Most contractors do not think of themselves as salespeople. They think of themselves as builders, roofers, plumbers or remodelers who happen to give estimates. That is a big reason so many good trades companies stall. The work is great, but the pipeline is thin.
Brad Lea is the Chairman and CEO of LightSpeed VT, a company known for sales training and e-learning. He has spent his career selling and teaching people to sell. On Driven To Win episode 440, he told Chaz Wolfe that more sales come down to a few simple moves. In his words, "sales isn't rocket science."
Here is what owners in construction, the trades and home services can take from that conversation.
How do you get more sales as a contractor?
Talk to more people. That is the first answer, and it is the one most owners skip. Brad put it plainly: "Talk to more people than you're talking to right now."
He backs it with a line he repeats often: "The more hands you shake, the more money you make." He gave an example from his own world. A salesperson who earns $80,000 by talking to 100 customers can talk to 200 customers instead. Brad bets that person makes $160,000 or more.
For a contractor, more hands means more estimates, more follow-up calls on open bids, more check-ins with past customers and more time with the people who refer you work. Most owners get busy on the jobs in front of them and let that list go quiet. The pipeline follows.
What should an owner do after they are talking to more people?
Get better at it. Brad lays out three steps in order: do more, get better, and then scale.
Once you are doing more, he says the next move is to study. He would buy "books and courses and, and coaching and education on sales and human psychology." He also says you learn by doing. Practice and repetition are part of the deal.
He compares it to the gym. If you work out on purpose over time, you get results. Sales works the same way. Get a little better every day, and a year from now you are better because you did it on purpose.
For a trades owner, that can be as simple as recording your next ten sales calls, writing down the questions that worked, and using them on every estimate after that. A short weekly sales huddle with your estimator does the same thing for your team.
When is it time to scale sales?
When you are maxed out. Brad says there comes a point where you are as good as you can get and working as much as you can work. Then the only way to grow is to scale. In his words, scaling is "just, uh, leveraging people and technology."
For a contractor, that might mean hiring a dedicated salesperson or estimator, adding a CRM that follows up for you, or giving your office manager a script for every inbound lead. The order matters. If you hire a salesperson before you know how to sell your own work, you have no system to hand them.
Why do so many owners hate selling?
Because they have met bad salespeople. Brad says people who think sales is gross are really remembering certain people who pressured them or treated them badly. Then they assume all selling looks like that.
He pushes back hard. "I've never met anybody financially successful that wasn't selling somebody something," he says. He also points out that you already sell every day. You sell your kids on better grades. You sell your spouse on where to eat. "You sell every single day. You're just not aware of it."
His point about the difference between good and bad salespeople is worth reading twice: "The bad ones don't know they're doing it." The fix is to sell on purpose. There are questions you can ask and skills you can build.
For contractors, this matters more than most owners admit. Walking a homeowner through a scope, explaining why your price is higher than the other bid, and asking for the signature are all selling. Doing them well is not pushy. It is clear.
Do you need a big personality to sell?
No. You need to be honest and likable. Brad's own edge is humor. "I've sold a lot of deals because I'm funny," he says. He also knows not everyone likes his style, and that is fine.
The bigger lesson is his reminder to "be honest" and be likable, because "people buy people." A homeowner is about to let your crew into their house for weeks. They want to trust the person they hire. Showing up on time, listening more than you talk and telling the truth about the schedule all sell the job.
What holds most owners back from more sales?
Brad says it is one of three things. "It's always mindset, skillset or habits." A positive mindset with no skills runs hard in the wrong direction. Skills with bad habits usually fall short too.
His good news is that you do not have to be perfect. "You don't have to be that good to win in life," he says. He pointed to his own story as proof: "I dropped out of high school at 16 years old." He grew up in a blue collar family and was told to get a real job. He learned to sell instead.
For an owner, this is a useful self check. If your sales are flat, ask which of the three is the problem. Is it how you think about selling, how well you sell, or how often you actually do the work of following up?
Why do relationships matter more than the next sale?
Because the relationship is what pays you over time. Brad says the relationship "is what produces the dollars anyway." If you chase the dollar and damage the relationship, the dollars go away too.
In the trades, most of the best work comes from repeat customers and referrals. A customer who feels taken care of on a $15,000 job calls you for the $80,000 job later. They also tell their neighbors. Treat every estimate as the start of a long relationship, not a one time transaction.
Where should a contractor start this week?
Start with one habit. Brad's advice to his younger self was simple: "Start reading 10 to 20 pages of a book every single day." Pick a good book on sales and read a few pages before you open your email.
Then do the math on your own pipeline. How many people did you talk to about work last week? Set a number for next week that is higher. Make the calls. Follow up on every open bid. Ask past customers who they know.
If you want outside help building a sales system, the U.S. Small Business Administration has a free guide to marketing and sales for small businesses. The Gathering The Kings tools page has free workbooks for owners who want more control of their time and their numbers. You can find them at gatheringthekings.com/books.
To hear the full conversation, listen to Driven To Win episode 440 with Brad Lea.
This article was written by the Gathering The Kings team from Driven To Win episode 440 with Brad Lea.
