How Electrical Contractors Use Builtie to Find Leads, Win Builders and Close More Work
You drive past a lot on the way to your first call. Foundation walls poured, framers unloading lumber, a permit taped in the window. You think: I should call that builder. You will, in a month, and by then the electrical package will have a name on it, and the name will belong to whoever the builder already trusted. Rough-in follows framing, so electrical gets priced and awarded while the walls are still open. If you can see the sheathing, you are late. Here is how an electrical contractor uses Builtie to be the one who got the call instead of the one who meant to make it.
Where the work actually is
Almost every residential project carries electrical scope, but the scope and the buyer change with the project type. A ground-up custom home wants the full package: service, panel, rough-in and finish. A second-story addition wants a service assessment and a new rough-in for the added floor. A laneway suite or basement apartment usually needs a sub-panel and sometimes a separate meter. A multiplex conversion usually needs a service upgrade and always needs per-unit distribution. Commercial fit-outs want lighting, power and low-voltage on a schedule set by the tenant's opening date, which is never a date you would have picked.
Builtie reads public permits and planning records, and on Growth adds builder activity from public social accounts. It classifies what each project involves, matches it to electrical scope, and puts the ones inside your territory and size range on your feed. A raw permit list treats a panel upgrade and a ground-up custom home identically. Your feed should not.
Getting leads: watch the stage, not the address
The most useful field on an electrical lead is the stage. Projects at foundation are where the package is being priced. Projects at framing are where it is being awarded. Projects at sub-trades already have an electrician on site, and their van is parked where you wanted to park. Builtie stamps every project with its stage and the date it was last confirmed, and the field team checks the projects that matter in person. So a rep spends the morning on the handful of projects entering the buy window this week, not on a long list of addresses that all look the same in a spreadsheet.
Winning clients: reach the person who signs the sub
Permits name expediters and numbered companies. Builtie traces past them to the builder, developer or owner and identifies the person inside that company who awards trade packages, with email, phone and LinkedIn where they can be verified. On Growth, Builtie then runs personalized LinkedIn and email outreach to that person under your name, about their specific project: the address, the stage, the scope you would cover. "You're framing the semi on Coxwell, we're roughing in three similar builds in East York this month" gets answered. "Do you need an electrician?" gets the same treatment as a flyer under the windshield wiper.
Replies come back into your inbox, classified by intent, and land on your daily Action Plan. Automation stops on that thread the moment a person replies. The conversation is yours.
Closing: be the number already in the budget
The contractors who close the most electrical work are rarely the cheapest. They are the ones who talked to the builder before a bid list existed, who flagged the service upgrade the plans missed, who said where the EV charger rough-in should go before anyone asked. Builtie gets you into that conversation at framing. The rest is the trade you already know: a site visit ordered by the route optimizer, a quote that references the real drawings, a follow-up while the decision is still open. The cheapest bid wins a job once. The electrician already in the budget wins the builder.
Week one
- Set your profile: electrical, the project types you want, your size range, your territory.
- Review the first feed: projects at foundation and framing inside your radius, each with the buyer attached.
- Approve the outreach drafts. They go out under your name on LinkedIn and email.
- Work the Action Plan each morning: replies to answer, a route of sites to visit, builders to call.
- Watch which builders keep pulling permits in your territory and make those the relationships you invest in.
How Builtie fits
Starter covers up to 20 projects a month with the buyer identified and outreach done for you, at $79 per month per seat, with a 7-day free trial, cancel any time before it ends. Growth raises that to 50 projects a month at $99 per month per seat and adds the events and exhibitions dashboard and social media signals, the early signals that surface before jobs go public. Coverage runs across North America, with the deepest data in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), so ask for live sample projects in your own city. Either way, your skilled hours go into the rough-in and the handshake, not the hunting.
Know the projects. Reach the decision makers. See live electrical leads in your territory at builtie.com.
Frequently asked questions
When is the electrical contract awarded on a residential build?
Usually around framing. Rough-in follows framing and mechanical layout, so the builder has priced and committed the electrical package while the structure is going up, months before any fixture is visible.
Who actually hires an electrical contractor on a project?
On custom homes and multiplex conversions it is the builder's principal or project manager. On larger residential and commercial work it is the general contractor's estimator or construction manager. On owner-built projects it is the owner. Builtie identifies which one applies and attaches their contact.
What kinds of projects show up in an electrical contractor's Builtie feed?
New custom homes, additions and second-story rebuilds, basement and laneway suites, multiplex conversions, panel and service upgrades tied to renovations, and mid-size commercial fit-outs, each matched to electrical scope and filtered to your territory.
Builtie Team
Intelligence and outreach for North American construction trades.
