employees and 14 hospitals including 5 nationally ranked teaching hospitals.

Flagship campuses at Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's plus community hospitals and outpatient sites run central plants, sprinkler systems and constant environmental services.

HVACfire protectioncleaningflooringelectrical

Mass General Brigham (opens in a new tab)
Campus

Boston University

Boston, Suffolk County

BU's Facts & Stats page lists a student body of 38,093, 11,532 total employees, 345 buildings and 141 campus acres for fiscal year 2025.

Hundreds of academic, lab and residence buildings along Commonwealth Avenue and the medical campus need cleaning, mechanical service, flooring and painting on a rolling schedule.

cleaningHVACflooringpainting

Boston University (opens in a new tab)
Airport

Boston Logan International Airport

East Boston, Suffolk County

Massport's 2025 Year in Review says Logan served 43.2 million passengers in 2025.

Passenger terminals, garages and airside support buildings run by Massport carry heavy cleaning, HVAC, electrical and pavement needs.

cleaningHVACelectricalpaving

Massport (opens in a new tab)
3 more anchor owners in Boston-Cambridge
Logistics hub

Conley Container Terminal

South Boston, Suffolk County

Massport says Conley Container Terminal handled 245,000 TEUs in 2025.

New England's container terminal runs yard pavement, crane power, reefer plugs and maintenance buildings that need paving and electrical work.

pavingelectricalconstructionroofing

Massport (opens in a new tab)
Industrial park

Pease International Tradeport

Portsmouth, Rockingham County, NH

The Pease Development Authority describes the Tradeport as a 3,000-acre business and industrial park of 250 companies employing more than 10,000 people in 4 million square feet of office and industrial space.

Office, lab and industrial buildings on a former Air Force base share parking lots, roofs and grounds that tenants and the authority maintain.

roofingpavinglandscapingHVACcleaning

Pease Development Authority (opens in a new tab)
Major employer

GE Aerospace Lynn

Lynn, Essex County

GE Aerospace describes its Lynn site as a manufacturing hub for military aircraft engines spread over 100 acres and home to roughly 2,500 employees.

An engine plant with test cells, machining halls and older industrial buildings on one large site needs electrical, mechanical, roofing and fire protection work.

electricalHVACroofingfire protection

GE Aerospace (opens in a new tab)
Projects and economic activity

What is being built in Boston-Cambridge, and who it puts to work

Named projects from primary and local news sources, researched September 2026. Market intelligence, not open bids: confirm timing with the owner.

Phillip and Susan Ragon Building, Massachusetts General Hospital

1.05 million sq ft

Under wayUnder construction; first tower opens 2027, second tower 2030

A new clinical building at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston's West End with 482 private inpatient rooms, the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, and the Corrigan Minehan Heart Center.

Construction is phased over about 8.5 years, with the first tower opening in 2027 and the second in 2030. That keeps hospital mechanical, electrical, and fire protection work going through the end of the decade, with interior flooring and painting as each tower finishes.

HVACelectricalfire protectionflooringpainting

Mass General Brigham, 2026-09 (opens in a new tab)

The Bolt

180,000 sq ft

See sourceTopped out; completion Q2 2027

A manufacturing and innovation building on a former Superfund site along the New Boston Street corridor in Woburn, Middlesex County, near the Anderson Regional Transportation Center.

The structure topped off in September 2026 and is due in the second quarter of 2027. Flexible manufacturing space needs heavy electrical service, process HVAC, and roofing, with tenant buildouts adding fire protection and floor work.

electricalHVACroofingfire protection

Boston Real Estate Times, 2026-09-14 (opens in a new tab)

840 Columbus Avenue residence hall, Northeastern University

445,200 sq ft

Under wayUnder construction

A 23-story residence hall with 1,215 student beds, community space, and ground-floor retail on a former parking lot at 840 Columbus Avenue in Boston, built by American Campus Communities with Blackstone.

Ground broke in February 2026. A high-rise dormitory needs HVAC, electrical, and fire protection work now, and ongoing flooring, painting, and cleaning once students move in.

HVACelectricalfire protectionflooringcleaning

Boston Real Estate Times, 2026-02-04 (opens in a new tab)

New Countryside Elementary School

Approximately $76 million

Under wayUnder construction; opening January 2027

A replacement elementary school in Newton, Middlesex County, built on the same site as the existing school with Massachusetts School Building Authority funding.

The building enclosure was finished in September 2026, and mechanical and electrical systems are being installed ahead of a January 2027 move-in. After that, the old school comes down and the site gets new athletic fields, which means paving and landscaping work in 2027.

HVACelectricalflooringpavinglandscaping

Boston Real Estate Times, 2026-09-17 (opens in a new tab)
Market view

What we see in Boston

Boston is losing commercial HVAC shops while its biggest hospital job is still going up. Mechanical contractor establishments fell from 572 in 2021 to 531 in 2025, the steepest drop of any trade we compare here. Massachusetts General Hospital's Phillip and Susan Ragon Building opens its first tower in 2027 and its second in 2030, so hospital mechanical, electrical and fire protection work runs to the end of the decade. Mass General Brigham, which calls itself the largest private employer in Massachusetts, also runs central plants and sprinkler systems across its hospitals and outpatient sites that need service long after the ribbon cutting.

Fire protection is where a contractor finds the most room. The metro has 118 fire protection contractors for 7,843 larger buyer sites, ranking #12 of 96 markets, and restaurants are the trade's largest buyer group. Inspection and sprinkler service repeats every year, so each restaurant group or property manager signed is a standing account. Grounds work is the opposite: 2,652 landscaping firms put Boston at #79 of 100.

Most of the call list sits outside the city. Middlesex County holds 32% of the metro's larger buyer sites, twice Suffolk County's 16%, and two of the current projects are there. The Bolt in Woburn, a manufacturing building on a former Superfund site, is due in the second quarter of 2027, with tenant buildouts to follow. In Newton, the new Countryside Elementary School opens in January 2027, then the old school comes down and the site gets new athletic fields, which means paving and landscaping work that year.

Abstrakt's reading of the sourced figures and projects above, written .

Decision-makers

Who signs, and how many of them work in Boston

70,950 general and operations managers, 20,530 computer and information systems managers and 12,990 medical and health services managers work in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro. Jobs across every industry, not a contact list.

Jobs and median annual pay by title, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
TitleJobsMedian payTrades that call this title first
General and operations managers
SOC 11-1021
70,950$133,800MSP
Computer and information systems managers
SOC 11-3021
20,530$214,960
Medical and health services managers
SOC 11-9111
12,990$136,760
Buyers and purchasing agents
SOC 13-1020
10,090$93,010
Construction managers
SOC 11-9021
7,570$156,470
Education administrators, postsecondary
SOC 11-9033
6,770$131,130
Property, real estate, and community association managers
SOC 11-9141
6,060$106,050landscaping, painting, paving
Facilities managers
SOC 11-3013
4,580$127,400cleaning, construction, electrical, flooring, roofing, fire protection, HVAC
Purchasing managers
SOC 11-3061
1,940$174,640

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) (opens in a new tab), May 2025, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH, all industries. Each title is the closest BLS occupation to a role in the trade's playbook; titles BLS does not publish for this metro are left out. Each trade link opens the Boston guide's decision-maker questions.

Opportunity estimator

What Could Your Next 12 Months in Boston Look Like?

A planning model, not a forecast: put in your own numbers and it applies Abstrakt's national sales center rates for your trade.

Default 16.1%: Abstrakt national rate for this trade. Use your own if you know it.

Baseline, 12 months

12,000prospecting dials
86meetings set
22proposals
3.6customers won
$89,355first-year value of those customers
Scenarios
ScenarioDials per meetingMeetingsCustomers wonFirst-year value
Conservative190632.6$65,841
Baseline140863.6$89,355
Optimistic1081114.6$115,831
Get My Boston Opportunity Assessment

How it works. Meetings are dials divided by dials per appointment; proposals, customers won and value follow from the proposal rate, the win rate and your customer value. The rates are Abstrakt sales center, Performance Intelligence, national, October 2026, across all programs, not Boston results; the scenarios use the slower and faster quarter of buyer industries. Outbound results typically build over 6 to 12 months, so a first year rarely runs at a full year's pace. Benchmarks by trade and method.

Hiring locally

What an in-house SDR costs in Boston

  • 25,310people in the role locally, all competing for the same hires

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025. Sales representatives of services, except advertising, insurance, financial services and travel (SOC 41-3091).

In-house SDR, first year (illustrative)$124,700

An illustrative model, not a quote: in-house adds $15,000 commission, 25% payroll taxes and benefits, $550/month tools, $7,000 recruiting and training, 35% yearly turnover, and manager, QA and admin time, before ramp time. Abstrakt includes the SDR, management, tools and data.

Get a Boston program quoteRun the full numbers
Local sales intelligence

See how a Boston program is built in Abstrakt Intelligence

Ava walks through the platform our strategists use, set to Boston.

Abstrakt Intelligence

This demonstration showcases real Abstrakt Intelligence capabilities using fictional companies and contacts to protect client and prospect privacy. Ava is Abstrakt's AI guide. The screens are the demo set to the Boston territory; its territory counts come from the demo data, not the Census figures above.

Read the transcript of Ava's Boston walkthrough

Hi, I'm Ava.

Here's what an Abstrakt program looks like in Boston.

First, we size your territory.

The Boston area has about 108 thousand companies and 492 thousand business contacts.

Next, we pick the playbook for your industry.

Each playbook starts with criteria that have already booked meetings.

For roofing, that's roof size, roof age and who owns the building.

Then we build the list.

Anyone who isn't a fit comes off before a rep ever sees the name.

Every prospect gets a full profile.

The decision-maker, the building, and every touch so far.

Before the first dial, each rep practices in an AI role play and gets certified.

Now the calls start.

The dialer, the talk track and the follow-up all live in one place.

Every meeting is reviewed for quality before it reaches you.

And we track each one all the way to closed.

We take one client per trade per territory.

Once a spot is taken, it's gone.

Check if your trade is still open in Boston.

Client results

Results from programs like this one

Each story is labeled with where the program ran. Abstrakt runs every program from its St. Louis sales floor.

  • Commercial cleaningLocal program, Tulsa

    How Century Facility Services broke its referral ceiling: $415K closed in year one

    Century Facility Services

    After losing a sales rep, Century Facility Services outsourced outbound and booked 58 appointments and closed $415K in year one.

    • 58 appointments booked
    • 7 deals closed
    • $415K closed business

    First year of the program (case published April 2026)

  • Commercial roofingRegional

    How Schena Roofing booked 475 appointments and kept a seasonal calendar full

    Schena Roofing & Sheet Metal

    Schena Roofing booked 475 appointments and closed $1.69M from 2018 to 2024, with another $1.39M in proposals delivered.

    • 475 appointments
    • $1.69M closed business
    • $1.39M in proposals delivered

    2018 to 2024, from Abstrakt program records. Closed business and proposals delivered are separate figures.

  • Fire protectionLocal program, Philadelphia

    How Harring Fire Protection turned outbound and inbound into $200K in new business

    Harring Fire Protection

    Outbound appointment setting plus an inbound website produced 195 appointments and 16 closed deals worth $200K in 28 months.

    • 195 appointments booked
    • 16 deals closed
    • $200K closed business

    28-month partnership (case published April 2026); search figures within 12 months of the February 2025 site launch

See all client stories

Outsourced sales development

How Abstrakt runs a Boston program

Reps on Abstrakt's St. Louis sales floor work your Boston-Cambridge list by phone, email, LinkedIn and direct mail after two weeks of training and certification on your account.

Contractor licensing in Massachusetts

Massachusetts has no general commercial contractor license. Buildings of 35,000 cubic feet or more must be controlled by a registered design professional, while smaller buildings need a licensed Construction Supervisor. Trades such as electrical, fire alarm, sprinkler fitting, refrigeration, and sheet metal are licensed by state boards, and public building work over $150,000 requires DCAMM certification.

Confirm with Massachusetts Office of Public Safety and Inspections, Division of Occupational Licensure (opens in a new tab). Checked 2026-09-30.

Free market report

The State of Outbound Sales in Boston, 2026

This page's Boston data in one report for your team, with the Massachusetts calling rules. No form to fill in.

Download the PDF (1.2 MB) Read it online
Free trade territory report · PDF

Get the territory report for your trade in Boston

One trade, one city, every page about your market: the account types that buy your work here and how many of each, Tier 1 sites, the counties to start in, who signs and what to ask them, the months that matter, federal contracts and permits, the Massachusetts calling rules, and whether the territory is still open. One client per trade per territory.

  • Account tiers and a worked first-list example
  • Decision-maker roles, questions and objections
  • A 90-day calling plan sized to the Boston counts

Send me the report

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Territory assessment

See Your Boston Sales Opportunity

A Partner Sales Manager sizes your Boston territory for your trade, checks whether it is open (one client per trade per territory) and shows what a program would look like.

Program commitments, including activity and meeting expectations, are defined in your agreement before launch.

Talk With a Sales Development Expert: (314) 338-8865 Check my market Explore Enterprise Sales Development

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Outsourced sales development in Boston, answered

Does Abstrakt provide B2B lead generation and appointment setting in Boston?

Yes. Abstrakt runs outsourced lead generation and B2B appointment setting across the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro from its St. Louis sales floor: U.S.-based reps prospect the buildings, qualify the opportunity and book meetings with the person who signs. We take one client per trade per territory.

How does B2B appointment setting work for a Boston program?

It starts with the list. Of the 12,333 sites in Boston-Cambridge with 20 or more people on site, we keep the ones that buy your trade inside your service area, then a certified rep works them by phone, email, LinkedIn and direct mail. Meetings are booked with the decision-maker, reviewed before they reach you and tracked to a proposal and a close.

Which commercial trades have the most room to grow in Boston?

Measured by larger buyer sites per contractor across the markets we track (a market is ranked for a trade only where it has at least 10 local contractors), fire protection (#12 of 96), commercial roofing (#15 of 89) and commercial construction (#17 of 100) rank best in Boston.

What kinds of businesses are concentrated in Boston?

Compared with the national mix, Boston-Cambridge has more commercial property managers (1.45x) and grocery stores (1.37x). Those industries are the best-represented buyers for trades that serve them.

Is the Boston business market growing?

Yes, on both counts below. Private business establishments across Boston-Cambridge's counties went from 175,736 in 2021 to 178,771 in 2025 (+1.7%), and private employment +4.2% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, annual averages). In the latest Census count, 11,780 establishments opened and 10,394 closed in the metro (U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics, 2023, March to March), so openings ran ahead of closings by 1,386.

How much federal construction money is spent in Boston?

Federal contract obligations with a place of performance in Boston-Cambridge's counties came to $18.53 billion in federal fiscal year 2026 (October 2025 to September 2026), $370.2 million of it in construction (NAICS 23) (USAspending.gov (U.S. Department of the Treasury), retrieved 2026-10-15). Fiscal 2026 will still rise as delayed defense contract actions post.

Is there less competition for commercial HVAC contractors in Boston than a few years ago?

Yes, by count. Mechanical contractor establishments in the metro fell from 572 in 2021 to 531 in 2025, the largest decline among the trades we track here. Medical and dental office buildings are the trade's largest buyer group, and the Mass General Ragon Building keeps hospital mechanical work running through its second tower in 2030.

Which trade has the most room in the Boston metro?

Fire protection. The metro ranks #12 of 96 markets for larger buyer sites per fire protection contractor, at 66.5 sites each. Commercial roofing is close behind at #15 of 89, with retail stores as its largest buyer group.

Which counties make up the Boston market?

The metro covers 7 counties. Middlesex County, Suffolk County and Norfolk County hold 64% of the larger business sites, so most programs start there.

What does outsourced sales development cost in Boston?

Starting at $5,000 per month for an Outbound BDR program, as a flat monthly program. The price depends on how many reps work your program, the channels, and how large a territory and how many trades it covers. For comparison, one in-house SDR costs about $124,700 in year one at a $55,000 base salary on our illustrative model, before ramp time.

Sources and method

Updated . Approved the local markets plan: the data sources, the method and the in-house SDR cost model shown on market pages: Scott Scully, Executive Chairman, October 15, 2026. Every figure is regenerated from its source by a script in the site's code, never typed by hand.

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