Selling to condo boards and property managers: a guide for Toronto trades

Why this market deserves a plan of its own

In the 2021 Census, 46.7% of Toronto's 1,160,890 occupied private dwellings were apartments in buildings of five or more storeys. That's more than half a million homes in mid-rise and high-rise buildings, and each building has someone responsible for vendors.

Residential search marketing reaches the suite owner who has a problem today. Building-level sales reaches the people who decide which companies are allowed in, recommended to residents and called for common areas. Do both and you get suite jobs from search plus repeat work from relationships.

Who decides what

Each building is a small organisation. Learn the roles before you approach anyone.

• Suite owner or tenant. Hires for work inside their unit, but must follow building rules on access, timing and noise.
• Concierge and security. Don't hire you, but their report on how your crew behaved travels upward quickly.
• Superintendent. Knows the building's systems, handles urgent problems and often suggests vendors to residents and managers.
• Property manager. Manages vendors day to day, collects documentation, deals with complaints and brings larger decisions to the board.
• Board of directors. Approves significant spending and long-term work, usually through the manager.

In rental buildings, the structure is simpler: a property manager or owner's representative hires vendors, often across several buildings at once. That makes rental portfolios a strong target for trades that can handle volume.

Step 1: Build a vendor package before you call

Managers are busy and cautious. Make approving you easy by preparing a short package you can send the same day someone asks.

Vendor package checklist:

1. One-page company summary: services, coverage area, years in business, and how to reach you after hours
2. Certificate of insurance, current
3. WSIB clearance certificate, if your business is covered
4. Licence or registration details where your trade requires them
5. Your standard process for building work: booking elevators, protecting floors and hallways, noise windows, clean-up and sign-off
6. Typical response times you can actually meet
7. Two or three short project summaries from buildings or similar work, with permission

Keep it to a few pages. A manager should be able to read it in five minutes and file it.

Step 2: Build a short prospect list

Start close to home. Proximity means faster response, lower travel cost and a natural story: "we're ten minutes away."

• Walk or drive the area within your core service radius and note buildings that match your work.
• Many buildings display the management company's name in the lobby or on signage; record it.
• Group buildings by management company. One manager may run several properties.
• Prioritise buildings where you've already done suite work. You have proof and possibly a resident who'll vouch for you.

Aim for 15 to 30 buildings to begin with. A list of 500 scraped addresses produces nothing but unanswered messages.

Step 3: Make first contact the professional way

Phone first, then a personal letter or a short, personal email to a named person. Don't send mass messages.

A first call might sound like: "Hi, I'm with [company], we're a [trade] company based ten minutes from your building. We already do suite work in the area and I'd like to send you our vendor package in case you ever need a second option. Who should I send it to?"

That's it. You're not asking for work. You're asking for permission to be on file.

Follow with the package and a short note restating who you are, where you're based and what you do well in buildings.

Step 4: Follow up on a schedule

Most relationships start after several contacts. Space them out and make each one useful.

Keep a simple tracker: building, manager, last contact, next action, stage. Stages can be: researched, contacted, package sent, first job, repeat work.

Step 5: Win the first job, then the second

The first job is an audition. Arrive on time with paperwork, follow building rules exactly, communicate with the superintendent and leave the space cleaner than you found it. Send a short completion note to the manager the same day.

Then ask one question: "Is there anything else in the building we can help with, or anyone else at your company we should introduce ourselves to?" Managers often work for companies with many buildings.

What one building can be worth

Here's a worked example. The figures are illustrative; use your own.

• Building size: 250 suites
• Share of suites hiring your trade in a year: 4%, so 10 suite jobs
• Average suite job: $450, so $4,500 a year
• Common-area work: one $3,000 job a year
• Annual value: $7,500, before referrals to other buildings by the same manager

If that manager runs four similar buildings and you earn the same in each, the relationship is worth $30,000 a year. Compare that with the cost of the time spent preparing a package and making a few calls, and the case for patient selling is clear.

Presenting quotes to boards

When work goes to a board, present it the way boards think: in options, with costs and consequences.

• Offer two or three options with clear scope, price and expected lifespan or outcome.
• Explain what happens if the work is delayed.
• Include references from similar buildings where you have permission.
• Keep it in writing and keep it short.

Never pressure a board with urgency unless there's a genuine safety issue, and in that case, document it clearly.

Mistakes that close doors

1. Skipping the manager and going straight to residents with flyers. Many buildings restrict this, and it irritates managers.
2. Arriving without paperwork. Security may turn you away and the manager will remember.
3. Ignoring building rules on hours and elevators. One complaint can end the relationship.
4. Over-promising response times. Promise what you can do every time, not just on a good day.
5. Giving up after one call. The schedule above exists because persistence works.

Getting help

Our condo and high-rise service builds the vendor package, condo pages and outreach plan for you, and our commercial service applies the same approach to retail and office accounts. For costs, see pricing, or call, text or email to talk it through.