From Reactive to Systematic: A Market Penetration Framework for Commercial Services

You've Already Done Everything the Experts Tell You to Do

Every article on customer acquisition starts the same way. Build a great website, fill out your Google Business profile, and use Local Services Ads (LSA), deliver excellent services, ask for referrals, keep your Google reviews positive, network at industry events, and train your team.

The problem is, you’ve done all that. Maybe you’re 5-10 years in business and haven’t broken $5M in revenue. Your customers are happy. Your reputation is solid.

And yet growth is slowing to 5-8% annually (which doesn’t even match the growth of the market). The sales team is staying busy, but the sales pipeline is inconsistent. You’re still reliant on seasonal business, and cash flow dries up when the seasonal rush dies down. You're winning deals, but market share barely moves.

Here's what nobody tells you: Going from a founder-led business to building teams that generate millions in revenue systematically each year requires a completely different playbook.

Team structure changes. Training changes. Tactics change. Tools change. The entire customer acquisition strategy changes.

Because what got you to $5 million—your relationships, your reputation, your ability to close deals personally—doesn't scale. Your team can't replicate it. And "deliver good work and ask for referrals" stops being a growth engine when you need to add $10 million in revenue over three years to prepare your business for an acquisition or the next generation.

You're not executing poorly. You've outgrown the old playbook entirely.

The Problem Is Your Team Is Still Taking Orders (While You Close the Real Deals)

Let's be honest about what's actually happening in your business.

When YOU talk to a prospect, you close deals. You understand the building's challenges. You know how to navigate the decision-making process. You build relationships with facility directors and building owners. You win the business.

You have a deeper understanding of what’s going on in your market than most of your employees ever will, and your reputation depends on it.

Your sales team? They respond to RFPs. They chase referrals. They bid on projects they hear about through the grapevine. They replace competitors when someone screws up badly enough that the customer finally switches.

You're selling. They're taking orders.

And that worked fine when you were doing $2-3 million in revenue. You could personally handle the important deals. The team could handle the smaller stuff and the inbound opportunities.

But now you're trying to scale past $5 million, and the math doesn't work anymore. You can't personally close every deal. You're maxed out. Your team can't replicate what you do because they don't have a systematic process - they're copying your reactive approach without your knowledge, relationships, experience, or instincts.

Arcem Entry Systems in Indiana hit this exact wall. Salespeople waited for the phone to ring. Requests for quotes came from the field, not from proactive sales, driving growth. Mikayla Cleek, Arcem's Sales Operations Manager, called the old methods "unsustainable."

Rich Love, Arcem's Chief Revenue Officer, put it bluntly: "We decided we can't achieve what we want to achieve if we continue to let that way steer the ship."

Here's the kicker: Before implementing systematic prospecting, Love says their team spent 0% of their week on prospecting. Zero. They were 100% reactive. Taking orders, not generating pipeline.

Arcem had built a successful commercial door and hardware business. Good reputation. Solid customer base. And then they completely plateaued.

Why? Because the team was waiting for the phone to ring instead of systematically finding high-value buildings and going after them.

What is Market Penetration?

Market penetration is the percentage of your total addressable market that you currently serve. If there are 3,000 commercial buildings in your territory that could buy from you, and you service 300 of them, your market penetration rate is 10%.

For commercial services companies, market penetration strategies focus on increasing your share of existing markets rather than expanding into new territories or launching new service lines. It's about systematically capturing more of the opportunities that already exist within your defined geographic area and target customer segments.

Most commercial services companies think market penetration means "covering more territory." This isn’t necessarily the wrong approach, but it will end up being more costly and difficult as you’re moving into territories with existing competitors, increasing travel time for your team, and potentially even lowering the productive time your team has “on site.”

A better approach would be to look at a map of your territory and say: "There are 2,847 commercial buildings here that need what we sell. We service 287 of them. That's 10% penetration. How do we get to 25% or even 30% of them before we tackle a new market?"

Right now, you may have an idea of your market share, but you probably couldn't give an exact number if you were asked for it—and if you're planning to sell over the next few years, this number will be critical to the value of your company.

The challenge? Most commercial services companies are working with incomplete market visibility.

You can't fully penetrate markets you can't completely see. You likely see the customers you have and the opportunities that fall into your lap. But the other 90% is invisible - and that’s where your biggest opportunity lies.

Here's What Systematic Market Penetration Actually Looks Like

As a founder, you've been successful by being opportunistic. Someone mentions a building that needs work? You chase it. A referral comes in? You jump on it. You hear about a competitor losing an account? You make the call. This works because you have the instincts, the relationships, and the closing ability to convert random opportunities into revenue.

Your team probably can't do the same. They don't have your network. They don't have your decades of market knowledge. They don't have your ability to read a situation and pivot on the fly.

A System that Removes the Guesswork

Instead of hunting for random opportunities, they need a defined universe of targets. Instead of hoping for referrals, they need a list of buildings showing active buying signals. Instead of reacting to what falls into their lap, they need a systematic process for identifying, prioritizing, and pursuing the highest-value accounts in their territory.

This is the shift from founder-led to systems-driven growth. You're not replacing your instincts—you're building a framework that lets your team operate without needing those instincts.

Here's how you do it:

First: Map every building in your territory that could buy from you.

Not "potential customers." Not TAM estimates from industry reports. Actual commercial properties with addresses, square footage, equipment types, and ownership records.

If you're in commercial HVAC, that's every building over 25,000 square feet in your service radius. If you're in fire & life safety, it's every commercial property with sprinkler systems or fire alarms. If you're in janitorial services, it's Class A and B office buildings, medical facilities, and industrial spaces.

Every. Single. One.

Now you know your actual addressable market. Not a guess. An actual number.

Second: Figure out who you already service and what you're missing.

If you’ve been in business more than 5 years, you probably service 10-15% of your territory. Maybe a bit less. But here's what's wild: Your existing customers own or manage way more properties than you currently service.

Say you’re doing HVAC maintenance for one building. That company may own two or even twelve other buildings. You have 8% wallet share of an account you think you "own." That's not market penetration. That's leaving money on the table.

Most commercial services companies discover they're capturing less than 30% of their existing customers' total addressable spend. Your fastest growth isn't chasing new clients. It's the buildings your current customers already manage that you're not servicing.

Third: Stop treating all prospects like they're equally valuable.

They're not. Some buildings are 200,000 square feet with new ownership and aging equipment. Others are 15,000 square feet with a 3-year-old system and an owner who never switches vendors.

Systematic market penetration means targeting properties that match your ideal profile AND show buying signals:

• Recent permits (equipment replacement cycles)

• New ownership (vendor reviews always follow)

• Equipment that’s close to end-of-life (you can see this in permit history)

• Property management changes (new teams review everything)

• Refinancing or expansion (triggers service upgrades)

These aren't "warm leads." These are buildings where something is actually happening that makes them ready to buy. Target these. Ignore everything else.

Fourth: Take market share from competitors. Proactively.

Market penetration doesn't mean finding unserved accounts. It means taking buildings away from your competitors.

Most commercial services companies wait for competitors to screw up. That's passive. Systematic companies map which competitors serve which buildings, identify the ones with service issues or financial problems, and target those accounts before problems become crises.

You're not waiting for them to lose the account. You're creating the conditions that make switching to your company inevitable.

Now, this may seem predatory, and we’re not suggesting that in any way. Customers who aren’t happy with their current service level will be far more likely to have a conversation if they feel it will solve their problems. This is your opportunity to present your pitch.

But you’ve probably heard me say things like buyer intent signals, permits, ownership changes, and equipment data, and wondered, Where do I find these things? 

That’s where property intelligence comes in.

Why Property Intelligence Changes the Game

Everything we’ve talked about so far only works if you can actually “see” your market. In other words, you have a 30,000-foot view of all the buildings in your territory. 

Right now, you probably can't.

Your team is piecing together fragments:

• County records for ownership (half outdated or listing LLCs with no contact info)

• LinkedIn for facility manager contacts (no phone numbers, people changed jobs months ago)

• Google Maps for building details (incomplete, often wrong)

• Manual research for buying signals (impossibly time-consuming to scale)

So your team guesses. They target based on hunches. They chase opportunities they stumble across. They call it “prospecting,” but really it’s just finding someone’s contact information and hoping the message they send lands.

This is where Property Intelligence becomes a game-changing solution.

What Is Property Intelligence?

Property intelligence is a data platform that gathers all of the building characteristics, ownership records, permit history, verified decision-maker contacts, and buying signals for commercial properties and puts them on a map (not unlike Google Maps or MapQuest) for you to see.

No more jumping between county websites, LinkedIn, and Google Maps. Everything in one place. Every commercial building in your territory has complete actionable data - who owns it, what equipment it has, permit history from when that equipment was installed, and who makes the purchasing decisions. Updated regularly so you can always see what’s happening in your market.

For commercial services companies, this transforms market visibility from "buildings we know about" to "every addressable property in our territory with the data we need to actually sell to them."

But just because you can see them, doesn’t mean they need your services - this is where buying signals take visibility to the next level.

What Are Buying Signals?

Buying signals (also called buyer intent signals) are data points indicating a decision-maker at the property-level is actively in the market for services right now.

Not "might need us someday." Actively searching for things like “Commercial HVAC in [City],” “flat roof repair,” “Solar installers in [county].”

When you combine what people are actively looking for with:

• Recent permits – Equipment replacement or upgrade work filed with the city

• New ownership – Property sales that trigger vendor reviews

• Equipment age – Systems approaching end-of-life based on permit history

• Property management changes – New management companies that review all service contracts

• Refinancing or expansion – Financial events triggering service upgrades

You’re not just building an outbound sales function, you’re targeting people who are looking to solve a problem now… and you have a pretty good idea of what they’re trying to solve.

There are many benefits to this approach, but the big one is focus. Instead of cold calling 100 buildings, hoping someone needs you, you’re calling 20 buildings where something is actually happening that makes them ready to buy.

How This Makes Systematic Market Penetration Possible

With property intelligence, that four-step framework above becomes operationally feasible. Your team can actually see:

• Which buildings do your existing customers own that you're not servicing

• Which properties match your ideal profile (size, type, equipment)

• Which ones show buying signals that make them primed for sales outreach 

• Which competitors serve which buildings

Going back to Rich and Arcem Entry Systems, their team decided to implement property intelligence in 2024. The shift was immediate. Rich Love, their Chief Revenue Officer, says, “prospecting went from 0% of their team's week to 20% - but the systematic kind, not random cold calling.”

The result? Revenue grew from $7.2 million to a projected $8.7 million in 2025 - 21% growth. Quote volume dropped 20%, but sales increased 16%.

"Less work, more money," said Love in summarizing their decision to make the switch.

That's what happens when your team stops hunting blindly and starts working a defined universe of high-probability targets. They're not working harder. They're working systematically.

The Metrics That Show Whether You're Actually Penetrating Markets

Most commercial services companies measure the wrong things.

They track activity - calls made, emails sent, proposals delivered. Their sales reports show "100 dials this week" and "15 quotes sent." Impressive numbers. But completely meaningless if they don’t drive revenue.

Activity doesn't equal penetration. Busy doesn't mean effective.

If you want to know whether you're actually gaining market share or just spinning your wheels, you need to track different metrics entirely.

Territory Penetration Rate

Here's the number that matters most: How many properties you service divided by total addressable properties in your territory.

If you service 200 buildings and there are 2,000 you could service, your penetration rate is 10%. Simple math. Critical insight.

This number should climb every quarter. If it's stuck at 10-12% for two years, you're not penetrating your market - you're just participating in market growth alongside everyone else.

In other words, you're treading water.

Most commercial services companies have no idea what this number is. They couldn't tell you if you asked. They're guessing about market share based on vibes and revenue trends.

Get this number, track it quarterly, and put the systems in place to make it go up.

Account Penetration Rate

The second metric that exposes wasted opportunity: How many properties you service per customer, divided by the total properties they own or manage.

If you service one building for a customer who operates eight buildings, you're at 12.5% account penetration. That's not a customer you "own." That's a customer where you're leaving 87.5% of potential revenue on the table.

Your existing customers already trust you. They already pay you. They manage other buildings you could be servicing. This is your fastest, easiest growth lever - and you may not see the data required to capture the opportunity today.

Competitive Displacement Rate

This one tells you whether you're actually taking market share or just cleaning up scraps: Percentage of new accounts that came from competitors versus previously unserved accounts.

If 60%+ of your wins come from taking buildings away from competitors, you're gaining share. You're displacing. You're growing faster than the market.

If it's under 20%, you're finding the occasional unserved building or snagging referrals. You're not systematically taking territory from anyone.

Market penetration means taking share. This metric shows whether you're doing it.

Signal-to-Close Rate

The final metric that separates systematic targeting from random hunting: How many of your closed deals came from properties showing buying signals?

If 70%+ of your wins had signals - recent permits, ownership changes, equipment approaching end-of-life - your targeting works. You're reaching prospects at the right time in their buying cycle.

If it's under 40%? You're still cold-calling randomly and hoping. Your close rates are probably terrible. Your sales cycle is probably long. Your team is probably frustrated.

This metric tells you whether your targeting strategy actually works or whether you're just getting lucky occasionally.

The 90-Day Sprint That Proves This Works

You don't need a year-long transformation. You need 90 days to prove the model works in your market.

Weeks 1-2: See your actual market for the first time.

Map every serviceable building. Calculate your real penetration rate (it's lower than you think). Map your existing customers' full portfolios. Identify where you're leaving the most money on the table.

Weeks 3-4: Build target lists that aren't just random names.

Define your ideal property profile. Filter for buying signals. Prioritize by value and win probability. Assign territories by density, not just coverage.

Weeks 5-8: Launch proactive campaigns.

Target expansion opportunities within existing accounts first—easiest wins. Then, high-signal properties show active buying behavior. Build competitor displacement campaigns around contract renewal timing.

Weeks 9-12: Measure what actually matters.

Calculate penetration rate improvement. See which property types convert best. Double down. Scale what's working.

Most commercial services companies see measurable pipeline growth within 60 days. Revenue impact hits in months 4-6.

If you can’t see this data, take a few minutes to chat with our team at Convex, and we’ll happily show you how a change in strategy can make all the difference.

Why "Good Service + Referrals" Stops Working at $5-8M

Reputation matters. Quality service creates advantages. Referrals are real.

But they're table stakes. Not growth strategies.

Every commercial services company that scales past $10-15 million layers systematic market penetration on top of reputation and service. They don't abandon what works. They stop relying on it to drive growth.

They use property intelligence to see their market. They target proactively before RFPs exist. They expand within existing accounts. They displace competitors strategically.

They stop hoping the phone rings and start controlling which buildings they service.

This is how PE-backed platforms grow 20%+ annually across portfolios. This is how companies break through the $5-8M plateau. This is how you get from $5M to $15M in three years instead of ten.

Your reputation is the foundation. Systematic market penetration is the lever.

Your Market Isn't Saturated. You Just Haven't Penetrated It Yet.

You've already proven you can deliver quality service, build a team, and earn customer trust.

The question isn't whether you can grow. It's whether you'll grow systematically or keep hoping referrals eventually get you there.

Systematic market penetration requires three things you probably don't have right now:

• Complete market visibility. Every building in your territory, not just the ones you know about.

• Proactive targeting. Buying signals that tell you which buildings are ready to buy this month, not reacting to RFPs.

• Territory discipline. Penetrating defined segments instead of scattering randomly across geography.

Companies that implement this see 20-30% annual growth. Companies that don't plateau at $5-8M and wonder why execution isn't the problem.

Ready to see what systematic market penetration looks like for your business?

Schedule a demo and we'll show you:

• Your actual territory penetration rate (the number you've been guessing at)

• Which buildings do your existing customers manage that you're not servicing

• Which properties in your market are showing buying signals this month

• Exactly where competitors are vulnerable

Your market isn't saturated. You just can't see the full picture yet.