Learnings from 100+ Conversations with Garage Door Companies

In the last year, I've spoken to over 100 garage door company owners. Some of them are owners of larger companies with 20+ trucks and some were smaller 1-2 man teams, just getting started.

Here's the skinny on what they're doing that is great & not so great.

The Bad Stuff.

1- Lead Splitting.

Apparently there is a company out there that makes dozens of LSA & Google Ads Accounts and dominates certain markets. They then find garage door companies to send the leads to and collect 50% of their revenue after the job. 😳

When I heard this I was flabbergasted. How can a garage door company grow when half of their revenue from their job is taken? Its like signing up for your own death sentence in terms of company growth.

I've heard of this a number of times, I'm surprised Google has allowed this to go on for this long.

Google has come out earlier this year and admitted they have found that people are committing fraud on their LSA platform and that there will be action taken later this year or next.

This is by far the worst thing I've heard Garage Door Company Owner's doing.

2- Paying employees hourly.

Performance pay is the way to go. Most accounting softwares have a system for this setup out of the box.

Incentivize your employees to get after it the same way you do. Performance pay all day.

3- Renting your website.

We offer websites, we don't push it hard, but we do it. When we make a website we give you the keys, its yours.

Some garage door companies are literally renting their website from their developer, and if they were to stop paying them, they would have no more website.

I've seen this in other home services industries in the past too, which is unfortunate that marketing agencies are preying on home services companies that way. But man.

Make sure you own the content of your website and that you're not just renting it.

The Good Stuff.

1- BNI.

Having each technician join their local BNI group is a game changer. You'll get so many low cost referrals this way. You may even strike gold and get a couple referral relationships from contractor's or real estate agents.

BNI is in every city in the country, theirs 80 chapters in Phoenix alone.

Find a chapter for each of your technician's and the jobs flow in like clock workt.

2- Have a Brand, not just a logo.

When we make the landing pages for a Google Search Ad campaign, you can tell which companies have a brand and which companies just have a logo.

Take ownership of your brand and hire the right people to create your logo and brand identity. Pick your colors, fonts, keystone pieces of content, etc. to align with what you do and why you do it.

3- Fully Utilize Your CRM

Whether you're using Service Titan, Jobber, Housecall Pro, or anything else, use it to the fullest of its abilities.

Most Garage Door Companies will end up on Service Titan once they get more than 10+ trucks but even without it there are a TON of features that can be fully leveraged.

I spoke to Matt Lockemy with M&M Garage Doors recently, he owns a rock solid garage door company in Michigan thats growing rapidly, and he said "Call Booking Rate, Conversion Rate, & Job Revenue Average (Service & Install)" are 3 metrics you need to know all the time. These are examples of things your CRM can help you track.

Invest the time, implement the SOP's with your employees and make it happen.

Conclusion

1. Don't buy leads that require splitting the revenue

2. Implement Performance Pay

3. Own your website

4. Join BNI

5. Build a brand

6. Fully utilize your CRM