The job that should have been yours is still out there. Your pitch just needs to sound like the calm, credible guide the buyer is looking for.
Key Takeaway: In bigger commercial HVAC work, your technical competence is assumed. You win when your proposal reads like a safety plan for the property manager’s reputation, tenants, schedule, and sleep.
Jake runs a $9M commercial HVAC shop. Last month he walked a 150-ton chiller replacement for a medical office building he has been trying to break into for two years.
The facility manager did not rush him. She showed him maintenance logs, tenant complaints, and the pressure coming from upstairs. Jake went home and spent 11 hours on Saturday building the quote.
He sent a $680,000 proposal at a healthy margin. He felt good about it.
Monday passed.
Wednesday got a polite “still reviewing.”
Friday landed the email.
“Thanks for the quote. We decided to go with another contractor.”
Three weeks later, Jake ran into that facility manager at a supply house. Awkward small talk. Then Jake asked what happened.
“Your numbers were close,” she said. “The other guy walked me through how he would protect the tenants and keep the building calm. Yours felt technical.”
That is the gut punch.
You did not lose on price. You lost on what the buyer needed to feel safe.
Jake sat in his truck for another ten minutes before he started the engine.
This post is about that gap. Not the fantasy that you can win every big bid. The real goal is to win more of the right ones without chasing the lowest number.
Reality
When a big job drops out, your brain reaches for the clean excuses.
They went cheap. The general contractor (GC) had a favorite. The owner already decided.
Sometimes that is true. But if you do not track your win rate on your target jobs, you are guessing.
Jake finally admitted the uncomfortable version. He was losing jobs his team could run.
The crews were not the problem. The pitch was.
Fix It
Jake pulled his last 20 proposals over $100,000. The ones he told himself he had to win.
He built a simple grid.
The pattern showed up fast. 4 wins. 16 losses.
Half the losses never had a live review. A quarter had a call that stayed stuck in equipment talk. Only a handful actually lowered risk for the buyer.
Pro Move
Get realistic about what good looks like. Contractors with strong systems rarely win every big competitive bid. What matters is whether your win rate is improving on your target jobs with the same lead flow.
Industry research is pointing the same direction. Firms that standardize how they estimate, present, and de-risk work tend to outperform peers on consistency and competitive outcomes. Learn more about how to get better project outcomes by focusing on standardizing estimating workflows.
You do not need a heroic closer. You need a repeatable way to make buyers feel calm.
Quick Win
Take your last 10 bids over your target threshold. Add one more column.
If you see “no” more than twice, you just found a controllable leak.
Reality
You came up through the tools. You see jobs in tonnage, controls, duct runs, and labor hours. That makes you strong in the field. In a sales meeting, it can cost you the deal.
Your buyer is thinking about different pain.
In bigger commercial work, technical competence is assumed. Risk leadership is not.
Jake showed his old chiller proposal to Maria, his sales lead. “What is wrong with this?” he asked. Maria did not sugarcoat it.
“You wrote this for another mechanical contractor. Not for a facility manager who is getting chewed out by tenants.”
Fix It
Jake rebuilt his proposal opening for any job over $25,000. He used a five-part structure that reads like a safety plan, not an equipment list.
This is what most shops miss. Your win rate problem is usually a story problem.
Pro Move
Build a small proof bank. Five short stories your team can drop into proposals and live reviews.
Each story should name:
Not “we replaced a unit.” More like:
“We replaced a 30-ton rooftop unit over a holiday weekend so the dental practice on the second floor never lost appointments. We staged materials Friday night, kept noise to early hours, and left the roof cleaner than we found it. Three weeks later they sent us their second building.”
Quick Win
Open your biggest active proposal. Delete the equipment list from page one. Replace it with:
Reality
If you send a large proposal cold, you are letting the buyer sort risk in their head.
They open three PDFs side by side.
They flip to the last page.
Price becomes the default decider.
That is not a quality issue.
That is a format issue.
B2B research keeps reinforcing the same buyer behavior. Decision teams spend limited time with each supplier and lean heavily on outside validation and internal consensus. You cannot afford to be silent inside that short window. Google research shows the average buying committee now has 17 stakeholders, which means your proposal is being forwarded to people who were never in the initial conversation.
Fix It
Adopt one rule.
No quote left behind.
Any proposal above your threshold gets a live review by default.
The goal is simple. Move the decision from price to risk.
Pro Move
Build it into the system so it happens without debate. In your customer relationship management (CRM) pipeline, require a “Review meeting date” field before a deal can move to “Proposal Sent.” If the date is blank, the card does not move.
That one lock changes habits faster than any training deck.
Quick Win
Use this line on your next three big bids.
“I have the numbers ready. Can we take 10 minutes to walk through the plan live? I want to make sure I captured the phasing and tenant impacts correctly.”
If they say no, send the PDF. If they say yes, you just stepped into the moment where trust beats price.
Reality
Jake used to believe he needed more at-bats. He did not.
He needed a better swing on the jobs that mattered.
Fix It
Jake ran a 30-day test on proposals between $75,000 and $200,000.
Before
After
Same market. Same crews.
A $550,000 difference because the pitch became a risk plan.
Pro Move
Never send a single price on a bigger job. A single price forces a yes-or-no decision.
Two options shift the conversation to safety level.
Controls upgrade. Extended warranty. Quiet-hours sequencing. A faster response commitment.
You are not upselling fluff. You are selling fewer fires.
Quick Win
Pick one active proposal. Add a clean Option B. Write one sentence that ties it to risk.
“Option B reduces tenant complaints and protects your summer uptime window.”
Start where your actual pain is.
Run the Bid Win Rate Scorecard now. It will tell you whether your loss pattern is trust gaps, scope confusion, proof gaps, or price fear. This is a fast pulse, not the full proposal system we build inside your Workplan.
When you are ready for your exact proposal skeleton, proof stack, and walk-through rhythm standardized for your shop and your deal sizes, the Sales Growth Workplan is where we lock it.
Here are the top toolkits HVAC owners are reading, using, and sharing to work smarter every week.
Lead with risk plans not equipment lists, tier your offers, and win at higher prices by making your number feel safer than your competitors.
Land $250k-plus jobs by proving you can carry risk (not by cutting price) using the strategies elite shops build before they ever bid.
When sales won’t break through, the constraint is leadership, process, or both. Pinpoint it, tighten targeting, and grow steady without exhausting crews.
Growth isn't in stranger hunting, it's hiding in A-job upgrades, renewal lanes, and multi-site expansions with customers who already trust you.
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“This is the stuff no one tells you. We’re making more with less stress.”
— Louis, Texas
