Do truck wraps actually drive leads, or are most home service companies wasting money to look like everyone else?
In this episode, John Wilson and Sam Preston break down branding, truck wraps, and why many HVAC, plumbing, and electrical companies overspend on “professional” branding that does not actually set them apart. They talk about what branding really does, why it helps close more deals than generate more leads, and how to think about standing out in a crowded market.
In this episode, we cover:
- Why truck wraps no longer differentiate most home service brands
- The difference between branding that signals trust and branding that drives leads
- Why simple truck wraps often work better than busy designs
- How branding has shifted from competitive advantage to table stakes
- Why many contractors overspend to look like everyone else
Host: John Wilson
https://x.com/WilsonCompanies
Guest: Sam Preston
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-preston-a682103b6
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John Wilson, CEO of Wilson Companies
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What if I told you you could burn $50,000 and Yeah. Get absolutely nowhere Today. We're talking truck wraps. Ooh, and I heard you have a hot take opinion 20 years ago. That set you apart. It does not set you apart in any way at all today. Actually, you would probably be more set. With a white unmarked fucking van than any other vehicle with like an animal logo on it.My hot take is that branding isn't actually gonna drive you more leads, but it'll help you close more deals. And I think my hot take on the wrap truck iswell, welcome back to Owned and Operated. I am your host, John Wilson. I run a plumbing, HVAC, and electric company in Ohio and Indiana. And for fun, we run a podcast where I talk to my friends and interesting people on the home service industry and how to grow their businesses. Today we're continuing our series called Clicks to Calls, where I have Sam Preston, the CEO of service, scalers on with me, and we dive into different segments of marketing like billboards, L-S-A-G-B-P, and everything else you'd wanna know on how to drive more leads for your business.Today we are talking about truck wraps and branding. I think this is gonna be kind of a fun episode because it's, my take now is probably a little bit controversial. Uh, so we will unpack it as we go. Thanks for tuning in. It's funny 'cause my title is no longer the CEO of Service. Scalers no longer. Oh, what's your title?You see that? Yeah, I know. Probably like v vp snacks of drinks or something like that. Yeah, yeah. Janitor, chief Janitor. But my, uh, my LinkedIn got hacked. They, uh, got into it. They deleted it. So like they could have done anything. They could have run up my credit card, Dick pics, uh, dick pics on it. It could have been bad, but they just deleted it, which is kind of like a.Bad. That sucks, but I can restart. Yeah. It's better than like, you know, Hey, I need, I'm in a desperate Straits. I need a hundred dollars Apple gift card. Yeah. Sent to this address. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, no, no crypto messages to any of my clients or anything like that. Missed opportunities. This guy missed an opportunity.Honestly, I'm, I'm a little disrespected Yeah. Um, by this. Yeah. Um, oh. Oh. Was I not worthy of being hacked properly? Right? Like what the hell? Not big enough you. What the hell this is. I'm pissed. Yeah. Ego bruised. Ethan has established with, you don't know Ethan. He's one of our team members, has established himself as the CEO of service scalers on LinkedIn.Very nice. And he's getting messages all the time, congratulating him. Oh, that's nice that he's now the CEO. So I'll congratulate on see him. Yeah, you you should. He was like, congrats bro. I heard you muted. Congrats. And got this. That's, maybe he's the one that hacked it. Honestly, you know, because he's a good guy.I don't think he would do any of the, you know, racist post or anything that, that is career progression. That is, is hacking someone, hacking your CEO's LinkedIn. Right. Job. And I'm kind of proud now. I am. Yeah. I'm a little bit proud too. Yeah. Today we're talking truck wraps. Ooh. And I heard you have a hot take opinion.I, I don't, yeah, I don't know if it's a hot, I just think like, maybe it is. I don't know. So in 20, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna harken us all back. Yeah. To the 20 10, 20 15. The good times. The good times. The good old America was great. The good old days. You know, Obama was in office, which, I don't know, this is getting hotter and, um.So, you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, the service industry had like a bad rap. Yeah. Like, uh, on unprofessional and, um, and like the white van, the, you know, the plumber's crack. There was a lot going on with the reputation of the service industry. So back in the early two thousands, a couple of franchises.And brands wanted to set themselves apart. Mm-hmm. Mr. Rooter, Roto-Rooter, um, I, I, there's some old newspaper clippings, uh, that we have somewhere around here, and they're from like 2001. Mm-hmm. And it was Roto-Rooter, and it's like, it was sort of a tongue in cheek, like making fun of the industry. Like how do you know you have the.Plumber. Well, does he smell like he drank his breakfast? Does he, is his ass crack hanging out and like, this was in the newspaper? Mm-hmm. And it was like five different things and it was like, is it a clean mark truck? And it was, it set themselves apart. Mm-hmm. From the industry was like, Hey, we are clean plumbers.Yeah. And that was a tagline for I think Champions or something out in California was Hey, we're the Clean, or George Brazil. Mm-hmm. In Arizona. They're $200 million business now I think. But hey, we're the clean plumbers. Mm-hmm. We smell good. Like we're the smell good plumbers, whatever. And in the early two thousands that really set you apart.Yeah. The marked wrapped truck was interesting and unique and a little bit different. And, um, like today, that's just literally not the case at all. And I think my hot take on the wrap truck is 20 years ago that set you apart. It does not set you apart in any way at all tonight. Actually, you would probably be more set apart in 2026 with a white unmarked fucking van than any other vehicle With like an animal logo on it.Yeah, because everybody's got the animal logo. So like if you're running a home service business and you're growing, but cash still somehow feels tight all the time, you are not alone. A lot of owners are doing more revenue hiring, more people, buying more trucks, but still making big decisions without really knowing what the numbers are telling 'em.And that's why I'm such a big fan of what Tyler Martin is doing at CFO made easy. He works with HVAC, plumbing and electrical companies in that four to 12 million range, and its real CFO level support, not bookkeeping and not tax stuff. This is actual help around cash flow pricing. Margins and planning ahead.One of the cool things is you get to work directly with Tyler, and Tyler has scaled and sold a $25 million service business, so he's been in it and he knows what works to get started, click the link below to book a free 20 minute strategy call to review your numbers, identify what's creating cash or margin pressure, and get clear next steps.Yeah, I, I don't know, like there's a company in our market where everyone thinks that we bought them. Our brands look roughly the same. Mm-hmm. Like they did their brand a couple years after we did. It's more branding for you. Yeah, totally. I'm like, yeah, yeah. I totally own. Yeah. It completely own them. More people are searching for you now because of them wrapping their truck.It's, it's great. It's great. And, but like, it's blue, it's orange, there's a guy, you know? Yeah. And, um, but it's, it's overdone. Yeah. So now we're at the point where like, Hey, every company has this. Robust branding package. It's all the same. Yeah. Like there's a caricature of, and mine too, like I'm throwing punches at myself.Sure. Uh, where it's like, hey, there's a guy, there's a brand. It looks kind of retro. Right. And like, yes, it looks good. Yeah. But if the reason that people started wrapping trucks in branding in this way was because it set them apart. Yeah. And like, hey, core, core concept here. Like, that's why. In 2026, it doesn't set you apart.Feels like it's kind of like websites. Like early on I was like, yeah, you have a website. Holy shit. And it's well designed. Oh my gosh. Oh my God. Now if you don't have a website Yeah. And it's not, yeah, and the difference between somebody who has like the most perfect website that's super sexy and super designed and the, and just a website that helps you get your job done Yeah.Is not that big of a difference. Yeah. So I, I think my hot take is. It doesn't set you apart the way that a lot of the material that's out there says it does. Mm-hmm. So like there's podcasts, there's books. Look at when they were written. Yeah. Look at when they were published. If it was published in 2015, hey, this is a different, like in 2015, most companies still didn't have wrap trucks.Yeah. In 2026 everyone has a wrapped truck. Yeah. There's no like. I don't often find a brand. Yeah. With like the name without a caricature. Like there's always a character, there's always the name. It always looks like a, you know, 1960s or seventies or whatever. Like mine looks like 1950s. Yeah. Um, so yeah, that's the hot take is your more, more of your issue.The branding of it specifically, or track wraps, wraps itself. So I think the branding specifically mm-hmm. Is where I have an issue because like everyone looks the same. Well everyone looks the same, thinking that they're different and they're paying a shit load of money to do it. Yeah. Like if, if the goal is to set yourself apart and like have a Brandable brand company Yeah.That you can run ads behind and not look like somebody else, like this other company in my market is spending $20,000 a month to be told that they look like me. Yeah. Like. What are you doing? Yeah. What are you doing? Yeah, like it's just like, come on. I would probably change your colors. Like Yeah.Something stand out. It's a little, it's a little silly. Yeah. Because like of the two of like, we're I think 15 times their size. Yeah. So like, no one's thinking I look like them. Yeah. Right. So they have five trucks and we have a hundred whatever. I don't even know. But yeah, so I, I think I have struggl, I struggle with everyone looking the same.Mm-hmm. And, um. You know, when we were doing our branding process in 20 20, 20 19, I think it was 2019 s someone that, uh, I was talking to at the time, which was kind of like, I dismissed it at the time. Mm-hmm. Uh, but now I'm like, actually that was probably a good point was she brought up Stanley Steamer. Mm.And Stanley Steamer. I don't know if that's a nationwide thing or just around here, but yeah, so like. Their trucks have not changed in a hundred fucking years. No. It is like this weird sort of puy diarrhea orange with Stanley Steamer and like that is it. Mm-hmm. Uh, and if you look at the big, you know, Roto-Rooter basically invented truck wraps mm-hmm.In our industry. And if you look at their most recent trucks. They have simplified it substantially. Yeah. So they've ev everyone went crazy busy with all these truck wraps and like lightning and shit and like everyone's got a dog with a wrench. Yeah. And then now, like the biggest leaders in the industry are sim simplifying the wrap to color name.Yeah. Because now the simple rap. It's the thing that stands out. Yeah. Because everyone's got the animal. Yeah. Or the, you know, the human whatever. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Including us. Right? Yeah. So I'm throwing, I'm throwing rocks at myself. But yeah, that's my outtake. I feel like there's a couple good ones that I can think of that I feel like stood out even on the animal one.I think we have uh uh call the Otter guys. Yeah. Aaron's. Aaron's company. Other guy. Yeah, guy. Yeah. I feel like that's really good branding. 'cause you're gonna call them, right? Yeah. Um, but my favorite's gotta be Call dad. Because it, it, it builds like some That's good warmth in me. That's good. Like, yeah. I want my dad.Yeah. Uh, my father-in-law is the one that comes over and fixes all the stuff in my house anyway, so, but I see that's so much more That is a brand. Yeah. Brand. And I think that that's like well done. What Matt and his team has done is, is, or I love Matt and Dustin with Mother Plumbing, uh, similar, like, I think that there's like more going on there.Yeah. That is really well done. And that's different than what I see most people do, which is here's my truck wrap. Yeah. And I've got some lightning and like my robot guy with, you know, and, but like nothing else changed. Yeah. It's just like, here's my robot and my name. Yeah. We'll keep you cool or whatever the line is.Yeah. But yeah, it's just undifferentiated. Whereas like, yeah, mother plumbing, that's, that's different. That like brings warmth. Like there's a lot going on there. So I'm not, I'm not like slamming on brand. Yeah. I'm slamming on making your brand look exactly like everyone else's brand. Yes. Because you've defeated the purpose of this investment.Yeah. Like if you're paying $2,000 a truck or $3,000 a truck, that's a big investment. Yeah. And why would, like, why did this guy. Down the road, make his brand look exactly like my brand. Right? Like it doesn't make, like, maybe he gets a couple leads 'cause people think he's me, but like it is weird. Yeah. So wrapping trucks though specifically.Yeah. Um, you're cool with like, you like that it's a good idea. Yeah, I think it's good. Just like if you are be differentiated, be different. Be different. Um, more and like having the guy and having the animal. Is no longer different. Yeah. Like, it's just not, I think it depends on like, who's running the ship.Like sure. But now p you know, PE comes in, they buy if, if it's an unbranded, or like if they don't have a guy basically on their trucks, like they come in and they, they put together a robot or dog or whatever. Mm-hmm. And um, like they've run the playbook over and over again and it's, they're just machining a fake brand.Yeah. They're like, all right, we're gonna go. Here's a dog and we kind of want blue and orange and maybe red and let's put it over there and let's give 'em a wrench or a pipe or, you know, or, or My favorite is where they try to combine something cold and fire together. So it's like the ice, or it's like the snow and fire and it looks like literally coming out the same way.Yeah. Yeah. It's some like pee guy. Yeah. Just like, oh, we need a brand. Yep. Part of my checklist mm-hmm. Uh, is I have to have a robot. And, um, so yeah, I, I think undifferentiated, so I think yeah, wrap the trucks, like, pop off. I think it should be very different and I think that very different in 2026 is simple.Yeah. 'cause in 2020 or 2015 wraps were new technology. Yeah. And so people had like complicated wraps. Yeah. But now like. Mono color I think is awesome. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Stanley Steamer is like a funny brand to me because the color is unique. Yeah. And it's just Stanley Steamer. Yeah. Or like Spro is another one.It's a very simple wrap. It's like fucking green. Yeah. Spro. Yeah. Uh, Mr. Rooter rotor Rooter. They're both doing the same thing that I said. That's like, yeah. They're going to like mod dual color or maybe mono color. Yeah. And like. Mr. Rooter, I'm like, that's it. But it like makes them stand out more than the busy robot, you know, dog guys.Yeah. I think that from a branding standpoint, you can do it right and you can do it wrong. Yes. I think Porsche is a really good example of someone that keeps iterating, but it's literally the same thing, just slightly tweaked and it looks good. Yeah. Whereas I think it was Jaguar that came out with a brand new branding was like, that was tough.Like, are you a tech pro? Like what are you doing this? It was really weird. It's terrible. Yeah, it was really weird. Yeah. My hot take is that branding isn't actually gonna drive you more leads, but it'll help you close more deals. Yeah. Well, I agree with this. Yeah. Because once you're in person Yes. Then I think the, the difference between you tucking your shirt or not Yeah.Making the person there feel comfortable. Yeah. Do you smell like cigarettes? Yeah. Or did you, you know, brush your teeth before you came into my, my house? I think those small things, or even like the people that like, um, will put like the little. Hair nets, uh, on their shoes to make sure they're not tracking on anything.Well, thi this is back to differentiated. Yeah. So like, but you know, as, as the competition gets more and more fierce, uh, every, every year, month, or day or whatever you wanna, however time period, you wanna think things that used to be different are now table stakes. Yeah. So 20 years ago. Shoe covers were not a thing.Yeah. And then somebody was like, Hey, I'm gonna start wearing shoe covers. Yeah. And then the consumer started expecting it. And now what do you mean you don't have shoe covers? Like that would be that That would be insane. Yeah. To me that someone like isn't putting on shoe covers, walking, that's like very.20 years ago. Yeah. Uh, flat rate pricing is another one. Now the, now the consumer expects it. Yeah. I mean, Amazon like changed it with delivery. Yeah. Like bringing back a totally different industry, but hey, now everyone expects same day or next day frigging delivery from buying online. Yeah. Because like what used to be innovative Yeah.Is now table stakes. And I feel like that's a lot of. What you just described, some of those behaviors like, Hey, are you trucking? Are you like, are you drinking on the job? Well, in 1990, like, yeah, you could smoke in someone's house as the plumber, like you could literally light up a cigarette in someone's basement.Mm-hmm. And like, they might not like it, but like if you do that in 2026, that'd be insane. Yeah. Um, yeah, tr wrap trucks used to be like, what do you mean that's so new and innovative? And now it's like, yeah, everyone has, you know. You're the, you're the, maybe the different one without one. Yeah. Uh, you're, you know, fancy now, um, tucked in shirts, smell good.Yeah. Are my, are are you professional? Do you have a professional out, you know, all of those are branding. All of those are branding. Yeah. And all of those are table stakes. Yeah. Where what, again, I, I'm, I'm just really focused on like the core concept. 'cause I, I don't want somebody to walk away from this being like, John hates robots.Yeah. I think that if we're making a huge investment into the appearance of our company, the core concept is to be different. Yeah. So like shoe covers is no longer different. It's table stakes. Yeah. Wrapping your truck is no longer different. It used to be 10 years ago. Now everybody has a wrapped truck.Right. There's nothing new or fancy about it. So what's the next thing? Uh, and then how do you sort of like move past the decision quickly? Yeah. And not look like everybody else. Um, I think you told me yesterday like people are spending like 30 to $50,000 on like branding packages, which I'm like, if it was different and you ended up being like totally different and like really like driving alpha in that way, I'd be like, all right.Hell yeah. Yeah. But if you are the 20th dog. In my city. Yeah. Like why did you just like, somebody just ripped you for 30 grand. Yeah. Like, that's crazy. Yeah. To just use chat GPT. Yeah. Like, hey, gimme a dog that every other plumber looks like, come on. Like, that's crazy. And we're not saying don't do it. Like, even my branding like Little Mag, you know, megaphone.Yeah. Have a brand like, like a brand should be different. This guy basically took this off. Can. And did it. Which fine. That's cool. That's, every marketing company has it. Thanks. Um, but like, actually literally we found this exact one on Canva afterwards. That's fine. He built it for us. Um, but it's not like we spent 30 or $40,000 on Yeah.On this branding package. But we wanted something to that you knew as some sort of marketing, uh, company. You basically know that from the brand. Yeah. But like, we weren't betting on you seeing this and going, oh wow, I'm gonna call them now. You know? Like, that wasn't the thing. Yeah. That was gonna get you through the door.But the branding makes you go, okay, well they look like they know what they're doing. Yeah. They're doing those table stakes. They're doing those small things that you have to be doing, um, that make the difference. Yeah. And just, this has nothing to do with trucks really, but it's sort of, uh, it was kind of funny.I went to this event and it's this home service event and like you had to be 5 million and up to participate, and I think the average was like 10 million bucks probably. And it was a funny, like the topic came up. Of, Hey, you know, customers are starting to expect, um, like knowing where we are when we're on the way.Yeah. And it's, you know, at this point, like ServiceTitan had had that feature that like, tracks you like Uber for seven years or something, and it's like, yeah, yeah. Like no shit. Like services have that, like Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I, I think, yeah. Don't mistake table stakes for business driving. A hundred percent is I guess my like, big thing.'cause that's like a table stake now, like Yeah. Every single CRM app. Yeah. Probably has like a truck tracking feature or like a, they'll be there in 15 minutes or whatever. People have to plan in their freaking days. Sure. That is now table stakes. That's not new. That's not, that's not, uh, innovative. And don't get me wrong, do it.Go get that branding package. Make sure that you do at least, maybe it'll spend 30, may. If you're like a very small business, maybe, maybe not. Find an option that's not 30. Yeah. Yeah, but do it. Um, one of my favorite plumbing stories, and this is so irrelevant, uh, we ended up hiring a guy, didn't have a website, didn't have his branding.Okay. We went that route 'cause it was relatively inexpensive. Yeah. Uh, this guy came in, he had, uh, a person, uh, in, um, uh, as an assistant or somebody that was helping him, junior tech, and the guy started yelling at him in our house. My wife is pregnant, our firstborn is asleep. And it set my wife off. Oh yeah.And she started tearing into this guy. Yeah. And I'm sitting there like, you just messed with the beast. Like that was a mistake, bro. And after that one moment, he was good. But after that, like. There is a me, uh, uh, an element of my wife wants to see does this brand yeah, look trustworthy? Well, it's, it's signaling.So I think, yeah. So it is time again for our breaking five workshop. This is the fifth time we've done it, and we've had over 130 contractors go through this cohort. If you're hovering between one and 5 million of revenue and you're feeling stuck, then you're not alone. I know the hesitation. Can I really step away from my business for three days?Is the workshop actually going to be worth it? Is it too HVAC specific? Well, here's the truth. Breaking five isn't a big conference. It's 25 to 30 operators in a small room. It's highly tactical. There's no raw rod nonsense. You'll be alongside myself and Jack Carr at my home service business in Akron.Seeing the actual systems behind accounting. Call center dispatch service. Install the real bottlenecks. You're gonna work alongside other operators at your exact stage to build a plan that you implement the second you get home. The networking alone is worth it, and the clarity is game changing. Three days limited to 30 seats.If you're serious about breaking through the $5 million wall, grab your ticket for 500 off@ownedandoperated.com with code breaking early bird, or click the link below. Don't spend a ton of money to look like everybody else. Still do branding. Yes, I think that's my big message here. Um, don't be the next dog.Do something a little creative, but I do agree. I think there's a signaling component to having a brand, being clean, being presentable, knocking down the table stakes where you are signaling to your customer that, Hey, I take this seriously. Mm-hmm. Uh, we're probably not gonna light up a cigarette in your basement.Maybe we will, but we probably won't. And if we do, then we'll do something about it. Yeah. But, um, it'll be e-cig and you won't smell it. Yeah. It'll be great. Uh, but yeah, I think. Uh, it, there is a signaling of like, Hey, yes, we are real. We're a real business. Yeah. We invest in our name. I think all that stuff's good.I just, I get driven a little nuts by the, Hey, I spent $50,000 to look exactly like John. Yeah. That's like, wow, that was stupid. That was really dumb. Um, but if you spent, you know, 10 to look totally unique, that'd be great. Yeah. Uh, but I, I do agree for the customer it's signaling that like we're professional.Yeah. Um. Which that part's important. So now that we've hurt some people's feelings on the $50,000 they spent to look like, I'm gonna get so much hate. Yeah. It's a, it's gonna be a dog, Becky. I also have a dog and John, it'll be a, it'll be a robot riding a dog. It's like, okay, well, John doesn't like dogs.Yeah. And he made fun of robots a lot. So I think we need to combine 'em. I, I have also spent $30,000 on something that I absolutely thought was a trash, uh, and I can't believe I lost that $30,000 on that if you're in that place. Now let's, let's move on to better decisions on Yeah. Yeah. How do we leverage that brand on our trucks Yeah.And our, you know, to drive more phone calls and leads. Um, so that's what I'd ask you. What are, what are your tactics on your trucks? Like, what are y'all focused on to make sure that, yeah. It's not just a branding thing, but it is driving some phone calls. Yeah. Uh, pretty like simple to be honest. Just really simple.Um, in, even now it's busier than I would like, like if I was gonna redo it, I would probably do. And Orange with the name. Yeah, because that would be unique. Yeah. In You're not gonna miss that. Yeah. You're not like that. That would be unique. Uh, but like ours is a three color, um, blue, white, orange. There's a guy, there's the print from the time period we were aiming for.Um, and uh, like phone number maybe. Actually I don't even, I, there's probably not a phone number on there. Maybe the website. Uh, we really kept it as like. As basic as possible. As basic as possible because I, I just don't think it, I don't think it matters that much. I think like what it does is it signals.Mm-hmm. Like, brand is important. It's signaling to the customer whatever you want that brand to signal. Um, I just don't think, like, I think it, I see a lot of wraps from like. Very poorly done brands. Mm-hmm. Were like, Hey, they didn't do the robot or the dog thing, but they did do like lightning. And I'll see that a lot on like electrical contractors mm-hmm.Where it's just like a bunch of fucking lightning and, or like a roofing contractor or, or a siding contractor. And it's like a picture of a house and it's like this is a terrible picture of a house. Yeah. Like, you should not have done this as your wrap. Like it doesn't look good. Yeah. Um. So I wanted to avoid that.Yeah. Where it was like, Hey, we have a wrap. We can do, put whatever we want on it, so let's put whatever we want on it and boom, here's a house. Yeah. And it's like, okay. Yeah. I think we missed the point here. Yeah. That doesn't help anybody. Yeah. So keep your, uh, your simple, keep simple, keep it simple. Focused phone number, your name.I, I don't even know if you need your phone number. I think the least amount of information on your truck. The better. Yeah. Um, say something though, because you do wanna push people to your website and I'm thinking of like the moment where like, you're at a house, your technician's there. I think your neighbors are coming out and seeing Oh, like we have a better called Wilson on the bottom of all of ours.Okay. That's fine. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember there's a, uh, I grew up in Dallas and we had this, um, I can't remember the name of the company, but it was some kind of rodent or, um, yeah. Um, company and all their cars were yellow and they all had like the mouse ears on it. Oh, that's funny. And so like you immediately knew what they did.Yeah. Yeah. Um, and, um, yeah, like that's definitely something that's memorable and unique. And unique. That's super unique. No one else. No one else looks like a mouse. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it, it is just so funny to me that like Stanley Steamer became like. Branded. Yeah. We're just like, all they did was nothing. They kept it orange and like black font.Yeah. And like that's it. Why mess up with your thing? I actually think that's like all that's on their truck. So there's no phone numbers. Maybe a website. Yeah. And it is very memorable. Call adss is similar, but I think it's 'cause there's a pink component. Yeah. Like it's different. It's unique. Yeah. But I think the trucks are very simple.Well I think the difference there is the call dad. Emote such an emotion, like, you know Yeah. What it means for your dad to come over and take care of something. They did such a great job. Yeah. Like, that's so good. Yeah. Whereas somebody who doesn't have that name is trying to also elicit that same emotion.Yeah. But it's really, really hard. Yeah. Um, to do that if you haven't already with like your name or branding. Yeah. Yeah. They, they, they did a great job, uh, but they didn't, they didn't do a dog or a robot. Yeah. Yeah. Suddenly everyone's plumbing business is about their dad. Yeah. And then you go back to the dog.Yeah. That is fun. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think that's the table stakes thing is like somebody figures out something new, then everybody, everybody chases it. Yeah. And then suddenly there's a million dog brands. Mm-hmm. And it's like, okay, we might have to, you know, change this up a little bit. Yeah. And then now there's a million robot brands and it's like, okay, well yeah.I guess that's different. And, uh, I mean, there'll always be a next iteration. Yeah. There'll always be a next iteration. I think just try to pick, um, what's gonna have lasting power. Mm-hmm. And, uh, like Stanley C Mercer Pro, I think are just great examples. Yeah. Um, be ready to simplify again. Uh, Mr. Rooter Rotor Rooter.Great examples. Like those have become very simple colors. Like I think rotor, Mr. Rooter now is blue on top, red on bottom, yeah. Mr. Rooter. And very simple. Yeah. And it used to be like a lot more complicated message. Um, but yeah, I, I think that's like. I think that's truck. Truck wrap. Well done. Yeah. I still don't mind the dog and I don't mind some of those things.Mm-hmm. I mean, I did megaphone and lightning on mine, so like literally, actually I was told that these aren't lightnings, they're SS two Ss service scalers. I have never seen that. I literally never saw that until one of my team members said like, no, that's s is not lightning, Sam. That's really funny. And so, um, that's really funny.Hey, you learn something new about your company every day. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, but like obviously I went that direction on basic, everyone knows it. This isn't standing out to anyone super unique, but I spent three grand on my marketing package. Yeah. Not 30. Yeah. And so I think you can still go about that direction.Um, it's not gonna drive you more leads. Yeah, yeah. A hundred percent. Which is what we're here to do. We wanna drive more leads so that you can fill up your call board and you can have enough appointments and sell and close those deals. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. This was awesome. I don't have much more on truck wraps.It was just kind of like me venting about. You have to redo your intro. It's gonna be, yeah, we'll talk about con, I don't like wasted dollars on something that moves no needles. Yeah. It's like, Hey, what if I told you you could burn $50,000 and Yeah. Get absolutely nowhere. Yeah. Well, let's talk about this.Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, I mean like if anybody has any data around this, like you know that they changed their brand and overnight started seeing leads, I would love to see it. I just don't see, well see. I think that that data's misleading. You think so? A hundred percent because like, and that's the data that you get served up by an agency.Mm-hmm. But like the reality is what all had to happen for a company to take brands seriously? Yeah. Well, okay, so they're, they want to be professional. Yeah, they wanna look professional. They're probably training their techs. They're gonna be training their CSRs. Like that is a company evolution. That's not like I wrapped my truck.Yeah, that's call dad. Yeah. That's an evolution of who you are as a company that's doing all the table stakes. There's a lot more going on there and it's having the investible cash to go take on a branding project. Yeah. Like you have to have free cash to go do that. Yeah. And then like you've got the design, but you also have the a hundred thousand dollars in wraps.Yeah. Like that's a humongous investment. Oh yeah. And. It just like it tells you a lot about the state of the business. Mm-hmm. But it's, I think that's the trap where people end up spending 30 to 50 grand is like, someone's gonna be like, Hey man, like the year after this company put blue on their trucks with this dog, they doubled.Yeah. And like they probably did. That's not from that one decision. Yeah. From the ripples of decisions that happened, like maybe they professionalized and got a CRM. Maybe they started actually advertising. Yeah. Maybe they trained their technicians, maybe they doubled their pricing to afford the, you know, new upgrades in the business.There was a lot of other things that happened in order for that business to double. Mm-hmm. And it wasn't just the dog on the truck. Yeah. But I, I think that's the trap is like, like I could point to that data too. Sure. Like when we did our brand, we almost doubled the next year. Yeah. So if all, if someone's looking at like my case study of like, Hey, Wilson did their brand in 2019.Yeah. And the next year they doubled. Well, had no freaking shit. We bought three companies the next year. Mm-hmm. Like that had nothing to do with the guy on the side of my truck. Yeah. But like surface level. The sales pitch looks good. Yeah. Most businesses don't lose jobs because they're bad. They lose jobs because they're busy, and a customer could not get a quick answer, one missed call, one forgotten follow up, and the job goes somewhere else.Quo helps solve that by putting every customer conversation, calls, text, voicemails, into one shared thread that your whole team can see. So whoever picks up next. Already knows what's going on. There's no scrambling for context. No more botched communication and nothing gets dropped quo. Helps keep your team aligned, helps you respond faster, and makes the customer experience feel way more consistent.If you want cleaner communication and fewer lost leads, check out quo at qo.com/own. You'll get a free seven day trial. Plus 20% off your first six months. I'm with you my, yeah. Apparently I can really write a brand about this. Yeah. Well, 'cause I know that somewhere my design is on a case study of look there days, six times since doing their brand.And I'm like, yeah, we did. Yeah. And it wasn't that. Yeah. That was a component. Sure. But like one of a hundred. Yeah. A hundred percent. I, I guess you're right. Like no one's just changing their brand and literally nothing. That's it else about their business. That's the only decision we're gonna make this study on the other end.Yeah. Yeah. Hundred percent. Yeah. They're doubling down on a website. They're like, 'cause they're gonna change their website and professionalize it. Probably run more ads to the website. Yeah. Like they're gonna drive traffic there or they're gonna change the socials. Probably drive more traffic there. Yeah.Um, maybe they take that new brand and they go blow it up on like billboards or TV or something. And that's the same thing where it's like, okay, well it wasn't really the brand. It was, it was like, yes, you did that. Yeah. That was the linchpin for the five things you did next. A hundred percent. You started training your techs, you got all new brand new uniforms.Everybody looks good and professional inside the home. You're closing more deals. Yeah. Like. It's, it's a decision, but it's not the decision. Yeah. And I think it's very easy to like point to a case study of like they three x revenue. Yeah. It's like, well, yeah. But like a lot went into that. Yeah. I mean, I think the only pushback I would have there is like, that's literally everything.Like even on a Google, Google Ads totally testimonial that I'm gonna do. Totally. Like, Hey, we drove, uh, we spent 5K for this and we drove $25,000 for them that, you know, five X roas. Yeah. Cool. But like. That only happened because they actually have good closers. Yeah. That only happened because they have a good brand that people know, like, and trusted.Right? Yeah. So like I would say, I would push back a little bit and say, yes, you're right. It's a component, uh, of it. Uh, and also, well, I think's point is the only thing, just like when presented with data, what's the next two layers? Yeah. Yeah. Like, yes. It is a fact that Wilson did their brand in 2019.Mm-hmm. And since then, we have 20 times our revenue. Yes. Like that is a fact. And if you look at that, great. What else happened? Yeah. How many businesses did we buy? How many new markets are we in? How many recruiters did we hire? How many what? How big is the marketing team? How much are we spending on marketing?Yeah. How much is leads versus brand? Because like the that'll, you know, unpack a little bit of the, Hey, the brand investment was X, but really all of it was Google. Like, yeah. So I think, um, just go a couple layers when being presented with data. A hundred percent. Yeah, a hundred percent. And don't spend $30,000.You probably try not to spend $30,000. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy to look like everyone else. Yeah. Oh my God. Okay. That was a rant. That was uh, that was a rant episode. I'm probably gonna lose some, uh, I'm gonna lose some people. I'm gonna get some angry emails over that. Yeah. Yeah, you are. Yeah. Yeah. People wanna calling you in and tell you that your, uh, your, your grandpa would be disappointed.You. Um, Ralph would be mad. Ralph would be. Thanks everybody for tuning in. This was a funny rant episode on, uh, truck wraps. I hope you enjoyed it. If you disagree, which I'm sure there probably will be a lot of people that love their dog, throw it in the comments. Yeah. We still love you. We still do. I love my dog too.He's just not on my truck. Mm-hmm.
