Market report · Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
The State of Outbound Sales in Chicago, 2026
How outbound selling looks across the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro right now: who the buyers are, which trades have room, what is being built, what a rep costs to hire here. Then a 4-tool kit to work the market this month.
- 22,535business sites with 20+ people across the categories trades sell to, #3 of our 100 metros
- 71buyer sites per fire protection contractor, #10 of 96 markets: the best rank of any trade here
Sites: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023; rank among the 100 metros on our market pages. Room: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 sites per contractor in U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, private ownership, 2026 Q1, among markets with at least 10 contractors.
Executive summary Read this if nothing else
5 things to know about outbound sales in Chicago
Biggest buyer pool
Restaurants: 6,092 sites
with 20 or more people, the largest buyer category in Chicago-Naperville, ahead of retail stores (4,626).
Where the metro leans
Trucking companies: 3.49x the U.S. mix
Also over-represented: private K-12 schools (1.48x) and manufacturing plants (1.38x). Trades that serve these buyers have more of them here than the national average suggests.
Most room
Fire Protection: #10 of 96 markets
71 buyer sites with 20+ people for each of 188 local fire protection contractors. The most crowded is commercial landscaping, #78 of 100.
Biggest reason to call
Bally’s Chicago Casino & Resort, Anchor development
Under construction. One of 2 named, sourced projects in this report.
Hiring locally
$124,700 for an in-house SDR's first year (illustrative)
At a $55,000 base salary, once commission, payroll taxes and benefits, tools, recruiting and training, turnover and manager time are added, before ramp time.
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; project sources as of 2026-07; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025. Full list at the end.
Chapter 01 The market
Who buys in Chicago-Naperville
22,535 business sites in Chicago-Naperville have 20 or more people on site in the categories commercial trades sell to. That ranks #3 of the 100 metros we publish. Here is what those buyers are and where they sit.
The largest buyer categories
Sites with 20 or more people are the ones worth an SDR's time: big enough to have a facility lead, a service budget and a contract that comes up for renewal. The "vs. U.S. mix" column compares each category's share of local employment with its national share (1.00x is the U.S. average).
| Category | Sites with 20+ | All sites | vs. U.S. mix | 1-yr change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RestaurantsLargest pool | 6,092 | 21,071 | 1.33x | +626 |
| Retail stores | 4,626 | 25,308 | 1.07x | +71 |
| Manufacturing plants | 3,247 | 9,298 | 1.38x | +174 |
| Wholesale distributors | 2,321 | 12,261 | 1.01x | +24 |
| Medical, dental and outpatient offices | 2,177 | 22,475 | 1.21x | +956 |
| Grocery stores | 844 | 4,521 | 1.33x | +54 |
| Senior living and nursing | 772 | 1,797 | 0.59x | +43 |
| Trucking companies | 575 | 12,968 | 3.49x | +313 |
| Bank and credit union offices | 502 | 4,437 | 0.90x | +14 |
| Auto dealerships | 464 | 1,073 | 1.05x | +14 |
Chicago-Naperville leans toward trucking companies (3.49x), private K-12 schools (1.48x) and manufacturing plants (1.38x). A trade that already sells to those buyers elsewhere has a deeper pool here than the national numbers suggest, and a case study from one of them travels well on the phone.
It is thinner than the U.S. mix in colleges and universities (0.50x) and hosting and data processing companies (0.58x). A program built around those buyers runs out of fresh accounts sooner here.
Growing fastest over the past year, by establishment count: medical, dental and outpatient offices (+956), restaurants (+626) and trucking companies (+313). New sites have no incumbent vendor yet.
The metro
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN: 13 counties in this report's counts.
Cook County, DuPage County and Will County hold 73% of the larger business sites, so most programs start there.
Where the sites are
| County | Sites with 20+ | Share of metro |
|---|---|---|
| Cook CountyStart here | 11,566 | 51% |
| DuPage County | 3,326 | 15% |
| Will County | 1,649 | 7% |
| Lake County | 1,638 | 7% |
| Kane County | 1,356 | 6% |
| Lake County, Indiana | 1,205 | 5% |
| McHenry County | 587 | 3% |
| Porter County, Indiana | 397 | 2% |
Chapter 02 The competition
Which trades have the most room in Chicago
Buyer sites per contractor is a rough read on how crowded a trade is: more sites for each local competitor means more doors nobody else is knocking on. Each trade's Chicago figure is ranked against the other markets we track.
| Trade | Rank among markets | Sites per contractor | Contractors | 1-yr change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fire ProtectionMost room | #10 of 96 | 71 | 188 | +8 |
| Commercial Electrical | #17 of 100 | 13 | 816 | +11 |
| Commercial Roofing | #20 of 89 | 82 | 147 | +11 |
| Commercial Construction | #23 of 100 | 6.2 | 1,182 | +36 |
| Commercial HVAC & Mechanical | #25 of 100 | 12 | 676 | +14 |
| Managed Service Providers | #29 of 100 | 3.8 | 3,474 | +87 |
| Paving & Asphalt | #29 of 94 | 48 | 231 | +9 |
| Commercial Cleaning & Janitorial | #37 of 100 | 4.2 | 2,192 | +94 |
| Commercial Painting & Coatings | #45 of 86 | 67 | 185 | +1 |
| Commercial Flooring | #52 of 68 | 56 | 125 | +5 |
| Commercial Landscaping | #78 of 100 | 2.9 | 3,878 | +130 |
Fire protection (#10), commercial electrical (#17) and commercial roofing (#20) rank best in Chicago. For those trades a program can work longer before it calls the same building twice, and fewer competitors have already pitched each owner.
Commercial landscaping is the most crowded trade here, #78 of 100: 2.9 buyer sites for each of 3,878 local commercial landscaping contractors. Winning there takes a sharper reason to switch than a lower price.
Open programs
Our availability workbook does not cover Chicago yet. We take one client per trade per territory, so ask before you plan around it.
Chapter 03 The projects
What is being built, and who owns the buildings
2 named, sourced projects and 6 anchor owners in Chicago-Naperville. Each one is a reason to call that has nothing to do with your company and everything to do with the buyer's building.
The projects
- 01 · Anchor development Bally’s Chicago Casino & Resort Under construction The permanent casino complex is one of the projects pushing Chicago’s crane count upward. rlb.com
- 02 · District-scale development Fulton Market District Build-Out Multiple active projects Chicago’s fastest-transforming commercial district keeps adding office, residential, and hospitality inventory. rlb.com
Projects current as of 2026-07; each source is linked on its card. Values are as reported by the source.
The anchor owners
Health systems, campuses, large employers and industrial parks hold the biggest concentrations of commercial buildings in Chicago-Naperville. One relationship with a facilities team here can cover many buildings.
Health system · Chicago, Cook County
Northwestern Medicine
Northwestern Medicine says it has more than 5,400 physicians and hundreds of locations throughout the Chicagoland area, anchored by Northwestern Memorial Hospital downtown.
Hospitals from Streeterville to Central DuPage, Delnor, Lake Forest, McHenry, Palos and Woodstock run central plants, sprinkler systems and patient floors that need constant service.
Northwestern MedicineCampus · Chicago, Cook County
University of Illinois Chicago
UIC calls itself the largest university in Chicago and reports 35,869 total students for Fall 2025.
East and west campuses on the Near West Side combine classroom buildings, labs, residence halls and the university hospital, with parking structures and grounds to maintain.
University of Illinois ChicagoAirport · Chicago, Cook County
Chicago O'Hare International Airport
Wikipedia, citing the airport's own statistics, lists 84,851,825 passengers at O'Hare in 2025 and notes the airport covers 7,627 acres.
Terminals, garages, cargo buildings and airline maintenance facilities across a 7,627-acre site run by the Chicago Department of Aviation need cleaning, HVAC, electrical and pavement work.
WikipediaLogistics hub · Elwood and Joliet, Will County
CenterPoint Intermodal Center
Wikipedia calls it the largest inland port in North America, with a 785-acre Union Pacific Railroad complex south of Joliet and a 770-acre BNSF Railway complex to the southwest.
Rail yards surrounded by large distribution centers create demand for dock-area paving, warehouse roofing, lighting and sprinkler work.
WikipediaMajor employer · Gary, Lake County, IN
U.S. Steel Gary Works
Wikipedia, with citations, calls Gary Works the largest integrated mill in North America and Gary's largest single employer, with 2,246 employees in 2023.
A lakefront steelmaking complex with furnaces, rolling mills and support buildings carries heavy electrical, roofing, coatings and fire protection needs.
WikipediaRetail center · Schaumburg, Cook County
Woodfield Mall
Wikipedia, with citations, calls Woodfield the largest shopping mall in Illinois; it opened on September 9, 1971.
A large enclosed mall with anchor stores, food court and acres of surface parking needs janitorial, HVAC, lot paving and landscaping work.
WikipediaAnchor facts checked 2026-10; each source is linked on its card.
Which trades the work touches
| Trade | Projects and owners |
|---|---|
| Commercial HVAC & Mechanical | 6 |
| Commercial Cleaning & Janitorial | 6 |
| Fire Protection | 5 |
| Commercial Electrical | 5 |
| Paving & Asphalt | 4 |
| Commercial Construction | 3 |
| Commercial Flooring | 3 |
| Commercial Roofing | 2 |
| Commercial Painting & Coatings | 1 |
| Commercial Landscaping | 1 |
Chapter 04 The calendar
The Chicago selling calendar
Outbound runs every month, but the weather changes what a buyer wants to hear. These are the NOAA records for the Chicago-Naperville metro's counties, month by month.
| Measure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail and damaging wind reportstotal, 2015 to 2024 | 2 | 80 | 137 | 212 | 209 | 409 | 603 | 505 | 94 | 16 | 43 | 7 |
| Cooling degree daysaverage month | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 62 | 171 | 267 | 223 | 76 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Heating degree daysaverage month | 1,288 | 1,055 | 846 | 484 | 215 | 33 | 7 | 19 | 84 | 389 | 756 | 1,121 |
| Average high (°F)average month | 31 | 35 | 47 | 60 | 71 | 81 | 84 | 82 | 76 | 63 | 48 | 36 |
NOAA logged 537 hail reports of 1 inch or larger and 1,780 damaging wind reports across the metro's counties from 2015 to 2024: #7 of 100 markets for hail and #5 for wind. June, July and August carried 65% of the reports. Storm calls are a real door-opener here, and the contractor who is already known before the season gets the inspection.
The metro averages 806 cooling degree days a year (#62 of 97 markets) and 6,296 heating degree days (#23 of 97). Cooling load peaks in June, July and August; heating in January, February, March, November and December. Peak months are when HVAC calls lead with service and response times; the rest of the year they lead with planned work and budgets.
7 months average a high of 60°F or more (April, May, June, July, August, September and October). That is when exterior painting, paving and landscaping crews are busiest, so in-season calls catch owners while they can see the work that needs doing. The contracts themselves are bid on each property's own dates, so the selling runs all year.
Trades with no weather season
Cleaning, construction, electrical, flooring and fire protection sell on contract end dates, budgets and inspection cycles. Learn each account's date on the first call and come back before it.
Roofing demand spikes after hail and wind events, when owners want an inspection and documentation for their insurer, so be the known contractor before the storm, not one of many calling after it. Planned work follows each owner's budget: inspections feed capital requests, and replacements are approved ahead of installation. Outbound runs every month, keyed to each building's roof age and budget date.
Chapter 05 The numbers
What one meeting takes, trade by trade
What booking a meeting has taken on our own calling floor for the trades we run in Chicago, next to the records we can prospect here. The sales center figures are national; it does not break them out by city yet.
| Trade | Dials per appointment | Reached proposal | Proposals won | Dials for 10 meetings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fire ProtectionFastest to book | 78 | 21.6% | 13.2% | about 780 |
| Paving & Asphalt | 86 | 32.2% | 7.4% | about 860 |
| Commercial Landscaping | 88 | 18.8% | 12.7% | about 880 |
| Commercial Electrical | 96 | 14.6% | 21.1% | about 960 |
| Commercial HVAC & Mechanical | 98 | 16.6% | 24.9% | about 980 |
| Commercial Painting & Coatings | 115 | 31.2% | 14.4% | about 1,150 |
| Commercial Flooring | 122 | 30.8% | 9.8% | about 1,220 |
| Commercial Roofing | 140 | 25.9% | 16.1% | about 1,400 |
| Commercial Cleaning & Janitorial | 142 | 23.9% | 21.7% | about 1,420 |
| Managed Service Providers | 162 | 10.0% | 20.5% | about 1,620 |
All of these trades together: 122 dials per appointment
The records behind a Chicago program
Before a program starts we size the list: the decision-maker records Abstrakt can prospect for each trade in the Chicago-Naperville territory.
- 22,975Commercial Roofing
- 22,975Commercial Construction
- 11,824Commercial HVAC & Mechanical
- 7,760Commercial Cleaning & Janitorial
Source: Abstrakt territory record counts, as of October 2026: estimated decision-maker records Abstrakt can prospect for each program in the territory. Shown for the programs the count covers.
Read it this way
Divide the records by the dials one meeting takes and you see how long a list lasts before it repeats. A thin list means a program has to work every record well, not just call more.
Chapter 06 Build or buy
What an in-house SDR costs in Chicago
Before you hire a sales development rep in Chicago, price the whole job, not just the salary.
The salary is the smallest part of the decision. About 55,730 people hold the role in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro, and every one of their employers is competing for the same hires.
| Cost | Year one |
|---|---|
| Base salary | $55,000 |
| Commission and bonus | $15,000 |
| Payroll taxes and benefits (25% of pay) | $17,500 |
| Tools and data ($550 a month) | $6,600 |
| Recruiting and training | $7,000 |
| Turnover (35% a year, rehiring) | $2,450 |
| Manager and QA time (5 hours a week) and admin (4 hours a month) | $21,150 |
| Total, before ramp time | $124,700 |
Headcount: 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). The cost lines are the starting values of our SDR cost calculator: $15,000 commission, 25% payroll taxes and benefits, $550 a month in tools, $7,000 recruiting and training, 35% yearly turnover, and manager, QA and admin time. Change any of them there.
$124,700
for one in-house SDR's first year at a $55,000 base salary.
That buys one rep. It does not buy the list, the manager's coaching system or cover when the rep leaves.
Part two Apply this
The Chicago market toolkit
4 working tools built from the chapters above. Tick the boxes as you go (they stay ticked in this browser), copy the scripts into your CRM, or save the whole guide as a PDF and print this part as a worksheet.
Tool 01
Account scorecard
Before an account goes on the call list, check every line that fits. Call the accounts with the most ticks first, and leave the ones with none for later.
Tool 02
Discovery question bank
Ask fewer, better questions. Pick three or four for the call and save the rest for the meeting. Each one comes with the reason it earns its place.
Restaurants: 6,092 sites here
From our fire protection talk track. Staying open and passing inspection. Multi-unit operators are worth more than single locations.
- When was your hood suppression system last inspected, and when is the next one due?Due dates tell you when to call and what to offer.
- Have you had a failed inspection or a citation recently?Failed inspections threaten the ability to stay open and create urgency.
- How many locations do you operate, and does each one use a different vendor?Multi-unit operators are more valuable and often want one vendor across locations.
Retail stores: 4,626 sites here
From our electrical talk track. Lighting cost and fast repair. For chains, decisions often sit in a regional facilities office, so find who owns vendors for your area.
- Who handles electrical service for this store, the store, a regional facilities office or a national provider?For chains, decisions often sit outside the store, so this tells you who to call next.
- Is a lighting retrofit or remodel planned for this location?Remodels and retrofits are defined projects with budgets.
- How fast does your current electrician respond when lights or signs go out?Slow response during business hours is a common reason to add a vendor.
Manufacturing plants: 3,247 sites here
From our fire protection talk track. Insurer recommendations and process hazards. The safety manager often owns the relationship, not facilities.
- Who owns the fire protection relationship here, facilities, maintenance or the EHS manager?The safety manager often owns it rather than facilities, so this tells you who to meet.
- Has your insurer's loss-control visit produced any recommendations?Insurer recommendations create deadlines and defined scope.
- Do you have special-hazard suppression on any processes, and who services it?Special-hazard systems need specialized service and are often a separate opportunity.
Any first meeting
Plain practice that works in every market.
- How are you handling this today, and what would you change about it?The gap between today and what they want is the whole reason to meet.
- What happens if nothing changes this year?Tells you whether there is a cost to waiting, or only curiosity.
- Who else would need to agree before anything moves?Names the people who can stall the deal, while you can still invite them.
- When does the current contract or budget come up for review?Gives you the date to plan around, even when the answer today is no.
- What would make a first meeting worth your time?Lets the buyer set the agenda, which is the agenda they will show up for.
Tool 03
Trigger watchlist
Each of these changes gives a buyer a reason to take the call this month instead of next year. Tick the ones you will track, and set a news alert or CRM field for each so you hear about it first.
Tool 04
30-day action plan
4 weeks, 15 steps, nothing you need to buy. Tick each one off as you finish it; your progress stays in this browser.
Week 1Draw the territory
Week 2Check the rules, then write the talk track
Week 3Make the calls
Week 4Measure and decide
Sources and notes
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023: business sites by category, size and county, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, private ownership, 2026 Q1: contractor establishments, one-year change and concentration (location quotient).
- Projects: named public sources linked on each card, current as of 2026-07.
- Anchor owners: sources linked on each card, checked 2026-10.
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 2015 to 2024: hail and damaging wind reports by month across the metro's counties.
- NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county monthly series, 1991-2020 averages: degree days and average highs by month.
- Abstrakt sales center, Performance Intelligence, national, as of October 2026: dials, appointments, proposals and wins by trade. Method.
- Abstrakt territory record counts, as of October 2026: decision-maker records per program in the Chicago-Naperville territory.
- 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).
- The toolkit's discovery questions come from our trade talk tracks; the plan and checklists are sales practice, not data.
