Introduction: The Cold Calling Dilemma
You dial the main number. Again. The same receptionist answers with that polite but firm voice: "I'll transfer you to our general mailbox." Click.
So you try next week, only to get the same result. They say the “definition of insanity” is “doing the same thing and expecting different results.”
If you're selling HVAC, janitorial services, building automation, or security solutions, you know this pain intimately. You're not trying to reach just anyone - you need the facility manager or building engineer - the person who actually controls the budget for your services. But they're buried behind layers of gatekeepers, automated phone systems, and email filters that seem designed specifically to keep you out.
Before finding a sales intelligence solution that eliminated this problem, Nick Davis at Mechanical Services and Design watched his sales reps "make 100 cold calls a week" just to get stuck at the receptionists. His team was driving around town, using county permit databases, and researching at the local library, hoping to find businesses that "looked like they might be a good fit."
The result? Massive time waste and reps who couldn't reach the people who mattered.
That approach cost his organization something they'd never get back: time.
According to Salesforce research, sales reps spend just 28% of their time actually selling, with the majority consumed by inefficient prospecting and administrative tasks. More importantly, it kept them from the growth they needed.
Here's what Nick discovered - and what every commercial services sales team needs to understand: The barrier isn't the gatekeeper. It's the lack of intelligence about who you're trying to reach and how to reach them directly.
This article will walk you through a sales intelligence approach that transforms how you identify and connect with facility managers. You'll learn to use property data, contact intelligence, and buying signals to bypass gatekeepers entirely and start conversations with decision-makers who have real purchasing authority.
What is Sales Intelligence for Commercial Services Sales?
Sales intelligence is the process of collecting, analyzing, and leveraging data to understand your prospects before you ever pick up the phone. For commercial services sales teams, it's the difference between blind cold calling and strategic outreach to qualified decision-makers.
Think about it this way: Traditional prospecting is like showing up to a building and asking the receptionist if anyone needs HVAC work. Sales intelligence is like knowing the building pulled HVAC permits six months ago, identifying the facility manager by name, having their direct email, and understanding they've been researching energy efficiency solutions.
The traditional approach relies on volume—make enough calls, and eventually you'll find someone interested. The intelligence approach relies on precision—find the right person at the right time with the right message.
Why Traditional Cold Calling Fails Against Modern Gatekeepers
Here's what's happening: Modern businesses have built sophisticated defenses against interruption-based selling. Research shows that 87% of Americans don't answer calls from unknown numbers, and the average cold calling success rate has dropped to just 2.3% in 2025, nearly half of what it was in 2024.
But here's the thing: these defenses work because most salespeople approach prospects without any real intelligence about their needs or circumstances. When you call asking to "speak with whoever handles HVAC," you sound exactly like every other vendor trying to get through.
Sales intelligence changes that dynamic entirely. When you can reference specific property details, recent permit activity, or industry challenges relevant to their building, you immediately differentiate yourself from the pack.
The Role of Sales Intelligence in Facility Manager Outreach
Facility managers control purchasing decisions for building services, but they're also incredibly busy people juggling multiple priorities. They don't have time for discovery calls with every vendor who thinks they might need something.
Sales intelligence allows you to do the discovery work upfront. By the time you reach out, you already know their property type, square footage, current systems, recent maintenance history, and potential pain points. Your first conversation becomes consultative rather than exploratory.
This approach respects their time while demonstrating your expertise. Research from LinkedIn suggests that the first salesperson to spot a potential customer's needs and reach out with a personalized message has significantly higher success rates. Instead of asking, "What challenges are you facing with your current HVAC system?" you can say, "I noticed your building had HVAC work done last year, and based on the age of your facility, you might be dealing with efficiency issues. Here's how we've helped similar properties reduce energy costs by 30%."
Key Difference: Reactive vs. Predictive Prospecting
Reactive prospecting waits for leads to come to you or relies on broad outreach, hoping to find someone interested. Predictive prospecting uses data to identify prospects who are likely to need your services before they even start looking for vendors.
At Convex, we’ve combined the power of sales intelligence (company information) with property intelligence (commercial property data) so you can identify properties that need your services and the information you need to connect with the right decision-maker at the property level. Atlas tracks buyer intent signals, permit history, and more to show you who’s actively searching for what you’re selling.
This predictive approach doesn't just improve your hit rate - it fundamentally transforms your role from vendor to strategic advisor. You're not interrupting busy facility managers with generic pitches. You're approaching them with insights they actually need, at moments when those insights matter most.
That's the difference between playing defense in a crowded market and playing offense with information that competitors don't have.
Understanding the Role and Needs of Facility Managers
Facility managers hold one of the most complex roles in any organization. They're responsible for keeping buildings operational, safe, compliant, and cost-effective while balancing immediate crises with long-term strategic planning.
The Multifaceted Responsibilities of Facility Managers
Your typical facility manager oversees maintenance activities, manages vendor relationships, ensures regulatory compliance, coordinates space planning, monitors energy usage, handles emergency response, and often manages significant budgets, sometimes in the millions.
They're the person who gets called when the HVAC system fails during a heatwave, when the cleaning crew doesn't show up, when security systems need upgrading, or when leadership wants to know why utility costs are increasing.
Understanding this scope helps you appreciate why they're protected by gatekeepers and why your outreach needs to demonstrate immediate, relevant value.
Key Purchasing Decisions They Control
Facility managers typically have authority over significant budget decisions. According to a 2019 industry survey, 63% of facility managers are responsible for making their own purchasing decisions, with most preferring to work with trusted vendors and distributors.
These decisions include:
HVAC and mechanical systems - Installation, maintenance, and replacement of heating, cooling, and ventilation equipment
Janitorial and cleaning services - Contract management for cleaning staff, supplies, and specialized cleaning services
Building automation and security - Access control systems, monitoring equipment, and smart building technologies
Maintenance and repairs - Preventive maintenance programs, emergency repairs, and contractor relationships
Energy management - Utility contracts, efficiency upgrades, and sustainability initiatives.
Each of these represents significant budget line items and multi-year commitments. Facility managers don't make these decisions lightly, and they definitely don't make them based on cold calls from unknown vendors.
Identifying Key Challenges Faced by Facility Managers
When you speak with facility managers, they generally struggle with six major pain points that you can address:
Budget pressure with lifecycle costs - They need to balance immediate cost savings with long-term value, often while working with constrained budgets.
Aging infrastructure and equipment - Many buildings have systems installed decades ago that require constant maintenance or replacement.
Regulatory compliance and safety - Keeping up with changing regulations, safety requirements, and environmental standards.
Vendor management complexity - Coordinating multiple service providers, ensuring quality standards, and managing contract renewals.
Energy efficiency and sustainability - Reducing costs while meeting corporate sustainability goals and environmental regulations.
Emergency response and downtime prevention - Minimizing business disruption while maintaining operational efficiency.
When you understand these challenges, your outreach can address specific pain points rather than generic benefits. Instead of saying "We provide HVAC services," you can say "We help facility managers reduce HVAC emergency calls by 40% through predictive maintenance programs."
Why They're Protected by Multiple Gatekeepers
Facility managers are protected by gatekeepers for good reason. They receive dozens of vendor calls weekly from companies trying to sell everything from cleaning supplies to multi-million-dollar equipment replacements.
Without screening, they'd spend their entire day fielding sales calls instead of managing facilities. Gatekeepers help them focus on strategic work while filtering out low-value interruptions.
This protection means your outreach strategy must either bypass gatekeepers entirely through direct contact information or provide gatekeepers with compelling reasons to make the connection.
Essential Elements of Sales Intelligence for Facility Manager Outreach
Effective sales intelligence for facility managers requires five key data types that work together to create a complete picture of prospects and opportunities.
Building Targeted Prospect Lists with Property Intelligence
Property intelligence forms the foundation of facility manager prospecting. This includes building characteristics like square footage, property type, age, ownership structure, and tenant information.
For HVAC companies, you might target buildings over 50,000 square feet that are more than 15 years old—properties likely to need system upgrades or have efficiency issues. For janitorial services, you could focus on office buildings, healthcare facilities, or educational institutions with specific square footage requirements.
Property intelligence also reveals operational details that inform your approach. A single-tenant building suggests you'll deal directly with the company's facility team. A multi-tenant property indicates you might work with property management companies or individual tenants.
Contact Data: Finding Verified Phone Numbers and Emails
Having the right contact information eliminates the gatekeeper problem entirely. Sales reps can waste up to 27.3% of their time annually due to bad contact data, time that could be spent having meaningful conversations with decision-makers.
Instead of calling the main number and asking for "whoever handles maintenance," you're calling the facility manager's direct line or sending emails to their business address.
Quality contact data includes verified phone numbers, business email addresses, LinkedIn profiles, and organizational hierarchy information. The keyword is "verified"—outdated contact information wastes time and damages your professional reputation.
Technographic Data: Understanding Their Current Systems
Technographic intelligence reveals what systems and technologies prospects currently use. For commercial services sales, this might include HVAC equipment brands, building automation systems, security platforms, or cleaning management software.
This information helps you tailor your approach and identify specific opportunities. If you see a facility using outdated HVAC controls, you can position building automation upgrades. If they're using basic security systems, you can discuss advanced access control solutions.
Technographic data also helps you avoid wasting time on poor-fit prospects. If a facility has just installed a comprehensive building management system, it's unlikely to be interested in competing solutions.
Intent Data and Buying Signals: When They're in-Market
Intent data identifies when facility managers are actively researching solutions in your space. This might include web searches for "commercial HVAC contractors," downloads of energy efficiency guides, or attendance at industry webinars.
Buying signals include permit activity, facility expansions, new construction projects, leadership changes, or recent funding that might drive facility improvements.
With Convex Signals, sales teams get alerts when prospects show buying intent, allowing them to reach out when interest is highest rather than hoping for good timing.
Account Intelligence: Company Size, Structure, and Decision-Makers
Account intelligence provides context about the organization behind the facility. This includes company size, revenue, industry, organizational structure, and key decision-makers beyond just the facility manager.
Understanding whether you're dealing with a small business owner who makes all decisions or a large corporation with complex procurement processes helps you adjust your sales approach accordingly.
Account intelligence also reveals the full buying committee. While the facility manager might be your primary contact, you may need buy-in from operations directors, CFOs, or procurement teams for larger deals.
Leveraging Sales Intelligence Tools for Predictive Prospecting
The right sales intelligence tools transform raw data into actionable insights that drive predictable prospecting results.
Property Intelligence Platforms
Property intelligence platforms like Convex Atlas provide comprehensive building data, including square footage, property type, ownership details, tenant information, and permit history. This intelligence allows you to identify prospects based on specific criteria relevant to your services.
Atlas goes beyond basic property data by providing workflows and intelligence on businesses and people, helping you find qualified properties and the right decision-makers to contact. Instead of driving around looking for prospects, you can build targeted lists of properties that match your ideal customer profile.
Contact Databases and Verification Tools
Contact databases provide direct access to facility manager contact information, but verification is key. Outdated or incorrect contact data can waste up to 27.3% of your sales time annually.
Look for platforms that verify contact information regularly and provide confidence scores for data accuracy. The best tools integrate with your CRM to keep contact information current and flag when updates are needed.
Intent Data Platforms and Buying Signals
Intent data platforms monitor online behavior to identify when prospects are actively researching solutions. For commercial services, this might include searches for "facility management software," "energy efficiency upgrades," or "commercial cleaning contracts."
Buying signals go beyond search behavior to include permit activity, property transactions, leadership changes, and other events that create opportunities for your services.
CRM Integration and Data Enrichment
Your sales intelligence tools must integrate seamlessly with your existing CRM or have their own built-in version. Manual data entry creates delays and errors that undermine the benefits of better intelligence.
Look for tools that automatically enrich your existing contact records with property data, contact updates, and buying signals. This keeps your CRM current while providing sales reps with relevant context for every interaction.
AI-Powered Personalization Tools
AI tools like Convex Generative AI help you scale personalized outreach by creating customized messages based on property data, contact information, and buying signals. Instead of sending generic emails, you can generate property-specific messages that reference relevant details and pain points.
These tools save time while improving response rates by ensuring every message feels relevant and targeted to the recipient.
Sales Intelligence Strategies: From Research to Outreach
Transforming sales intelligence into actual conversations requires a systematic approach that moves from research to targeted outreach.
Intelligence-First Research Process
Start every prospecting effort with comprehensive research using your sales intelligence tools. This means understanding the property, the company, the decision-makers, and any recent activity or changes that create opportunities.
Property and Company Research Before Contact
Before making any contact, gather intelligence about the property characteristics, company background, and current circumstances. Look at recent permit activity, property transactions, or facility changes that might create needs for your services.
Understanding the company's industry, size, and recent developments helps you tailor your approach and identify relevant pain points to address.
Identifying Multiple Decision-Makers (Multithreading)
Facility managers are often your primary contact, but complex purchasing decisions involve multiple stakeholders. Use account intelligence to identify operations directors, procurement managers, CFOs, and other influencers who might be involved in the decision process.
Multithreading from the beginning helps you build support across the organization and reduces the risk of losing deals due to personnel changes or internal politics.
Understanding Procurement Processes and Budgets
Large organizations often have formal procurement processes that can extend sales cycles significantly. Understanding these processes upfront helps you plan appropriate timelines and identify all required stakeholders.
Budget timing is also key. Many facility improvements are planned during budget cycles, so understanding when decisions get made helps you time your outreach appropriately.
Timing Outreach with Buying Signals
The best sales intelligence is useless if your timing is wrong. Use intent data and buying signals to identify when prospects are most likely to be receptive to your outreach.
This might be when they're actively researching solutions, after permit activity suggests upcoming projects, or following leadership changes that often drive facility improvements.
Multi-Channel Breakthrough Tactics
Once you have comprehensive intelligence, deploy multiple outreach channels to maximize your chances of connecting with decision-makers.
Email Outreach with Property-Specific Insights
Email remains one of the most effective outreach channels when personalized with relevant intelligence. Reference specific property details, recent permit activity, or industry challenges that demonstrate your understanding of their situation.
Convex includes Generative AI outreach tools trained on real data (both from your company and the prospect’s), to send relevant, hyper-targeted messages to those you’re trying to reach.
Instead of generic subject lines like "HVAC Services for Your Building," try "Energy Efficiency Opportunities for [Building Address] Based on Recent HVAC Permits."
LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Warm Introductions
LinkedIn Sales Navigator helps you identify mutual connections who can provide warm introductions to facility managers. Research shows decision-makers are five times more likely to respond to outreach when it comes through mutual connections.
Use Navigator to find shared connections and request introductions that reference specific intelligence about why your services would be valuable to their contact.
Phone Strategies That Bypass Gatekeepers
When you have direct contact information, phone outreach becomes much more effective. Call facility managers' direct lines or mobile numbers rather than going through main reception.
When you do encounter gatekeepers, use your intelligence to provide compelling reasons for the connection. “Can you please transfer me to [person]? It’s in reference to the permits that were just pulled for [building name/ address].” Sounds a whole lot better than, “I was calling to see if your HVAC systems need serviced, can you tell me who I should speak with?”
Direct Mail with Personalized Property Data
Physical mail can be highly effective when personalized with property-specific intelligence. Send targeted packages that include relevant case studies, property-specific analysis, or useful resources for their facility type.
Direct mail also works well for following up on email or phone outreach, providing additional touchpoints that keep your services top-of-mind.
Converting Intelligence into Conversations: First Contact Strategies
Having great intelligence means nothing if you can't convert it into meaningful conversations with facility managers. Your first contact sets the tone for the entire relationship.
Crafting Value-Driven Opening Messages
Your opening message—whether email, phone, or LinkedIn—should immediately demonstrate value rather than asking for time. Lead with insights that show you understand their situation and can provide relevant solutions.
Instead of: "I'd like to schedule a few minutes to discuss our HVAC services and see if they might be a fit for your building."
Try: "Based on the HVAC permits pulled for your building last year and your facility type, you may be dealing with efficiency challenges similar to what we've resolved for other 75,000 square foot office buildings. I'd like to share how we've helped facilities like yours reduce energy costs by 30% while improving comfort."
Using Property Data for Instant Credibility
Referencing specific property details immediately differentiates you from generic sales outreach. When you mention building square footage, recent permit activity, or property characteristics, facility managers recognize you've done your homework.
This approach demonstrates professionalism and respect for their time. It also positions you as someone who understands their business rather than just another vendor making cold calls.
Essential Tips for Selling to Facility Managers
Facility managers value vendors who understand their unique challenges and can deliver measurable results. Keep these principles in mind for every interaction:
Focus on the overall financial picture, not just immediate solutions. Facility managers know that quick fixes often become costly mistakes. Show how your solution provides long-term value and lifecycle cost savings.
Back your statements with research and data. Facility managers are results-oriented professionals who want proof of your capabilities. Use case studies, performance data, and measurable outcomes to build credibility.
Showcase success stories from similar companies. Nothing builds trust like hearing from other facility managers who've achieved results with your services. Video testimonials are particularly powerful.
Don't waste time. Facility managers juggle massive to-do lists and occasional crises. Keep meetings focused, show up on time, and only present information that helps them make decisions.
Stay laser-focused on value and results. At the end of the day, facility managers want trusted solutions to their problems. Establish yourself as the vendor who can deliver results and additional long-term value.
Addressing Their Biggest Pain Points Immediately
Your intelligence should help you identify which pain points are most relevant for each prospect. Address these directly in your initial outreach:
For aging infrastructure: "Based on your building's age and recent maintenance activity, you're probably dealing with the reliability issues we've helped similar facilities resolve."
For budget pressure: "I know facility budgets can be tight, which is why I wanted to share how we've helped facilities like yours reduce operating costs while actually improving service levels."
For regulatory compliance: "With changing environmental regulations, many facilities your size are looking at HVAC upgrades to maintain compliance while reducing costs."
Building Trust Through Industry Expertise
Facility managers want to work with vendors who truly understand their industry and challenges. Demonstrate expertise by referencing industry trends, regulatory changes, or common issues faced by facilities similar to theirs.
Share insights that go beyond your specific services. If you can help them understand broader industry developments or provide useful information they might not have considered, you position yourself as a strategic advisor rather than just another vendor.
Sales Intelligence Prospecting Tools for Commercial Services
The right sales intelligence platform can transform your prospecting results, but choosing tools designed specifically for commercial services sales makes all the difference. Here are a few reasons Convex could be a good fit for your team.
Convex: Built for Commercial Services Sales Intelligence
Here's where the rubber meets the road. You need tools designed specifically for how commercial services teams actually sell, not generic business databases built for software companies.
Atlas gives you the property and people intelligence that matters. Instead of guessing which buildings might need your services, you can identify properties based on square footage, age, recent permit activity, and ownership structure. More importantly, you get direct contact information for facility managers, not just the main reception number.
The map-based visualization lets you see prospects and existing customers in geographic clusters, so you can plan efficient routes and identify areas worth targeting. Think of it as your territory strategy coming to life visually.
Signals tell you when prospects are actually looking. This is where timing becomes your competitive advantage. When a facility manager starts researching HVAC contractors or downloading energy efficiency guides, you get an alert. Instead of cold outreach, you're reaching out when they're actively considering their options.
The lead scoring helps you prioritize. Not every signal carries the same weight, and Signals helps you focus on prospects showing the strongest buying intent based on property characteristics and research behavior.
Generative AI handles the personalization at scale. Here's the part that saves hours every week: the AI creates customized outreach messages using property data and buying signals. Each email references specific building details and relevant pain points—no more generic "I hope this email finds you well" templates.
The messaging feels personal because it is personal, just drafted by AI. And since it's pulling from real property intelligence, facility managers recognize you've done your homework.
Everything integrates with your existing workflow. The platform has its own built-in CRM or works within your current CRM, so your team doesn't need to learn new systems. Property intelligence, contact data, and buying signals appear right where your reps are already working.
Sales managers get visibility into activity and performance through built-in reporting tools, while mobile access means reps can research prospects on the go, whether they're in the field or working from home.
The results speak for themselves. Organizations using Convex report significant ROI improvements, with some customers achieving 9x returns within 12 months. As Terri from Stratus Building Solutions puts it: "We decided to go with Atlas because, of any products that I've seen on the market, I've never seen anything so enhanced."
Measuring Your Sales Intelligence Success
Implementing sales intelligence requires measuring the right metrics to ensure you're improving results and maximizing ROI.
Key Performance Indicators for Facility Manager Outreach
Contact Rate Improvement (Getting Past Gatekeepers)
Track the percentage of prospects you successfully contact versus those where you get stuck with gatekeepers or voicemail. Sales intelligence should improve your contact rates by providing direct access to decision-makers.
Measure both phone contact rates and email response rates. With better contact data and personalized messaging, you should see improvements in both metrics.
Response Rates to Initial Outreach
Monitor how many prospects respond positively to your initial outreach attempts. Property-specific messaging and relevant insights should improve response rates compared to generic sales approaches.
Track responses across all channels—email, phone, LinkedIn, and direct mail. This helps you identify which approaches work best for different types of prospects.
Meeting Conversion Rates
Measure the percentage of initial contacts that convert to qualified meetings or site visits. Intelligence-driven outreach should result in higher conversion rates because your messaging demonstrates relevant value.
Quality is more important than quantity here. Focus on scheduling meetings with decision-makers who have real purchasing authority and budget.
Sales Cycle Acceleration
Track how sales intelligence affects your average sales cycle length. Better prospect qualification and more targeted outreach should help you move deals through the pipeline faster.
Compare cycle times for deals sourced through intelligence-driven prospecting versus traditional cold calling or inbound leads.
Pipeline Quality and Velocity
Monitor the overall quality of opportunities in your pipeline. Sales intelligence should help you focus on better-qualified prospects with higher close rates and larger deal sizes. Research indicates that up to 69% of buyers are still willing to answer cold calls, but only when the outreach demonstrates genuine relevance and value.
Track pipeline velocity - how quickly opportunities move through each stage of your sales process. Better qualification upfront should result in smoother progression through later stages.
Optimizing Your Sales Intelligence Process
A/B Testing Outreach Messages
Test different messaging approaches to identify what resonates best with facility managers. Compare property-specific references versus pain point messaging, or different value propositions.
Use your sales intelligence platform to track open rates, response rates, and meeting conversion rates for different message variants.
Refining Ideal Customer Profiles
Use performance data to refine your ideal customer profiles. Which property types, company sizes, and market segments produce the best results? Adjust your targeting criteria based on actual conversion data.
This continuous refinement helps you focus prospecting efforts on the most promising opportunities while avoiding lower-probability prospects.
Improving Data Accuracy and Freshness
Monitor the accuracy of your contact data and property intelligence. Poor data quality can waste significant time—studies show that sales reps lose up to 27.3% of their time annually due to inaccurate contact information.Business data also decays at a rate of 2% per month, making regular updates essential for accuracy and data hygiene.
Scaling Successful Strategies Across the Team
Identify which sales reps achieve the best results with sales intelligence and document their approaches. Share successful messaging templates, prospecting strategies, and follow-up sequences with the entire team.
Create training programs that help all team members leverage sales intelligence effectively. The goal is to scale best practices rather than relying on individual performance.
Case Study: How Stratus Building Solutions Reduced Lead Costs
Terri Reddan at Stratus Building Solution, Pittsburgh, faced the challenge every janitorial services company knows: finding the right decision-makers in a crowded market where everyone claims to offer the same basic services.
The Challenge: Finding Facility Managers in Janitorial Services
"The hardest part of this job is getting the person who's in charge of cleaning," Terri explains. In the commercial cleaning industry, you're not just competing on price—you're competing for access to the decision-makers who control cleaning contracts.
Traditional approaches meant cold calling main phone numbers, hoping to reach facility managers who might be interested in discussing cleaning services. Most calls ended with gatekeepers or voicemail systems.
Even when Stratus reached potential customers, they often lacked the property-specific information needed to demonstrate value and differentiate their services from competitors.
The Solution: Atlas Property Intelligence and Contact Data
Stratus implemented Convex Atlas to transform their prospecting approach. Instead of cold calling random businesses, they could identify properties that matched their ideal customer criteria and access direct contact information for facility managers.
"We decided to go with Atlas because, of any products that I've seen on the market, I've never seen anything so enhanced," Terri notes. "I always refer to it as 'Google on steroids' because you can get so much information."
The platform provided building size, business type, property manager details, and other property characteristics that allowed for more intelligent conversations with prospects.
Results: Direct Access to Decision-Makers
The impact was immediate and measurable. "When you have those insights, you're one step ahead of the [decision maker]. It gives you that ability to have a more intelligent conversation with them," Terri explains.
The clincher was contact information quality. "If you can have that name... It's a deal breaker." Being able to directly target facility managers or business owners became key to both immediate success and long-term relationship building.
"You might not get the contract at that time, but you're sure on their radar. And the next time the renewal comes up from a cleaning perspective, you're more than likely going to be able to jump in there."
The data accuracy exceeded expectations. Terri shares an example of finding contact details for someone newly in charge of cleaning: "His name was on there, and he had only been in that role for two weeks. It was shocking to me that the system had that name there."
Operational Efficiencies Beyond Pure Outreach
Atlas also improved operational efficiency. Stratus maps existing customers within the platform to identify nearby prospects, creating localized target lists of high-value prospects.
"If we have a current customer, we look at every business in that same area using Atlas to enhance [what we know] and create efficient routing for sales calls.”
This geographic clustering approach reduces travel time and costs while allowing for more strategic territory management. "You don't want people driving all around town. [Atlas] is set up just like our operations map, and the two complement each other."
The result: Stratus reduced lead costs while improving the quality of prospects and conversations with facility managers who control purchasing decisions.
Conclusion: Building a Sustainable Sales Intelligence Strategy
The days of making 100 cold calls weekly and hoping to reach decision-makers are over. Facility managers have too many vendor options and too many gatekeepers protecting their time for interruption-based selling to remain effective.
Sales intelligence transforms commercial services prospecting from a numbers game into a strategic process. When you understand property characteristics, identify decision-makers, and time your outreach with buying signals, you create conversations rather than interruptions.
The companies winning in today's market—like Mechanical Services and Design with their $42 million in sourced opportunities, or Stratus Building Solutions with their improved lead costs—share one thing in common: they use intelligence to reach the right people at the right time with relevant messages.
Your competitive advantage comes from reaching facility managers directly, demonstrating understanding of their specific challenges, and positioning yourself as a strategic advisor rather than just another vendor.
The intelligence-first approach requires investment in the right tools and processes, but the ROI is measurable: higher contact rates, better response rates, shorter sales cycles, and stronger relationships with decision-makers who control purchasing budgets.
Start building your sales intelligence strategy today. Identify properties that match your ideal customer criteria, find verified contact information for facility managers, and begin conversations that demonstrate real value rather than generic sales pitches.
Schedule a Demo to see Convex in action and discover how sales intelligence can transform your facility manager outreach from cold calling frustration to strategic conversations that drive results.
FAQ Section
How do you identify facility managers for commercial properties?
Use property intelligence platforms like Convex Atlas to identify buildings that match your service criteria, then access verified contact databases to find facility manager names, titles, and direct contact information. This approach bypasses gatekeepers and connects you directly with decision-makers.
What's the best way to get past gatekeepers in commercial services sales?
The most effective approach is avoiding gatekeepers entirely by using sales intelligence to find direct contact information for facility managers. When you must work through gatekeepers, reference specific property details and relevant pain points to demonstrate why the facility manager should take your call.
How can sales intelligence improve facility manager outreach?
Sales intelligence provides property data, contact information, and buying signals that allow you to personalize outreach and demonstrate relevant value. Instead of generic cold calls, you can reference specific building characteristics and industry challenges that resonate with facility managers.
What data points are most important for reaching facility managers?
Key data includes property characteristics (size, age, type), recent permit activity, contact information (direct phone/email), buying signals, and technographic data about current systems. This intelligence helps you identify qualified prospects and craft relevant messaging.
How do you measure sales intelligence ROI in commercial services?
Track contact rates, response rates, meeting conversion rates, sales cycle length, and pipeline quality. Companies using Convex report improvements in all these metrics, with some achieving 9x ROI within 12 months through better prospecting efficiency and higher conversion rates.
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