Reach building owners before their old system or a new rule forces a choice

Most buildings already have someone who services the heating and cooling. Customers switch when service is poor, when a contract ends, or when a system is old enough that replacement becomes the real question. New rules on energy labels and refrigerants add deadlines. A calling team in HVAC wins by knowing which buildings are at that point and following up until the visit is booked.

The market: busy installers, ageing buildings

According to Eurostat, Belgium had 14,043 enterprises in plumbing, heat and air conditioning installation (NACE 43.22) in 2024, employing 34,092 people with a turnover of about 8.2 billion euro. The Netherlands had 18,752, employing 69,744 people with a turnover of about 14.7 billion euro. CBS counts 7,810 Dutch heating installation businesses (SBI 43222) on 1 October 2026 (provisional figures). Of those, 6,045 are one-person businesses and 380 have 10 or more people. Most of the market is small, so companies with a sales team and maintenance capacity stand out.

Rules drive demand:

• Label C for Dutch offices. Since 1 January 2023, an office needs at least energy label C or may no longer be used as an office. On 1 July 2026, RVO estimated that 72% of office addresses had label C or better, 4% had label D or worse and 24% had no label.
• Energy saving obligation. Dutch locations using from 50,000 kWh of electricity or 25,000 m3 of gas a year must take all measures with a payback of five years or less, according to RVO.
• Flemish renovation obligation. After a sale of a non-residential building, central space heaters older than 15 years must be replaced unless they meet the minimum requirements, and cooling systems older than 15 years that use ozone depleting refrigerants or refrigerants with a GWP of 2,500 or more must be replaced, according to the Flemish government.
• EU F-gas regulation. Regulation (EU) 2024/573 bans placing split systems above 12 kW with refrigerants of GWP 750 or more on the market from 1 January 2029, and with GWP 150 or more from 1 January 2033, unless safety requirements on site demand them. The HFC quota drops to zero from 2050.

Rules as checked in October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.

Who you call and what you ask

At smaller businesses, call the owner. At larger organisations, the facility manager or technical manager runs maintenance, with purchasing and finance joining for replacements. For rented buildings, the property owner or property manager often decides on installations.

Moments that make a call relevant:

• a maintenance contract that ends within 6 to 12 months
• heating or cooling that is 15 years or older
• an office without label C, or a label project in the building
• a building purchase in Flanders, which starts the renovation obligation
• complaints about comfort, breakdowns or energy bills

Questions that open a real conversation:

1. "How old are the heating and cooling installations in the building?"
2. "Who maintains them now, and when does that contract end?"
3. "Does the building have an energy label, and which one?"
4. "Which refrigerant do your air conditioning units use, do you know?"
5. "Who decides on a replacement: you, the owner or someone else?"

Make the first visit about the installation, not the sale. An inspection of the plant room or a check of the age and refrigerant of the units gives the facility manager something useful, even if they stay with their current partner for now. It also gives you the facts for the moment the contract ends or a part fails.

For more on building these questions into a call, see how to write a cold calling script.

What slows a calling team down in this sector

• "It still works." Buyers replace when systems fail. Ask the age, and plan a call well before the next heating season.
• Seasonal peaks. Technicians are fully booked in cold and hot spells. Book visits for quieter weeks and say so on the call.
• Owner and user differ. Tenants feel the comfort problem; owners pay for the replacement. Find out who decides early.
• Framework contracts and tenders. Larger organisations and public bodies buy maintenance through multi-year contracts. Know the end date.
• Hard to reach technical managers. They are on site, not at a desk. Call twice at different times rather than leave one voicemail.

What it can bring you: efficiency, money and more

A maintenance contract brings recurring revenue and often leads to the replacement order later. The table below is an example with assumed numbers, not a forecast. Replace every figure with your own.

In this example, two new maintenance customers a month are worth 24,000 euro over three years, before any replacement work. Your numbers will differ, so measure them. See how many calls it takes to win one customer.

Efficiency is the other half. Measure for one week how long your team spends after each call on notes, finding a date for the next call and remembering who asked for an inspection. Logging an outcome with one key and having the next call planned is meant to take much of that away; measure the difference after a few weeks. And follow-up gets done: a lead whose contract ends before next winter is in the calendar. Read how to follow up leads for a simple cadence.

Want to see the calling screen first? Try the demo.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Eurostat: Enterprises by detailed NACE Rev. 2 activity (sbs_ovw_act), NACE 43.22, Belgium and the Netherlands, 2024
2. CBS StatLine: Bedrijven; bedrijfstak (81589NED), SBI 4322 and 43222, status on 1 October 2026 (provisional)
3. RVO: Energielabel C kantoren (status on 1 July 2026)
4. Flemish government: Renovatieverplichting voor niet-residentiële gebouwen
5. EUR-Lex: Regulation (EU) 2024/573 on fluorinated greenhouse gases (7 February 2024)
6. RVO: Over de energiebesparingsplicht