By the time a facilities manager picks up the phone, they have already decided you are worth a conversation. The call is not the start of the process. It is the end of a quiet assessment you were never invited to.
That assessment is short, it is mostly done on your website, and it follows a fairly predictable order. Understanding that order is the difference between being shortlisted and being skipped.
Why is commercial buying so different to domestic?
A homeowner is buying a job. A commercial buyer is buying a supplier. They are not asking whether you can do the work. They assume you can, or they would not be looking. They are asking whether you are a risk.
Risk, for them, is personal. If they appoint you and you fail, that sits on their name. So the entire evaluation is about de-risking, and every signal on your site either reduces that risk or adds to it.
What do they actually check, and in what order?
Scale, first. They are looking for evidence you have handled work of their size. Not bigger, not smaller. A page full of residential jobs tells a procurement manager you are not set up for a multi-site contract, however good the work is.
Compliance, second. Insurance, licences, safety accreditation, inductions. If these are buried in a PDF or absent entirely, you have added friction at exactly the moment they are trying to eliminate it.
Continuity, third. Who is the account contact? What happens when your key person is unavailable? Commercial contracts are relationships that need to survive staff turnover, and buyers look for signs you have thought about that.
Proof, last. By this point they want one thing: someone comparable to them who had a good outcome. Not a testimonial saying you were lovely. A short, specific account of a problem and a measurable result.
What usually goes wrong
Most trades businesses moving into commercial work make the same mistake: they add a “Commercial” page to a website that is otherwise entirely domestic, and assume that covers it.
It does not, because everything surrounding that page keeps arguing the opposite. The imagery is residential. The testimonials are homeowners. The pricing language is per-job rather than per-term. A buyer reads the whole site, not the one page you pointed them at.
The fix is not a rewrite. It is making sure the commercial story has enough surrounding evidence to be believable, which is what our Commercial Contract Growth System is built around.
How long does this actually take?
Longer than domestic lead generation, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. Commercial cycles run months, not days. Contracts get reviewed on their own timetable, not yours.
What you can control is being findable and credible when that review happens. That means being visible for the search terms buyers use, which are rarely the ones homeowners use, and having the evidence ready when they land.
We publish free templates and checklists for exactly this at Commercial Growth Resources, including a capability document outline and a tender response checklist. No form, no email required.
The uncomfortable part
Some businesses are not ready for commercial work, and the honest answer is to say so. If you cannot absorb 60-day payment terms, cannot resource a second crew, or cannot survive losing your biggest domestic client while you chase a tender, winning that contract will hurt you.
We would rather tell you that in a strategy session than take your money for twelve months of marketing into a market you cannot yet service. That is part of what we mean when we talk about how we work.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to win a first commercial contract?
Do I need a separate website for commercial work?
What is the single most common gap?
Want this looked at properly? Book a free strategy session and we will walk your numbers with you, with honest advice and no obligation.
