Compare
Bid boards, bought leads, a BD hire, a lead-gen agency, or Arclede
Five ways a mechanical contractor can get in front of more work. What each one gives you, what it costs you, and where it stops.
Bid boards and plan rooms
- What you get
- A feed of projects that are already out to bid, with drawings and due dates.
- What it costs
- A subscription, plus estimating hours on every bid you chase.
- Where it stops
- By the time a project is on a bid board, every competitor in your market can see it too. You are one of several being priced, and the GC already has favorites.
Bought leads
- What you get
- Contact details for people who might need HVAC work, usually sold to several contractors at once.
- What it costs
- A per-lead fee, and the time your team spends calling people who did not ask to hear from you.
- Where it stops
- A shared lead is a race. The firm that calls first wins the right to quote against everyone else who bought the same name.
Hiring a business development person
- What you get
- A dedicated person building relationships with developers, GCs and facility managers.
- What it costs
- A salary, a vehicle, a ramp-up period, and the risk that the relationships leave when the person does.
- Where it stops
- One person can hold maybe a hundred relationships well. A market has thousands of decision makers, and the work coming up next quarter is spread across all of them.
A general lead-gen agency
- What you get
- Outsourced outreach, usually email or calls, usually across many industries.
- What it costs
- A monthly fee, and the hours you spend briefing people on your trade before the first email can go out.
- Where it stops
- A general agency works across many industries, so your trade is one of many it has to learn, on your time. Outreach lands with developers, GCs and facility managers when it reads like it came from someone who knows the work, and that fluency takes years, not a briefing call.
Arclede
- What you get
- Proprietary, AI-powered revenue infrastructure built for mechanical contracting firms. Signal-driven outbound programs surface emerging project opportunities early, map the stakeholders who control them, and engage decision makers through precision-targeted cold email under your name. Fully managed, from market intelligence and account strategy to execution and meeting delivery.
- What it costs
- Discussed on the walkthrough, once we know the work you want more of and the size of your market.
- Where it stops
- It will not do residential, it will not work for manufacturers' reps, and it does not sell leads. Commercial HVAC and mechanical contracting firms only, in the US today.
Updated
Next step
See it work
Book a 20-minute walkthrough
Screen share. You see how the system finds upcoming work in your market and what an email to a GC or facility manager looks like, written for your firm. Then we talk about the work you want more of.