I’m a technician with a national lab working on a residential research project that aims to validate adding ext c.i. during siding replacement (more here: https://www.pnnl.gov/projects/re-siding-ext-insulation). An aspect of my job is to engage siding contractors to partner with us on this project, as a big part of the research is finding out from siding contractors how realistic this approach is from both the technical and marketing sides. We’re aiming for 3 to 5 siding contractors in each of these regions:

• Buncombe County, NC
• Charles County, MD
• Essex County, NJ

Contractors who participate with us are not expected to “upsell” in any way – in fact, we ask that they do no more than introduce the idea to homeowner’s that are contracted for siding replacement. If the home meets our study criteria and the homeowner agrees to participate, we will ask the contractor to add the energy upgrade to the homeowner’s work scope and treat it like any other job – billing us for the labor and material of the energy upgrade portion.
I’ve attached our contractor one-pager for further info – but here are my main asks: 
What is the best way to reach contractors right now? Is there a method of getting my foot in the door (so to speak) enough so that I can explain that that we aren’t trying to sell them a product in any way, or convince them of anything? We’re really just trying to offer a free energy upgrade to homeowners and have contractors install it, so that we can gather data to present to the Department of Energy.
An issue I’m having is that the broad suspicion is that I am attempting to sell some type of ext. c.i., and even when I bring up the fact that this DOE funded, there’s still hesitance. I’ve had better luck when I can get recommendations – but for obvious reasons, this isn’t possible all the time. I am planning on sending out a postcard to companies we’ve identified in our target regions (also attached here), but any and all advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated!