What I Learned From Two 7-Figure Contractors

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One of my favorite parts of running a podcast is getting to speak to incredible ShareWillow customers and service business owners. And over the past few weeks, I've had the chance to sit down with two owners who are absolutely crushing it:

Both conversations left me with pages of notes and a completely different perspective on what separates the winners from everyone else in home services.

Here are five takeaways from my time with Zach and Brandon…

This might sound obvious, but it's not.

Most contractors I talk to focus on the work: "We have great HVAC engineers" or "We're the best plumbers in town." Zach and Brandon talk about their customers like they're building relationships with friends.

"We are not in the power washing business. We are a relationship organization, and we just so happen to be power washing, hanging Christmas lights and cleaning gutters," Zach told me.

Go deeper: Check out my full interview with Zach, The $1M Power Washing Blueprint: 7 Lessons to Scale Any Service Business.

Brandon echoes this thinking: "The very first thing we say on the call is, 'Hey Ryan, I'm here today to provide you five-star service. If at any point in time you feel like I haven't provided that to you, please let me know.'"

This isn't just nice-guy philosophy. It's strategic.

When you genuinely care about customer outcomes, you start thinking differently about everything – from your offers to your follow-up to how you train your techs.

Here's something that blew my mind: Zach's "tip your tech" program.

Instead of asking customers to tip techs directly, he tells them: "If you want to take care of the tip, just leave us a five-star review mentioning my name, and the company will give me $20."

Brilliant. The customer doesn't have to fumble for cash. The tech gets paid for reviews. And Zach gets the social proof that drives new business.

Around 40% of customers leave reviews for Downspout now and some of his employees are walking away with an extra $500 a week from performance pay.

Want to discuss how you could create similar incentives? 👇

I told Brandon during our interview: "Dude, you're probably in the top 1% of SMB owners that I talk to who really know your numbers."

He rattled off metrics most contractors have never even heard of:

Zach was equally impressive. He knew his average order values, his review generation rates, and exactly how his subscription model impacts cash flow.

Most contractors wing it. These guys know their numbers as well as they know their trades.

This was the biggest revelation for me.

Traditional contractors know they need more leads. These guys build systems to acquire customers at a predictable cost.

Brandon's SLOCC framework (Strategy, Landing pages, Offers, Creative, Customer journey) could have come from any tech startup. "If you do SLOCC for five years in any company, that company will grow to eight figures within five years."

Zach's approach is more relationship-focused but equally systematic. He positions his trucks strategically, anchors five-star reviews, and has built a referral network that drives his biggest contracts.

Both understand that in today's market, you can't just be good at the trade. You have to be good at the business of the trade.

Both Zach and Brandon understand something that 99% of contractors miss: you don't lead with your biggest ticket item.

Zach built his entire growth strategy around recurring revenue. Power washing customers get pitched Christmas lights in the fall. Christmas light customers get power washing offers in the spring. "Our goal is to make a customer go from a one-time purchase of $1,200 bucks, turn that into $2,000, $3,000, $4,000."

Brandon leads with an $89 HVAC tuneup offer and converts 50% of customers to memberships, and has recently started to include a free smart thermostat. 

The math is counterintuitive to start but these offers have helped Brandon to rapidly scale and solve the biggest challenge in home services… getting their techs through the door for the first job. 

It's the same strategy we use at ShareWillow. We lead with free templates to help service business owners figure out performance pay. Then, once they see the value and are ready to scale, we design and manage performance pay plans that align employee incentives with business goals.

(Most tech founders probably wouldn't lay their strategy bare like this, but like Zach and Brandon, I've learned I'm in the trust business… and transparency builds trust. Want to chat more? Book a call here.)

After talking to both of them, one thing became crystal clear: they don't think of themselves as contractors who happen to run businesses. They think of themselves as business owners who happen to be in the trades.

That mindset shift changes everything.

They lead with value, build trust systematically, and expand customer relationships over time.

Most importantly, they genuinely care about their customers' success – and that care translates to business success.

The trades are becoming cool again because guys like this are showing what's possible when you treat contracting like a relationship business instead of a commodity service.

Want to dig into anything we’ve shared today? Let’s hop on a call to discuss how ShareWillow can help.