Commercial lead generation and B2B appointment setting in Houston

Houston-Pasadena has 15,698 business sites with 20 or more people on site in the categories commercial trades sell to, #5 of the 100 markets we cover, and 2.00 times the national concentration of nonresidential building owners. Private business establishments fell 0.5% 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.

See Your Houston Sales Opportunity Check my market

Ask Ava anything about the information on this page.

Local B2B snapshot

How many businesses are in Houston-Pasadena, and which ones buy

Houston-Pasadena has 81,764 establishments in the categories commercial trades sell to, 15,698 of them with 20 or more people on site. Compared with the national mix it over-indexes on nonresidential building owners (2.00x), commercial property managers (1.63x) and warehousing and distribution (1.51x). Added over the past year: medical, dental and outpatient offices (+182), commercial property managers (+85) and restaurants (+60). Down: retail stores (-232) and wholesale distributors (-205).

  • 81,764 establishments in the 21 categories commercial trades sell to

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

  • 15,698 of them with 20 or more people on site, where a prospecting list starts

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

  • -0.5% private business establishments, 2025 Q1 to 2026 Q1 (173,188 now; U.S. +3.6%)

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

  • 2.00x the national concentration of nonresidential building owners

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

  • 17,209 decision-maker records Abstrakt can prospect for a construction and roofing program (territory: Houston-The Woodlands)

    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 Houston-Pasadena

  1. Restaurants 1.31x the U.S. mix5,101
  2. Retail stores 1.28x the U.S. mix3,225
  3. Manufacturing plants 1.27x the U.S. mix1,794
  4. Wholesale distributors 1.20x the U.S. mix1,607
  5. Medical, dental and outpatient offices 1.44x the U.S. mix1,581
  6. Grocery stores 1.32x the U.S. mix574
  7. Churches and religious organizations375
  8. Senior living and nursing347

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 Houston-Pasadena: larger sites, all establishments, concentration and one-year change
CategorySites with 20+All establishmentsvs. U.S. mix1-yr change
Restaurants 5,10114,546 1.31x +60
Retail stores 3,22520,204 1.28x -232
Manufacturing plants 1,7945,739 1.27x -32
Wholesale distributors 1,6079,596 1.20x -205
Medical, dental and outpatient offices 1,58116,128 1.44x +182
Grocery stores (also counted in retail) 5743,272 1.32x -63
Churches and religious organizations 3752,703 0.26x +3
Senior living and nursing 347843 0.63x -3
Trucking companies 3213,072 0.99x -79
Bank and credit union offices 2963,725 1.25x +48
Hotels 2781,223 1.50x -18
Auto dealerships (also counted in retail) 252948 1.29x -14
Private K-12 schools 231386 1.16x +12
Warehousing and distribution 170464 1.51x +14
Hospitals 104120 1.06x +44
Golf courses and country clubs 6680 0.62x 0
Apartment and residential property managers 621,278 1.16x -107
Hosting and data processing companies 58289 0.49x -27
Commercial property managers 38414 1.63x +85
Nonresidential building owners 29906 2.00x -33
Colleges and universities 1548 0.28x +2
Total, each site once15,69881,764

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 Houston

What Industry Are You Growing In?

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

Choose an industry

Every trade in Houston at a glance

Largest buyer groups (sites with 20+ people)

  1. Restaurants5,101
  2. Retail stores3,225
  3. Manufacturing plants1,794
  4. Wholesale distributors1,607
  5. Medical, dental and outpatient offices1,581

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

Most room per contractor

  1. Commercial Landscaping#4 of 100
  2. Commercial Painting & Coatings#9 of 86
  3. Commercial Cleaning & Janitorial#11 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 Houston

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 Houston: contractors, buyer sites and rank
TradeContractors1-yr changeLarger buyer sitesPer contractorRankDecision-maker records
Commercial Landscaping
Largest buyer group: retail stores
 1,007 0 8,485 8.4 #4 not counted
Commercial Painting & Coatings
Largest buyer group: retail stores
 90 -3 8,643 96.0 #9 not counted
Commercial Cleaning & Janitorial
Largest buyer group: manufacturing plants
 1,055 -17 5,940 5.6 #11 5,154
Commercial Flooring
Largest buyer group: ambulatory health care: physician, dental, outpatient and urgent care
 56 -2 5,298 94.6 #12 not counted
Paving & Asphalt
Largest buyer group: retail stores
 177 +8 8,548 48.3 #28 not counted
Fire Protection
Largest buyer group: restaurants
 211 -3 9,732 46.1 #39 not counted
Managed Service Providers
Largest buyer group: manufacturers
 2,994 +18 9,095 3.0 #42 not counted
Commercial Construction
Largest buyer group: manufacturing companies
 1,044 +4 4,716 4.5 #55 17,209
Commercial Electrical
Largest buyer group: retail stores
 721 0 7,033 9.8 #60 not counted
Commercial Roofing
Largest buyer group: retail stores
 159 +6 8,671 54.5 #64 17,209
Commercial HVAC & Mechanical
Largest buyer group: manufacturing plants
 615 +2 4,992 8.1 #76 8,479

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 Houston-Pasadena adding businesses? Five years of counts

Private business establishments in the metro's counties went from 171,383 in 2021 to 174,489 in 2025 (+1.8%), while private employment moved +11.8% to 2,850,362. In the Census Bureau's latest count, 17,819 establishments opened and 14,251 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, Houston-Pasadena
YearEstablishmentsEmploymentAvg weekly wage
2021171,3832,549,311$1,418
2022176,0932,693,492$1,500
2023176,8092,786,892$1,563
2024175,5722,818,612$1,620
2025174,4892,850,362$1,675

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, 10 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, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX
Year to MarchOpenedRateClosedRate
201914,78011.2%12,1279.2%
202014,74111.0%13,2249.9%
202117,35512.7%13,67410.0%
202218,39413.1%14,31710.2%
202317,81912.4%14,2519.9%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics (opens in a new tab), 2023 release, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX. Each year runs March to March; rates are per 100 establishments.

New business applications

149,902 applications for an employer ID number were filed in the metro's counties in 2025, +73.6% on 2019 (86,351): Harris County 99,688, Fort Bend County 20,426, Montgomery County 13,861, Brazoria County 6,380, Galveston County 5,413, Liberty County 1,622, Waller County 1,023, Chambers County 705, Austin County 404 and San Jacinto County 380. 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, Houston-Pasadena
Trade20212025Change
Paving & Asphalt149172+23 (+15.4%)
Fire Protection196214+18 (+9.2%)
Managed Service Providers2,8573,011+154 (+5.4%)
Commercial Electrical712715+3 (+0.4%)
Commercial HVAC & Mechanical619618-1 (-0.2%)
Commercial Landscaping1,0141,010-4 (-0.4%)
Commercial Construction1,0641,052-12 (-1.1%)
Commercial Roofing159154-5 (-3.1%)
Commercial Cleaning & Janitorial1,1251,074-51 (-4.5%)
Commercial Flooring6658-8 (-12.1%)
Commercial Painting & Coatings11094-16 (-14.5%)

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 Houston calendar

Cooling demand peaks in August (592 cooling degree days in a normal year), and 67% of the 700 severe hail and wind reports from 2015 to 2024 fell in April, May and June. Start roofing and HVAC prospecting ahead of those months.

Average high temperature, cooling degree days and severe storm reports by month, Houston-Pasadena
MonthAvg high (F)Cooling degree daysHail and wind reports
January632652
February673211
March738572
April79145198
May85342196
June9150077
July9358310
August9459221
September8943713
October8220432
November72631
December651617

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 Houston-Pasadena

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 $8.88 billion in contracts with a place of performance in Houston-Pasadena's counties in federal fiscal year 2026 (October 2025 to September 2026), against $5.96 billion in fiscal 2025 (+49.0%). Construction (NAICS 23) took $382.0 million.

Contract obligations by county
CountyFY2026FY2025
Austin County$34.3 million$34.3 million
Brazoria County$80.9 million$14.5 million
Chambers County$1.8 million$5.3 million
Fort Bend County$32.1 million$116.0 million
Galveston County$3.68 billion$530.1 million
Harris County$4.97 billion$5.08 billion
Liberty County$503,495$782,951
Montgomery County$23.2 million$106.4 million
San Jacinto County-$18,682$518,538
Waller County$59.3 million$73.0 million
Metro counties$8.88 billion$5.96 billion
FY2026 obligations in each trade's own NAICS code
TradeNAICSFY2026
Commercial Construction236220$78.1 million
Commercial Electrical238210$38.0 million
Managed Service Providers541512$14.0 million
Commercial Cleaning & Janitorial561720$3.9 million
Commercial HVAC & Mechanical238220$2.5 million
Fire Protection561621$2.5 million
Commercial Landscaping561730$2.4 million

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. A negative figure means deobligations (money taken back on earlier contracts) exceeded new obligations in that county.

Territory intelligence

Where the Houston buyers are

Harris County, Fort Bend County and Montgomery County hold 89% of the metro's 15,698 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, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX
CountySitesShare
Harris County 11,16671%
Fort Bend County 1,4359.1%
Montgomery County 1,3378.5%
Brazoria County 6464.1%
Galveston County 6224.0%
Waller County 960.6%
Liberty County 820.5%
Chambers County 790.5%
Austin County 450.3%
San Jacinto County 30.0%
Not assigned to a county by Census1871.2%
Metro total15,698100%

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 187 sites cannot be placed in a county.

Abstrakt territories in this market

Houston - North, Houston - Downtown and Houston - South. A strategist confirms which one your program would hold.

The owners that anchor Houston-Pasadena

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

Health system

Memorial Hermann Health System

Houston, Harris County

Memorial Hermann lists 17 hospitals (14 owned or operated and 3 joint ventures), more than 280 care delivery sites and 35,000+ employees.

Hospitals and care sites spread across the region give one owner a long list of buildings needing HVAC, life-safety, cleaning, flooring and roofing work.

HVACfire protectioncleaningflooringroofing

Memorial Hermann (opens in a new tab)
4 more anchor owners in Houston-Pasadena
Major employer

ExxonMobil campus at City Place

Spring, Harris County

Community Impact reports ExxonMobil planned to relocate its corporate headquarters from Irving to its existing 385-acre campus in City Place, which opened in 2014 and can accommodate up to 10,000 employees and visitors.

A 385-acre office campus with parking structures and landscaped grounds needs janitorial, HVAC, landscape and paving work.

cleaningHVAClandscapingpavingelectrical

Community Impact (opens in a new tab)
Airport

Houston Airports (IAH and HOU)

Houston, Harris County

Houston Airports says George Bush Intercontinental and Hobby served 62 million passengers in 2025 and handled a record 562,809 metric tons of air cargo.

Terminals, cargo buildings, garages and airfield support facilities at two airports need cleaning, HVAC, electrical and pavement work.

cleaningHVACelectricalpaving

Houston Airports (opens in a new tab)
Logistics hub

Port Houston

Houston, Harris County

Port Houston owns and operates the eight public facilities along the 52-mile Houston Ship Channel, including the area's largest breakbulk facility and two container terminals.

Terminals, warehouses and yard pavement along the ship channel, plus the distribution buildings that cluster near them, need paving, roofing, electrical and fire protection work.

pavingroofingelectricalfire protection

Port Houston (opens in a new tab)
Projects and economic activity

What is being built in Houston-Pasadena, 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.

MD Anderson Patient Care Building 1

$2.9 billion

Approved or fundedApproved

A 25-floor clinical tower and a standalone Therapeutic Radiation Center for MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Texas Medical Center, Houston.

UT System regents approved the budget in May 2026, with later construction stages expected to start in early 2027 and final completion stretching into the early 2030s. Expect years of hospital-grade mechanical, electrical, and fire protection packages, followed by clinical cleaning and flooring contracts as floors turn over.

HVACelectricalfire protectionflooringcleaning

Connect CRE, 2026-05-22 (opens in a new tab)

George R. Brown Convention Center expansion (GRB South)

$2B bond authorization

Approved or fundedBonds approved; phase 1 targeted for 2028

Expansion of the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, adding new event halls, a large ballroom, restaurant and retail space, and a 100,000-square-foot pedestrian plaza toward Toyota Center.

Houston City Council approved $2 billion in bonds in February 2026 for work running through 2038, with the first phase due by 2028. Large-venue HVAC, electrical, and fire protection work comes first, then plaza paving and landscaping and recurring cleaning for a high-traffic public venue.

constructionHVACelectricalpavingcleaning

Community Impact, 2026-02-13 (opens in a new tab)

Gateway 1960

More than 714,000 sq ft

Under wayUnder construction; delivery Q3 2027

A three-building Class A industrial park on FM 1960 near Aldine Westfield Road in north Houston, Harris County, aimed at distribution, air cargo and logistics users.

Construction started in August 2026 with delivery planned for the third quarter of 2027. Tilt-wall warehouse shells create roofing, site paving, and electrical work now, and tenant fit-outs will add HVAC, fire sprinkler, and landscaping contracts as space leases.

roofingpavingelectricalfire protectionlandscaping

Portman (company press release), 2026-08-17 (opens in a new tab)

TRG Datacenters HOU2

110,000 sq ft

Under wayUnder construction; operational Q4 2026

A 24 MW colocation data center at 2626 Spring Cypress Road in Spring, Harris County, built for high-density AI racks with closed-loop dry-chiller cooling.

Ground broke in November 2025 and the facility is due to go live in the fourth quarter of 2026. Data center work is heavy on electrical distribution, cooling, and fire suppression, and the finished building needs ongoing mechanical service and specialized cleaning.

electricalHVACfire protectioncleaning

Business Wire (TRG Datacenters press release), 2025-11-18 (opens in a new tab)
Market view

What we see in Houston

Houston's hospital district is where we would send a mechanical, electrical or fire protection contractor first. UT System regents approved MD Anderson's new patient care building in the Texas Medical Center in May 2026, a clinical tower plus a standalone radiation center, with later construction stages expected to start in early 2027. Around it, medical, dental and outpatient offices sit at 1.44x the U.S. concentration and added 182 locations in a year, and Memorial Hermann runs hospitals and care sites across the region. When the build packages close, those buildings turn into years of service contracts for cleaning and flooring crews as well.

Commercial HVAC is the crowded call here. 615 mechanical contractors work 4,992 larger buyer sites, which puts Houston at #76 of 100 markets for room, so an HVAC firm wins on a tighter target list, not more dials. Landscaping sits at the other end, ranked #4 of 100, with retail stores its biggest buyer group. Painters are thinning out: the painting contractor count dropped 14.5% from 2021 to 2025, leaving 96.0 larger sites per firm.

Gulf weather sets the roofing year. Storm reports bunch up in April, May and June, the stretch that produced 67% of the metro's 700 hail and wind reports from 2015 to 2024, while August carries the heaviest cooling load for rooftop units. New roof area is coming too. Gateway 1960, a three-building industrial park on FM 1960 in north Houston, started construction in August 2026 for delivery in the third quarter of 2027, and warehousing sites already run 1.51x the national mix.

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

Decision-makers

Who signs, and how many of them work in Houston

97,320 general and operations managers, 16,500 construction managers and 13,090 computer and information systems managers work in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX metro. Jobs across every industry, not a contact list.

Jobs and median annual pay by title, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX
TitleJobsMedian payTrades that call this title first
General and operations managers
SOC 11-1021
97,320$119,600MSP
Construction managers
SOC 11-9021
16,500$103,530
Computer and information systems managers
SOC 11-3021
13,090$172,160
Medical and health services managers
SOC 11-9111
12,410$124,400
Buyers and purchasing agents
SOC 13-1020
10,880$76,290
Property, real estate, and community association managers
SOC 11-9141
9,530$72,950landscaping, painting, paving
Facilities managers
SOC 11-3013
3,200$105,650cleaning, construction, electrical, flooring, roofing, fire protection, HVAC
Education administrators, postsecondary
SOC 11-9033
2,900$105,700
Purchasing managers
SOC 11-3061
2,630$139,050

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) (opens in a new tab), May 2025, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX, 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 Houston guide's decision-maker questions.

Opportunity estimator

What Could Your Next 12 Months in Houston 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 Houston 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 Houston 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 Houston

  • 28,720people 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 Houston program quoteRun the full numbers
Local sales intelligence

See how a Houston program is built in Abstrakt Intelligence

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

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 Houston territory; its territory counts come from the demo data, not the Census figures above.

Read the transcript of Ava's Houston walkthrough

Hi, I'm Ava.

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

First, we size your territory.

The Houston area has about 152 thousand companies and 694 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 Houston.

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 Houston program

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

Contractor licensing in Texas

Texas has no state license for general contractors or roofers, though cities and counties may set their own requirements. TDLR licenses electrical and air conditioning/refrigeration contractors, and the State Fire Marshal's Office registers fire sprinkler and fire alarm companies.

Confirm with Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (opens in a new tab). Checked 2026-09-30.

Free market report

The State of Outbound Sales in Houston, 2026

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

Download the PDF (959 KB) Read it online
Free trade territory report · PDF

Get the territory report for your trade in Houston

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 Texas 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 Houston counts

Send me the report

Free. The download starts as soon as you press the button, and the next page links it again. We use your details to follow up about it. Privacy Policy.

Territory assessment

See Your Houston Sales Opportunity

A Partner Sales Manager sizes your Houston 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

Get My Territory Assessment

All fields are required.

We use your details only to prepare and discuss your assessment. See our Privacy Policy (opens in a new tab).

Outsourced sales development in Houston, answered

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

Yes. Abstrakt runs outsourced lead generation and B2B appointment setting across the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX 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 Houston program?

It starts with the list. Of the 15,698 sites in Houston-Pasadena 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 Houston?

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), commercial landscaping (#4 of 100), commercial painting & coatings (#9 of 86) and commercial cleaning & janitorial (#11 of 100) rank best in Houston.

What kinds of businesses are concentrated in Houston?

Compared with the national mix, Houston-Pasadena has more nonresidential building owners (2.00x), commercial property managers (1.63x) and warehousing and distribution (1.51x). Those industries are the best-represented buyers for trades that serve them.

Is the Houston business market growing?

Over five years, yes, on both counts below. The latest year dipped: private business establishments fell 0.5% from 2025 Q1 to 2026 Q1. Private business establishments across Houston-Pasadena's counties went from 171,383 in 2021 to 174,489 in 2025 (+1.8%), and private employment +11.8% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, annual averages). In the latest Census count, 17,819 establishments opened and 14,251 closed in the metro (U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics, 2023, March to March), so openings ran ahead of closings by 3,568.

How much federal construction money is spent in Houston?

Federal contract obligations with a place of performance in Houston-Pasadena's counties came to $8.88 billion in federal fiscal year 2026 (October 2025 to September 2026), $382.0 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.

Which Houston buyers sign for whole buildings rather than single jobs?

Nonresidential building owners and commercial property managers, and both are concentrated well above the national pattern. Building owners run at 2.00x the U.S. mix and commercial property managers at 1.63x, the two highest ratios of any buyer group in the metro. For a cleaning, roofing or mechanical service contractor, one of those conversations can cover a portfolio of buildings instead of a single site.

What does the MD Anderson expansion mean for Houston trade contractors?

A long run of hospital-grade work in the Texas Medical Center. The approved patient care building has later construction stages expected to start in early 2027 and final completion stretching into the next decade, so mechanical, electrical and fire protection packages come first, followed by clinical cleaning and flooring contracts as floors open. With 12,410 medical and health services managers employed in the metro, health care is a buyer group worth a dedicated call list.

Which counties make up the Houston market?

The metro covers 10 counties. Harris County, Fort Bend County and Montgomery County hold 89% of the larger business sites, so most programs start there.

What does outsourced sales development cost in Houston?

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.

Stop riding the feast-or-famine cycle. We fill your calendar with qualified meetings while your team does what it does best, winning and delivering the work.

Book my strategy callCall (314) 338-8865
Sales Talk newsletter

Get Sales Talk in your inbox

New playbooks, benchmarks and guides from our sales floor, for owners and sales leaders who sell to businesses. One email a month. See past issues.

Your email and the details you choose to add, nothing else. We never sell or share your address, and every issue has a one-click unsubscribe. Privacy Policy.

Check my marketCall us