u/Significant_River212

Hello everyone, I wanted to share the story if everybody remembers, I posted about losing money in follow ups because customer was waiting for an in-person meeting first. We were trying to reach them online through email or phone calls, and someone from this community suggested why not set an in-person appointment for all big jobs.

That’s what I did, I set a standard in the team: any estimate more than $3000 will have an in-person appointment.

Here is the stat I wanted to share: we were able to book 20 jobs this week so far out of that, 10 of the jobs were able to write more than $3000, and out of that four jobs were able to close just by setting an in-person appointment. I don’t know if it’s coincidence or the customer could have anyway went with us even if we followed up remotely. No matter the approach, but the results are inspiring.

That’s my new standard now and we’re going to stick with it, and one of the biggest estimates that we were able to sell following this method, it was today, it’s $23,000.

The first person I ever sold a business to using emotion was me. I didn’t even realize it at the time.
I tell my team that customers buy on emotion and justify with logic. I also did the exact same thing when I decided to start my plumbing business.

I didn’t open a spreadsheet first.
I was sitting at my couch after my 9-5 , watching layoffs hit people smarter than me, feeling that quiet dread that my “safe” job wasn’t safe at all.

That was the moment. That feeling. That’s what made the decision.

And that’s when it clicked: if a software engineer like me launched a plumbing business with emotions, then that’s how my customers would buy too.

The moment I shared this story to my team, their approach to plumbing sales changed completely.

Sharing my journey as I build this plumbing business while keeping my software engineering job.

Whats your side of story for your team?

I run a small residential plumbing outfit on the side of my day job as SWE. 4 techs in the field, I handle the books and marketing at night as well as pricing strategies and run analytics for the business.

Something’s been driving me a little crazy. Some days we’ll close $10k across the crew, no big trick to it, techs present multiple options and customer choose one. Then a week later, same type of jobs, same pricing, same techs, and it just doesn’t sell. Water heater swap, drain line repair, whatever, close rate falls below 80% and I can’t point to why.

I’ve looked at the obvious stuff, day of week, which tech, time of day, but nothing holds up as a real pattern.

For anyone who’s been doing this a while, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, any trade with big ticket in-home sales, what actually moved the needle for you on consistency? Something about how the tech opens the conversation, financing options, follow up, or is day to day variance in close rate just something you learn to live with?

I am a software engineer and also own a plumbing company. I started that 2 years ago from scratch. Anybody who is in the similar boat, what advice you have for me? I picked the plumbing business because its recession proof and always in demand and a-i not coming after it.