Introduction
You just completed another platform acquisition in commercial services. The fundamentals look solid - recurring revenue model, fragmented market with roll-up opportunities, decent EBITDA margins. But now comes the real work: driving measurable value creation across your portfolio while building a scalable platform for add-on acquisitions.
Your fund expects 20%+ IRR over the next three years. Meanwhile, each portfolio company is still operating independently with different sales processes, inconsistent data, and manual prospecting methods that don't scale. You need operational improvements that translate directly to sales efficiency, growing margins, and higher exit multiples.
This article explains why PE firms in commercial services are turning to specialized sales intelligence platforms - and specifically, why they're choosing Convex to execute their value creation strategies and support their buy-and-build approach.
The PE Value Creation Challenge in Commercial Services
Over the last few years, residential and commercial services companies have become a focal industry for Private Equity. The Wall Street Journal highlighted this in an article titled “America’s New Millionaire Class: Plumbers and HVAC Entrepreneurs,” in which they explored the growing trend of acquiring smaller trades and skills-based service businesses.
But many PE firms active in commercial services face a unique set of operational challenges that traditional value creation levers can't fully address. Whether you're building a business in HVAC, janitorial, roofing, or solar, the path to EBITDA growth follows predictable patterns.
Challenge #1
Most funds' investment thesis depends on improving operating margins, not just revenue growth, but in services businesses, traditional cost-cutting measures only go so far. You need sustainable operational improvements that scale across your entire portfolio without adding significant overhead.
Most commercial services companies have sales teams spending 60-70% of their time on low-value activities—things like lead generation, manual research, data entry, and unqualified prospecting. That's margin compression hiding in plain sight. When your exit multiple depends on demonstrating operational excellence, these inefficiencies directly impact your portfolio valuation.
The challenge is that most operational improvements require significant capital investment or management bandwidth. PE firms need value creation strategies that deliver measurable EBITDA impact within 6-12 months while building scalable processes for future add-on acquisitions.
Challenge #2
Your buy-and-build strategy depends on efficiently integrating add-on acquisitions into your platform company. But most commercial services businesses operate with localized processes, inconsistent data, and relationship-dependent sales approaches that don't transfer across markets.
This creates integration risk and limits your ability to capture synergies from acquisitions. When each PortCo uses different prospecting methods, customer data systems, and sales processes, you're managing a collection of standalone businesses rather than building a scalable platform.
PE firms looking to grow predictably need standardized operational frameworks that work regardless of geography, market conditions, or local management capabilities. The goal isn't just consistency - it's creating repeatable processes that enhance the value of every acquisition and support your platform's scalability.
Challenge #3
Multiple arbitrage has become increasingly difficult in today's market. PE firms need portfolio companies that demonstrate sustainable revenue growth and market share expansion to justify premium exit valuations.
Commercial services companies traditionally grow through referrals and reactive sales. That model doesn't scale when you're trying to accelerate market penetration across multiple locations or expand into new territories through acquisitions. You need proactive revenue generation that can be replicated across your platform.
The key is shifting from relationship-dependent growth to systematic market penetration. This requires sales intelligence capabilities that can identify high-value prospects, streamline customer acquisition, and create predictable revenue growth that supports higher exit multiples.
How Sales Intelligence Drives EBITDA Expansion
EBITDA Expansion: Converting Sales Overhead into Productive Time
Modern sales intelligence platforms like Convex directly impact EBITDA by eliminating manual processes that consume sales team productivity. Instead of spending hours researching prospects and qualifying leads, your teams focus on high-value activities that drive revenue.
Services companies using Convex typically see a 60%+ reduction in sales admin time (as you can see from our case study with Comfort Systems SW), which translates directly to margin improvement. Your existing sales teams can handle significantly more prospects and close more deals without adding headcount—a direct path to EBITDA expansion.
The platform also supports cross-selling and upselling across portfolio companies with shared customer bases. If your HVAC platform company services a commercial property management firm, Convex can also identify opportunities for your janitorial or security service PortCos. This cross-portfolio revenue generation creates additional margin expansion without increased customer acquisition costs.
Platform Integration: Standardized Sales Operations Across PortCos
Convex provides the operational framework needed to standardize sales processes across your entire portfolio. In many industries, PortCos use the same prospect identification criteria, qualification frameworks, and customer engagement processes. This standardization reduces integration complexity and accelerates the value capture from add-on acquisitions.
The platform consolidates sales intelligence, property intelligence, buyer intent signals, and customer data into a single system, giving you portfolio-wide visibility into market penetration, sales performance, market opportunities, and operational efficiency.
For add-on acquisitions, Convex provides immediate operational improvements. New portfolio companies can implement proven sales processes on day one, rather than spending months developing their own systems. This accelerates value creation and reduces the typical integration timeline.
Revenue Growth: Systematic Market Penetration
Convex enables systematic market penetration that supports multiple expansions by providing the intelligence needed to identify and capture high-value opportunities in any market. The platform uses data points like tenant makeup, building attributes, permit history, and buyer intent signals to target prospects that align with your portfolio companies' ideal customer profiles and the prospect’s needs.
Which means your team doesn’t have to take a “cold approach” to growth.
This systematic approach creates predictable revenue growth that's not dependent on individual relationships or local market knowledge. Your platform companies can enter new markets, support add-on acquisitions, and demonstrate scalable growth that justifies premium exit valuations.
The platform also provides market penetration analysis that informs your customer acquisition strategy. You can identify markets with the highest concentration of ideal prospects, assess competitive dynamics, and make data-driven decisions about geographic expansion or acquisition targets.
Conclusion
Whether you're executing a buy-and-build strategy or optimizing an existing platform, Convex provides the operational infrastructure needed to drive measurable value creation across your commercial services portfolio.
Convex is purpose-built for commercial services businesses, which means it understands the specific operational challenges of selling to property managers, facility directors, and commercial building owners. Unlike generic sales platforms, Convex provides industry-specific intelligence and processes that deliver immediate operational improvements.
More importantly, Convex scales with your portfolio strategy. As you complete add-on acquisitions or expand into new markets, the platform provides consistent operational frameworks that accelerate integration and value capture. You're not rebuilding sales processes for each acquisition—you're implementing proven systems that deliver predictable results.
The operational efficiency improvements create sustainable EBITDA expansion that supports higher exit multiples. You're not just optimizing individual portfolio companies—you're building a scalable platform that demonstrates operational excellence and systematic value creation.
For PE firms focused on commercial services, Convex provides the value creation infrastructure needed to execute successful buy-and-build strategies while driving measurable EBITDA expansion for each company and across your portfolio.
Ready to see how Convex can accelerate value creation across your portfolio? Schedule a demo to discuss your specific platform strategy and see how the platform supports PE operational objectives.
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