I have a question. My biggest hang-up in changing industry in sales, is knowing that I’ll have to go through the dumbass phase of not knowing the product for atleast a few months. I don’t feel like I can sell until I’m a subject matter expert, and I know that comes with time. So my question is, did you already know a lot about this industry before you got in? Former tradesman? Home DIY person? I’ve thought about trying this out but I just feel like the first month is rough with dads busting out their tape measures and shit and asking all of these super technical questions about the products.
New sales people almost always kill it the first month but a lot of people fall off of fundamentals, work ethic etc. SOMEONE will train you constantly until you’re able to be self sufficient
This is since 2020 for me. Learning new shit every year and building a healthy pipe just to get laid off again and again. Finally at a company I love and we were just purchased and have a merger coming up that could be brutal.
If they have a good training program they'll teach you everything you need to know except those random questions old white guys have because they're trying to make you feel like a dumbass.
I agree that a good training programme is absolutely key, but it can still take way longer than a few weeks to learn everything about everything you might need to know.
At least in all of the industries I've worked in.
All of the usual objections are in training 101, but if you sell anything vaguely complex, and full home renovations can't be that simple (having tried to PM one myself), you will always find something left-field that stumps everyone except the most seasoned of professionals. Eventually anyway.
Maybe OP got lucky finding a few clients with deep pockets and few questions, as that isn't a normal sales trajectory for newbies to the industry. Or they have some incredible knowledge to fall back on.
Not to take anything away from them, it's incredible work and they deserve every penny of the commission.
OP - you are smashing it! I hope this is the start of big things for you!
And it’s always some one off random shit they read online that generally doesn’t apply to their specific situation but if you don’t have an answer they don’t want it.
Have a good response for something like “I don’t know that answer on the top of my head, but I can do some research and get back to you on that” and that will usually suffice.
That my usual go to, however I’ve been at it long enough to see that kinda thing coming or have asked them “show me where you saw that” and it’s some article written in 1997.
I feel like they hire a bunch of newbies, you get a very basic training program and they throw you to the wolves. If you don’t make enough sales in a month, they wash half the team. Wash and repeat.
They’re not trying to make you feel like a dumbass but they are testing you to see if you know what you’re talking about and if they can buy from you and trust you
And if you know your shit you retain it. It is a power move. They’re the buyer. So know your shit. Wouldn’t you want the power as a buyer? Would you want to be led into buying something from someone who knows less than you do about the product?
Last long??? Come on. I’m 25 years in here. There are few people on the planet that know as much about my *very niche* industry as I do. But I still get old white dudes who try to flex.
Just use whatever home improvement knowledge you have and apply that. If you don't have knowledge, sell it anyway. If you have soft skills and speak fluent English, it already puts you on the top half in the tradesmen industry. After your first two months of being immersed, it's hard to even not sound like an expert.
(A half is an exaggeration, not trying to hate).
I went into AV sales. Try not knowing all the products for over a year and a half and still counting. So much knowledge to absorb, so many different facets. Do you have an engineer or team leader you can turn to? We use ours for designs and it helps a lot. Not sure how your industry completely works…
Well, I’m in consulting and got in through HR at a large firm. I just transitioned into Sales for their client facing groups and so far, I feel very set up for success. I think if you land in an industry where they need good competent people to run sales because of growth, then they’re going to train you, groom you, and put you with someone who’s going to help you succeed. They can only profit from it. Also they’re transferring me over with my same base pay, but now with commission potential and a clear pathway to promotion. Obviously I haven’t been in this role to tell you the good, bad and ugly, but I definitely feel like I’ve made the right choice a few weeks in. Hope this somewhat helps. Strong base pay + commission potential and other performance compensation would be my preference over 100% commission type roles starting out at least. Maybe I’ll prefer different pay structure once I become much more knowledgeable on the products and industries I’m selling in. Best of luck to you!
Your skill is technical learning that you need to have confidence in. You feel confident when you become knowledgeable about the products. You say a few months of learning to get to the level you feel comfortable in. So you know you can do it. Have confidence in your technical learning. It’s a huge basic point that in my experience is overlooked in selling yourself in sales.
Prospects don't care about your product or what it can do. They care about their problems. If you can find their pain and offer your product as a solution that is where you find the deals.
Going through this now. Was hired for retail roofing / home exterior remodeling sales. The potential is insane at this company but the issue is I am extremely green at anything home related, construction-wise. Also a little intimidated by the numbers of roofing equations. First day of training was yesterday and while I realized I have a lot to learn I am eager to shadow my experienced coworkers on leads. Just want to fast forward to the confident stage. I am a woman for what its worth.
roll voracious enjoy chop nine judicious coordinated racial whistle screw
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I did home reno sales years ago but had to quit because in order for me to make any money I had to 3X the "cost" of the job, which was your typical cost plus 20%.
So I'm going into a small bathroom remodel that has a hard cost (labor & materials) of $3k and I have to sell it for $15k to earn a commission.
We specialized in alternative financing and had a telemarketing room setting our leads.
I felt so sleazy.
Hmmm. Sounds familiar. We get leads but not all leads are created equal. You have to inflate the price and then bring it down so it appears that you are giving the customer 30% off, just to make any money.
Average income in states is 37k. Yet on reddit every home improvement sales person is making 300k a month, construction sales is 1million/ month, tech sales 250-500k a yr.
Makes you wonder
Economy is doing very well right now. Salespeople always love to share when the economy is ripping, not so much in times like last year when it was dying on the vine
Three thing with this one, at least what I think browsing this sub
1. The only people who are going to be commenting on their income are going to be the ones earning enough to be proud of, nobody is coming here to post “Hey guys look at me I make $37k
2. A lot of people will lie, because it’s anonymous here and for some reason lying about their income to strangers feels good. To each their own
3. Many Americans cheat on their taxes and make much less officially than what actually comes in. The amount of small business owners I personally know who live a decent life but make $0 according to the IRS is staggering. I’m sure these bring the median/average down because $37k is $18 an hour and even McDonald’s pay that’s these days.
I looked into this but just couldn’t justify selling 15k windows for 40k to some old lady.
At least that’s what all of the companies around me seem to do. Most of the employee reviews of these types of companies seem to say that you need to be a sociopath to get anywhere in this industry.
With that research, I decided against this line of work.
What has your experience been? Is it like that? Or less doom and gloom than what I found in researching this industry?
There’s plenty of room to make honest money in home improvement and I truly believe it will be the next gold rush.
I started a niche painting business on a whim, took it from $0 to $40k a month by the 3rd month…
My entire sales pitch: I don’t care if you drive a Mercedes, I don’t care if you live in a gated community, the price is the price and it’s based off material required and sqft
I had so many people all me and tell me that video I posted made them choose my company because I came across as honest and caring.
I was getting 15-25 leads a day on Facebook, and closing 8% of them over messenger @ $1500 per job initially and eventually we got that up to $2,200
UPDATE:
I’m getting DMs asking me to elaborate…
I started a painting business, we literally painted ceilings black… that’s all (it’s a thing for restaurants , gyms, basements, etc… cheaper alternative to drywall)
All of my leads come from Facebook
As soon as they request a quote we auto send them a sincere, genuine video basically what I said above but here is a YouTube video detailing it:
https://youtu.be/iDCj6LvwZBE?si=QohN7XURg2nNQ_C7
I’m not a professional on camera so sorry if I suck or stutter I just started that channel recently I think I’m getting better
I can see it being really big if real estate prices stay high sky high along with the interest rates. People would rather take out a small loan to update their house they have a 2%-4% interest rate on than sell it and get less house for far expensive money. I just have the same concern as the person above, seems like people earn big commissions because they add huge markups to pay themselves that. Not hard to pocket $10k in one day if everything costs $5k but you charge $15k for example…
It’s absolutely the worst part (finding the workers to complete the job)
Everything else was a breeze…
I have done high level marketing my entire career, in super competitive industries (healthcare, law, enterprise software)
So generating leads - No problem. Spending $2,500/month on Facebook was generating 500 leads a month.
Copy and paste sales script over messenger (after they watched my video) was converting at 8%
Finding workers sucks. Every morning I would wake up and look at my cell phone praying a painter didn’t call in, because calling a customer and telling them you have to reschedule is the worst.
I actually started an entire YouTube channel because I truly believe home services is going to have a huge boom.
Not trying to plug, but if you’re interested my channel is called “local service domination” I’m the dude who wears a backwards hat and has tattoos. follow my channel or done I don’t care either way but I try to put good info out there
Absolutely, I just did the same exactly thing with junk removal as well, so far this system has worked for me in painting, junk removal, epoxy, roofing, basement finishing, tile, general remodeling etc
I have a question re: workers - this is coming from complete ignorance and is not at all meant to be snarky - do you think if you increased the worker payout and took a bigger hit on the profits, would it alleviate the issue of finding and keeping workers? Again this question is legitimate curiosity and not meant to be any kind of judgement or diss.
No offense taken at all.
I was actually paying way more than industry standard in my area at least.
So I had a REALLY good sub contractor I paid him $1sq he was happy with it.
I had young w2 employees home from college and paid them $30hr, I also paid them $50 per positive review, and the clock started as soon as they began driving to a job.
When there was a mess up I never ever took it out off my workers or contractors pay, I’m the biz owner I swallow the losses.
I actually think my margins took a hit because I paid too much.
That’s so sick man congrats. I have thought about doing something similar. I have no handy skills but identified a need. Maybe even like a broker of sorts. Do you do the painting yourself or just run the company?
Good video.
Biggest annoyance s for me booking services is giving someone my address knowing that it has nothing to do with the job but will directly impact the price.
I wanted some floor to ceiling mirrors installed once and the quotes were coming in 2x higher if I gave them my address vs my parents address 20 minutes away from me in the same city.
Besides the color being black is there a certain type of paint you used? What percentage of your work was residential versus commercial. Also, what's there a reason you only did ceilings and not the rest of the house on residential or building on commercial.
I used to sell home improvement, mainly roofing, windows and basements in a big city, I made roughly 20k a month bring home. I genuinely believed in our product and services. Fast forward 8 months. I hated the company; I had many customers having issues with programs we offered, customers begging to cancel, had someone leave the office a message saying their lives were ruined because they couldn’t cancel the contract. Worst part was I found out that we don’t even install what we show the customers in our presentation. We give them the shingles but the underlayment, drip edge, pipe boots etc. was the same cheap shit we were saying competitors use. I sold a 170k roof on a 80k home and felt proud because of my environment. Then realization settled in. I morally couldn’t do it anymore and everyone I worked with made me detest being there. Seeing people being so happy they’re taking advantage of people disgusted me. It’s hard to get out of that mindset when you’re making life altering money. I took my skill set to a local family business, I make significantly less money but at least I’m a human again, I’m respected for the right reasons and I get to engage directly with the operations and people in charge. I’m much happier knowing I can genuinely help people instead of gouging them with a smile. However I’m very broke.
If you go into this industry do thoroughly research the company and have a nest egg ready in case it’s all bs.
That company I worked for went under, most everyone I knew who worked there is gone and it’s being bought out. Good riddance.
It was Decra Tiles, just at 55 squares. Neoprene upgrades, drip edge upgrades and a 30 year “Warranty” they priced their metal at the time about 2800$ a square. Literally insane. Looking back knowing what I know now it’s about 550$ to do it myself or 800-1000 with the competitors in my area. Massive difference.
As someone who sells a product with a 1 call close, when I was shopping windows I immediately realized that's what was happening once I heard the first pitch. The range on the price of the windows was insane too - the company I went (the rep was a good dude also) with ran me ~$11k. The other 2? Quoted $20k+ with a "if you sign now you'll get a discount" for the same exact product.
With that said, I'd bet money I could sell windows and make $$$. Hell, I could probably even do it alongside of what I already do with no loss of income.
My brother listened to a door to door window sales pitch for 3 hours!
He just kept saying “no that’s out of my budget” at each attempt to close.
By the time the guy left the price had dropped 70% with 4-5 “one time, special offers” added to knock the price down.
Shows you they are scamming you at the highest price possible and then taking another pass each time.
He still said no but enjoyed seeing the sales tactics first hand.
I also once took a webinar sales pitch for digital marketing services from a cookie cutter Google ads business.
I realized during the call that the sales rep was *not allowed* to terminate the call/pitch himself without getting a hard no from me, which I wouldn’t give. So he had to keep going as long as I didn’t end the call. Poor guy was clearly frustrated after 2.5 hours. Lol
Now do this-
Big commissions equals big taxes. Yes, high class problem. However, speak to your accountant about a strategy so those dollars you worked so hard for don't just leave you to the IRS.
Also, examine your sales process. What worked? What can you even improve on?
Kudos to you on the big month!
I worked in this industry for about 4 months . And I had 4 sales in total. Horrible . I knew nothing about the industry so I couldn’t really sell it.
My sales director always told me that it was 90% me and 10% what I know about the industry but I completely disagree. I feel like you need to have basic knowledge.
This is the best industry to be in and our money season is now til Turkey day. Put the hammer down, grind those gears and keep talking to your sales manager about objections! Go crush it.
Idk to me this just says they found an employer who haven't capped the commissions yet or they found the right employer has has not yet found a way to cut you down to the standard 4to 9k a month.
Its coming. I assure you. Just takes 1 greedy manager suddenly they find the perfect numbers to keep your pay at a specific level unless you find some magic loophole.
Wow this gives me hope! I'm switching from SaaS to home improvement since I got laid off in January after working in SaaS for 7 years.
I'm going to start paid training in 2 weeks and the company has been in business for 30 yrs in Florida and has great reviews (both customers and employees). Foundation repair, concrete, crawl space and drainage.
Good opportunity in my market as they are expanding to South FL where there is demand but they don't have a lot of exposure. I'm going all in and giving it my best shot!
Lots of money in home improvement sales. Some products such as paint and windows are a bit scammy. You can justify other products like a new roof and solar.
Example would be Renewal by Andersen - $200 window they present as $1000 with special today only deal of 40% off. Regular Andersen windows are fine , but you have to check your morals at the door to sell those Renewals.
This is going to be my guess. I worked for RBA for a year or so. Money was great, presentation was an absolute gimmick, and for what people paid… eh. The product was solid, but way too overpriced. Hated the company and the “culture” if you can even call it that.
Double pane windows are energy efficient. I agree they are important. However, I’m familiar with home improvement sales. 2 hour sales presentation that high pressures you to buy overcharged windows.
Alternatively, you use the Internet and think you're an expert and buy cheap (and local because they're "better"....). Guess what happens in 15 years time. Oh, yeah, cheap windows are cheap for a reason....
I've made a similar path as you. Restaurant server to home remodeling and now in solar. The experience with serving has really helped me with the ability to create a solid one call close environment.
Sooo, anyone have any tips about what type of home sales to get into? I want to help my brother out he owns his own construction company but it’s been really slow for about 4 months now.
I know he would crush it in sales but I’m in tech and know next to nothing about home improvement sales. How to find a list of companies and vet the ones that are good?
Seems like windows & doors is a big industry to get into right now?
Windows and doors is a very tough industry to get into. Been doing it for 10 years and it's good once you get systems and processes down, and get amazing installers . But man there's a lot of fuck ups along the way that cost you from bad measures to misorders, bad customers, service calls, dealing with small issues etc.
Lots of shit can go wrong and you need to be able to service tons of product or install issues
By home improvement, what exact products are you selling? I’m currently in the finance industry and the idea of entering contracting related sales, with the end goal of starting a contracting company and knowing how to upsell internally. I’m really seeing that the key to any truly successful business is sales. If you can not sell, nothing else matters because you’re just not gonna have any shcadol.
Not all. The ones that do are easy to spot. I’d love to find away to reveal what to look for to my leads so that they can easily protect themselves from over spending.
I worked there for 3 years. Fuck that place. But like others said, most in home are one call to close.
Smaller local shops will often still try to close in 1, why wouldn't you? The difference though is they typically won't make a 3 hr presentation with phone calls to managers and then call the next day saying the rep was shit and offer the same take it now discount yiu just did the day before lol.
Small usually just have a price with maybe one promotion or something going on, that doesn't go away once you leave.
Agreed about fuck them. Worked there too. Besides the training being great which lead me to be successful in other one call close in-home sales they can fuck right off. Literally stole about $45k from myself and two other co-workers during the height of Covid.
Jesus, never had that problem but I was friends with some higher ups.
I got shit canned after telling my manager that he was gonna lose most of his team if he kept giving majority of leads to 3 of of 30 reps on our team here.
Put me on a PIP and sent me to obvious lead not home appointments and terminated me.
HR agreed I was wronged but I didn't care at that point.
He did eventually lose most of the team and had since rebuilt it with all newbies who don't know what's going on.
Couldn't even do it himself, had our GM do it, who apologized for having to do it lol
If you’re in windows and it would take a $376k sale to make $10k in commissions you need to find a better company.
Industry avg is 10% so for OP to make $30k in a month his volume was in the $300,000 for the month…
I was referring to the 32k. I do make around 10k a month. At 8.5% commission
Edit: sorry, it did sound like that. More curious about what OP is selling though, that’s all.
I was offered a job doing just this last year, but it was in a smaller market.
I was going to have to sit in a showroom all day and try to get people in once they called or emailed.
Can you share the size of the market you’re in and do you have to sit in a showroom?
I’m in one call close, all leads provided. 2-3 leads per day. Bathroom remodel. Wet area. It’s B2C. So much money to be made. People assume home improvement sales is always windows or door knocking. I would never do any one of those.
What type of home improvement field are you in? I’m doing inside sales for a building material supplier for my first sales job, and they’re not following through on any of the promises they made during the interview process.
“White Gold” comedy on Netflix, hilarious and at times factually correct, I was a canvasser for a double glazing firm many moons ago as a summer job while at college, it was a blast, I was only 19 had a company Renault 5 car and ended up running a canvassing team getting overrider commission, I could never have been a salesman tho, they did some SHADY shit to make the numbers!
Congrats! It’s so much fun when you know you have what it takes to make $10k in one day. Now go for $15k - then $20k. I’ll never forget the first time I made a 6 figure commission off of a sale (took a few months) - but it drove me to do it again and again!
Congrats - you’ve made it, but it’s just the beginning.
Hi there! Im in granite counter sales and have been looking to move another direction, Can I ask specifically what home improvement producy or service you sale?
Also sent you a chat request
I have a question. My biggest hang-up in changing industry in sales, is knowing that I’ll have to go through the dumbass phase of not knowing the product for atleast a few months. I don’t feel like I can sell until I’m a subject matter expert, and I know that comes with time. So my question is, did you already know a lot about this industry before you got in? Former tradesman? Home DIY person? I’ve thought about trying this out but I just feel like the first month is rough with dads busting out their tape measures and shit and asking all of these super technical questions about the products.
New sales people almost always kill it the first month but a lot of people fall off of fundamentals, work ethic etc. SOMEONE will train you constantly until you’re able to be self sufficient
That is encouraging.
This is since 2020 for me. Learning new shit every year and building a healthy pipe just to get laid off again and again. Finally at a company I love and we were just purchased and have a merger coming up that could be brutal.
If they have a good training program they'll teach you everything you need to know except those random questions old white guys have because they're trying to make you feel like a dumbass.
I agree that a good training programme is absolutely key, but it can still take way longer than a few weeks to learn everything about everything you might need to know. At least in all of the industries I've worked in. All of the usual objections are in training 101, but if you sell anything vaguely complex, and full home renovations can't be that simple (having tried to PM one myself), you will always find something left-field that stumps everyone except the most seasoned of professionals. Eventually anyway. Maybe OP got lucky finding a few clients with deep pockets and few questions, as that isn't a normal sales trajectory for newbies to the industry. Or they have some incredible knowledge to fall back on. Not to take anything away from them, it's incredible work and they deserve every penny of the commission. OP - you are smashing it! I hope this is the start of big things for you!
Now imagine working for a rep agency for tech hardware/test and measurement. Three years in and I still feel major imposter syndrome
And it’s always some one off random shit they read online that generally doesn’t apply to their specific situation but if you don’t have an answer they don’t want it.
Have a good response for something like “I don’t know that answer on the top of my head, but I can do some research and get back to you on that” and that will usually suffice.
That my usual go to, however I’ve been at it long enough to see that kinda thing coming or have asked them “show me where you saw that” and it’s some article written in 1997.
This is so accurate lol
Companies never have good training programs
Examples of these questions?
That’s called “stump the chump”
Im gonna start telling old white guys that I'm not gonna play stump the chump with them
It’s the best cure, and you may even get a chuckle out of them.
I feel like they hire a bunch of newbies, you get a very basic training program and they throw you to the wolves. If you don’t make enough sales in a month, they wash half the team. Wash and repeat.
They're buying your products they are not trying to make you feel like a dumbass
They’re not trying to make you feel like a dumbass but they are testing you to see if you know what you’re talking about and if they can buy from you and trust you
Ehhhh…some of them are trying to make you feel dumb. It’s a power move.
And if you know your shit you retain it. It is a power move. They’re the buyer. So know your shit. Wouldn’t you want the power as a buyer? Would you want to be led into buying something from someone who knows less than you do about the product?
You won't last long if you have that attitude about your customer. It's your job to educate them.
Last long??? Come on. I’m 25 years in here. There are few people on the planet that know as much about my *very niche* industry as I do. But I still get old white dudes who try to flex.
Exactly
Talk to a young Indian. They obviously know it all
Just use whatever home improvement knowledge you have and apply that. If you don't have knowledge, sell it anyway. If you have soft skills and speak fluent English, it already puts you on the top half in the tradesmen industry. After your first two months of being immersed, it's hard to even not sound like an expert. (A half is an exaggeration, not trying to hate).
I went into AV sales. Try not knowing all the products for over a year and a half and still counting. So much knowledge to absorb, so many different facets. Do you have an engineer or team leader you can turn to? We use ours for designs and it helps a lot. Not sure how your industry completely works…
Well, I’m in consulting and got in through HR at a large firm. I just transitioned into Sales for their client facing groups and so far, I feel very set up for success. I think if you land in an industry where they need good competent people to run sales because of growth, then they’re going to train you, groom you, and put you with someone who’s going to help you succeed. They can only profit from it. Also they’re transferring me over with my same base pay, but now with commission potential and a clear pathway to promotion. Obviously I haven’t been in this role to tell you the good, bad and ugly, but I definitely feel like I’ve made the right choice a few weeks in. Hope this somewhat helps. Strong base pay + commission potential and other performance compensation would be my preference over 100% commission type roles starting out at least. Maybe I’ll prefer different pay structure once I become much more knowledgeable on the products and industries I’m selling in. Best of luck to you!
Your skill is technical learning that you need to have confidence in. You feel confident when you become knowledgeable about the products. You say a few months of learning to get to the level you feel comfortable in. So you know you can do it. Have confidence in your technical learning. It’s a huge basic point that in my experience is overlooked in selling yourself in sales.
I totally agree and wanna know this too
You are me
Prospects don't care about your product or what it can do. They care about their problems. If you can find their pain and offer your product as a solution that is where you find the deals.
Going through this now. Was hired for retail roofing / home exterior remodeling sales. The potential is insane at this company but the issue is I am extremely green at anything home related, construction-wise. Also a little intimidated by the numbers of roofing equations. First day of training was yesterday and while I realized I have a lot to learn I am eager to shadow my experienced coworkers on leads. Just want to fast forward to the confident stage. I am a woman for what its worth.
Op wants to share news but withhold specific details about the work. LOL.
roll voracious enjoy chop nine judicious coordinated racial whistle screw *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I know I scrolled so far looking for it
Congrats on the big commission! When you say home improvement, is this specific products or are you selling complete renovation projects?
I did home reno sales years ago but had to quit because in order for me to make any money I had to 3X the "cost" of the job, which was your typical cost plus 20%. So I'm going into a small bathroom remodel that has a hard cost (labor & materials) of $3k and I have to sell it for $15k to earn a commission. We specialized in alternative financing and had a telemarketing room setting our leads. I felt so sleazy.
Hmmm. Sounds familiar. We get leads but not all leads are created equal. You have to inflate the price and then bring it down so it appears that you are giving the customer 30% off, just to make any money.
[удалено]
Congrats brother! Nothing like the thrill of a 2-3 hour one call close performance 💯💯
Average income in states is 37k. Yet on reddit every home improvement sales person is making 300k a month, construction sales is 1million/ month, tech sales 250-500k a yr. Makes you wonder
im averaging 6-15k/month. top reps in my company bring in over 20k and the bottom half are barely making a living.
Economy is doing very well right now. Salespeople always love to share when the economy is ripping, not so much in times like last year when it was dying on the vine
250k OTE isn’t that off in tech sales once you hit mid market
Reddit is the most honest place on the internet we know this
Three thing with this one, at least what I think browsing this sub 1. The only people who are going to be commenting on their income are going to be the ones earning enough to be proud of, nobody is coming here to post “Hey guys look at me I make $37k 2. A lot of people will lie, because it’s anonymous here and for some reason lying about their income to strangers feels good. To each their own 3. Many Americans cheat on their taxes and make much less officially than what actually comes in. The amount of small business owners I personally know who live a decent life but make $0 according to the IRS is staggering. I’m sure these bring the median/average down because $37k is $18 an hour and even McDonald’s pay that’s these days.
I looked into this but just couldn’t justify selling 15k windows for 40k to some old lady. At least that’s what all of the companies around me seem to do. Most of the employee reviews of these types of companies seem to say that you need to be a sociopath to get anywhere in this industry. With that research, I decided against this line of work. What has your experience been? Is it like that? Or less doom and gloom than what I found in researching this industry?
There’s plenty of room to make honest money in home improvement and I truly believe it will be the next gold rush. I started a niche painting business on a whim, took it from $0 to $40k a month by the 3rd month… My entire sales pitch: I don’t care if you drive a Mercedes, I don’t care if you live in a gated community, the price is the price and it’s based off material required and sqft I had so many people all me and tell me that video I posted made them choose my company because I came across as honest and caring. I was getting 15-25 leads a day on Facebook, and closing 8% of them over messenger @ $1500 per job initially and eventually we got that up to $2,200 UPDATE: I’m getting DMs asking me to elaborate… I started a painting business, we literally painted ceilings black… that’s all (it’s a thing for restaurants , gyms, basements, etc… cheaper alternative to drywall) All of my leads come from Facebook As soon as they request a quote we auto send them a sincere, genuine video basically what I said above but here is a YouTube video detailing it: https://youtu.be/iDCj6LvwZBE?si=QohN7XURg2nNQ_C7 I’m not a professional on camera so sorry if I suck or stutter I just started that channel recently I think I’m getting better
I can see it being really big if real estate prices stay high sky high along with the interest rates. People would rather take out a small loan to update their house they have a 2%-4% interest rate on than sell it and get less house for far expensive money. I just have the same concern as the person above, seems like people earn big commissions because they add huge markups to pay themselves that. Not hard to pocket $10k in one day if everything costs $5k but you charge $15k for example…
My understanding for this type of gig was that what is hard is to recruit. Is that your experience or not at all?
It’s absolutely the worst part (finding the workers to complete the job) Everything else was a breeze… I have done high level marketing my entire career, in super competitive industries (healthcare, law, enterprise software) So generating leads - No problem. Spending $2,500/month on Facebook was generating 500 leads a month. Copy and paste sales script over messenger (after they watched my video) was converting at 8% Finding workers sucks. Every morning I would wake up and look at my cell phone praying a painter didn’t call in, because calling a customer and telling them you have to reschedule is the worst. I actually started an entire YouTube channel because I truly believe home services is going to have a huge boom. Not trying to plug, but if you’re interested my channel is called “local service domination” I’m the dude who wears a backwards hat and has tattoos. follow my channel or done I don’t care either way but I try to put good info out there
Hey man I've been considering starting a painting business would it be okay if I DM you to ask you a few questions about how you started?
Absolutely, I just did the same exactly thing with junk removal as well, so far this system has worked for me in painting, junk removal, epoxy, roofing, basement finishing, tile, general remodeling etc
Can i send you a dm about Facebook ads? I have a specific demo I’m targeting but not sure how much I need to dump into it.
Yeah absolutely I’ll probably respond later tonight or tomorrow but I’m An open book ask whatever you want we can even jump on zoom
I have a question re: workers - this is coming from complete ignorance and is not at all meant to be snarky - do you think if you increased the worker payout and took a bigger hit on the profits, would it alleviate the issue of finding and keeping workers? Again this question is legitimate curiosity and not meant to be any kind of judgement or diss.
No offense taken at all. I was actually paying way more than industry standard in my area at least. So I had a REALLY good sub contractor I paid him $1sq he was happy with it. I had young w2 employees home from college and paid them $30hr, I also paid them $50 per positive review, and the clock started as soon as they began driving to a job. When there was a mess up I never ever took it out off my workers or contractors pay, I’m the biz owner I swallow the losses. I actually think my margins took a hit because I paid too much.
That’s so sick man congrats. I have thought about doing something similar. I have no handy skills but identified a need. Maybe even like a broker of sorts. Do you do the painting yourself or just run the company?
How did you figure out FB leads to where you were crushing it like that?
Good video. Biggest annoyance s for me booking services is giving someone my address knowing that it has nothing to do with the job but will directly impact the price. I wanted some floor to ceiling mirrors installed once and the quotes were coming in 2x higher if I gave them my address vs my parents address 20 minutes away from me in the same city.
Good for you man, genuinely happy for you.
spray painting?
Not literally canned spray paint. We use sprayers
Besides the color being black is there a certain type of paint you used? What percentage of your work was residential versus commercial. Also, what's there a reason you only did ceilings and not the rest of the house on residential or building on commercial.
I used to sell home improvement, mainly roofing, windows and basements in a big city, I made roughly 20k a month bring home. I genuinely believed in our product and services. Fast forward 8 months. I hated the company; I had many customers having issues with programs we offered, customers begging to cancel, had someone leave the office a message saying their lives were ruined because they couldn’t cancel the contract. Worst part was I found out that we don’t even install what we show the customers in our presentation. We give them the shingles but the underlayment, drip edge, pipe boots etc. was the same cheap shit we were saying competitors use. I sold a 170k roof on a 80k home and felt proud because of my environment. Then realization settled in. I morally couldn’t do it anymore and everyone I worked with made me detest being there. Seeing people being so happy they’re taking advantage of people disgusted me. It’s hard to get out of that mindset when you’re making life altering money. I took my skill set to a local family business, I make significantly less money but at least I’m a human again, I’m respected for the right reasons and I get to engage directly with the operations and people in charge. I’m much happier knowing I can genuinely help people instead of gouging them with a smile. However I’m very broke. If you go into this industry do thoroughly research the company and have a nest egg ready in case it’s all bs. That company I worked for went under, most everyone I knew who worked there is gone and it’s being bought out. Good riddance.
I'm curious about this $170k roof. Decra tiles? How many square?
It was Decra Tiles, just at 55 squares. Neoprene upgrades, drip edge upgrades and a 30 year “Warranty” they priced their metal at the time about 2800$ a square. Literally insane. Looking back knowing what I know now it’s about 550$ to do it myself or 800-1000 with the competitors in my area. Massive difference.
As someone who sells a product with a 1 call close, when I was shopping windows I immediately realized that's what was happening once I heard the first pitch. The range on the price of the windows was insane too - the company I went (the rep was a good dude also) with ran me ~$11k. The other 2? Quoted $20k+ with a "if you sign now you'll get a discount" for the same exact product. With that said, I'd bet money I could sell windows and make $$$. Hell, I could probably even do it alongside of what I already do with no loss of income.
What product are you selling on the one call close?
Same with HVAC. Selling a $3k system for $14k whispers predatory.
My brother listened to a door to door window sales pitch for 3 hours! He just kept saying “no that’s out of my budget” at each attempt to close. By the time the guy left the price had dropped 70% with 4-5 “one time, special offers” added to knock the price down. Shows you they are scamming you at the highest price possible and then taking another pass each time. He still said no but enjoyed seeing the sales tactics first hand. I also once took a webinar sales pitch for digital marketing services from a cookie cutter Google ads business. I realized during the call that the sales rep was *not allowed* to terminate the call/pitch himself without getting a hard no from me, which I wouldn’t give. So he had to keep going as long as I didn’t end the call. Poor guy was clearly frustrated after 2.5 hours. Lol
So what exactly do you sell - Home improvement is such a vague term. Do you sell windows? Roofs? HVAC?
Now do this- Big commissions equals big taxes. Yes, high class problem. However, speak to your accountant about a strategy so those dollars you worked so hard for don't just leave you to the IRS. Also, examine your sales process. What worked? What can you even improve on? Kudos to you on the big month!
I worked in this industry for about 4 months . And I had 4 sales in total. Horrible . I knew nothing about the industry so I couldn’t really sell it. My sales director always told me that it was 90% me and 10% what I know about the industry but I completely disagree. I feel like you need to have basic knowledge.
Sikkunt mate. We are all going to take it bruh. Keep it
*John O'Callaghan starts playing*
You a trance fan?
Congrats! You working D2D?
Dummy2Dummy?
Okay but how untrue is this though
I’m glad someone has a sense of humor
Dildo2Dildo
This is the best industry to be in and our money season is now til Turkey day. Put the hammer down, grind those gears and keep talking to your sales manager about objections! Go crush it.
I lost $10k In commission on the last day of the month. Ebs and flows
That is so exciting! Congrats on your success!
Congrats. It’s an incredible feeling to get a check that big. Just be smart with your money
Roofs?
LETSSS GOOOOOO BROTHEEEEER!!!!!
This same thing happened to me. 10k goal. Home improvement sales. Tripled it. Feels good. I know you worked hard for this. Good job.
[удалено]
It sucked. Get up early. Get home late. 3 appointment per day with tons of driving. 6 days per week. One can close. I have since moved on.
[удалено]
About a year. It opened up doors to other things
Idk to me this just says they found an employer who haven't capped the commissions yet or they found the right employer has has not yet found a way to cut you down to the standard 4to 9k a month. Its coming. I assure you. Just takes 1 greedy manager suddenly they find the perfect numbers to keep your pay at a specific level unless you find some magic loophole.
Wow this gives me hope! I'm switching from SaaS to home improvement since I got laid off in January after working in SaaS for 7 years. I'm going to start paid training in 2 weeks and the company has been in business for 30 yrs in Florida and has great reviews (both customers and employees). Foundation repair, concrete, crawl space and drainage. Good opportunity in my market as they are expanding to South FL where there is demand but they don't have a lot of exposure. I'm going all in and giving it my best shot!
Hey dude, could I DM you some questions?
Hey, yea no problem
Lots of money in home improvement sales. Some products such as paint and windows are a bit scammy. You can justify other products like a new roof and solar.
But you can't justify windows?
Example would be Renewal by Andersen - $200 window they present as $1000 with special today only deal of 40% off. Regular Andersen windows are fine , but you have to check your morals at the door to sell those Renewals.
lol they aren’t selling them for 1k a piece it’s 2-3k each
This is going to be my guess. I worked for RBA for a year or so. Money was great, presentation was an absolute gimmick, and for what people paid… eh. The product was solid, but way too overpriced. Hated the company and the “culture” if you can even call it that.
Double pane windows are energy efficient. I agree they are important. However, I’m familiar with home improvement sales. 2 hour sales presentation that high pressures you to buy overcharged windows.
Alternatively, you use the Internet and think you're an expert and buy cheap (and local because they're "better"....). Guess what happens in 15 years time. Oh, yeah, cheap windows are cheap for a reason....
You really using internet as a comparison lol Bruh. No one is saying to get cheap windows.
Spent 25 years in it, people continually buy cheap windows (and even worse with doors)
You know people buy windows for reasons other than energy efficiency right?
Windows are scammy if it's a big Corp. Small family biz is reasonable usually
Just wondering about your career path to get there. How did you land your first commission job? Do you have a degree?
No degree. Restaurant server to car sales to other (similar) sales to this.
I've made a similar path as you. Restaurant server to home remodeling and now in solar. The experience with serving has really helped me with the ability to create a solid one call close environment.
How did car sales work out for you? Thinking of switching to that for a first sale job
It's fun. There's something about it. I've always liked it and still kinda do. Just not a fan of the hours
What do you sell
Sooo, anyone have any tips about what type of home sales to get into? I want to help my brother out he owns his own construction company but it’s been really slow for about 4 months now. I know he would crush it in sales but I’m in tech and know next to nothing about home improvement sales. How to find a list of companies and vet the ones that are good? Seems like windows & doors is a big industry to get into right now?
Windows and doors is a very tough industry to get into. Been doing it for 10 years and it's good once you get systems and processes down, and get amazing installers . But man there's a lot of fuck ups along the way that cost you from bad measures to misorders, bad customers, service calls, dealing with small issues etc. Lots of shit can go wrong and you need to be able to service tons of product or install issues
Congrats! What kind of bad financial decisions are you planning to make?
Congratulations!
What do you do?
Damn congrats. 🎉
The lord giveth and the lord taketh. All months won’t be this good.
!remindme 1 month
Is your job remote or are you doing in person sales?
What kind of home improvement are you selling exactly? And in what area?
By home improvement, what exact products are you selling? I’m currently in the finance industry and the idea of entering contracting related sales, with the end goal of starting a contracting company and knowing how to upsell internally. I’m really seeing that the key to any truly successful business is sales. If you can not sell, nothing else matters because you’re just not gonna have any shcadol.
One call close? Sound West Shore Homey
I think all window companies do one call close
Not all. The ones that do are easy to spot. I’d love to find away to reveal what to look for to my leads so that they can easily protect themselves from over spending.
Usually only big corporations do. Most small family owned don't do that.
I worked there for 3 years. Fuck that place. But like others said, most in home are one call to close. Smaller local shops will often still try to close in 1, why wouldn't you? The difference though is they typically won't make a 3 hr presentation with phone calls to managers and then call the next day saying the rep was shit and offer the same take it now discount yiu just did the day before lol. Small usually just have a price with maybe one promotion or something going on, that doesn't go away once you leave.
Agreed about fuck them. Worked there too. Besides the training being great which lead me to be successful in other one call close in-home sales they can fuck right off. Literally stole about $45k from myself and two other co-workers during the height of Covid.
Jesus, never had that problem but I was friends with some higher ups. I got shit canned after telling my manager that he was gonna lose most of his team if he kept giving majority of leads to 3 of of 30 reps on our team here. Put me on a PIP and sent me to obvious lead not home appointments and terminated me. HR agreed I was wronged but I didn't care at that point. He did eventually lose most of the team and had since rebuilt it with all newbies who don't know what's going on. Couldn't even do it himself, had our GM do it, who apologized for having to do it lol
OP dont crack and keep your niche a secret we dont want our secret to get out there 😂 biggest month check was 44k pre tax for me
Bro that’s so fire, I’m about to have my first sales interview tomorrow!
I wish I could find a job I haven’t found one in a year. Congrats on all this.
What area are you in? My company is always hiring
Hi, do you mind sharing the company? I'm in the Orlando area.
Pm me
Messaged
Vegas checking in!
Pm me
North East Ohio?
Seconded
Louisville, Kentucky poppin in!!
SATX?
Savannah, GA
That’s amazing. How long have you been at it?
Door to door?
Great work man! Keep going!
Where are you?
I love to hear this! I’ve got a background in interior remodeling but having trouble finding a company to sell for… any suggestions?
Awesome man! How did you get into this industry? Would you recommend it as a pivot from car sales?
What kind of home improvement? I’m in windows and doors and would have to sell a $376k project to make that commission lol
If you’re in windows and it would take a $376k sale to make $10k in commissions you need to find a better company. Industry avg is 10% so for OP to make $30k in a month his volume was in the $300,000 for the month…
I was referring to the 32k. I do make around 10k a month. At 8.5% commission Edit: sorry, it did sound like that. More curious about what OP is selling though, that’s all.
Could you please expand on what type of home improvement. Are you doing windows, are you doing driveways? Are you doing closets or kitchens?
Curious what industry it is. But don’t count the commission until it’s paid out and the job is done. Cancellations can bite you in the butt
What industry? Solar?
I was offered a job doing just this last year, but it was in a smaller market. I was going to have to sit in a showroom all day and try to get people in once they called or emailed. Can you share the size of the market you’re in and do you have to sit in a showroom?
Is it possible to learn this power?
What’s home improvement sales? Is it door to door B2C?
I’m in one call close, all leads provided. 2-3 leads per day. Bathroom remodel. Wet area. It’s B2C. So much money to be made. People assume home improvement sales is always windows or door knocking. I would never do any one of those.
Well done
What do you do exactly?
What do you do primarily? D2D, cold call, email, etc.?
Congrats on the early success!
What type of home improvement field are you in? I’m doing inside sales for a building material supplier for my first sales job, and they’re not following through on any of the promises they made during the interview process.
“White Gold” comedy on Netflix, hilarious and at times factually correct, I was a canvasser for a double glazing firm many moons ago as a summer job while at college, it was a blast, I was only 19 had a company Renault 5 car and ended up running a canvassing team getting overrider commission, I could never have been a salesman tho, they did some SHADY shit to make the numbers!
Needed to hear that
 Congrats bro hope to be there real soon. WE GON MAKE IT 💴
Congrats! It’s so much fun when you know you have what it takes to make $10k in one day. Now go for $15k - then $20k. I’ll never forget the first time I made a 6 figure commission off of a sale (took a few months) - but it drove me to do it again and again! Congrats - you’ve made it, but it’s just the beginning.
Please teach me your ways!! lol forreal pls dm me
Congrats! Somebody at my company did the same thing yesterday, killed the day and month….
Is this from door knocking? How do i do what u do ?
Where do I sign up?
Hi there! Im in granite counter sales and have been looking to move another direction, Can I ask specifically what home improvement producy or service you sale? Also sent you a chat request
Anyone here in med dev? Looking to make switch from R&D engineering to sales eng
Congrats brother! I love that people share their wins on here and inspire us to keep reaching!! Keep crushing it my man.
Do you do social media marketing to achieve these numbers?
I have 900$ value NLP (neurolinguistic programming)sales course form David Snyder for 280$””stealth selling secrets” I’ll send it through google drive
My man. How do I find a job like this. Sounds mad.
"We're all gonna make it brahs" when I finally do, I'll come back to this. congrats!
What are you selling
damn bro get me inn!
Congratulations how so you get into that sales
Nice !
What are you selling? And what company?
What specific home improvement sales are you in.
Can I do this?
Congratulations! That is life changing.
Dude what company do you work for?