Building a prospect list takes time and effort. So does reaching out consistently, following up, and working through a calling cadence. When you’re also running operations, managing people, and taking care of your existing customers, the time you have for business development is limited, and it matters how you spend it.
One of the most practical things you can do to make your outreach more effective is to estimate the revenue potential of your prospects before you invest significant time in them. It doesn’t require a site visit or a formal quote. Two straightforward methods can get you in the ballpark quickly, and at this stage of the process, that’s exactly what you need.
The Square Footage Method
If you know, or can reasonably estimate, the size of a building, you can work up a rough monthly recurring revenue (MRR) figure in just a few minutes. Here’s a simple example using round numbers: a 20,000 square foot building at a production rate of 4,500 square feet per hour takes roughly 4.4 hours to clean each night. At a fully loaded hourly rate of $30.00, meaning labor, payroll-related costs, supplies, equipment, and markup, that works out to an estimated MRR of $2,860 per month.
The production rate and hourly rate in that example are just that, an example. Your numbers will be different, and they should be. Once you have your own figures in place, you can run this calculation on almost any building in just a few minutes. Square footage is often available through public records, county assessor websites, or a simple online search.
The Building Users Method
For some segments, the number of people using a building is a more reliable starting point than square footage. This approach works especially well in outpatient medical, manufacturing, education, and faith-based facilities, anywhere that headcount is closely tied to cleaning workload and relatively easy to research.
Here’s how it works. Start with your existing accounts in a segment. Look at what you’re charging and how many users each account has, providers in a medical practice, employees in a manufacturing facility, students in a school, staff members at a church. Then calculate a revenue-per-person figure for each account.
Using outpatient medical as an example:
- Clinic 1 — $2,000/month, 3 providers = $667 per provider
- Clinic 2 — $6,000/month, 7 providers = $857 per provider
- Clinic 3 — $1,000/month, 2 providers = $500 per provider
- Clinic 4 — $800/month, 1 provider = $800 per provider
- Clinic 5 — $10,000/month, 12 providers = $833 per provider
Average — $731 per provider per month
That $731 figure is your benchmark, built from your own book of business, reflecting what you actually charge in that segment. Now take that number to your prospect list. Research each clinic’s website, or use an AI tool to find provider counts quickly. Then multiply by your benchmark to estimate MRR for each prospect:
- ABC Family Medicine — 4 providers = $2,924/month
- Riverside Urgent Care — 8 providers = $5,848/month
- Valley Internal Medicine — 2 providers = $1,462/month
- Summit Orthopedics — 15 providers = $10,965/month
Most CRMs allow you to add a custom field for estimated MRR and build a simple formula to calculate it automatically. You can also create a quick prompt in ChatGPT or Claude to do the heavy lifting. Feed it a list of prospects in a segment, give it your benchmark rate, and it will return estimated MRR figures for each one in seconds.
Estimates, Not Quotes
These numbers are estimates, not quotes. The goal at this stage isn’t precision, it’s prioritization. You’re simply trying to answer one question before you invest your time: is this account worth pursuing right now?
When you add estimated MRR to each prospect in your CRM, your list stops being a collection of names and becomes a prioritized pipeline. You can see at a glance which opportunities deserve your attention first, and that kind of clarity makes a real difference when you’re trying to grow.
