Most home service companies rely too heavily on digital channels—and that’s a risky game.
In this episode, John Wilson and Sam Preston break down door-to-door marketing (canvassing) and why it’s becoming one of the most powerful, scalable lead generation channels in home services. What started as a way to de-risk dependence on Google and Meta has turned into a multi-million dollar revenue driver—and a repeatable system for launching and scaling new branches.
They walk through how top operators are building field marketing teams, structuring canvassing programs, and using this “analog” channel to create predictable growth without relying on algorithms.
If you want to diversify your lead flow, lower risk, and unlock a new path to scale, this episode is your playbook.
You’ll learn:
- Why relying on a single marketing channel puts your business at risk
- How door-to-door marketing can generate 10–20%+ of total revenue
- The structure of a high-performing canvassing team
- Why high-ticket services make this model work
- How to use canvassing to launch and scale new markets fast
Host: John Wilson https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbwilson1/
Guest: Sam Preston https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-preston-a682103b6/
Shout Out to FieldPulse 🚀
FieldPulse is an incredible Field Service Management platform that helps you save hours each week while keeping your operations running smoothly. If you're looking to streamline your processes, stay competitive, and focus on what truly matters, FieldPulse is a game-changer!
📅 Book your demo
💸Sponsored by CFO Made Easy
Built a strong trades business? Let’s take it to $10M and beyond. CFO Made Easy offers part-time CFO services for home and trade service businesses—helping you boost cash flow, maximize profit per tech, and make clear growth decisions.
📈 Free Offer: Book a 45-min Financial Insight Session to uncover growth blockers.
📞 Sponsored by Quo — The Modern Business Phone for Service Pros
Missed calls mean missed business. Quo (formerly OpenPhone) is the AI-powered phone system that logs calls, creates summaries, and automates follow-ups — keeping your team connected and customers happy.?
🎁 Start your 7-day free trial and get 20% off your first six months HERE
More Ways To Connect with O&O
John Wilson, CEO of Wilson Companies
Jack Carr, CEO of Rapid HVAC
📌 Disclaimer: Some links may include UTM parameters or affiliate relationships, meaning we may earn a commission if you make a purchase. Episodes may feature sponsors, but all opinions expressed are our own.
What are the ways you can get leads off the internet that you can still scale? Today we're talking door-to-door marketing. For 2025, like 10% of revenue came from field marketing. Like it'll probably be 15 to 20 this year. Not a small piece of the puzzle. No, this is, um, millions of dollars. Like why do I need Google at all? I know companies that drive 50% of their revenue through Meta. What happens if that changes? Like you are fucked. If you find yourself in a position where that is the only thing you had, you are really in a bad situation. That's canvassing, man. No algorithm, analog as hell. Mind blown. I think that canvassing is the secret superpower for Welcome back to Owned and Operated, a top 200 business and entrepreneurship podcast where we dive into the home service industry. I'm your host, John Wilson, and for fun I run this podcast where we talk about the home service industry, and professionally, I'm the CEO of Wilson, which is a home service business, plumbing, HVAC, and electric in Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee. If you're in Kentucky or Michigan, we'd love to talk to you. We're actively looking in those, in those areas. Today we're continuing our series with my good friend, uh, Sam Preston, the CEO of Service Scalers, and our... this series is called Clicks to Calls, where we dive into a different segment of marketing for home service. We've talked about Nextdoor and Google Ads and LSA and a bunch of stuff. Today we're talking door-to-door marketing, which is kinda weird, kind of awesome, depending on the team, uh, depending on the trade. So Sam, welcome back. Welcome back. Thanks, man. Uh, I feel like it's been a minute since we've recorded something, so excited to be back. And I saw a tweet by you- Oh, boy ... saying that you basically skipped the 30 millions and just went straight over to 40 million. Is that true? And was that done by door-to-door marketing? Um, last year we finished a hair under 30 million bucks, and the goal was 30 million last year. And, um, this year it's, what is it, April 20th? It's April 21st. We've done three acquisitions, and then we're prepping for our fourth one that'll close at the end of May. Uh, but yeah, we have those three put us at like 39 budget. Okay. And the, this fourth one puts us at like 43. So we have, we have, uh, essentially skipped, yeah, the, the entire 30. Just like, "All right, you know, I'm tired of this." Yeah. Pretty, pretty much. Way too long. Pretty much. Um- Oh my gosh ... no, but yeah, pretty c- pretty crazy. Um- But yeah, so we still have- I know you all have the breaking five. Um, I can't wait for the skit 10 million- Yeah ... conference. Yeah, yeah. Oh, this will be great. I mean, I, the 30s were boring. You know, I didn't- Yeah. Well, I said the same thing about the 20s, um, which was kind of funny. Yeah, I'm sure I could find this on a podcast like a year ago, but I didn't find the 20 millions very interesting, which is like probably a ridiculous thing to say or hear, but- ... I just didn't find it very interesting. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And, um, so he's Yeah. Are you a Love is Blind fan? 'Cause I was watching an episode last night with the wife, and this guy just like kept saying, "I don't want somebody to love me because I'm rich," but then just kept talking about how rich he was. Okay. Uh, yeah, so like is this one of those moments where like you're saying like, "I found it boring"- I, I, I don't think this is one of those moments because you find it so exciting? I just, I felt like it was, it was boring. So like the 20s, de- depends on how you do it, but for me the 20 millions were ... We were running one big branch. And like it was cool because we figured out a lot. Like, we figured out how to run a $20 million business, which was awesome. Like, that was an aspirational number for me at one point. But, uh, yeah, so ... But it, it wasn't like ... I always had the itch to drive real scale. I mean, that's half the reason we do the show. Like, my stated goal was build a million dollar, $100 million business plus. Um- Yeah ... and it's, that's not gonna happen in one location. So for me 20- the 20s were like, they just genuinely were not that interesting because I didn't feel like my brain was being stretched in the way that I wanted to. I wanted to figure out real scale, I wanted to figure out new markets, I wanted to f- I wanted to do the stuff I'm doing today. So- Yeah ... um, so yeah. So in, but last year I was like, "Yeah, let's, we're gonna try to just only have one year in the 20s." We just like ... 'Cause I did like 22 or something in, in, uh, 2024 and I was like, "Let's just go straight for 30 and let, like one year in the 20s, that's enough for me. Like, I'm ready for whatever comes next." Yeah. So we, we didn't hit that. We hit like 28 or something. And, uh, so I was like, "Okay. All right. A second year in the 20 is fine." Um, and then, and yeah, so it, so it was sort of funny. We just sort of skipped over, um ... Yeah, I think it, I think it's around a 50% growth year for us, a lot of it through acquisition. Uh, but a lot of those acquisitions have grown substantially since we've taken them over. Um, like- Which is insane. Yeah, yeah. I mean, two of them have doubled. Um, and then one of them will probably be 75% higher than last year. So, uh, yeah, we acquired a ton of revenue, but then those things are growing like absolutely nuts. And then when you're buying these- And I'm sure it's all over the board, but, like, is this founder-led? So you buy into a company where the founder stays and they, necessarily- Yeah ... they're running a double the size company, or are you buying people out? Like, how's this work? How is that working? Have you ever bought enterprise level software and realized that managing it really just became a full-time job? Well, that's pretty much exactly why my restoration business switched over to FieldPulse. We were tired of software that promised efficiency but came with endless training sessions, onboarding, and frustrated techs, and using it began to feel like it was a job all on its own. FieldPulse was built for owner-operators who don't want more dashboards. They need scheduling, invoicing, and job tracking, and they need it all to live in one place without the chaos or the learning curve. FieldPulse is simple to roll out, it's easy for your team to actually use, and it was 75% cheaper than the other titans of software we were using. Right now, if you book a demo with FieldPulse, you'll get an exclusive partner offer. It's 20% off an eligible annual subscription and 50% off premium support for your first year. If your software upgrade has turned into a time suck, it might be time to make the move. Book a demo with FieldPulse and see if it's a better fit. Yeah, both. Um, so, like, we had my, Jack, my really good friend Jack Carr, uh, we partnered, and that was less of a buyout and that was more of, like, we merged. Um- Yeah ... and he stayed on, and he's running with, uh, he's running Nashville with our GM Jeremy down there. Uh, they're doing an incredible job. Like, they're, they're just absolutely exploding. Um, it, it's, it makes me look really smart, but, like, really, like, the team is just killing it and doing an awesome job, and I happened to, like- Yeah step in at the right moment. So I look brilliant. But, uh- Yeah. Yeah. Uh- Love that ... but no, they're, they're doing an awesome job. Um, so yeah, that's sometimes the case. Most of the time the seller steps back. Uh, so the two other, um, and the third one we're about to do, the seller stepped back, uh, from all of them. And then we've sort of built a machine around our ability to do this, uh, which, um, I have been told is unusual, uh, and I don't know 'cause this is the first time I've ever done it. But we've, we've basically built a s- a strategy to be able to take over, uh, somewhere between a 2 and $8 million branch, and, uh, we can take it over in about a week, like, doesn't take very long. It takes us roughly- Geez, that's fast ... 20 to 30 days to close. Uh, like, a, a, you know, from the LOI to closing date is, like, three to four weeks. And then, um, our integration playbook is in total around 60 days, but most of the heavy lifting happens in those first two weeks. And we can take a business that is doing 10, 15% margins, and w- we can drive 35 to 45%, depending on the trades. Like, is it plumbing or HVAC? If it's HVAC it's lower, if it's plumbing it's higher. Uh, out of that branch. So yeah, so th- that, that has been shocking, uh, because that was our thesis that we could do this, the way that we thought about automation and AI and- Yeah ... our, uh, our offshore team and our in-house team. Um, but yeah, I mean, honestly we blew it out of the park. It, it's ... We had a spreadsheet that we're like, "I'm pretty sure we can do this, but this feels optimistic," and then we beat that. Like- Nice job ... it was crazy. Yeah, it was, it ... Yeah, it's been really crazy. Um, so yeah, we're having a lot, we're having a lot of fun. We're having a lot of fun. Like, we, our goal was to do two or three acquisitions this year, but the first few went so well, we're, we'll probably do six. And what's, what's stopping you from doing eight? Like, is it just, like, finding the right- Like, money ... companies? Dude, I'm like a broke boy. Like Like, who's gonna pay for this? Dude. I unfortunately- Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out ... uh, do not have a rich uncle, so I'm just sorta, like- ... running around- ... doing my thing. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, well, okay, so like- Yeah, I mean, honestly, like, uh, like, capital is, will become the constraint. I think once we get to probably, I don't know, five to seven locations, uh, cash and capital won't be the constraint. Like, it ... Execution is gonna be really hard. Leadership's gonna be really hard. But we were able to sorta go from one to four locations in, like, 90 days, and it didn't feel that challenging because we have been, we built up the disciplines- Right ... to just sorta springboard into it really fast. But, uh- Yeah like, that's not a forever thing. Like, we're gonna struggle a lot, I think, after five branches, um, just 'cause we don't, we're, we're gonna run out of leaders to deploy to these new- Mm-hmm ... these new branches. Well, I mean, and is it more beneficial if you're, like, leaders is part of it? So I'm, I'm thinking from a market- Yeah like, if I'm gonna go buy a marketing agency, I generally want founder-led agency. Um, like somebody that wants to stay in and wants to grow, but just wants to leverage, you know, what we know and how we can come in and how we can make them more profitable- It makes it easier ... and stuff like that. Yeah, it makes it easier. Uh, like, we're talking to a couple companies that are like that, but we're also talking to full buyouts. Um, but yeah, I mean, having the owner stays, staying on can make it easier. Uh, we're looking really hard at Michigan, and we're looking really hard at Dayton right now. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh, so like Detroit area and Dayton are, like, big areas of focus for us. Um, and- Yeah ... and Kentucky. There's, there's a ... But there's just not that many deals there, unfortunately. So yeah, we have one closing in a few weeks, but that's an add-on to our Indiana branch. Um, so that one, like, it doesn't really, like- You know, change, change a ton. Um- Yeah ... but yeah, Michigan and Kentucky would be new. Uh, Dayton would be new. So we'll have to fig- we'll have to figure that out. Well, man, congrats on going from 29 to 43. Um- ... accidentally skipping the 30s. That's insane and incredible. Yeah. Uh, that's an accomplishment, so you should be proud of yourself. And, uh, I'm excited to hear about these next couple deals. You gotta- Yeah ... keep us up to date. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think, um, the integration playbook is doing a lot of work. Uh, it's really, it's r- it is crazy how well that worked. Um, like, it, it blew us away, to be honest, uh, because we had expectations, uh, and then we far surpassed them. So we're, we're really excited to see what this looks like at, at, at true scale, um, which I think we're starting- Yeah to enter that zone of, of real scale. Feel like we should do, like, an episode, uh, maybe in like six months from now, where we just do a six-month lo- look back and then a 12-month look back- Yeah ... of here's the business we bought. This is an order of, like, how much- Yeah ... they were, the capital we invested, the marketing we did, and- Yeah which one had the best results and why. Yeah. Feel like that'd be a really interesting episode. Yeah. Well, I think so too, and I think, I mean, the, you know, we're talking about door to door, but I think w- it, it's kinda interesting because, um, all these businesses have the same problem. Like, it's all the same problem. Uh, like, you, you walk into a, you walk into a business between two and five million of revenue, and they all have the same issue. So if you know the answer to those issues, and if, not even if you know the answer, but, like, if it's quickly deployable, like, "Hey, I know how to get you leads. I know how to upgrade your sales process. I know how to help you hire better." Yeah. It is a very fast change, uh, like a shocking speed. Um, I, I think we shared this, but the company we bought in, in January, like, doubled. In the f- in the first month, it just doubled, and it, and it wasn't hard because it was j- like, which sounds ridiculous, but it... Uh, and that's not me being an asshole. It's just, like, I was, I was surprised at how not hard it was. Um- Yeah ... but, like, we have the tech stack. We have the v- and when you think about it, it's like, okay, well, of course it wasn't hard. Like, we have all the vendors. We, we know the way. We, we literally teach a, every six months, we teach a program on how to do this. Uh, so, like, if I- Well, it wasn't hard because you've already went through the pain of learning that ... if I didn't know how to do this, it would be very embarrassing. Yeah, it would be very embarrassing- Yeah ... if I couldn't, you know. Yeah, I'm on my sixth Breaking Five workshop, but, uh... I'm really struggling to break five. Um- Yeah. But to me, I think it's kind of exciting 'cause I've, I've looked at these. You- There's a clear path. There's a really clear path. This will be one of the most interesting Breaking Fives because what ... We're probably just gonna crack the book open on the four deals we would've done by that time, and then, like, "Here's what we did. Here's exactly what we did. Here's the P&Ls, here's the ServiceTitan. Like, here's what happened." Um, because I think when I, when I look at that, like, anybody could do it. Like, yes, some of it was me and, like, what we had from pricing power and all that stuff, but the biggest wins were we turned on more marketing, we added a speed-to-lead software, we raised their pricing, and we hired more techs. And, like, that was the playbook. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah, if you're, if you're at the Breaking Five in a couple weeks, uh, we will be doing a deep dive on all the acquisitions, and you're ... I'm sure it'll help you break five quickly. I was hoping to be there, but unfortunately, or fortunately, I'll be having my third child. Hell yeah. And there's no way- It's your shoot ... my wife will let me, uh- ... will be there, or yeah. Yeah, Aaron's like, "No." "Sorry, babe, I gotta- ... I gotta see a guy about a g- you know, about doubling my business." About a wrench. So, um, yeah. Yeah. It's funny. So no, no. Yeah, I've, I've got a third one coming, so I will not be there, but, uh, yeah, definitely at the next one. Um, I'm gonna start this off with, um, a little bit of a shout-out to our, our, uh, field marketing, uh, leader. His name's Solomon. S- Solomon is incredible, and Solomon's done an amazing job, and I think that that is an important thing to note because as we talk about this strategy for your business, who the, who the leader is driving the bus on door to door is what makes this work or not work. Like- Yeah ... Solomon's incredible. He did an inc- Yeah ... he's doing an incredible job every day. He's ... And, um, so one, there's a shout-out, but two, uh, who runs the program for you is really important. And the ... We've been doing door to door, I think we just hit two years. I think we just hit two years. Yeah, 'cause ex- it's not three years. But, um, yeah, we just hit two years. Took s- took a while to get, get our feet underneath us, um, but we hit our stride at the end of that first 12 months, and now it's a, it's a real part of what we do. It is, like, uh, I think it was 15 or 16% of revenue in March. Like, it's a significant- No way ... and growing share. Like, last year it was 10% total for 20, for 2025, like 10% of revenue came from field marketing. And, um, like, it'll probably be 15 to 20 this year. Jeez. Okay, so this is not, not, not, not a small piece of the puzzle No, this is, um, millions of dollars. Yeah, millions of dollars a year. Wow. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. I like that. Okay. So I think the way, uh... People call it door-to-door, they call it canvassing. Um- Mm-hmm ... and there's a few other things that, like, you can kinda add in there, like home shows or retail partnerships, like Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, um, Walmart maybe. I, I, I know Costco's got a program, and that's like you can buy your HVAC system, water heater, generator, whatever, through, like, a big box store. Um, so people often throw, uh, that into the same team. Um, so the core concept of door-to-door marketing is there is a, there, there is an individual that is generating a lead. Same as, like, Google generates a lead or Facebook generates a lead or whatever. So someone out there is personally generating a lead. I think it depends a lot on what industry you're in. Like, do you have any clients that are, like, door-dooring? Um, roofing clients, we get a lot of that. Um, same with fencing. Yeah. Mm-hmm, yeah. Like, fencing feels really natural to do that. Um, so yeah. Yeah. We get, we get quite a few. I haven't heard that in HVAC, although I have... I've heard, uh, HVAC in, like, uh, department stores. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, I think it really depends on the trade. For HVAC it's very, uh, like it's... frankly, it's kinda weird. Um, like, people don't really do it. Um, it... depending on the state, I think it's actually illegal in some states. Like, someone told me it was illegal in California. I, I don't know why. So, like, check your legislation. Um- Yes ... for Ohio you just have to- Please ... pull permits, like, where you are. But yeah, it, it's, it's interesting, and it's kinda fun 'cause as you start opening the can of worms it can take you so many different ways. Um, like, as an example, there's th- those three archetypes. You've got home shows or, like, shows in general. Like, you could do neighborhood, uh, events. You could do farmers markets. You could do, like... A- and we have done all of them. Like, you... So you could just run an events team where you're at every event in your community, which I feel like- Yeah ... is an awesome way to, like, be a part of the community. Um, so we do that. I, I think we did 20 or 30 events last year. We'll probably do- Yeah ... around the same this year. So, like, that's an important part, um, of the team. Uh, so that's one way to take it. The other is, like, just knocking doors, which there's a ton of different ways to handle that. Um, and then the third is big box store relationships, which are harder- Yeah to get into, and, like, there's some good and bad with big box store. Well, I mean, I know, um, like, I feel like knocking doors gets a bad rap as kind of, like, this annoying thing, but I had someone knock our door and said, "Hey, there was a hailstorm that came through." Uh, and we just checked your neighbor's h- roof. Can we just check yours, and I'll just show you what happened?" I'm like, "Knock yourself out. Go for it." And got on there, found some hail damage, and then was, uh, basically said, "Hey, we will deal with the insurance company, and we'll let you know when this is approved." And so they went and dealt with the insurance company, came back to me and said, "Hey, if you want this done, it's five grand." Yeah, yeah, go change my roof for five grand right now so I don't have to pay 20 later. Yeah. Uh, and it was easy. And honestly, it was, it felt convenient for them to just handle everything- Yeah ... to that point. And I, I don't, I know not everyone's- I think roofing, I think roofing makes total sense, and anything exterior makes total sense. Um, yeah, roofing, fencing, g- I think garage door, landscaping, um- Yes ... concrete leveling, uh- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm ... asphalt sealing. Like, we've talked a lot about a lot of these different opportunities. Like, anything that's easy to, like, look and point at is very, uh, very easy. Windows, doors, porches. Um- Yeah ... yeah, it's a really natural, it's a really natural part of the process. Um, personally, I love door-knocking. I think it's freaking awesome. Or I... And I love, like, having that team. It's been one of the most important strategic resources that we've built over the past two years, is our ability to drive that team. So I, I wanna, like, explain the, um... So first off- Yeah, I'm here there's, like, there's a bunch of industries that it just makes sense for. It also makes sense for plumbing, HVAC, electric. So depending on where you are, like, it can just make sense. It could make sense for carpet cleaning. It could make sense for whatever. Um- Yeah ... it's not complicated. It's just hard. Yeah. Uh, like, it's just tough. Like, yeah, you're, someone's walking around knocking on doors. Uh, the way to think about it... Well, I, I, I talked to a guy. I met a guy, um, I don't know, five, six months ago, and he came into the office, and he was running a, a, a really big window company in, I think, Canada. I don't remember which side of Canada. They had 11 locations. Each location was, like, 3 to 4 million bucks. Uh, so like, I, I wanna say 35 to 40 million total. Um, so big, big window business. And what they did was, uh, they had two org charts basically, and he came in and, like, it was, it was me just trying to understand canvassing at scale, 'cause it just, like, it, it hadn't clicked yet. Um, so he had, I don't know, 200 team members, I wanna say, and 110 of them were on the sales and production side of the business. So they're gonna go out, and they're gonna sell jobs and install those jobs, like how you would- Yeah ... think of a window business, um, window installation business. The other half of the business was canvassing. Two, like 200, so 100 people total- was canvassing. Geez. And he laid out this org chart for us, and it was beautiful. So he's got this, like, director of canvassing. Under the director he's got regional managers of canvassing. Under the regional managers there's team leads, and under each team lead there's six canvassers or five canvassers. Okay. Uh, 'cause each team is six because that's how many people you can fit inside a minivan. So each team gets a minivan. You go park in a neighborhood, and so you build a team of six, and that's your team. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. And then the team lead drives. So yeah, kind of funny. Uh, e- easy to figure out. So every team is six. Yeah. Uh, every field manager manages, like, two or three teams, uh, maybe four teams. Then they report up to, like, a training manager. Um, and then the director on top. It was 100-some people, and that was their only- That's a lot of people ... that was their only marketing channel, which when I first heard that, I was like, "Well, that's, I mean, that's crazy." But, like, the deeper we dove into it, it was like holy shit. I mean, this is kind of beautiful. Yeah. Like, Google hasn't... Like, Google's algorithm doesn't matter. Uh- Yeah ... like, this is your spend, and it was, uh- Yeah ... I mean, it was 12 to 13% of revenue. So, and, and that... Sorry, I don't know if we said that. That's the way to think about canvassing, is it is, it is marketing budget. So these are wages- Yeah ... that are marketing budget. So when I give our marketing spend of, uh, I wanna say it was, like, 7%-ish in March- Mm-hmm ... that is inclusive of the 40-some thousand dollars that we spent on our field marketing team. So that- Mm. Yeah ... 40,000 is in, is inside that. Um- Makes sense. Yeah. It's a lead. It's, like, same as meta or it's spend. You know? Spend to get a lead. Yeah. But yeah, the... It was really interesting to watch that, like, cascade out. So what he does now, and I'm kind of obsessed with this idea, um, and we, when we were thinking about greenfielding instead of acquiring, like, this was our plan. So we were gonna go, like, "Hey, let's go to Columbus, pop up a branch, knock on a bunch of doors, and stand up a plumbing company next to it." So that's what these guys were doing. This was their go-to-market strategy for new window branches is they're gonna go launch a branch an hour away, and they launch with three canvassers and two salespeople, and that's the new branch. And then they install from whatever the branch is that they just left. And so the... It was, it was really interesting. They ran essentially two organizations in tandem, this at-skill canvassing team and the, you know, sales and fulfillment side of the business. But y- it was incredible. I'm, I'm su- and I'm sure that's similar to what roofing looks like. Yeah. Maybe, like, a roofing business is, like, 30 canvassers and t- Five salespeople and 10 installers or something like that. But it, it was in- it was wild. It got our juices flowing on canvassing. When I first started growing Wilson, I was obsessed with the numbers. Books, podcasts, and checking the bank account pretty much nonstop. But as the business grew, I had less and less time to obsess, and I lost clarity. That's exactly what CFO Made Easy solves. Tyler works directly with home service owners doing a few million a year, and helps you understand your numbers in a way that actually drives decisions. Things like pricing, hiring, equipment purchases, all of it. I know what you're thinking, "This is just another consultant," but Tyler is different. He built and exited a $25 million home service business himself, so you know that this isn't just fluff. His clients routinely improve profit by 5 to 10% just by tightening up their pricing, labor, and overhead, and finally getting that oh so juicy control over cash flow. If you've got a bookkeeper and a CPA but no real financial partner, this is what you're missing. Go book a free 20-minute strategy call at cfomadeeasy.com/owned, and get the financial clarity that you've been craving all along. And do me a favor, let Tyler know that OYO sent you. Yeah. And then what's like, what is the, what's the script like when you're getting on there? Like for plumbing, it's, plumbing is what I'm trying to like g- wrap my head around. Yeah. Because normally you're not calling a plumber unless there's a situation. So plumbing has, uh, s- uh, surprisingly been the easiest and best. Okay. So like, just like everything, we track channel ROI, we track cost per lead, um, so we've got the metrics, uh, on this. And plumbing has consistently been like our best booker, highest revenue, highest ROI channel out of field marketing. So what we actually ended up doing was we pivoted the whole team in field, 'cause they were like, they would go to the door and the script was like, "Hey, we're Wilson. We're here in the neighborhood." Um. Yeah. To, uh... And, and that would just be like the way we'd neighborhood select is like old neighborhood that we wanna do more work in. Not, not complicated. Mm-hmm. Uh, and we would say plumbing, HVAC, electric. We'd sort of go through like a suite of options, and we did a good job. Yeah. Like that's what we did last year, and it was 10% of revenue. What we did this year was we started saying like, "Hey, let's just focus on sewer replacements or sewer lining." Yeah. "Let's pivot the entire team to focus on this one thing, and let's see if we can deliver this one thing better," and that has been humongous. We're about 45 to 60 days into it and, um, I mean it's, it's been huge. Uh, the average ticket's much higher and our closing rate's higher. We have, we've actually, uh, we're hiring two additional sewer salespeople right now to keep up with it because we've... Like it's been too many leads. From, like, knocking on doors. Yeah, they're doing an awesome job. Dude. Uh, yeah, Solomon and Do- Don run... Don's the canvassing manager, and they're, they're doing an incredible job. Wow, man. Man, my mind's blown right now. I'm just sitting here, like, thinking of the implications of them. Well, we g- we got into it a couple years ago 'cause, you know, LSA was being weird. So the idea was like, hey, do we need... Like, why do I need Google at all? Like, there has to be a better way, which I think is actually similar to, um, you know, our, our, our conversation we were gonna talk about next was, like, email SMS, and a few weeks ago- Mm-hmm ... we talked about direct mail. And I think there's this idea that, like, I don't wanna be beholden to Google to grow my business, and I think that a lot of businesses got in trouble because they, they are or were, um- Mm-hmm completely dictated by one channel. It doesn't have to be Google. Like, I know companies that drive 50% of their revenue through Meta. Okay, well, what happens if that changes? Like, you are fucked. So, like- Yeah ... if you have one channel driving too much of your revenue, I think you're in a risky spot. So for us- 100% we had L- LSA was driving almost all of our revenue, um, in, I don't know, 2023, 2024. Mm-hmm. And we started focusing really hard on diversifying channels and ideally diversifying, uh, off, off internet channels 'cause we wanted to be able to control- Yes ... just if there was a weird algorithm, I didn't wanna be dead in the water. Yeah, which the algorithm's changing so often now. Totally. Like, it used to be, like, once or twice a year. Now it's, like, once or twice a month. Every day. Yeah, it, uh- Oh, yeah ... it feels, it feels like it's daily. I'm sure it's not, but it's just like, this is crazy. Yeah. Yeah. No, yeah, we're always making adjustments now. Yeah. Uh, and you should. You 100%, like, obviously- Yeah ... I'm, I'm a big fan of Google, but, like, Google's only as good as it returns. Yeah. And as soon as it doesn't return or it- Yeah ... becomes a problem, or they change something, y- you know, you kill that and you move on to something else. Yeah. Um, now, if you find yourself in a position where that is the only thing you had, you are really in a bad situation. Yeah. So you need to be trying to get other, other marketing initiatives going, uh, as soon as possible. So yeah, so we got into it for a de-ras- we got into it for a de-risk, um, and it turned into a real channel for us, like a really big in, in a channel. And, like, strategically, it's about to become one of our most important channels because we now have a few branches, and we have four branches now, and we're starting to prepare to launch field marketing in those other branches to keep driving. Um, so- That's fascinating ... yeah. And I, I think for, like, my personal take, you know, what, one of the, um... I think that canvassing is the secret superpower for launching a new branch. Like, I think that's probably the most valuable thing you could do. Because if I was launching a new branch tomorrow- Like, the, the problem is leads. Like, you just need leads and, "Hey, I've got a GMB with no reviews, and nobody knows me in the neighborhood, so, like, PPC might not work as well, 'cause I'm, like, uh, unrecognized. Uh, Meta maybe," you know? So it feels like a lot of your channels get kind of weird. Um, so you need to have, like, a very diversified set of channels digitally. Like, "Hey, do you have Angie set up?" Mm-hmm. "Do you have Modernized set up?" Like, do you have all your lead aggregators, like, set to pump? Is LSA gonna drip you some leads? Do you have something going on with PPC and Meta? Like, what are all the ways you can get leads on the internet? And then maybe most importantly, what are the ways you can get leads off the internet that you can still scale? 'Cause you can run a s- Yeah ... you know, I could drop six people in Toledo tomorrow and have a $4 million branch, like, year one. Okay, so what size, like... I mean, I'm trying to think of, like, the, the, the- Yeah ... applications here. Like, um, my, my instinct is like, "Oh, well, then let's go." Like, "Hey, everybody, what are you doing? You gotta have your LSA. You gotta have your, uh- Yeah ... your door knockers." But, like, I'm assuming at, it doesn't make sense until you are a certain size company, and I'm assuming also that it doesn't make sense unless you have, not Solomon, 'cause n- no one's gonna replace Solomon, but like- Hey, Solomon ... someone that is, yeah, he's too good I should've changed his name for the show. Um, yeah, you should have I just, I wa- I wanted to make him sure that he heard it, but it's Charles. It's, yeah, Charles. Why'd you mess that up? Yeah. Um, so yeah. Yeah. No one's gonna find their own Charles. Um- Yeah ... so, like, are you thinking if you're gonna go about this, are you gonna go higher than Charles and Solomons of the world, or are you gonna start smaller from there? Well, yeah, I, I think, um, to be honest, I don't know the, I don't know the answer to this. Like, I, I should have asked the guy with Windows how did he start doing it, because he actually moved from a primarily digital lead source, lead channels to this. Yeah. At, like, 10 million, he switched. So I'm sure... Well, you know, Cole Simpson, maybe we need to have him on to talk about this, 'cause I think he sold- Oh his roofing business. But when he first launched it, canvassing was, like, the entire channel, uh, that they were- Okay ... driving energy through, and I think they had, like, 15 guys. Uh, so, like, I, apparently you can start with it right off the rip. I want to say that you can start with it off the rip. I also totally acknowledge that that's a lot of money. And, um, like, if I was, like, a one-man show launching my plumbing company, like, I wouldn't do it. Like, it, I, it's two budgets, you know? It's people and, yeah, it's hard. Yeah. Yeah. But that said- Yeah, I mean, it's- ... I'm sure there are people that have done it really, like Cole, like, people that have done it really successfully. Uh, and Cole, I think in his first 12 months did, like, 6 or 7 million of revenue. Like, he was the fastest growing franchise- That's tough ... in that space, and I think a big part of it was they just hit the freaking pavement. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, you should have Cole on here. That'd be great. Yeah. He's awesome. Yeah. Okay. And I'm assuming it's not... I mean, do, if you wanted to, like, dip your toe in it, it's not just hiring one guy to canvas. You are, you, you probably need to go ahead and invest, like, for an entire team of six or something like that. The, where I- Or do you need one? So I have seen a lot of people attempt to replicate our success with this, 'cause we've been doing this for two years. Maybe I need to be quieter about it. I just think it's, like, crazy. Um, yeah, but most people, like, who you bring in to launch the team is r- is really important. Um- Mm ... th- it's a tough job, so the, like, the canvassers themselves, it has relatively high turnover for better or worse. So you need, like, a strong team leader, you need a strong manager. We were really blessed to get some really awesome people, um, off the rip, and, like, that's what made the program work. And now it's one of our most important marketing channels. And how are you paying, uh, the canvassers? I could be off slightly, but I can give, like, a general idea. Uh, I believe it's 17.18 to 21.22 an hour, plus a bonus per lead that sits. Mm-hmm. So a lead that sits means, like, I got a lead and we u- someone ran that lead. It encourages us to- Got it ... set, set up high quality leads. Yeah. So the earning potential's pretty good. Like, uh, on a successful day you could book, like, two to five. Yeah, it's an important part of what we're doing. So right now we're prepping, um, probably over the summer we're hoping to, like, go launch canvassing in a new market. Um, I kinda wanna experiment with a greenfield, but that's probably a terrible idea versus, like, you know, into somewhere that we already are. But, uh, but yeah, I'm, I'm... It's b- it's been awesome. But we've seen a few people try to do this, and they just go straight for the canvasser, and they don't understand, like, hey, this is a lot of turnover. Like, you need to d- it's not just, like, a per- a person. Like, this is a program. Like, you have to develop a program. It, it's, this is the same as building, um, a team of technicians or a team of salespeople. Like, our canvassers are salespeople. This is a team of salespeople. They get trained once a week, they're working on scripts, they're working on objections, they're working on close rate, they're working on their sit rates. Like, you are building a sales organization inside your business with canvassing. Ours, our, uh, canvassing, like, field marketing, uh, team now I wanna say is 15 people, um, all in, and it's r- and we're about to launch a new team, which means it's gonna jump up into the, into the 20s. That's awesome, and it's something AI's not about to replace, so. Yeah. And we, yeah, well, and w- that was the thing with, um... Yeah, it, it's not. Like, y- you can, you are just immune to all of those- Is, now granted it brings a lot of other issues. It's not like it's free and easy, but like, yeah, it, it's analog. Yeah, my impression of this is this is the, this is a hard road, but- It's hard- if done well- But the results are worth it, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't just hire an agency- Well, and I, I think it's the same with- ... to do this for you ... you know, I- Isaac, Isaac was talking about, um, and we've had him on the show, but if for direct mail, like he's like, "Hey, everyone's chasing digital," and he's getting a 10 times return on his ad spend on direct mail right now. And it's n- it's not like small, it's like $100,000 a month. Like, he's getting a lot from like the most old school analog shit out there. Um, yeah, it, it's ki- it's kinda interesting. It's kinda interesting. Uh, old school, man. Old school. Door to door canvassing, knock 'em, get 'em. Let's go. Yeah. Let's go. Yeah, it's kinda wild. Is there somebody that like this is a terrible idea for? Like, just business cannot work? I don't think... I don't know. I don't know. Somebody like remodels houses, like the chances of somebody else in that neighborhood also wanting to remodel. Honestly, I think it would probably work. So it tends to be easier the bigger the ticket is. Yeah. So like maybe appliance repair- Sure ... would be tough, 'cause appliance repair like might be only like a couple hundred bucks as a one-time job. But like, you know, it, landscaping, if you secure a landscaping contract, maybe that's $5,000 over the course of a summer. Yeah. It's five grand. Like, 'cause you have to be able to afford the wage and the commission. Right. So like asphalt sealing is three grand to six or whatever. Roofing is obvious that, you know, five grand, 20 grand, like somewhere in there. Like roofing makes sense. Windows is a lot of money. Doors is a lot of money. So yeah, if your service is like a couple hundred bucks, it probably makes less sense. I'm trying to think of an- another example bes- besides appliance. Like, uh, duct cleaning might not work very well. I mean, I spent three grand to get my ducts cleaned, so. Did you? Yeah, yeah. Uh, and I mean it. Oh, maybe it would work. W- wife was having, you know, allergy issues- Oh, totally. Yeah ... and we like ripped out the carpets- Yeah, yeah and we were having a bunch of issues, and so we got two different quotes and one was, uh, very affordable and one was three grand, and let's just say we wanted to make sure it was done right. That's funny. Um- So we agreed to spend more And it's- Yeah ... you know, got the full thing. No, that makes sense. We, um, we... I mean, so maybe duct cleaning if you're, like, high ticket duct cleaning. Uh, yeah, I, I think there's a lot, there's a lot of different things you could do. But, like, I, I would say as a benchmark, if your job... Three grand's probably a great benchmark. If your average job is in the 2,500 to three grand mark, you are good to go. If it is not, then you're less- Lower ... good to go. And that's another part of the reason- Oh, yeah ... we started focusing on, like, sewer replacements too. Like, the program's easier to pay for if the average sewer replacement's 14 grand. Well, I mean, that's, uh, that's just another home service problem, right? Like, you don't focus on leads if you don't, if you have a sales problem. Right. And then you don't focus on... So it should be fix your sales problem, fix your appointment problem- Yeah ... then go to leads. Yeah. And so let's get your average ticket up and your close rate up, appointments rate up, and then go figure out where else you can get leads, 'cause otherwise you're not gonna... It's not gonna work anyways. Yeah. That's canvassing, man. No algorithm. Mind blown. Analog as hell. Knocking doors. The other thing that blew our mind was that roofing guy in Canada. I was like, "Hey, you're in Canada, it's cold. When do you not canvas?" He's like, "It has to be below five degrees." Bro. Otherwise, five and a half degrees up and up. Dude. He's built different. They're built different. Oh. I mean, and, and that was the thing- Dude ... is, like, this is the business. They're a canvassing business. It was pretty inspiring. That's insane. And, um, I mean, for us, the best in- like, the best part of that is I think this is the craziest hack of all time to launch a new branch. Like, you can, you can just do it day one, where, like, for better or worse, a lot of digital services take a couple weeks or a month to get, like, queued up- Sure ... and functioning. Yeah. This, you can get a lead on the, on the day you want a lead, you can go get that lead. You're not losing jobs because you're bad. You're losing them because you're busy. It only takes one missed call, one delayed text, one forgotten follow-up, and that job and customer is gone, and that's exactly what Quo fixes. Quo brings in every customer conversation, like calls, texts, voicemails, into one shared thread your entire team can see. So whoever jumps in next has the full context right away. There's no scrambling, there's no crossed wires, nothing's slipping through the cracks anymore. It keeps your team aligned, speeds up your response time, and makes your customer experience feel dialed in every time. If you want tighter communication and fewer lost leads, check out Quo at quo.com/owned. You'll get a seven-day free trial plus 20% off your first six months. Yeah, it would make sense, and specifically for someone like you who you already have the director. Like, you already have the mastermind in place. Yeah. You just have to deploy a leader and- You gotta go deploy a team, yeah ... six team members Uh, and many- 'Cause now I wanna, now I wanna do this in, like, Columbus or something like that Instead of buying that sixth business- Or- Just start one from scratch fuck around and find out in Ohio And, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was funny. It was like, "Can I, can I build an entire company just off of canvassing?" Um- I think you can. I think canvassing is, like, the most hilarious thing ever. I think it's incredible. I support this. I would've never in my life thought that I would've, like, done this. Uh, but now that we do it, I'm like, "Yeah." Like, any business I ever get involved in, we're gonna drive canvassing, 'cause this is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Well, if you like what you heard and you wanna go knock some doors, like and sub, man. Thanks for tuning in to Clicks to Calls
.jpg)
