The Home Service Expert Podcast
00:49:00 · Tommy Mello, Zach Deering
[00:49:00] S3: Why does ruthlessly simp... Why does ruthless simplicity matter more as a company grows? [00:49:06] S0: Yeah. It's great it's great question. At the end of the day, consistency is really king. And the more complex things are, the harder it is to be consistent. Most organizations above 10,000,000 in size, right, most contractors, they actually know what a good sales experience probably looks like. Right? And they've probably gone through training, and they probably have some SOP. The question is, are you are you able to consistently deliver it? And what's the death of consistency? Complexity. There's this wonderful book called Insanely Simple that was written by the guy that evidently coined the name for, like, the iMac, right, close into Steve Jobs' circle. And the thing that Steve Jobs spent a bunch of time on was simplicity. Because here's the reality. Complexity is easier than simplicity. Simplicity takes work. Candidly, like, as a leader, one of the things that I talk a lot about, we talk a lot about internally, is how do we try to keep our product as simple as possible while making it really powerful? [00:50:07] S3: It's true. I'm thinking about my one on one forums and they can be a little bit complex. I really wanna just jump in as we finish up here to the product. So it's called Mantel. Why is it called Mantel?
00:50:07 · Tommy Mello, Zach Deering
[00:50:07] S3: It's true. I'm thinking about my one on one forums and they can be a little bit complex. I really wanna just jump in as we finish up here to the product. So it's called Mantel. Why is it called Mantel? [00:50:24] S0: The Mantel in a Home. It's where you put the things that you're proud of. It connotes warmth. Right? It's the centerpiece. And really in our goal, our aspiration, and it's a weighty aspiration, we're working really hard every day to get there, is how do we make the experience of shopping for garage door or an HVAC system be really delightful? Be like a warm experience for the homeowner. [00:50:44] S3: By the way, it's m a n t e l, just like the mantel in your house. What do you think the impact overall of using Mantel would be for most companies if they were to get on it? [00:50:54] S0: Higher average tickets, higher close rate for companies that we've worked with, Reliable Comfort and Seymour Indiana, they saw 48% blended increase across close rate and average ticket, and that is after taking out the increase of equipment prices year on year. So there's really, really durable impact they can have on a business, and that's the financial. Right? The non Not [00:51:16] S3: to mention... Well well, it eats the finance fees too. Totally. The dealer fees.
00:51:16 · Tommy Mello, Zach Deering, Zach Deering
[00:51:16] S3: to mention... Well well, it eats the finance fees too. Totally. The dealer fees. [00:51:20] S0: Totally. And the non financial is you have a more consistent, better homeowner experience and you make it easier for your sellers to really focus on the things that they're really phenomenal at, which is building relationships, advanced system design, rather than doing a bunch of more menial work that it stuff that they're passionate about. [00:51:38] S3: I got six closeout questions, so I'll play speed round. Okay. [00:51:43] S0: Let's do it. [00:51:45] S3: Give me your favorite books that really shaped... It could be the bible, it could be the e myth, it could be a fiction book, but just three books that really really affect the way you conduct yourself and and your path was like based on these. [00:52:00] S0: There are many that come to mind. I think ones that are at the the top of the the list for me. The Hard Things About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, basically a book about entrepreneurship, and that fundamentally the journey that we're on is hard, and that's okay, and the struggle is real, that's part of it, so that's thing one. Book two never splits a difference. I think it fundamentally changes the way that I think about the the way I think about negotiating. I also really like that Chris Voss starts with a zinger about the Harvard negotiation program, which, while I was [00:52:36] S1: in law school, went through it, so I appreciated him him sort
00:52:36 · Zach Deering, Zach Deering, Tommy Mello
[00:52:36] S1: in law school, went through it, so I appreciated him him sort [00:52:39] S0: of calling it out. And I think the third book is a book called Bud, Not Buddy. The reason why it's so meaningful to me, it's about a little boy, his dad was a jazz musician, was it's the first chapter book I ever read, and I was 12 when I read it. So it was... I'm dyslexic, took me a while to learn how to read, reading is now a really important part of my life. And so emotionally, there's a real connection to that book. [00:53:02] S3: I love that. If somebody wants to learn more about Mantel, and I know you're very very disciplined, you wanna go after companies that have enough opportunities to let the product work. Yep. What's the best way to reach out? [00:53:18] S0: Yeah. You can go to usemantel.com, so usemantel.com. You can drop your information that way. Can also reach out to me directly, zaczach@usemantel. And again, think to that point of, like, who are we a good fit for today? This will evolve over time. It's HVAC plumbing, electrical, garage doors that are really... Think about it as like sort of 10,000,000 plus in in in in sales or revenue. [00:53:47] S3: What's one question you wish more people asked you? [00:53:52] S0: What I'm grateful for. [00:53:54] S3: What are you grateful for?
00:53:54 · Tommy Mello, Zach Deering
[00:53:54] S3: What are you grateful for? [00:53:57] S0: Like all of like the love and support. This journey that I'm on, as I know you can relate to, is really intense, and it means for the people that I'm closest to, my mom, my girlfriend, my sister, others, I don't show up in the way that I maybe wish I could or as often or I'm stressed or whatnot. And I think that support and, like, the pride and the encouragement and the understanding is something that I'm eternally grateful for. [00:54:24] S3: Something you should do every day, wake up and say what you're grateful for. And finally, what are you most excited about right now? [00:54:35] S0: I am so excited that we get to play a part in fundamentally having home services create shopping experiences. Like, while it seems sort of simple, create a shopping experience, there is so much opportunity because so few contractors do it today. And the things that we have are on our road map this year to help deliver on that, some stuff that I know you and I will talk about later, I'm just, like, so excited that we get to play a part in that and just feel, going back to the other topic, very grateful. [00:55:06] S3: It's awesome, man. And by the way, I know a lot of people are probably thinking, man, this must cost an arm and a leg. But the cool thing what you've done is you you... You've systematically put your fee into the pricing, and it's not as much as people think. So it's not gonna change your convert. It's gonna improve. So the fee gets eaten very easily. The client actually actually pays for it for a better experience.
00:55:06 · Tommy Mello, Zach Deering
[00:55:06] S3: It's awesome, man. And by the way, I know a lot of people are probably thinking, man, this must cost an arm and a leg. But the cool thing what you've done is you you... You've systematically put your fee into the pricing, and it's not as much as people think. So it's not gonna change your convert. It's gonna improve. So the fee gets eaten very easily. The client actually actually pays for it for a better experience. [00:55:32] S0: Exactly. It also means our interests and incentives are aligned with our contractors, which is why we say we have partners and why we're also particular about sort of the the making sure someone's a good fit. Because if it's not a good fit for you, not only is it not the right thing to necessarily partner with you, but it's also not in our interest, and I think incentives are really important. [00:55:50] S3: And it's such a good incentive because literally, if you're not successful with the tool, you don't pay. [00:55:54] S0: Exactly. Exactly.