Commercial painting jobs come from people with a budget and a schedule: property managers for repaints and tenant turnovers, and general contractors' project managers for new builds and tenant improvements. The way in is a free walk-through with a written bid in 24 hours. Below is a 45-day plan followed by one fictional crew, with the numbers. They're illustrative, not a promise of results, but the arithmetic is how a small crew should plan the first six weeks.

The difference from residential work is the buyer. A homeowner pays for a color change. A manager pays for a vacant unit back on the market by the 1st, or a lobby repainted over a weekend. Speed, a clean bid and showing up when you said matter more than the color charts.

A three-painter crew and an $8,000 goal

Reyes Finish Co. is three painters in a mid-sized Texas metro. The owner, Alma, has spent six years on homes and wants commercial work to fill the winter. Her goal: one signed commercial job of at least $8,000 inside 45 days, with a pipeline of four more bids. Her assumptions, based on her own residential close rate: about 1 in 4 bids wins, and about 1 in 4 walk-throughs becomes a written bid that gets read.

Week 1: 30 property managers and GCs listed by name

Alma spends about five hours building a list: 18 property managers at companies that run apartments, office parks and retail strips, and 12 project managers at small and mid-sized general contractors who do tenant improvements. For each, she records the name, the company, what they manage and a recent project or listing. She leaves off the large national firms with formal vendor portals; those come later, with insurance paperwork.

She also collects her paperwork: certificate of insurance, license (if her state requires one), a one-page company sheet, three photos of finished work with square footage and days on site, and two references from past work. To find the right contact at each company, she uses the approach in how to find property managers to sell to and how to find general contractors to sell to.

Week 2: first emails and the walk-through offer

She sends 6 emails a day over 5 days. Each is short and about one thing.

Subject: Unit turns painted in 2 days, bid in 24 hours

Hi Priya, I paint vacant units and common areas for property managers in the metro. I could walk one of your upcoming turnovers or a hallway repaint this week, and send a written bid within 24 hours. Fixed price, insurance certificate attached. Reyes Finish Co., 88 Cedar Avenue. Reply STOP if you don't want more email from me.

Of 30 emails, she gets 7 replies in the first week: 4 are "not now", 1 is "send your insurance", 2 want a walk-through. She follows up with the unanswered 23 on day 4 and day 9. By the end of week 2 she has 5 walk-throughs booked. For the follow-up wording, see how to cold email property managers.

Week 3: walk-throughs and 24-hour bids

At each walk, Alma brings a tablet, a moisture meter and a tape. She asks three questions: when does this need to be done, are the units occupied, and who signs off on the work. She prices the same day and sends the bid the next morning. Her five bids:

  • Apartment turnover package (12 units, 2 coats walls, ceilings, trim): $9,600, or $800 a unit.
  • Office hallway and lobby repaint over a weekend: $6,200.
  • Parking garage stair towers: $4,100.
  • Tenant improvement, 3,000 sq ft office for a GC: $7,400.
  • Retail storefront trim and doors: $2,300.

Total quoted: $29,600. Each bid breaks out labor, materials, prep, and a line for work outside the scope. She adds the days to complete and the start date she can hold. For wording after the bid goes out, how to follow up on a quote gives sample messages.

Weeks 4 to 6: follow-ups and the first signed job

Alma follows up on each bid at day 2 ("any questions I can answer on the scope?") and day 7 ("the schedule I held for you is open until Friday"). In week 5, the apartment manager accepts a smaller version: 8 units for $6,400 at the same $800 a unit, with the rest to come after the first batch is inspected. In week 6, the office property manager accepts the hallway and lobby weekend job at $6,200, because Alma could start the next Friday.

What 26 hours of selling produced

  • Contacts emailed: 30 (plus 23 follow-ups).
  • Replies: 11 in total.
  • Walk-throughs: 5.
  • Written bids: 5, totaling $29,600.
  • Signed: 2 jobs, $6,400 + $6,200 = $12,600 (about 43% of the dollars quoted).
  • Hours Alma put in: roughly 5 (list) + 8 (emails and follow-ups) + 10 (walk-throughs and bids) + 3 (paperwork) = 26 hours.

If she paints the jobs at a 30% margin, that's about $3,780 in gross profit for 26 hours of sales work, before the painting itself, and two accounts that can send repeat turns. The win rate on bids in this example, 2 of 5, is higher than her 1-in-4 assumption, which happens in a small sample and isn't something to count on. Plan on the lower number.

Copy the order, change the offer

Copy the order: list, paperwork, short email, walk-through, 24-hour bid, two follow-ups. Change the offer to the buyer. For a manager with vacant units, sell turnaround time. For a GC, sell schedule reliability and clean closeouts. For a facility manager, sell off-hours work and minimal disruption. And keep a spreadsheet of every bid with the date and the reason you lost, because that is where your pricing changes come from. If you also do house painting, getting customers for a painting business covers the residential side, and for community associations see getting HOA contracts. The drywall subcontractor plan covers the trade that often comes right before you on a job.

Building the list and sending the follow-ups on schedule is the repetitive part. Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required. There's a page for property management buyers too.