The Home Service Expert Podcast
00:30:33 · Zach Deering, Tommy Mello
[00:30:33] S0: I I I I think I've heard a little bit about it. You basically just like begged your way. [00:30:37] S3: Yeah. I steamrolled them. I basically said, dude, we're 17,000,000. He goes, we're not made for garage door. Yep. My father and Vahe's father weren't in the garage door business. We built this specifically. You understand discipline. Yeah. You understand our focus. You understand the power to say no. I said, I understand all three of those things, but if you bet on us, you'll never have to turn back. Totally. And it was an hour long conversation. He goes, don't make me regret this. Yep. He goes, I'm sending out 10 success managers. Yep. They send one out to a big company. [00:31:08] S0: Yep. [00:31:08] S3: And you know, I think that changed the history of the company, it changed it by far We were the big winner there. I will never say, look what we did for service day. That allowed us to expand like crazy, have the KPIs, have attribution. And so I never once was like, man, I'm glad... You you must be glad of me. Now you did an IPO. No. I'm like, you did this for us. We won 95% of So I'm definitely... I have a lot of gratitude for that. You know what's interesting is Mantel shows... The data shows that Tuesdays are the biggest sales days. What does that reveal about buyer psychology? [00:31:44] S0: Yeah. I think maybe buyer psychology and also just like scheduling. Right? Like... And it's interesting and and you probably even see it in your own data where [00:31:51] S3: Oh, we see Tuesdays are the best.
00:31:51 · Tommy Mello, Zach Deering
[00:31:51] S3: Oh, we see Tuesdays are the best. [00:31:52] S0: Yeah. Mondays are a little bit sleepy. On the weekends, interesting, a lot of people are like, oh, weekends must be great, which is... It's true. Right? You're more likely to have both buyers, and historically, that was limitation. Obviously, we're changing that. Right? If a buyer's away, the the reality though is the lead count is just lower on Saturdays and Sundays. I think Tuesday, it's like you're starting your week. You have a lot of opportunities at bat, and you're not getting as distracted by the weekend and as things per... Progress. And so I think it is a fun a a thing that we get to look at, and the power of what we're building is the data and what that means we can do for our partners. Right? And I like to say, like, we don't have customers, we have partners, and we're really in it with each of the contractors that we work with. And so if you go again to the question from before of, like, hey, what do others miss? I think it's missing that perspective. Like, fundamentally, if we do our job well, like, I want it, and and where we stand today and where I hope to be in the future is that when we walk in the office of any of our contractors, that it feels like we're a familiar face. Right? Like, if we just happen to be in Phoenix and I happen to stop by the a one office, they're like, Zach, great to see you. Like, thanks for stopping by. Like, that's the level of partnership and connectivity that we strive for.
00:33:06 · Tommy Mello, Zach Deering
[00:33:06] S3: You're gonna have to really... It it it gets more difficult as the company grows. Totally. You're gonna have to start asking yourself this question, who not how? How do I get the right people on the bus as Jim Collins would say? How do I continue You know, when my when my brain shifted towards marketing for great people to come on the bus instead of getting great clients [00:33:30] S0: Sure. [00:33:30] S3: Everything started to solve itself. [00:33:32] S0: Sure. [00:33:33] S3: Because so many people out there that are probably listening are like, man, I got these three killers. I got a good person in my CSR and dispatch. I got a really good GM. But imagine if you had a team of all a plus players like Steve Jobs was was able to attract and they they wanted to come work for you. Well, how do they do that? Because you focused on putting the stuff out there Yeah. That at least show them there's a better opportunity for them which very few people do. [00:33:59] S0: Totally. [00:33:59] S3: And I think that's gonna be your biggest I won't say it's gonna be a problem, but that should be your biggest core, like like going after is building the team and continuing to keep what you've built. Yeah. Because you're out here today in our headquarters. [00:34:13] S0: Yep.
00:34:13 · Zach Deering, Tommy Mello
[00:34:13] S0: Yep. [00:34:13] S3: And you've flown out here a lot. Yep. And Zach's only one person. And so you're gonna have to delegate to Elevate. And I'm glad you're part of this because we'll work very closely together to continue to make this product better. And obviously, the more you scratch my back, I mean this is only the beginning. I mean luckily the people listening know I'm not a bullshitter. If I use you and I'm finding success, if somebody comes to a shop tour, I'll just show them that this works. One other thing I wanna just mention is when I was in the bar industry, I was a bartender, I was a bar back, I was a bus boy, you name it. Is I remember the owner said to me, he goes, Tommy, we know Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings are good with football. He goes, if we can make one other day great, that's where we make all the money. Yeah. That's where... That's the profit day. Yeah. And every bar is kind of busy on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sunday morning. And the reason I mentioned that is if you could make Saturdays and Sundays very very profitable Sure. And what we're working on as advertising, we love working weekends. Cost out at no extra charge. [00:35:23] S0: Yep. [00:35:24] S3: Because if I could pack those days and make those massively profitable, you know... By the way, everything's cheaper on those days. Yeah. Most guys are closed on Sundays. Yep. So all of a sudden, PPC and social media, all the other stuff, they they feed us better Yeah. On those days.
00:35:24 · Tommy Mello, Zach Deering
[00:35:24] S3: Because if I could pack those days and make those massively profitable, you know... By the way, everything's cheaper on those days. Yeah. Most guys are closed on Sundays. Yep. So all of a sudden, PPC and social media, all the other stuff, they they feed us better Yeah. On those days. [00:35:41] S0: And I think what that really gets at both for your team members and for homeowners is choice. Right? There are certain people that wanna work on a Saturday or Sunday, so they can have Tuesday and Wednesday off, And there's certain homeowners that also wanna be able to shop on those days because it's convenient for them. And I think more than anything and something that I've seen in your organization, something that we feel really strongly about, is how do you empower homeowners with choice? [00:36:05] S3: 100%. I mean, if you read what should we do by Joe Crisora, it's not on this shelf, but all he talks about is giving options and the data to back it up. [00:36:15] S0: 100%. [00:36:16] S3: And I think five options are better than three. There's all kinds of studies around that too. But also there's some people depending on how hard the options are to understand, it can confuse people as well. So it's really... There's a lot of science and psychology behind the options and then the pricing that you could make them.
00:36:16 · Tommy Mello, Zach Deering
[00:36:16] S3: And I think five options are better than three. There's all kinds of studies around that too. But also there's some people depending on how hard the options are to understand, it can confuse people as well. So it's really... There's a lot of science and psychology behind the options and then the pricing that you could make them. [00:36:37] S0: A 100% agree and it reminds me of two things that we often think about. Price is only the most important thing if you don't understand anything else. Right? And so if a homeowner is telling you that, hey, you know, this other company's $500 less expensive, means they don't really understand what they're purchasing, which means that there was an education gap somewhere along that journey. [00:36:58] S3: So I'd ask you, Zach, what you said were 500 more. If you're the homeowner, let's just do a little role play. [00:37:05] S0: Yeah. Yeah. [00:37:06] S3: Let me ask you this. If we were the same price, Zach, let's just say everything being equal, which one would you choose? [00:37:13] S0: I mean, you're here right now and so we could get it done. So yeah, I'd be inclined if if everything was the same price, you're gonna give me a $500 discount, great. Let's go forward.