By Andrew P. McCoy and Fred Sargent
Published On April 15, 2025
Competitively bid electrical construction contracting is a high-risk, low-margin business.
The biggest culprit in creating that situation is not simply the competitive bidding process itself. The deeper problem is structural. In most cases, someone other than the electrical contractor determines the scope of work and writes the contract documents. Contractors who want the job must accept terms set by others. That dynamic keeps margins thin and risk high. No amount of operational efficiency can fully offset it.
Service-oriented electrical contractors pursuing work covered by the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 70B, Standard for Electrical Equipment Maintenance, now have an alternative. Here, the contractor must define the scope and draft the agreement. That’s a fundamentally different posture, and a far more profitable one.
Under ideal circumstances, this engagement looks less like a customer-vendor transaction and more like a partnership. That distinction matters most at the outset, when the full extent of required maintenance activity has yet to be scoped and when the facility owner may have no line item in their operations budget to cover it. A contractor who approaches that moment as a trusted adviser rather than a bidder is far more likely to shape a long-term agreement.
No sales staff required
Despite frequent references to “selling” NFPA 70B maintenance agreements, most electrical contractors do not need to hire a dedicated salesperson to make things happen. Their most effective business developers are already on the payroll: experienced service electricians who know the customer’s systems and the customer’s staff. In some cases, that closeness extends back to the original construction of the facility. That history is a competitive advantage no outside salesperson can replicate.
Service electricians who need to be more closely acquainted with NFPA 70B can get up to speed quickly. Compared with other codes and standards they have already mastered, NFPA 70B is not an overwhelming challenge. More instructional resources are available through industry associations, training providers and NFPA.
The best sales leads, as in conventional service work, come from existing customers and current construction projects. Effective service and maintenance contractors follow a standing routine: when a new construction project reaches nominally 75%–80% completion, they introduce their service department manager and staff to the facility owner. That introduction plants the seed for an ongoing maintenance relationship at the moment when the owner is most focused on the facility’s long-term performance.
Agreement planning
Agreement planning, the third of six phases in ELECTRI’s NFPA 70B framework, necessarily involves two distinct deliverables. First, there is the requirement for a proposal to develop the maintenance agreement. Second, there is the maintenance agreement itself.
The proposal is the mechanism by which the contractor is engaged (and paid!) to lay out the components of a maintenance agreement based on NFPA 70B compliance.
The proposal
The proposal explains how the contractor—for a fixed fee or on a reimbursable basis—will apply its people and organizational experience to develop a maintenance agreement that addresses NFPA 70B compliance. It establishes the commercial terms for the agreement-development work itself and sets expectations on both sides before deeper commitments are made. A well constructed proposal also signals to the facility owner that what they are entering into is a professional engagement.
The maintenance agreement, as described in the proposal, will cover, at minimum:
- A baseline condition assessment and asset inventory of all electrical systems covered by the maintenance program.
- The main elements of the ongoing maintenance program, including inspection intervals and documentation protocols.
- How maintenance activities will comply with the safety requirements of NFPA 70E.
- All core agreement components—scope, pricing and schedule—including provisions for expanding or contracting scope over the life of the agreement.
The maintenance agreement
The agreement itself must be presented as a proprietary document for the exclusive use of the contractor and the facility owner. A contractor must include language that will discourage a customer from converting it into a bidding document to solicit pricing from other service contractors. The specificity that makes the agreement valuable—the detailed asset inventory, tailored maintenance schedules, etc.—represents real intellectual property, and it deserves to be treated as such.