Inbound vs Outbound Sales for Commercial Services [2025]

TL;DR / Key Takeaways

• Inbound sales means prospects come to you (referrals, web searches, word-of-mouth). Outbound sales means your team proactively reaches out to prospects (cold calls, targeted outreach, prospecting).

• The main difference is who initiates contact: with inbound, the buyer starts the conversation; with outbound, your sales team does.

• Inbound alone is risky because you can't control volume, timing, or quality—especially during slow seasons or market shifts when the phone stops ringing.

• Outbound gives you control and predictability: instead of waiting and hoping, your team can generate pipeline on demand by targeting the right accounts at the right time.

• Building an outbound engine traditionally requires 5+ separate tools (intent data, contact databases, mapping, CRM, LinkedIn)—expensive and time-consuming to integrate.

• Convex combines everything into one platform: buyer intent signals, permit tracking, verified contacts on 6M+ properties, map-based prospecting, and pipeline management—built specifically for commercial services.

• Real example: Arcem Entry Systems went from 0% prospecting time to 20% weekly using Convex, dropped quote volume by 20% but increased sales by 16%—proving that strategic outbound beats reactive inbound.

Introduction

Let’s start with the moment everything changed for Rich Love.

As the newly appointed Chief Revenue Officer at Arcem Entry Systems, a commercial door company in Indiana, Rich walked into a sales operation that looked exactly like many commercial services businesses: salespeople waiting for the phone to ring, scribbling quotes on paper, tracking everything in spreadsheets.

No prospecting. No pipeline control. Just... waiting for leads to flow in.

The company's Sales Operations Manager, Mikayla Cleek, called the approach "unsustainable." And she was right. When referrals slowed down or the busy season ended, revenue became unpredictable. The team was reacting, not driving growth.

Sound familiar?

If you're a sales manager or business development leader at a commercial services company—whether you're in HVAC, roofing, solar, janitorial, landscaping, or any other trade—you've probably felt this exact tension. Maybe your inbound pipeline used to be enough. Referrals kept you busy. The phone rang often enough that you didn’t worry about it.

But now? Things feel different. The phone's quieter. Referrals are inconsistent. You're stuck in the slow season with no way to create pipeline without spending on ads. And you're starting to wonder: Is there a better way to fill the sales funnel?

That's where understanding inbound versus outbound sales methods becomes a critical step in your company’s growth. Not in some theoretical, textbook way - but in a practical, "we need revenue next quarter," and it needs to be predictable.

In this guide, we'll walk through what inbound and outbound sales workflows actually mean for commercial services businesses, when each approach works (and when it doesn't), why building an outbound engine is harder than it looks, and how to get it up and running without becoming a software integration expert.

By the end, you'll know exactly which strategy—or a combination of both—your business needs right now.

What Is Inbound Sales?

“Inbound sales” is when prospects come to you. It really is that simple. Inbound literally means they found your business and initiated the conversation.

• Maybe they found you through a Google search (by “Googling:” "commercial HVAC maintenance near me"). 

• A satisfied customer may have referred them. 

• Maybe they saw your truck in the neighborhood and jotted down your number. 

• Or, they may have downloaded a guide or filled out a form on your website.

The key characteristic of inbound is that you don't have to hunt them down. They raised their hand and said, “I’m interested in your services - reach out to me.”

Examples of Inbound Sales in Commercial Services

Here's what inbound leads look like in the real world:

Referral from an existing customer: Your HVAC team did great work on a retail plaza. The property manager recommends you to a colleague who oversees three office buildings. That colleague calls you directly.

Organic search: A facility manager searches "emergency roofing repair [city name]" at 2 a.m. after a storm. Your website ranks at the top. They fill out your contact form.

Word-of-mouth at an industry event: A building engineer mentions your company to a peer at a trade association meeting. Two weeks later, that peer reaches out asking for a quote.

Website form submission: A building owner or facilities manager researching solar installations finds your blog post about ROI calculations, clicks "Get a Quote," and enters their information to be contacted by your sales team.

In all these scenarios, the prospect is already aware of a problem, somewhat interested in a solution, and willing to engage. That's inbound.

Why Inbound Feels Good (At First)

Inbound sales feel natural. You’re not interrupting someone’s day. You're not "bothering" anyone. Prospects come pre-qualified - they want what you offer. The sales conversation often starts further down the funnel, which means shorter sales cycles and less resistance, especially when the topic of pricing comes up.

For years, many commercial services businesses built their entire revenue engine on inbound. If you did good work, referrals multiplied. If you invested in a decent website and some local SEO, leads trickled in.

And for a while, that was enough.

But here's the problem with only relying on this approach: inbound is fundamentally reactive. You can't control when prospects show up, how many show up, or whether they show up at all.

So if inbound means waiting for prospects to find you, what's the alternative? How do you take back control when the phone stops ringing?

That's where outbound sales come in.

What Is Outbound Sales?

Outbound sales flips the script from reactive to proactive. Instead of waiting for the phone to ring, your team picks up the phone first.

More broadly, outbound is when your sales team proactively reaches out to potential customers who haven't contacted you - prospects who might be actively looking for your services but are unaware of your business.

You're not waiting for opportunities to come to you. You're going after them, i.e., creating them.

Examples of Outbound Sales in Commercial Services

Here's what outbound looks like in practice:

Cold calling targeted accounts: Your sales rep identifies a 15-year-old, 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility that likely needs HVAC service. They call the facilities manager directly to start a conversation about system replacements or preventive maintenance contracts.

Email outreach to property managers: You build a list of multi-site property management companies in your region and send personalized emails introducing your roofing inspection services as a way to close new roofing contracts.

Door-to-door canvassing: A solar sales team drives through industrial parks, stopping at businesses with large, flat roofs that could benefit from solar installations that decrease energy costs.

LinkedIn prospecting: Your business development or inside sales team connects with directors of facilities at healthcare systems in your territory, starting conversations about building automation upgrades.

Trade show follow-up: After collecting business cards at a commercial real estate conference, your team reaches out to schedule discovery meetings.

In all these cases, you're creating the opportunity. The prospect wasn't looking for you. They might not even know they have a problem yet. But your outreach puts your solution in front of them at a strategic moment.

The Meaning of Outbound Sales: Control

Here's what outbound really means: you control your sales pipeline.

If you need to hit a revenue target this quarter, you don't sit around hoping referrals magically appear. You can calculate: "We need 20 qualified conversations to generate five proposals to close two deals. So this week, our team will reach out to 100 targeted prospects."

That's the power of outbound. Predictability. Scalability. Proactivity.

It's also a lot more work. It requires special tools, strategy, discipline, and a mindset shift. But for commercial services businesses serious about consistent growth, it's non-negotiable.

So now that we've defined both approaches, let's put them side by side to see how they stack up where it matters most.

The Real Difference: Who Controls Your Pipeline

Here's the core distinction in one comparison:

Neither is inherently better - and we’d all like leads to just “find us.” But here's the truth most sales managers learn the hard way: relying solely on inbound is a gamble.

You're essentially betting that:

• Referrals will keep flowing

• Your market won't shift

• Competitors won't steal your prospects

• Economic conditions won't dry up demand

• Seasonal slowdowns won't devastate cash flow

And when those assumptions break? Your revenue collapses - because you haven’t built another way to generate a sales pipeline.

Which brings us to an uncomfortable question...

When Inbound Alone Stops Working (The Warning Signs)

Inbound sounds pretty good, right? Low friction, warm leads, cost-effective at scale. So why do so many commercial services businesses eventually hit a wall?

Let's look at the warning signs - maybe you're experiencing some of these right now:

Scenario 1: The Seasonal Slowdown Say, for example, you're an HVAC contractor. Summer was great. Emergency AC repairs kept your phones ringing “off the hook.” But now it's September or October. Inbound calls have dropped by 60% and your sales team is sitting around waiting for the next deal. You're burning cash on payroll with no new business coming in.

Scenario 2: The Referral Plateau Or, you've built your business on word-of-mouth. It worked for years. But you've hit a ceiling. You’re trying to grow, and that means new expenses. The same customers keep referring you to similar-sized accounts, and you need to break into larger, multi-site clients - who never seem to hear about you organically.

Scenario 3: The Competitor Invasion This is a big one, because it’s happening every day right under our noses. A well-funded or Private Equity-backed competitor enters your market, invests heavily in digital advertising, and suddenly outranks you on Google. Your website traffic drops. Form submissions dry up. Your "inbound lead generation" goes from an overwhelming number of leads each month to barely covering overhead.

Scenario 4: A Market Shift During things like a pandemic or an economic downturn, decision-makers stop searching for services and start reacting to challenges. Projects get delayed. Maintenance contracts are put on hold. Inbound demand evaporates - and you have no “Plan B.”

If any of these sound familiar, you're experiencing the limits of inbound-only sales.

And that's where outbound becomes your lifeline. But—and this is important—outbound isn't as simple as "just start making calls."

The Case for Outbound: Predictability Over Hope

To go back to our introduction for a moment, what changed at Arcem Entry Systems? (We'll dig into their full story in a moment, but here's the high-level shift.)

Before outbound:

• Prospecting = 0% of salespeople's time

• Pipeline = whatever referrals happened to show up

• Control = zero

After implementing systematic outbound:

• Prospecting = 20% of every salesperson's week

• Pipeline = systematically generated by targeting the right accounts

• Control = total

Rich Love, Arcem's CRO, put it simply: "We obviously can't achieve our growth goals if we're not attaining new-customer business."

So they stopped waiting for the phone to ring. They started making the calls.

But here's what made that shift possible: they stopped trying to piece together disparate tools.

Before using Convex, outbound prospecting meant spending hours on Google Maps identifying buildings, looking at overhead views, and building efficient sales routes. Then, more time on LinkedIn finding contacts, searching for email addresses, using spreadsheets to track it all, and having zero visibility into which prospects were actually in-market.

By using Convex to identify prospects based on facility size, ownership, and location, and Convex Signals to see who was actually searching for “commercial doors,” Arcem's team can now systematically find and reach the right decision-makers at commercial facilities.

That's why Rich Love's team went from 0% to 20% prospecting time so fast. The infrastructure was already built.

Why Outbound Sales Is More Predictable Than Inbound

Outbound gives you three things inbound can't:

1. Volume control: Need more pipeline? Increase daily outreach activities. It's math.

2. Target control: Instead of hoping the "right" prospects find you, you identify and pursue them deliberately.

3. Timing control: Don't wait for prospects to be ready. Reach them proactively when your pipeline needs filling.

4. Message control: Tailor your pitch to each account's specific needs rather than hoping your generic website converts them.

Yes, outbound requires more effort. Yes, you'll hear "no" more often. But would you rather have control over your revenue, or would you rather hope the phone rings?

For most commercial services businesses trying to scale past $5-10 million in revenue, the answer is obvious.

But before we go further, we need to address the elephant in the room: building an outbound engine is harder than it looks.

The Outbound Infrastructure Problem (And Why Most Teams Get Stuck)

Here's where most commercial services companies hit a wall when they try to "add outbound" and think it’s going to be simple.

You realize you’ll need:

1. Buyer intent data - Who's actively searching for your services right now? Cost: $500-3,000/month for platforms like Bombora or 6sense

2. Property and building intelligence - Which facilities match your ICP? What's their square footage, age, and ownership structure? Cost: $200-800/month for commercial real estate databases

3. Contact data - Who's the facilities manager? What's their direct phone number and email? Cost: $300-1,000/month for many sales intelligence platforms

4. Permit and change tracking - Which properties recently filed permits or had ownership changes? Cost: Often bundled with property data or requires manual research on county records websites, which are often old and outdated.

5. Mapping and route planning - If you have field sales, you need to visualize where properties are and plan efficient routes Cost: Free (Google Maps) to $50-100/user/month for advanced routing software.

6. LinkedIn Sales Navigator - To research decision-makers and send connection requests (up to 200 per week). Cost: $99-149/user/month

7. CRM for pipeline management - To track all these prospects through your sales process Cost: $50-150/user/month for Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, etc.

8. Calendars and Scheduling tools - to book appointments and reconcile calendars. Cost: $10-20/per user/per month for Calendly, Acuity, Doodle, and more (unless you have this already built into Google Workspace or Zoom).

Total monthly cost: $1,100-4,000+ per user/ per month, depending on your stack.

But cost is only part of the problem.

The Real Challenge: Integration Complexity and Tool Switching

Now you have 5-7 different tools that don't talk to each other (unless you want to pay integration specialists thousands more to connect all of them), and require APIs, custom field mapping, and more.

Your rep's workflow looks like this:

1. Log into Intent Platform → Export list of companies showing intent

2. Log into Property Database → Cross-reference company names, find their facilities

3. Log into Contact Database → Find facilities managers for each property

4. Copy addresses into Google Maps → Plan which ones to visit this week

5. Log into LinkedIn → Research each contact, send connection requests

6. Copy everything into CRM → Manually create records, update fields

7. Finally, start making calls

Time to build one list of 50 qualified prospects: 4-6 hours. 

Margin for error: High (data gets stale, copy-paste mistakes, things fall through cracks)

This is why most sales managers say "we should do outbound" and then... never actually do it consistently.

It's not a willpower problem. It's an infrastructure problem.

What If All of That Was One Platform?

This is where Convex fundamentally changes the game.

Convex was built specifically to solve this fragmentation problem for commercial services teams. Instead of buying and integrating 5-7 separate tools, you get everything in one place:

1. Buyer intent signals - See which properties' decision-makers are actively searching for your services

2. Property-level intelligence - on almost 6 million commercial properties across North America with detailed building data, ownership details, square footage, building age, tenant makeup, and more.

3. Verified contact information - Direct phone numbers, emails, and LinkedIn profiles for engineers, facilities managers, property managers, owners, and other decision-makers.

4. Permit history and tracking - Know which properties recently filed building permits or had major work done.

5. Decision-maker change alerts - Get notified when there's turnover in facilities management.

6. Map-based prospecting - Visualize properties on a map, filter by your criteria, and plan efficient routes.

7. CRM and pipeline management - Track prospects from first touch to closed deal.

8. AI-powered outreach assistance - Draft personalized emails, calls, and talking points based on the data previously listed as well as your company data.

One login. One platform. Built specifically for how commercial services teams sell.

Time to build a list of 50 qualified prospects: 5-10 minutes Margin for error: Low (everything's integrated, data stays current)

Now you understand why Arcem could go from 0% to 20% prospecting time so quickly. They weren't trying to wire together seven different tools while also learning outbound. They had a system designed exactly for what they needed to do.

Let's look at how this actually works in practice.

What Does a Modern Sales Process Look Like? (Day-in-the-Life with Convex)

Okay, we've covered the theory. Now let's make it concrete. What does a balanced inbound + outbound sales day actually look like when you have the right infrastructure?

Let's walk through a typical Tuesday for Sarah, a sales rep at a commercial HVAC contractor.

Morning: Outbound Prospecting Block (8:00 AM – 10:00 AM)

Sarah logs into Convex and opens the map-based view of all commercial properties in her territory.

She's targeting retail chains with aging HVAC systems this week. She sets filters:

• Industry: Retail

• Building age: >15 years

• Square footage: >50,000

• HVAC equipment age: >12 years (based on permit history)

• Territory: Her assigned zip codes or by circling an area on the map.

47 properties appear on the map.

Three of them have "Signals." Convex detected that decision-makers at these locations have been searching for HVAC-related terms in the past 30 days. These are hot.

She clicks the first property. The property card shows:

• Building: Walgreens, 72,000 sq ft, built 2006

• Current HVAC: Rooftop units (permits show original installation 2007 - now 18 years old)

• Recent activity: Permit filed for roof replacement last quarter

• Facilities contact: John Smith, Regional Facilities Manager

• Direct phone: (555) 123-4567

• Email: john.smith@walgreens.com

• Buying signal: Searched "commercial HVAC preventive maintenance" 12 days ago

• LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/johnsmith

Sarah clicks "Send a message" and Convex's Generative AI drafts an email using the property data:

"Hi John — I noticed your Walgreens location on Main Street recently completed a roof replacement. Since you were already doing building work, I wanted to reach out about your HVAC systems.

It looks like your rooftop units were installed in 2007, which means they're approaching 20 years old - which could mean they’re well past the typical 15-year lifespan. Given that you're actively managing building improvements, this might be a good time to discuss preventive maintenance or replacement options before the units fail during peak season.

We work with several multi-site retail chains in the area. Would you be open to a 15-minute call this week to discuss your HVAC strategy?"

Sarah reviews it, adds one personalized line about another Walgreens location she services, and clicks send.

Time elapsed: 90 seconds.

She repeats this for the other two hot signals, then moves through 12 more properties on her list - personalizing outreach based on permit data, building age, and recent activity.

Total time: 45 minutes Result: 15 highly personalized emails sent to decision-makers at properties that match her ICP, with 3 targeting prospects showing active buying intent right now

What used to take 4-6 hours of manual research. Now it only takes a few minutes because all the data—intent signals, property details, contacts, permit history—is in one place.

Mid-Morning: Inbound Lead Response (10:00 AM – 11:00 AM)

An inbound lead comes in - a facility manager at a local office building submitted a web form asking for an emergency AC repair quote.

Sarah immediately calls (response time matters for inbound). She qualifies the lead, asks about the building's maintenance history, and schedules a site visit for that afternoon.

While on the phone, she quickly looks up the property in Convex and sees it's a 45,000 sq ft building with HVAC units installed in 2015. She makes a note to discuss preventive maintenance during the site visit.

Result: A fast response converts a warm inbound lead into an active opportunity, using context from Convex to expand the conversation beyond just the emergency repair.

Afternoon: Discovery Call + Proposal Prep (1:00 PM – 3:00 PM)

Sarah has a scheduled discovery call with one of last week's outbound prospects - a multi-site restaurant chain interested in exploring preventive maintenance contracts across 12 locations.

Before the call, she pulls up all 12 properties in Convex to review:

• Building sizes and layouts

• Current HVAC equipment (based on permit data)

• Recent repairs or upgrades at any location

• Decision-maker hierarchy

On the call, she uses consultative selling (Sandler-style approach):

• "What's driving the need to revisit your HVAC maintenance strategy now?"

• "Which locations have given you the most trouble over the past two years?"

• "What would a successful outcome look like for you in 12 months?"

• "What budget range are you comfortable exploring for a multi-site contract?"

After the call, she uses Convex to generate a proposal showing all 12 properties on a map, estimated service schedules, and pricing tiers based on square footage and equipment complexity.

Result: Outbound lead is progressing through the funnel. Estimated deal size: $180K annual contract. 4 replacement units and continuing maintenance contracts for all 12 locations.

Late Afternoon: Site Visit (3:30 PM – 5:00 PM)

Sarah visits the inbound lead's office building for the emergency repair. While there, she notices the building's rooftop units are nearing the “end of life.”

She mentions this to the facility manager: "Your emergency repair will get you through the season, but I noticed your units are about 12 years old. Have you thought about a maintenance contract to keep the units in optimal condition, and eliminate service delays… or maybe even budgeting for replacement?"

She pulls up the property in Convex on her phone, shows him the permit history, and offers a free assessment of their entire HVAC infrastructure—which she can schedule for next week through the app.

Result: A small inbound repair job ($2,500) expands into a $30-40K equipment replacement opportunity.

This is what a modern commercial services sales day looks like when you have both inbound and outbound working together, powered by the right tools:

• Proactive outbound prospecting fills the pipeline with strategic, high-value accounts (done efficiently in less than an hour)

• Inbound leads are handled quickly and expanded where possible (with property data providing context)

• Both motions work together, creating consistent revenue regardless of seasonality or market conditions

No more waiting. No more hoping. No more spending half your day trying to find contact information or cross-reference spreadsheets.

Just disciplined, predictable growth.

Now, let's look at a real commercial services business that made this exact transition.

How Arcem Entry Systems Made the Shift (Real Case Study)

We mentioned Arcem at the beginning. Now let's dig into exactly what they did—and how Convex enabled their transformation.

The Before: Waiting for the Phone to Ring

Before 2024, Arcem Entry Systems—a commercial door company based in Mishawaka, Indiana—operated the old-fashioned way. Salespeople waited for the phone to ring, provided quotes with pen and paper, and tracked margins in spreadsheets.

Mikayla Cleek, Arcem's Sales Operations Manager, called the old methods "unsustainable." Rich Love, the company's Chief Revenue Officer, agreed: "We decided we can't achieve what we want to achieve if we continue to let that way steer the ship."

The problem? Arcem had no control. Revenue was entirely dependent on whoever happened to call in. No prospecting. No pipeline management. No way to manufacture growth.

They knew they needed to add outbound. But like most commercial services businesses, they faced the tool stack problem: How do we identify the right properties? How do we find decision-makers? How do we track all this?

The Shift: Building a Modern Outbound Engine

Arcem made three strategic moves:

1. Hired hungrier salespeople willing to prospect: They recruited people from outside the industry who "wanted to learn" and "had no bad habits" - reps who were open to a new, proactive approach.

2. Adopted the Sandler Selling System: Arcem trained their team on consultative selling: "We try to uncover as many pain points from the customer as we can... asking many questions and digging deep into the problems." This shifted their mindset from order-taking to relationship-building.

3. Implemented Convex as their outbound infrastructure: Instead of trying to cobble together multiple tools, Arcem used Convex to:

• Identify target properties: Using Convex, they filtered commercial facilities by size, type, and location to find buildings that matched their ideal customer profile (warehouses, manufacturing, commercial buildings with loading docks)

• Get decision-maker contact info: Instead of spending hours on LinkedIn or cold-calling receptionists, they had direct phone numbers and emails for facilities managers and building owners

• Track buying signals: Convex Signals showed them which prospects were actively researching door services, allowing them to prioritize hot leads

• Manage the pipeline: All prospecting activity, follow-ups, and deals stayed in one system instead of being scattered across spreadsheets.

Rich Love explained: "Prospecting now should be 20% of a salesperson's week. Before we had any kind of system, prospecting was 0% of the person's week."

That's the shift: from 0% proactive to 20% proactive. From reactive to strategic. And they did it without spending months wiring together seven different platforms.

The Results: Less Work, More Money

Within one year of implementing systematic outbound with Convex, here's what Arcem achieved:

📉 Quote volume dropped by 20% (they stopped chasing unqualified leads that found them) 📈 Sales increased by 16% (they focused on the right opportunities) 💰 Revenue grew from $7.2M to a projected $8.7M—a 21% increase

As Rich Love put it: "Less work, more money. I don't know who wouldn't want that."

Mikayla Cleek added, "Guys are making more money than they've ever made in their lives. They see a path to success... The process will set you free."

This is what happens when you stop waiting for inbound and start driving outbound—with the right infrastructure to make it sustainable.

More control. More revenue. More predictability.

Arcem's results sound great. But you might be wondering: "Sure, it worked for them—but is outbound worth it for my business? Is the juice worth the squeeze?"

Fair question. Let's break it down.

Is Outbound Sales Worth It?

The answer depends on where you are and where you want to go.

For most commercial services businesses trying to grow sustainably beyond $3-5 million, though, the answer is clear: outbound is not optional - it's essential. Outbound allows the founders and leaders of the company to hire a sales team and rely on them to generate consistent revenue while they build other core functions of the business.

What's the Most Difficult Part of the Sales Process?

If you're new to outbound, the hardest part is usually consistent prospecting discipline. This is a daily activity that is often a mental challenge to overcome.

It's easy to make calls when you're motivated. It's hard to make calls every single day, especially when you hear "no" repeatedly.

The second hardest part? Finding the right contacts with the right information.

This used to be the biggest barrier. You can't sell to someone if you don't know who to reach or how to reach them - and constant manual research is soul-crushing.

But this is exactly where modern sales intelligence platforms eliminate the friction. When you can go from "I need 50 HVAC prospects to book 1 discovery call” to having a qualified list with contacts in 10 minutes instead of 10 hours, the discipline part becomes much more manageable.

Is Outbound Sales Cold Calling?

Let's clear up a common misconception.

Short answer: Cold calling is one tactic within an outbound sales playbook, but outbound itself is much broader.

Modern outbound sales include:

• Cold calling (yes, and it still works when done right)

• Cold emailing

• LinkedIn outreach and social selling

• Direct mail campaigns

• Door-to-door canvassing (still effective in some trades)

• Targeted advertising (retargeting, account-based ads)

• Trade show prospecting and follow-up

Cold calling gets a bad rap because most people do it poorly - generic scripts, no research, pushy tactics. But when done right (personalized, value-focused, consultative), it's incredibly effective.

What Modern Outbound Actually Looks Like

The key to modern outbound isn't "call more people." It's “call the right people, with the right message, at the right time.”

This requires:

• Data: knowing which accounts to target

• Intelligence: understanding each account's needs, challenges, and timing

• Tools: having contact information and buying signals at your fingertips

• Process: consistent cadences, follow-ups, multi-channel outreach

Done strategically, outbound sales isn't "bothering people." It's connecting with prospects who need your solution but don't know you exist yet - often at exactly the moment they're starting to look for help.

And when you have property-level intelligence (like "this building filed a permit for roof work last month, which means they might need HVAC work while they're up there"), your outreach isn't cold anymore. It's contextual, relevant, and timely.

That's the difference between spray-and-pray cold calling and strategic, intelligence-driven outbound.

So you now understand the “ins and outs” of inbound and outbound, and you see the potential of both. Now comes the practical question: which one should you actually focus on?

How to Decide: Inbound, Outbound, or Both?

Here's a simple decision framework for commercial services sales managers:

Start with Inbound If:

• You don’t have an existing sales or business development person inhouse.

• You're just starting out and need cost-effective lead generation

• You have time to build your brand and reputation (6-12 months) slowly through referrals

• Your market has strong search intent (people actively looking for your services)

• You can invest in content marketing, SEO, and local search optimization

Inbound is a great foundation. But it shouldn't be your only growth engine.

Add Outbound When:

• Your inbound pipeline is inconsistent or seasonal

• You have business development and/or sales people who you want to generate  

• You want to target specific accounts or industries (account-based selling or ABM)

• You need faster results than inbound provides

• You're ready to invest in tools and dedicated prospecting time

• You want predictable, scalable growth

This is the inflection point most businesses hit between $2M and $5M in revenue.

Use Both (Recommended for Most)

The smartest commercial services businesses don't pick one or the other—they build a balanced sales engine where:

✅ Inbound captures existing demand: Your website, SEO, referrals, and reputation work 24/7 to attract warm leads.

✅ Outbound creates new demand: Your sales team proactively fills gaps, targets high-value accounts, and keeps the pipeline full even during slow periods.

✅ Both motions reinforce each other: Outbound builds relationships that turn into referrals. Inbound credibility makes outbound conversations easier.

This is how you build a resilient, predictable, scalable revenue engine that doesn't collapse when the market shifts.

And here's the key insight: you don't need to choose between building this infrastructure yourself or having it already built for you.

So you're convinced that you need both inbound and outbound working together. Now what? Let's talk about actually building this.

Next Steps: Building Your Balanced Sales Engine

If you're ready to move from reactive (inbound-only) to proactive (balanced inbound + outbound), here's your playbook:

Step 1: Audit Your Current Pipeline

Ask yourself:

• What percentage of our revenue comes from inbound vs. outbound?

• How predictable is our pipeline month-to-month?

• What happens during our slow season?

• Are we reaching our ideal customer profile, or just whoever finds us?

Be honest about where the gaps are.

Step 2: Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Get specific about who you want to target with outbound:

• What industries or verticals do we serve best?

• What size accounts (square footage, # of locations, revenue) are most profitable?

• Who are the decision-makers we need to reach (titles, roles)?

• What problems do they have that we solve uniquely well?

This becomes your filter criteria for prospecting.

Step 3: Choose Your Infrastructure Approach

Here's where you have two options:

Option A: Build Your Own Tech Stack

• Buy intent data platform ($500-2K/month)

• Buy contact database ($300-1K/month)

• Buy property intelligence ($200-800/month)

• Subscribe to LinkedIn Sales Navigator ($80-135/user/month)

• Implement CRM ($50-150/user/month)

• Spend 2-4 weeks integrating everything

• Train your team on 5-7 different logins

Total: $1,100-4,000+/month + integration time

Option B: Use an All-in-One Platform Built for Commercial Services

• Use Convex (intent signals + property data + contacts + mapping + CRM in one platform)

• Train your team on one login

• Start prospecting within days, not weeks

Total: One platform cost + immediate productivity

The second option is why teams like Arcem could move so quickly. They didn't spend months trying to become software integration experts while also learning outbound.

Step 4: Allocate Time for Prospecting

Follow Arcem's model: 20% of every salesperson's week should be dedicated to proactive prospecting.

Block time daily:

• 1-2 hours per day for outbound (research, calls, emails).

• Protect this time - don't let inbound emergencies derail it.

• Measure the end results you need to reach your goals and work backwards. For example, don’t start with “(x) number of calls made” - focus on how many discovery sessions it takes to close a deal and then work backwards from there.

This will ensure you’re generating more than just tasks for your team and is non-negotiable if you want consistent results.

Step 5: Train on Consultative Selling

Outbound isn't about pitching. It's about trust. Asking questions, uncovering pain, and building relationships.

Invest in sales training (Sandler, Challenger, SPIN, or similar methodologies) so your team knows how to:

• Research accounts before reaching out

• Ask discovery questions that uncover needs

• Handle objections without being pushy

• Position your solution as the answer to their specific problem

The consultative approach works especially well when you have context about the account (recent permits, building age, ownership changes) to guide your questions.

It also helps for sales leaders and managers to read books like Never Split the Difference, The Science of Selling, and The Sales Playbook so they’re in the mindset to coach the team on handling objections, pushback, and closing conversations.

Step 6: Measure and Iterate

Track these metrics weekly:

• Number of outbound activities (calls, emails, meetings)

• Conversion rate from outreach → meeting → proposal → close

• Average deal size (inbound vs. outbound)

• Pipeline coverage (are you 3-4x your quarterly target?)

Adjust your process based on what works. Outbound is a system—refine it over time.

Summary: Control Your Growth, Don't Hope for It

Let's bring it all together.

Inbound sales (prospects coming to you) feels easier and less intrusive—but it's unpredictable and leaves you vulnerable to market shifts, seasonality, and competitor pressure.

Outbound sales (your team reaching out proactively) requires more effort and the right infrastructure—but it gives you control, predictability, and the ability to target exactly the accounts you want.

The best commercial services businesses use both: inbound to capture demand that's already there, and outbound to create new opportunities when inbound slows down or plateaus.

If you're tired of waiting for the phone to ring, it's time to start picking it up yourself.

That's what Arcem Entry Systems did—and they grew revenue by 21% while actually reducing wasted effort. That's what modern, proactive commercial services sales look like.

Now it's your turn.

Ready to Stop Waiting and Start Prospecting?

Arcem and other commercial services teams use Convex to handle everything—intent signals, property intelligence, contact data, and pipeline management—in one platform built for how you actually sell.

If your inbound pipeline is drying up, seasonal gaps are killing your cash flow, or you're tired of hoping referrals will magically appear - our team can show you how an efficient outbound solution can help you grow you sales pipeline consistently. Book a demo to see Convex in action.

FAQ: Your Questions About Inbound vs. Outbound Sales, Answered

1. What is inbound sales?

Inbound sales is when prospective customers initiate contact with your business. They might find you through search engines, referrals, social media, or your website. The prospect starts the conversation - you respond and guide them through the sales process. In commercial services, common inbound sources include referrals from satisfied customers, Google searches for local contractors, and leads from your website contact forms.

2. What is outbound sales?

Outbound sales is when your sales team proactively reaches out to potential customers who haven't contacted you first. This includes cold calling, email outreach, door-to-door prospecting, LinkedIn messaging, and targeted advertising. With outbound, you're creating conversations rather than waiting for them. Your team identifies target accounts, finds the right decision-makers, and initiates contact to introduce your services.

3. What is an example of inbound sales?

A facility manager searches Google for "commercial roofing inspection [city name]" and finds your company's blog post ranking at the top. They read the post, click "Request a Quote," and submit a contact form. Your sales rep calls them within an hour, qualifies their need, schedules a site inspection, and moves them through your sales process. The prospect came to you—that's inbound.

4. What is an example of outbound sales?

Your business development rep uses Convex to identify 20 multi-site retail chains in your territory with aging HVAC systems. They filter by building age, square footage, and equipment age, then see which properties have decision-makers showing buying intent signals. They call the facilities director at a property where Convex shows recent permit activity and active searches for "commercial HVAC service." They open with: "Hi [Name], I noticed your location on Main Street recently filed permits for building work, and your HVAC units are about 18 years old. I wanted to reach out because we specialize in multi-site PM contracts for retail chains..." That's outbound—you initiated the conversation based on intelligence.

5. Is inbound or outbound sales easier?

Inbound feels easier because prospects are already interested when they reach out. Conversations start warmer, objections are fewer, and sales cycles are often shorter. However, inbound is harder to control—you can't force referrals or manipulate when prospects search. Outbound requires more upfront effort (research, outreach, handling rejection) but modern tools like Convex have dramatically reduced the time investment. With the right infrastructure, outbound becomes much more manageable. For predictable growth, outbound is worth the extra work.

6. Is outbound sales more predictable than inbound?

Yes. Outbound sales are significantly more predictable because you control the inputs. If you need 10 new qualified opportunities this month, you can calculate exactly how many accounts to target and how many outreach activities to complete. With inbound, you're dependent on external factors (referrals, search traffic, market conditions) that you can't control. Most successful commercial services businesses use outbound to create baseline predictability and inbound to supplement with additional, lower-cost leads.

7. What's the most difficult part of the sales process?

For outbound sales, the hardest part used to be finding the right contacts with accurate information - spending hours on LinkedIn, Google, and databases trying to piece together who to call and how to reach them. Modern sales intelligence platforms have largely solved this. Now the challenge is consistent prospecting discipline - making calls and sending emails daily, even when you face rejection. For inbound sales, the challenge is maintaining quality while scaling volume - ensuring every lead gets timely follow-up without letting less-qualified prospects waste your time.

8. Is outbound sales worth it?

Outbound is worth it if you want predictable revenue growth, need to fill seasonal pipeline gaps, want to target specific high-value accounts, or are hitting a ceiling with inbound alone. It's especially valuable for commercial services businesses selling to multi-site accounts, large facilities, or enterprise customers who won't find you organically. The investment in tools and time pays off through controlled, scalable pipeline generation. If your average deal size is high enough (typically $10K+ annual contracts), the ROI on outbound is clear - especially when you're not spending hours on manual research.

9. Is outbound sales cold calling?

Cold calling is one tactic within outbound sales, but outbound is much broader. Modern outbound includes cold emails, LinkedIn prospecting, targeted advertising, direct mail, door-to-door canvassing, trade show networking, and more. Cold calling still works (especially in commercial services where decision-makers often prefer phone conversations), but it's most effective when combined with other channels in a multi-touch prospecting cadence. The key is reaching the right person with a relevant, contextual message—not just "dialing for dollars." When you have property-level intelligence (recent permits, equipment age, buying signals), your outreach isn't really "cold" anymore.

10. What are the pros and cons of inbound and outbound sales?

• Inbound Pros: Lower friction, cost-effective at scale, shorter sales cycles, and builds brand authority.

• Inbound Cons: Unpredictable volume, seasonal dependency, long ramp-up time, limited targeting.

• Outbound Pros: Predictable pipeline, immediate results, precise targeting, fills seasonal gaps, and is scalable.

• Outbound Cons: Higher upfront effort (though much less with the right tools), more rejection, longer sales cycles sometimes, can feel intrusive if done poorly.

Most successful commercial services businesses don't choose one over the other - they build a balanced sales engine that uses inbound to capture existing demand and outbound to create new opportunities and maintain control of growth.