From Zero to $22 Million: Vince Heuser’s Blueprint for Explosive Home Service Growth

What does it really take to break free from flat growth and scale your contracting business into the millions? In this inspiring episode, Vince Heuser shares the raw journey from launching a garage door business in his garage after the 2008 recession to building a powerhouse home services company with over 130 employees and 85 trucks. Vince reveals the game-changing mindset shifts, systems, and sales processes that tripled his business in just 90 days—and kept growth skyrocketing year after year.

Whether you’re stuck at a revenue plateau or ready to level up, Vince’s actionable lessons and behind-the-scenes tactics offer the roadmap you’ve been searching for.

Perfect for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and garage door business owners looking for proven strategies to scale fast and profitably.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction to Vince Heuser and episode overview
01:35 - Vince’s start: From home building to garage doors after 2008
04:05 - Breaking the $1M plateau—the power of mentorship
06:26 - The 90-day turnaround: Tracking, sales process, and dialing in marketing
08:23 - The #1 thing keeping most owners stuck at the same revenue
13:49 - Fast wins: Checklists, sales processes, and getting “out of the truck”
16:32 - Key numbers every owner needs to track
19:35 - Hiring top talent and building culture around referrals and incentives
24:24 - Inside sales innovation: The “buddy system” that skyrocketed closing rates
34:10 - Real-world process: Tagging in sales from the office, running high-ticket calls
40:47 - Exiting, reflecting, and launching a new business even faster
43:09 - The power of learning from past mistakes
45:19 - Connect with Vince & wrap-up

Guest Details:

Vince Heuser
Title: Founder of Everdoor

Background: Vince Heuser started his first home service business in 2008, transforming a garage door startup into a multi-trade powerhouse with $22M in revenue and 130+ employees before successfully exiting. He’s recognized for pioneering inside sales systems, scaling with precise tracking and checklists, and building winning cultures through incentive pay and referrals. Now leading Everdoor in Florida, Vince helps other contractors shortcut the learning curve with proven processes for rapid, sustainable growth.

Relevant Links:

• Everdoor
• Catalyst for the Trades Podcast
• CI Web Group
• The Opus & Golds Group

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to "The Catalyst for Trades" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred platform. Share this episode with aspiring and established leaders, and stay tuned for more insights on driving business success and personal leadership growth.

Transcript

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:00:01]:
Hey, guys. Welcome. Good afternoon, good evening, good morning. If it's still morning for you wherever you're joining us at. Welcome to the Catalyst for the Trades podcast. I am Chuck Staszkiewicz. My co host, Jen is not with us today, and I got a really special guest with me today. Guys, I.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:00:22]:
I've been able to work alongside Vince for four or five years and watch his journey and watch things that he was doing, and I was able to see what he was doing and implement things into my business. We had a great co mentor together and he's got a really exciting story, so I thought he'd be a great guest for you guys. In the fact that if you're out there growing your business right now, I think Vince can really highlight some things that, and make it feel real to you that make you feel that like all businesses are the same in some aspect, right? And the same struggles that you're going through. The guys that have done it before, you have went through those struggles and have overcome them, and there is another side. So I think it's just a really amazing opportunity to dive into someone who's done fantastic things in the home service industries and just really get to know another great human and, and contractor out there in the world. So without, without any more. Vince, you know, welcome to the podcast. I just want to, you know, tell us who you are, what you do, and then we'll jump into it.

Vince Heuser [00:01:35]:
All right. Well, I'm Vince Heuser. I started in the. Well once I got into the home service was in 2008. I was in new home construction before that. 2008. Most everyone probably knows what happened there. And my whole world was turned upside down with, with all that.

Vince Heuser [00:01:57]:
So I, I decided to start a garage door service company that was late 2008 and just basically started out of my garage in my house. So it was at from zero. And then I did that for about. It took me about 10 years to get to $1 million in revenue. And I was like, man, this, this really sucks. You know, I am working like crazy. I had maybe four employees at that time. You know, working daylight till dark.

Vince Heuser [00:02:34]:
I mean, I was making decent money, but, you know, we just had no structure. It would just go, go, go and, you know, pushing through. I'm like, I can go get a job and somewhere else and make what I'm making now. And so I found a mentor, one that Chuck spoke of and I decided to go to their initial training class and, and realize I really wasn't that far away from major success. It was Just no one had ever taught it to me. And so I, I went to that meeting, initial one. I came back from that. They basically get, you know, gave you the playbook out of the gate.

Vince Heuser [00:03:18]:
And I mean, we tripled our business in about 90 days coming back, you know, from that. And so, of course, I was really excited with that, hired several more people, and, and we were off and running. And I participated very heavily in the, in the program. I mean, I was all in. And about six, I guess it was about six months from the initial one. I went back and I took a couple other employees, new employees with me so they would understand, okay, this is what I'm, what, what my big vision was. So anyway, I, I decided at that point, you know, I was in the room. I was the only garage door guy they had.

Vince Heuser [00:04:05]:
I was the first one there. And everyone else in the room is pretty much heat and air or plumbing or both. And, you know, these guys were doing, you know, 5 million, 10 million, you know, occasional 15 million. And I thought, man, if I ever did that, I'd just be killing it. And so at that point I decided, you know, I just asked them, hey, what do I got to do to start an H Vac company? So they, they laid out the program, and they're like, don't go start plumbing an HVAC at the same time. So, of course, as soon as I got back to Kentucky, I started both of them at the same time.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:04:44]:
Yeah.

Vince Heuser [00:04:45]:
And I quickly found out why they advised me not to do that. You know, we struggled for about a year with, with those, and then we, you know, I, I, it, it pretty much took off quickly. I mean, I went from, from the time that I started that program, we were at 1 million. The next year, we, I mean, we finished that first year at 3 million. The next, next one, we went to 5, then the 10, and then the 15, and then to 22. And so, and at that point is when we, or when I exited the business. But, you know, I went from, you know, pre understanding how to really run a company with four employees to, I believe we had about 130 running 85 trucks. I mean, you know, we were running a machine, you know, at that point.

Vince Heuser [00:05:46]:
So I exited and I thought, I'm done. I'm not doing anything else. And it's been about a year and a half. And a month ago, I decided to start another garage door company.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:05:59]:
So, yeah, yeah, you know, Vince, you said a lot there, my friend, and I want to go back just a little bit. And you said in the first 90 days after working with these guys, you tripled your business. Like, what do you feel is, I mean, there was a lot of people in, in that world and in working with the same mentor, what do you feel is that you did that others didn't?

Vince Heuser [00:06:26]:
I basically just did exactly what they told me to do. You know, I mean, it was the, the tracking that we had. I mean, I had software at that time. We were using Jobber, you know, and it tracked decently and I realized that I need a little bit more sophisticated. So we moved to service titan almost immediately. And we were small enough then. It wasn't that bad to implement and. But the things that we weren't tracking, average ticket number one, closing rates number two.

Vince Heuser [00:06:59]:
And we really didn't have a true sales process. You know, we just let them all go and do whatever they wanted to do. And also our, our marketing, you know, we, we did some, but it was just all over the map. So we dialed in, dialed in marketing changed up a couple vendors to use people that were, that were much more versed in the home service industry versus the local guy that said, hey, I can run pay per click ads. And I, and I'm cheap. And I found out there's a big difference in, you know, and what the definition of cheap is. Yeah, you know, cheap doesn't always give you the best results. So that those, those cheap.

Vince Heuser [00:07:46]:
Some of those cheap guys will call or people, not necessarily guys will cost you millions of dollars if. When they don't know what they're doing.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:07:54]:
Yeah, for sure, for sure. You know, Vince, you said before you found this mentor and you were kind of had a million dollars revenue for 10 years, what do you feel is like the number one mistake that keeps business owners stuck at that same revenue level year after year? What do you think is the number one reason if you have to look back, going back to the point where before you hired the mentor, what was keeping you stuck?

Vince Heuser [00:08:23]:
Me. I mean, and that's where I mean what I see it's really, you know, that you, every business owner will get stuck at the point of their, of where they don't. Where they stop expanding their own knowledge and stock and you know, stop learning, you know, the proper way to run the business. So, you know, I was at the capacity that I could do it all in my head and be. And try to control every single aspect of the company, not releasing any, you know, responsibility, even though I had some people that, that should have been doing it, you know. So, you know, the, the sales process was, was the big thing, you know, there was no structure there whatsoever.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:09:07]:
Yeah.

Vince Heuser [00:09:08]:
You know, and then of course, that contributes to very low closing rates, low average tickets, employees stealing from you. I mean, it's just, you know, you can go on and on and on, on the, you know, but, you know, profit margins, you know, we were probably running 3 to 5% a year, and it just, it there just like everything we had was a little bit messed up. So, you know, when I got back and we immediately implemented everything that they told me to do, it was something magic happened immediately. So, you know.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:09:48]:
Yeah. And you know, Vince, I look back at it too, and I'm like, man, I see all these other people doing it, right? And that was a big shift for me because I'm like, well, if they can do it, why can't I? Like, they're like, they're. It's, you know, so. So I look at it like this too, is there's a lot of people that succeeded and there's a lot of people that didn't. I mean, you nailed it. You did exactly what they told you, right? There's a lot going around today about mentors and coaches and gurus and all this stuff, right? And I really feel that it's, it's a two part problem, right? If you in no way, shape or form by you hiring the mentor that you hired or I hired, that they do the work for us, right? You had to get in there and do the work. And I think that that's where a lot of the disconnect is, is. Right? It's like people think, okay, hey, I hired somebody, they're just gonna fix everything.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:10:54]:
Well, that's not, that's not it, Vince. I know. I saw you. I saw how hard you worked at, right? And, and I know for myself how hard I worked at it, right? But there was, there was. The blueprint's there, right? And it's, it's like, okay, everything that they told us to do wasn't an exact match, but we had to go start somewhere, collect the data, and then readjust. And that's where the magic came in, man. It was like, you know, and it became fun because now I'm, I'm showing up to calls and I'm seeing Vince have success with this thing, right? And I'm like, oh, wow, could that work in my business? Let's try it. Let's collect some data there.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:11:37]:
And then if it didn't work, okay, where do we need to adjust? Where do we need to tweak some things? Just a little Bit differently. And then Vince, how are you still tracking with that? Like bouncing ideas off of other business owners was fantastic. And knowing that, hey, if they can do it, so can I.

Vince Heuser [00:11:56]:
Now. Yeah, I mean, a whole lot of it, I believe. You know, you got to have the right mindset going in. I mean that's, that's almost 100 of it, you know, as I, I know you probably saw it too, but I've seen, I saw hundreds of people come through the program. They're all jacked up. Either there, man, I'm gonna go kill it. And then you never see them again, you know, so that they, they wouldn't, they wouldn't. They didn't want to participate in anything.

Vince Heuser [00:12:24]:
And then everything was always somebody else's fault, you know, and in. It's no different than any of the seminars that, I mean, because I've been to so many different masterminds and all that since, since that point. And you know, and there's a couple guys that I've heard talk many times about the 95.5rule that 5% of the people that are in that meeting are going to go back and do everything I said and make changes in their business and they're going to be successful. The other 95 aren't going to do a damn thing. And I saw it over and over and over and over. You know, I helped tons of them, you know, and they would call you, tell them what to do, and they wouldn't do any of it. And I just give up on them after a while.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:13:11]:
Yeah. Motivation is temporary. Transformation is forever. And that's what you did.

Vince Heuser [00:13:17]:
Right.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:13:17]:
You know, and I love the fact that you said, you know, you came home after first going to this, you were all in. You're 100 in. In 90 days, you tripled the business. You know, what are you think. What do you think are some easy wins that a trade owner can do in 90 days? I'm not saying to triple their business, but what. Think about that 90 days when you came back, what are some of the easy things that you put into place that people could do nowadays and just get some quick, easy wins.

Vince Heuser [00:13:49]:
Number one is a checklist. I mean like, like everything that we have in the company revolves around checklists. And so the checklist that on a service call, that's what drives the sales process. You know, there. It's literally a step by step. It, you know, on, on how to run it. You know, we don't, we don't literally fill in every blank, but the checklist guides them through that Process, you know, and, and we have a very specific process on how to do everything from the time that they pull up to the, in front of that house to the time that they're done. And, and it works.

Vince Heuser [00:14:29]:
And it works almost every single time. You know, I mean we'll be, we'll run closing rates in the 80s, sometimes 90s. You know, it's pretty tough to get a hundred percent, but you'll have an occasional one you can't sell. Most of those are people that are living in a dreamland about what they think they're going to be paying for a job. But, but we close the majority of them that, but that, that's the biggest thing. It's, it's got to be processed all the way through, you know, you know, your CSRs, you know, the answer the phone, they need a process on how, on what that, what that looks like. The technician has to have the process, you know, because that's what, that's really what allowed us to scale the way we did. Because I did, I tried to do it all, you know, hell, up until the meeting that I went to, I literally answered the phone while I was on service calls.

Vince Heuser [00:15:26]:
I was still working in a truck, you know, I guess and that's another thing is told so many of them is get your ass out of the truck. You know, it's, and that's hard to do for the guy that's. Regardless of the trade with, you know, if you've got three or four or five employees and most of them are still in the truck, the owners and the truck, you can't run the business.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:15:54]:
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, you had some, some major success from, you know, going 10 years, kind of staying flat to really dialing it in, getting some, you know, help behind you, getting some, some fuel for that fire. Because it was in you, it was always in you. You just didn't know how to unlock it, you know. And then once you learned how to unlock it, you just went full tilt fence and you had some major, major, major wins and major success there. You know what, you know, you touched on this a little bit. Average ticket and sales. But what do you think are two or three critical numbers that owners need to pay attention to today?

Vince Heuser [00:16:32]:
Booking, right, is number one. I mean, that's where it starts once that phone rings and you've probably paid a lot of money to make it ring. So, you know, it's from, really from, I mean, once you get past the marketing stage, it's just a math game at that point all the way around, you know, because you're, you should be book, you know, booking 80% of the cost. So you just lost two out of 10 and you know, there, there's the first fall off when you get to the job, you know, so we, we want them to close at least 80%. There's another two out of 10 that you lost it again all the way through. So when you're looking, even when you're comparing it back to what you spent on marketing and start looking at what, that, what every single phone call is really worth to you, you know, you need to think twice about hiring a minimum wage person to answer the phone, you know, because that, that can cost you more money than almost anything you did by just not booking the dag on calls. Because you know, if you, once you really got a good process of running the call, it's just, I gotta find a way to get in the house. We get in the house, do it.

Vince Heuser [00:17:44]:
But if, if they can't, if you can't get the call booked, you know, and, and honestly it's even on that side and I've seen this many times, I probably being guilty of it myself. It's not, you know, if you're not in there and hearing, hearing them take the phone calls sometimes that can be an ear bleeding process. To go back and listen to those phone calls and service training, like, oh my goodness, I wouldn't have booked the call if I'd have heard that.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:18:14]:
Yeah. And you know what Vince? Like I don't know about you, I mean you exited a short amount of time ago. My exit was two years ago, August 1st. And the amount of technology that has come in in that short amount of time, that two years is just, it's just crazy. Now all these digital marketing companies, if they're not listening to the calls with some sort of AI bot or qualifying for you, then they're way behind in the times.

Vince Heuser [00:18:40]:
Right?

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:18:40]:
Like so, like I look back now and, and we'll get into this with what you got going on in the future. But I look back now and I'm like, holy cow, how fast things are changing and rapidly improving. And I'm like, man, I could have taken my bottom line way down with all the things that are in place now.

Vince Heuser [00:19:00]:
Oh yeah.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:19:00]:
You know, and that's just in two years, you know, so I'm sure you've had some of that too. You know, you talked about again, I go back to amazing success. But you talked about coming back. In the first 90 days you tripled your business. You had to hire Tell me. Most people say, oh, hiring is a nightmare. You know, what's, what, what do you feel was the right process for you for hiring? And, and how often were you recruiting and trying to get those eight players or what was your approach on hiring?

Vince Heuser [00:19:35]:
I mean, we basically recruited all the time. You know, I mean, we, I was always looking and we just really hired on personality. But honestly, I mean, to get to the triple point, I only had. I only added maybe one person then because our, you know, our book. I mean, those numbers. I just said our booking rate was horrible. You know, I mean, we, because there was times like, I mean, I was answering the phone and we had, and I had a CSR, but she wasn't there all the time. So I answered the phone when she wasn't there for it rolled over.

Vince Heuser [00:20:09]:
But if I was physically on the job, I was like, screw it, I ain't answering the phone. I'm up here working on the door. Well, you know that. And, but that's another one of those mindset things. Like, you know, it's like if you don't answer the phone, you definitely not going to be booking the call. And you know, and by the time you call them back, there's a good chance they've already called somebody else and scheduled with somebody else. So, you know that we raise our booking rate where we book. I mean, we book almost everything because the, in my operation we did free estimates on everything.

Vince Heuser [00:20:43]:
So the only people that we don't book, I mean, we don't. You don't want to, you want to put as small a barrier as you can at the phone. So the only people that we don't book now are the ones that demand a, a total price on the job before we get there. And we'll give them ranges, but I mean, we're never going to say it's going to be $500 exactly without being able to knowing for sure what's going on. So that's the only thing we don't book. But the second thing is we tripled our average tickets. You know, I, I had no concept of, of selling the premium price stuff. So naturally, if you don't offer it, you're, you know, there's not a customer alive that says, hey, is there anything else you got I can buy? You know, because there is.

Vince Heuser [00:21:33]:
You just send every one of them to me. I'll take them all. You have to meet one. So, you know, we went in there with one option at that point. It was always the lowest option. And we, our average tickets were probably 125, 150 bucks. And it's hard to make any money on that. Well, I mean, and within the first week of coming back, we got our average tickets up over $500.

Vince Heuser [00:21:59]:
And the garage door business at that time, that's, that's pretty outstanding. So yeah, you know, that triple that alone, it really is all that we had to do to triple the business because all the average tickets went up.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:22:15]:
Yeah, yeah, I want everybody to hear that again. The business was already tripled. It was already there. They just had to make a few shifts to it and not really hire anybody else. Just a few little tweaks to the business. Tripled it in 90 days. I mean, that's, that's amazing. Now Vince, obviously, you know, after that first year, two years in, you know, you're doing millions now, right? Like you did 3 million that first year.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:22:47]:
You, you went really quickly like when you were doing, you know, 10 million, but at that 10 million mark, like what shifted in your hiring process? Like how were you finding talented people?

Vince Heuser [00:23:01]:
So I mean, we are, I mean I paid everyone and pay was a big thing. I mean we tried to pay the highest rates in town. It was all incentive based pay, you know, and, or flat rate if they were installers. And so I mean, if they, it. I mean, in my opinion, you know, there's a wide range of arguments on this, but I think the incentive based pay systems are the best way to go by the easiest from a management level as well. Because the guys that are good and want to succeed and follow process are going to make the most amount of money they've ever made. The ones that are lazy, they're going to quit. And so there's very few of them that you even have to fire.

Vince Heuser [00:23:51]:
So you know, that was a big one. And of course what you quickly find out is the, the A players want to work with A players. So you, you get one in and then it's hey, hey, who do you know? So, you know, referrals were a big one. We would pay a hundred dollars. So this was a really big one that we did that to recruit. So I, I don't like the whole sign on bonus deal. I think you're. Because it, it creates issues internally.

Vince Heuser [00:24:24]:
So what we did was offer a, a bonus to the employee that did the referral and they would make a hundred dollars a week for up to one year as long as both sides were still employed. So they make $5,000 a year, you know, and if they, if they did, if they brought. Because what happened Is, it's the same thing, 80, 20 rule kind of on that 20% of the guy, of the people there would be the one only ones that would refer and there was a few that we would pay five or six hundred dollars a week just in referral money every week. But it's nothing if he brings you an A player that's putting number, big numbers on the board.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:25:11]:
Yeah, yeah. And, and what you did is you created an ownership mentality, Vince. I love that. And like you look at these stores like Winco is a co op, right? It's employee owned or REI is an employee owned company. Now I, I love the fact that you did something like that, that, that encourages the employees and to, to build the culture and bring it in. Because here's, here's what happens, right? The guys, they don't go to the boss and complain. They go to their buddies. Now if they're complaining to their buddies and the buddy knows, hey, if, if I can get this guy happy and bring him along and make sure he's still a good fit for the culture and the company, I still get 100 bucks a week.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:25:52]:
So they're gonna try to walk, they're gonna spend the time to walk him through, maybe calm him down about being so pissed off and say, know what? Just go to Vince with that. Like, take that to the, take that to the manager. Like you're, you know, they can't fix anything if they don't know about it. And by doing that, ingraining that into the culture, it now becomes everybody's, you know, helping each other keep people happy and improve that culture. I love that.

Vince Heuser [00:26:19]:
Right?

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:26:20]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Vince Heuser [00:26:20]:
And then, and later on into the, into our process, I mean, we did something really unique where we, I mean, at the time I thought I invented the whole thing. I found out later there was a few other people in the country doing it. But, but we brought in, we eliminated the, you know, quote, comfort advisor or outside sales guy position. And we brought them all in house. And so we had a room full of salespeople and you know that they really became accountability. I don't know what the proper term was, but they, you know, the technicians would have to call in on every single job and speak to the salesperson and then so the salesperson would usually be the ones selling the job. So I mean, we sold, we cross sold because we did garage doors, heating, heating and air plumbing and electrical work. But we cross sold more stuff when I got, when I started that process than we ever had, you know, because it didn't Matter what job we were on, that salesperson sold it all.

Vince Heuser [00:27:33]:
So, I mean, he understood it.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:27:36]:
Yeah, yeah. And I was gonna ask you about this too, Vince. Cause I knew you were doing it. I knew back then. And what I really loved about the way you did this process, right, is like, I don't know about you, but before you did this process. But my sales guys, they were commission based, so they weren't hourly, right? So when they weren't on a sales call, they were off golfing or doing whatever else they wanted to. So what you did was you shifted them from doing that and now they were getting more opportunities by sitting behind the desk. And like, look, you're pushing them more because they're not out focused on golf and everything, right? And then you go to that call by call management leads are expensive.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:28:19]:
Every single call. You're watching what Bobby's doing out in the field and coaching him along the way or seeing it along the way. And I love this strategy, especially for the guys that are using like Rilla, the AI or the call listening that's literally like instantaneous. So you can see what Bobby's doing from the moment he gets to the door. The conversation that he's having now you have this sales guy in the, in the desk position. He's watching all along and then he's queuing up. Okay. Like he's.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:28:53]:
Oh, he hit his mark there. Okay. He. He talked about that. Okay. He's teeing me up. And you know, the conversation that's happening in real time. I mean, this is incredible technology.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:29:04]:
And I do believe that, you know, by, by what you did was you shifted it into, you know, your sales guys that were maybe performing at a million or $2 million a year. You just bumped them by, you know, 500,000 to a million. I mean, tell me a little bit more about that.

Vince Heuser [00:29:21]:
Oh, yeah, those numbers. Now we reduced their commissions just because they had, I mean, they would have 20 opportunities a day. You know, not, not, not all heat and air, of course. I mean, it was. Certainly worked in every trade, but they. The. The worst one probably tripled what they sold. But now their commissions were about half of what they got before.

Vince Heuser [00:29:45]:
But they had so many more opportunities and, and what we found by how we did it. So I mean, we would basically build teams around the. Each salesperson. So then, you know, they became, you know, the ones that worked well together especially became, became machines because they would understand what the other one needed to be teed up to be able to generate the cell or. This is what I What I want you to say or don't want to say, but our sales overall skyrocketed when we did that because you find out the truth about everything. Well, now really you can do it anyway. That was just coming out when, when I was, when I did that. But yeah, 100.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:30:31]:
I was having guys put phones in their pocket and just mute it so they couldn't hear me, but I could hear the interaction I was doing. Similar to what Rilla's capabilities are, but not there. Right? So talk to me about the process of having the guy in the office. So technician goes to the home, right? He diagnoses everything. He runs the play, right? He goes, does the discovery, gains the trust of the client, talks about the home, their dog, their kids, all the things, right? Then he gets to the nuts and bolts. They got a 10 year unit or 15 year unit. And now it's like, okay, hey, I need to tag someone else in here. Talk to me about the tag in.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:31:13]:
Like, how would you tag someone in virtually?

Vince Heuser [00:31:16]:
So at that point we just, when they finish their checklist, they were not to talk about pricing or solutions in the home. And, and so, and see what did we. I don't even remember what we called them up, you know, now we didn't call them sales people. Sure. It was more of a supervisor. I'll think of it in a second. I can't believe I just drew the blank on that. But anyway, I, I had to call my manager and so he would call him and then they would have a discussion about the checklist.

Vince Heuser [00:31:50]:
And this was a key thing that we found. We tried it on video. It was horrible.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:31:56]:
So no zoom. It was just over the phone.

Vince Heuser [00:31:58]:
Yeah, we did that initially, but it did not work because about half the people that were there, I mean, on the other end did not want to be on video. They weren't. I thought, man, after Covid, everybody's been on a zoom call wrong.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:32:10]:
Yeah, sure.

Vince Heuser [00:32:10]:
Not the case. And so, so that was the only time we would use zoom is if we needed, if the salesperson needed to see a video of something that was going on, you know, that a checklist really wouldn't tell you. So anyway, they would run through the checklist and this was key, is to be on speakerphone in front of the customer because we wanted that customer to know that this conversation is a back and forth and we're going to be discussing what's the best interest for you, Mr. Mr. Jones, or whatever. And so we. They would come up with solutions which a whole lot of them are typically about the same stuff over and over and over. So you already know, but you know that that led to so many more turnover opportunities than what we ever had before.

Vince Heuser [00:33:05]:
Because now anything that was really over 5 or 6 years old now is a turnover opportunity, which there are very few technicians that would ever turn over something at that age, you know, so. And there would be times they would ask, even the salesperson would be asking the question, you know, asking additional questions to the customer about like what they wanted and expectations and, and that type of thing. But our high end equipment sales skyrocketed and because what we found out on the turnover is the technicians, they're scared to sell the higher end stuff. They just want to get the sale. You know, they're used to selling $1,000 or less. And when they got that seven or eight thousand, $9,000 sale, they were, they were jacked like, no, we want the 18 or $20,000 sale. So that got offered every time. And it's.

Vince Heuser [00:33:57]:
And same thing when I talked about earlier on the doors where we were able to triple, you know, and you start offering the premium option every time, then you'll sell it, you know, 20 of the time.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:34:10]:
Yep.

Vince Heuser [00:34:10]:
Even more.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:34:12]:
And so, so your guys, literally your Comfort Advisor was in, in a desk on speakerphone, running through the options, talking to Mrs. Jones, the timeline, the whole nine yards. What's the best fit for their, for their house. What were you closing at with that? What was your closing round?

Vince Heuser [00:34:30]:
I mean, we closed something was in the 90s.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:34:35]:
Wow.

Vince Heuser [00:34:36]:
It was ridiculous. Very, very rarely did we not close something because if we didn't, you know, now I'm talking calls that we went in for a service call, you know, I mean, because those you should be closing almost all of them now on a. We ran the same process whether even if it was a sales call now the sales calls we were closing, you know, in the 50 to 60% range. But our average tickets were way higher than what they did before.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:35:06]:
Because. Because that manager or that Comfort Advisor is always offering three, four options. He's always offering, he or she is always offering financing that they're giving them exactly what they need. How long did that process take, Vince? That when they were on the phone, they got the Comfort Advisor on the phone, they're talking to Mrs. Jo and forth.

Vince Heuser [00:35:29]:
10 minutes. I mean the only ones that would take much longer than that. Yeah, that's, that's why they got so many opportunities. I mean, because it really, the, the only ones that took a very long time is number one, if they couldn't. If the homeowner couldn't make up their mind. That does happen sometimes. And then if we had financing issues. But this was another huge key component that I didn't even see coming until we started doing it is when, you know, when you're the salesperson.

Vince Heuser [00:35:59]:
And I'm sure this happened to you as well, Chuck, but, you know, you're in there and you're. You got this one. I mean, you know, this. Some is sold. You know, it's a slam dunk. And you run that credit check decline, you are done. Well, in my. And in this world, it ain't that way.

Vince Heuser [00:36:17]:
But, you know, we. We ran. I think we had six or seven different finance companies that we. Yeah, we had. So when we. When we would get their information, we literally just write the information down, we plug in the information. So when we get the decline. Sorry, Mr.

Vince Heuser [00:36:35]:
Jones, sometimes these. It takes a few minutes to get a. Get the approval back. And the whole time. Okay, option number two, we're entering it again. Option number three, we're entering in again. So, you know, we would run through that in the entire waterfall of. Of credit.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:36:52]:
So you got to the. Yes, yes.

Vince Heuser [00:36:54]:
And so they're, you know, there was a very, very rare time, you know, and it would be the ones like, why did we even waste our time on this when you filed bankruptcy last week? You know.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:37:08]:
Sure.

Vince Heuser [00:37:08]:
You know, and.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:37:09]:
And I really like this, Vince. And. And like I said, going back to. With what they have nowadays, the C. TXC and the REALA stuff, the technology that's out, like, you can even go deeper with this process. But this buddy system concept is amazing. Look, you go to the gym by yourself, are you going to get results? Yes, but it's that much easier not to do that workout, not to do that extra rep, not to do that. You know, the same thing with the call.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:37:41]:
Right. If you're running a call by yourself and nobody's behind you. Right. It's that much easier to not offer the financing, not put the options together. Right. But this buddy system works, and you proved it out, you know, and you've got the guy on the back end who's not out playing golf. He went from having two or three opportunities a day to 20. The law of averages makes sense.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:38:07]:
The average tickets increase. I mean, no wonder you had ultimate success with this, like, such a cool process. And I heard you were doing this, right? Like, I think I was. I might have been done or working on my next.

Vince Heuser [00:38:23]:
Pretty much, yeah. I did it for a while before I Made it public that I was doing it.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:38:30]:
Right. You had to collect the data. Absolutely. No, no. And it's amazing, but it's like, look, this is exactly it. Like I could hear an idea of what Vince is doing and I may not go do it exactly the same way, but I'm going to take key components of it, right. And like Vince didn't have the opportunity to put Rilla in place then, but I know if, I know if you look back, you would have had that in place.

Vince Heuser [00:38:56]:
Absolutely.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:38:56]:
You know, so it's like what if the greats done before, right? What are the guys that have had ultimate success? What have they done? What can you take and tweak just a little bit and throw out there and just ignite it, you know? Like I love looking at the past, right. To know what I need to do now. So Vince, I mean such an amazing story man. And I know you have a ton, ton more insights I want to talk about here and now. You grew an amazing company. You, I mean you were flying, bro. Like it was like every time I turned around I was like, holy. You added another 5 million a year.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:39:34]:
You had another 10 million a year. Like it was super fast, bro. Like I love, I love the story. What now? What are you doing now?

Vince Heuser [00:39:42]:
So of course I thought I was going to retire and no such thing.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:39:47]:
For guys like us.

Vince Heuser [00:39:48]:
Yeah, no, no. So it, it only took me about three months and I'm like I'm, I'm going to kind of start. So I got with a branding company. I actually created the brand and, and the whole, the name, the brand, the whole ready to go. Like I don't know, we were probably six months out of, out of it. And then I had another advisor like look, stop. You promised me you do not do anything for one year. I said okay, like you need to take a little bit of a break.

Vince Heuser [00:40:21]:
So I basically did that. I waited till the year mark and then, you know, I had family. My daughter and son in law both were big in the company. My son in law actually ran the door business. So, you know, and I was getting bored. So I'm, I, I and I had a non compete for heating there and plumbing. The company that bought me didn't do, I was the first garage door business. So I only got non competed in Kentucky on doors.

Vince Heuser [00:40:50]:
So I said let's, let's just move to Florida and we'll do this again.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:40:55]:
So yeah, yeah, I love that Vince. And look, you know, like what do you feel is your goals with this one?

Vince Heuser [00:41:04]:
Oh, I'm gonna do it again. I. I can build. I really think I can build it faster this time. I mean, not even counting the wasted 10 years of being an idiot business owner. But you know, now that. Because there's so many mistakes that we made in on the marketing in where I, I just burn money like crazy, that we now know what works, what don't work. We know the people we need to use and don't need to use, and so that's far more efficient.

Vince Heuser [00:41:34]:
Now I gotta spend a little bit on the front end, but we're already a month in, you know, to this new one, you know, and we're running. We're probably averaging four jobs a day right now.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:41:46]:
Nice.

Vince Heuser [00:41:47]:
And, and I still. Google's giving me fits on one of the locations, not approving me. If we had that, if we had that location already running it, we'd be probably running 8 to 10 jobs a day already. So, yeah, it's, it's gonna go very, very quick. I got four trucks sitting here waiting. That's how confident I am. I bought bottom ahead of time.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:42:08]:
So, yeah, Vince, I love it. And keep, you know, post some stuff online so I can see what you're doing, man. Like, I hear things. We know the same people, but post some stuff online, like, I, it's only going to be a matter of time before I see Vince with, you know, another 85 trucks on the road and, and guys, like, I want everybody to hear that too. Once you do something and have such great success, it does really become that much easier to do it again. Because you, you know, think about what you're doing in your business today and think about over the last two weeks, right? And all the things that you've overcome in the last two weeks with now, now you're not going to go and do those same things again the same exact way. And that's what Vince is doing now, Right. He's taken the keys that he has to success, he's doubling down on those success points, and he's leaving all the BS behind.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:43:09]:
You can do this too. Every day that you get up, put your boots on, and then when you come home from work, look back at your day and say, okay, what are some things that I did really well? What are some things that I didn't do well? And what are some things that I'm never going to do again? And that will really, like, speed up the process. When you start to break down your days and your weeks and your months and your quarters and your years, you can really, I don't know about you, Vince, but I reflect back a ton. I mean, I just spent the whole summer with my family and I was like, man, you know, when I'm ready to launch another one, like, I'm gonna do it this, this. I'm not gonna wait for this. I'm gonna look at this every single day instead of waiting six months to look at it. Like. So that reflection is super important.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:44:05]:
Whether you've exited your business or you're just running your business now. You gotta reflect back on what you're doing. Learn the lesson the first time, even if it cost you money or didn't cost you money. Learn that lesson and what to do the next time that it comes around. Because that, that is, that is a make or break point. You keep repeating the same mistakes, it's gonna cost you a ton of money. So, you know, I just want to thank you, Vince. Thanks for jumping on with me.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:44:36]:
You know. Guys, remember, hit that like, subscribe. You can find us on all channels. You're probably watching the replay of this. So hit the like and subscribe. Tell some friends about the podcast. What I love most about Vince's story is he's just a regular guy, you know, and that's that I love to bring regular guys on. Vince, like you said, you know, I didn't know what I didn't know for 10 years, but once I knew it, I was able to take it and apply.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:45:06]:
Vince, thank you again for coming on and sharing. Guys, hit that like and subscribe button. Tell a friend about it. Vince, if somebody wants to reach out to you, maybe just pick your brain or say, hey, what would you do here? Is there a way that they could reach out to you?

Vince Heuser [00:45:19]:
Yeah, you welcome to email me. It's a VH my initialsvidor.com and, and I'll get back to you. I, I help a lot of people. I mean, I still do now. I've got friends in Kentucky and, well, friends that I've met at all these masterminds. I mean, I, I, I, I don't mind helping a lot of, helping a lot of people. I've taught that whole inside sales process to several people.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:45:46]:
Yeah. And it. Look, I know it's only a matter of time if you know somebody in Florida or you're looking to move to Florida and want to work for an amazing company. I can tell you right now, get behind Vince and everdoor you want, you want to start a career or learn from one alongside of one of the greats and maybe go do it yourself somewhere else. I know Vince would. Would mentor you in a second and show you how to do this firsthand. And that's what I did. I worked for some big companies.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:46:16]:
I seen what they did well and what they didn't do well. Right. And I took and applied that back. Now, that. That got me some good success. But then again, just like Vince, I didn't know what I didn't know until somebody showed me. So, again, thanks, Vince. I appreciate you.

Chuck Staszkiewicz [00:46:31]:
It was great. Thanks again, guys, for listening. I hope you guys have an incredible week, and we'll chat with you next time.

Vince Heuser [00:46:38]:
All right? Thank you.