The Sales Playbook

One tab per recurring call type, in order of importance. Find the moment you're in, read the strategy in ten seconds, say the words. Prospect lines are invented stand-ins showing the shape of the exchange; names are pseudonyms. This page has no password — the link is the secret.

Start here
Getting them to the call
After the pitch

The non-negotiables — break these and nothing else matters

These override every script on this page.
  • You are Alex with stpierre.ai. Never the retired company name.
  • The offer is a revenue target, and the fee is 10% of it (re-ruled 2026-08-14). Anchor tier: $100K in closed jobs in 6 weeks → $15K all-in. The structure: a one-time $5K onboarding deposit to start (covers the build — ads, automations, booking bot, dashboard; ad spend is inside the fee, nothing on top), plus the fee — $10K, which is 10% of the target — paid only after the $100K in closed jobs lands. Downsell tier: $50K → $8K — $3K deposit, $5K fee (10% of $50K) after the $50K lands. Guaranteed: miss the target and they're entitled to a full refund, deposit included. Ongoing after the 6 weeks: 10% is the only thing we charge — no new deposit, no retainer. A closed job = a signed contract or an accepted quote. Everything pre-discovery stays on "10 jobs in 6 weeks" — ads, setter calls, texts, voicemails, emails, the Loom, every tab in the "getting them to the call" group. The revenue target is how the DISCOVERY CALL talks; you orient them from jobs to dollars on the call because the math is easier to run there.
  • Price is said in the first minute of the call — and still never in writing. The anchor open states target and price up front (see the sales call, Open). But no number ever goes in a text, an email, a page, an ad, or a video, and never before the call itself. The pre-call deflection, word for word: "Depends on your area and how many jobs you can take. Ten minutes on the phone and I'll give you a straight number — what's good today?"
  • The risk story, never the commission story. "I get paid a percentage of jobs that close" is still banned. The true version is stronger now: two-thirds of the fee only exists after the target lands, and if we don't deliver, the money comes back.
  • Quote no benchmark, ever. Every number in a discovery comes from the prospect's own mouth. He can argue with your average; he can't argue with his own arithmetic.
  • Keep verbatim: No lead vendors. No depending on referrals.
  • Ask one question, then stop talking. Two questions in one breath and you've lost the answer to the first.
  • No pitch before the six things. The anchor open is the one exception — target and price, stated once, in the first minute. After that: no product, no mechanism, no more money talk until the buyer has stated the problem, the target, what it costs, capacity, who decides, and why now.
Banned lines — these existed once and are dead: "I take a cut of the work this closes" · "you don't pay me till it's putting jobs on your calendar" · the three-month window · the $1 start · the $1,000 deposit · pay-per-inspection · "no expensive advertising" (you can't say it two breaths after "half of this is your ad spend").

Read the room — six buyer types, sixty seconds

Every call announces its buyer type in the first two minutes. Guess from the application, confirm by minute two.
The tellTypeThe one thing to do
"We own a bunch of local brands" · names a CFO · quotes per-market CPL targetsPortfolio OperatorAsk which markets have unspent budget this month. Never sell the market that hurts. Skip the creative story — show the delivery path, offer his engineer a call. Everything in email.
Family shop, decades old, spouse and kids in the business, no CRMLegacy FamilyGet the family on the call before you pitch. Lead the demo with human-not-AI. Correct unrealistic lead-cost expectations early and plainly.
Split off a bigger outfit · under 2 years old · brings a second person · "I don't know if I believe that"BreakawayFind the absent partner — reschedule rather than pitch twice. Lead with the guarantee. Hand him the method to catch you: "ask your homeowners whether anyone else contacted them."
Quotes his own CPL, close rate and ROI from memory · runs his own adsSelf-SufficientGet his ROI in four minutes. If it beats yours on the same channel, disqualify — out loud: "I'd double your own spend for a month and measure it. If it stops scaling, call me."
Names his current vendor and their fee structure · "I need to think about it"Comparison ShopperAsk for closed revenue by source. If he can't answer, that gap is the entire pitch. Don't fight on volume — "I'm the gas." Never let him leave without the conditional close.
States marketing as % of revenue · "I'm more pay-for-performance"Performance NegotiatorRefuse revenue-share — the reporting never matches reality. Concede the pre-approved one (the guarantee = fee at risk), once. Then stop conceding. He closes today if you flex once.

Patched script — what changed, and where it came from

Coloured blocks below are changes made after the call was first ruled. Each says who found the problem and why the fix exists.
Green — war game. A simulated call broke here; the fix is live. Blue — source material. Taken from a studied script. Amber — waiting on a ruling. The fix is written but the terms aren't set. Do not say the amber part on a live call yet.

The war game ran this exact call against the eight hardest buyer types drawn from 44 documented sales calls. Three closed on the call, three ended on a dated decision, one went to a partner reschedule, one was a clean no. Every green block below is a place the script strained badly enough to cost a deal.

Open — warmth, posture, no product

~2 minutes. Before you dial: three things on the screen — current lead source, who else likely decides, any market or niche conflict. Guess the buyer type from the application.
The warm open — every call
Hey {name}, great to connect — I appreciate you making the time. How's everything going on your end? I know we've got about an hour, so is it okay if we dive in?

Quick context on me: I build and run appointment engines for {niche} companies — the whole thing, demand through to booked and tracked. I'm not sure yet whether I can help you; that's what this call is for. So here's what I'd like to do: understand where the business is now and what you're trying to change, then walk you through how I'd build it around your market, answer anything unclear, and decide the next step together. Sound fair?
Patch · war game · five of eight calls Pick the tier before you dial — never mid-call. The application tells you the trade and roughly what a job is worth. Use it: high-ticket work (foundation, crawl space, waterproofing, big removals) opens on $100K / $15K. Low-ticket work (leveling, flatwork, small tree) opens on $50K / $8K. One anchor per call.
Why: the anchor fires in the first minute, before you know his ticket — so a $2,000-a-job buyer does the division in his head in about eight seconds ("that's fifty jobs, I don't do that in my best month") and decides you're inflated before question one. When the right tier finally showed up at the money stage, it read as a car-lot walk-back, because he'd got there forty minutes ahead of the rep. The buyer should never do a division you haven't already done.

The other direction, same fix: against an operator opening a new branch who talks in $200K weeks, $100K sounds small and deflates the room. Re-base out loud instead of raising the number: "the hundred is the floor I'm guaranteeing on a branch starting from zero — then you replicate it."
The anchor — target and price in the first minute, every call (re-ruled 2026-08-14)
Before we dive in, quick frame so nothing's hanging over this call. This is a six-week program. The goal is to add $100K in closed jobs in 6 weeks. All-in, the whole thing runs fifteen thousand dollars — and it's guaranteed; we'll get into exactly how the money breaks down in a bit.

But before we even get into any of that, I want to make sure we're not wasting each other's time. So let me ask you a couple of quick questions, just to make sure we can even help. Does that sound fair?

Why this works: the price is a pattern interrupt — they expect it at minute fifty, and saying it at minute one signals you don't need the deal. The $15K anchors every number that comes later, so the $8K tier lands as small and the $5K start lands as tiny. And the target is the segue into discovery: "So — walk me through what an average month looks like right now." Every pre-call touch said "ten jobs in 6 weeks" — this is where you orient them from the job count to the revenue target, because dollars are easier to run math on for the rest of the call. One bridge line if they mention the ten jobs: "Right — at a typical ticket that's the same number said in dollars. Dollars are easier to do math on, so let's use those."

Question one, by how the call got booked — everything after is identical

How it got bookedQuestion one
Cold-called, then booked (default)"When I called you, you told me you could handle ten more jobs in 6 weeks. What made you say yes to that — what's actually going on with new work right now?"
Applied, dialled inside 5 min"What made you take this call — and why now?" No claim-handling — they raised their hand. Open like someone they were expecting.
Applied a while back, went quiet"You put in a request a bit back about getting more {niche} jobs — I never got you on to actually walk it through. You got two minutes?" → "Where'd your head land on it — leaning yes, leaning no, or stuck on something?"
Booked and didn't show, rebooked"We were set for {time} — figured something came up. No stress at all." → "Before I put another time on the calendar — is this still something you want, or did it drop down the list?"
Quiet 30+ days, re-engaged"Not chasing you — just checking if the timing's better now than it was." → "Where's your head at on it these days — still on the radar, or did you go a different direction?"

Deflections at the open

They sayYou say
Skips to price"We'll get into the nitty-gritty in a bit, but first I need to understand how we can help. Then I'll walk you through a step-by-step on how we get you where you want to go. Does that sound fair?"
"Just give me your speech"Same deflection, then: "What's happening in your world that made now the right time to look?"
"Just want information""Got you — so you book calls on every ad you see online? What about ours made you think we're the ones who can help?"

Next stage → 1 · Clarify

Stage 1 — Clarify why they're here + the six facts

~3 minutes. Ask one, then stop.
StrategyGet the shape of the business as one short block — orientation, not interrogation, ~90 seconds. If the application already answered something, confirm it, never re-ask: "Application says you're doing about {revenue} a month — still right?" Re-asking is the fastest way to sound like the last three vendors.
Patch · war game · the #1 deal-killer Ask the owner question on its own, then confirm who signs. Pull it out of the six-fact block and add: "And the yes on something like this — that's yours alone, or does someone else hold the pen?" Any answer that slips into "we" gets re-asked, once, plainly.
Why: stacked into a six-part block, a champion answers five parts and quietly skips the one about who decides — it cost forty-one minutes in the simulation before the truth came out, with the whole pitch and the price already spent. An absent decision-maker killed nine of twenty-one analysed stalls in the real record, more than every other cause combined. Thirty seconds here is the cheapest thing in the call.
The six facts, in this order: owner · years in business · monthly revenue · jobs · job source · marketing spend
Before we go anywhere — give me the shape of the business today. You're the owner? How long have you been running it? Roughly what's the business doing a month, and how many jobs is that? Where do those jobs come from today? And what are you spending on marketing right now?

What you'll hear back

They sayWhat it means / what you do
"Work's fine — figured I'd hear you out."Polite-yes from the setter call. Don't argue with "fine" — the funnel walk will say otherwise, or they really are fine and you disqualify with grace. Both are wins.
"It's feast or famine."The honest middle — most calls. Write his phrase down verbatim; it's your label at stage 2 and your close at the end.
"We buy leads. They're garbage."Burned buyer. Keep the standing line ready: No lead vendors. No depending on referrals.
"Twenty-two years." (tenure)Hardest sell, best client. Every idea you have, someone already sold him a version of. Never imply he's been doing it wrong.
"My brother and I own it together."The second decision-maker, surfaced in minute two instead of minute fifty. Say it now: "Should he be on this call?"
"I'd rather not get into revenue."Shrink it, don't fight it: "Fair enough — ballpark, closer to fifty a month or closer to two hundred?" A band is enough.
"Marketing spend? Basically nothing."A gift — no incumbent to displace, no sunk cost defending itself. But he's never paid for demand, so the fee is a first, not a switch — the back-weighted structure is what makes a first-timer able to say yes.

Buyer-type branch at this stage

If he quotes his own CPL and ROI from memory — Self-SufficientJump to the overlap check now instead of running the full walk. Get his ROI in four minutes. If it beats what you'd run on the same channel, you're disqualifying by minute four — and that's the win, not a loss: "You're running the exact channel I'd be running, at numbers I can't promise to beat, and we'd end up bidding on the same person. I'd double your own spend for a month and measure it. If it stops scaling, call me." The trap with this buyer is that he asks no questions and lets you pitch — nothing in the script stops you closing a willing buyer you shouldn't take.

Next stage → 2 · Label

Stage 2 — Label name it, put a number on it, make them confirm

~8 minutes. The funnel walk lives here. Don't react to bad numbers — write them down.
StrategyThe problem question always carries its escape hatch — a proud owner won't admit a "biggest problem" but will admit something isn't at the level it should be. If he dumps the problem before you have numbers, pin it, get the numbers, come back deliberately in his words. Walk the job funnel in order: inquiries → booked estimates → estimates run → jobs sold → job value. The order is the point.
The problem question — always say the second half
What's the biggest problem with the way that works? Or — what's not working to the level you feel it really could and should be?
The pin, if he answers early
Got it — let's put a pin in that and come back to it. Just so I've got some context first… → six facts → Okay. Back to what you said earlier about {his words}.
The funnel walk (the one place you may stack questions — it's arithmetic, not a probe)
Where does new work come from today? Last full month — how many people reached out? Of those, how many turned into a scheduled estimate? How many did you actually run? How many sold? What's a typical job worth?

So — {inquiries} people raised their hand, {booked} got on the calendar, {sold} bought. Does that look how you'd want it to look?

If he doesn't know a number, take his guess and say "we'll call it that" — a guessed number he said out loud still works.

The capacity gap — the third question is the urgency
And what could you actually handle? If the crews were full every week, what's this business doing a month?

So you're at about {A} a month, and at full capacity you'd be at {B}. How long would it take you to get from {A} to {B} doing it the way you're doing it now?

The answer is almost always "years" or "honestly, I don't know if I ever would." Write it down verbatim — it's worth more than any urgency line you could invent. Use whichever gap is bigger — dropped leads or idle capacity — never both; two cost-of-inaction numbers in one call reads as a technique.

Four questions that make the label his, not yours
What have you already done about it? Why do you think you've got this problem in the first place? How long have you been dealing with it? And what would it actually mean for the business if it were solved?

"How long" is the highest-yield and the easiest to skip — an answer measured in years is the strongest reason-to-act-now on the whole call, from his mouth, not your urgency.

The label — hard stop until they confirm or correct it
So right now it's {their reality}, it's costing you {their number}, and what you want is {their target} without {the thing they hate}. Did I get that right?

So it sounds like you're stuck in the {villain}.

Name the villain in one phrase he can repeat to his wife tonight — invented from HIS words, never from a list. Working shapes: the lead lottery · the referral treadmill · the busy-season trap · the black hole. The villain is a third party — now you're both on the same side of the table looking at it.

Close every section with three beats — recap · relate · realign
So you want {his goal}, and the thing in the way is {his blocker}. That fair? That's the spot most of the {niche} guys I talk to are in. Okay — I'm clear on where you want to get to. Let's look at where you're at right now.

Relate is ONE sentence — a case study here reads as a pitch you haven't earned.

What you'll hear back

They sayWhat you do
"I don't know the numbers off-hand."Take his guess: "we'll call it that." Don't skip a rung because he's vague — vague is the finding.
"Biggest problem? Everything."Too wide — narrow it with his own words from stage 1: "You said referrals dried up twice. Start there — what happens in the office when that happens?"
"Tried a guy, it didn't work." Thin — one level down: "What did he actually do, and what happened?" You need "that marketing didn't work," not "marketing doesn't work."
"It'd mean I stop working Saturdays."The vacation, handed to you unprompted. Write the exact words down — they go back to him at the close, in his language.

Buyer-type branches at this stage

Comparison ShopperAdd one question to the funnel walk: "Of what you've closed this year, how much came from each source?" If he can't answer, stop and sit in it — he's comparing two vendors on a number he's never measured. That gap is your entire pitch, and it beats arguing volume at the money stage later.
Portfolio OperatorReplace "which market hurts" with "Which of your markets has budget available this month?" The deal is never in the market he complains about — his target market is dead on money; the pilot gets scoped against real budget instead.
Legacy FamilyIf his lead-cost expectation is unrealistic, correct it here, plainly, with the reason. Correcting it early builds trust; discovering it at the price kills the deal.

Next stage → 3 · Past pain

Stage 3 — Past pain what they tried and how it went

~2 minutes. This kills "I tried something like this before" forty minutes early.
The question
What have you already tried to fix this — and what happened?

What you'll hear back

They sayWhat you do
"Tried a marketing company. Three months, got nothing."The most common answer from a cold-booked contractor. Don't trash the company — attack the model: they got paid whether the phone rang or not. The guarantee is the structural answer; it lands at the money, not here.
"Never tried anything — all word of mouth."Gentler, but the funnel walk still applies: word of mouth has an inquiry count too. The vacation swing at stage 4 matters more for this one.
Then the cost of standing still — tell it, don't ask itNever ask "what happens if nothing changes?" — the most burned question in B2B sales. Tell him the cost instead, off his own arithmetic. The sequence: permission → where you're speaking from (one breath, approved proof only) → his two good numbers first → the one broken rung → price it conservatively → one mirror line.
The sequence, compressed
Can I share some thoughts with you on those numbers?

Just so you know where they're coming from — I've managed north of $5 million in ad spend for companies doing this kind of work, ten to twenty-three times returns. I don't say that to flex on you. I say it because it means I've seen this same funnel a lot of times. Here's what I see in yours.

Two of these are genuinely good. {good metric one} — that part's working. And {good metric two}.

Here's where it's bleeding. Of the {inquiries} people who reached out, {gap} never got on your calendar. That's the rung. And I'd guess I know why — when somebody calls at four in the afternoon while you're under a slab, how long before they hear back?

Write his answer down verbatim. "That night." "Next morning." That sentence is the whole case.


So let's put a number on that gap. {gap} people called you and never got on the calendar, and you just told me it's {his callback answer} before they hear anything. Say we answer them while they're still sitting there with the problem in front of them — and say it only works on half of them. That's {half gap} more estimates. Run them at your rate, close them at your rate — about {extra jobs} more jobs a month. At {job value} a job, that's roughly {monthly cost} a month, and I'm being conservative. Not new leads. Ones you already have. What are your thoughts on that?

If he says "it'd be more than half" — let him. He just raised his own number and now he owns it.


And straight with you, that's not unusual. Most shops in {market} run it exactly the way you do. It's why most of them are the same size in five years that they are today. I'm not saying that's you. But that's {monthly cost} a month, and it doesn't fix itself. Are you ok with that being how next year goes?
The one pain-deepener worth memorising — use once, anywhere in this stage
Given that {his number} — does that put you in a tough position with {the thing it touches}? How specifically?

"Given that {number}" forces the pain onto a figure he already said; "how specifically" makes him build the case himself. Use it once. Twice and it's a technique he can feel.

Patch · studied scriptAdded the business-pain follow-up.
Why: our call priced the gap and moved on. The source framework asks one more level — what the gap is stopping him doing — and the answer is usually the real reason he buys: can't scale spend, can't justify the second crew, can't get out of the truck. It's his growth plan held hostage, in his own words.
The business-pain follow-up — one level past the arithmetic
And what is that preventing you from doing in the business that you'd want to be doing but can't?

The answer is usually the real reason he'll buy — "I can't scale ad spend," "I can't justify the second crew," "I can't get out of the truck." It's his growth plan held hostage by the gap, in his own words. Write it down — it goes into the plan at the pitch.

Patch · studied scriptCost stays logical for sophisticated buyers.
Why: the source is explicit — time, money, reputation, never feelings — because a buyer who has been sold to hears a feelings question as a technique and the room closes. We took that rule and mapped it to our buyer types.
Sophisticated buyers — keep the cost logicalWith a Portfolio Operator, Self-Sufficient or Comparison Shopper, the cost of inaction stays logical — time, money, reputation — never feelings. These buyers hear a feelings question as a technique. The mirror line and the "given that" question are as emotional as this call ever gets for anyone; for these three, lead with the number alone.

Next stage → 4 · The vacation

Stage 4 — The vacation the good future, then the same date unchanged

~4 minutes. The call is won or lost here — and the temptation to fill the pause is strongest exactly here. Ask one, shut up, let the silence run.
Killer question 1 — the year-from-now picture
Say we're on a call like this a year from now, and you're telling me it went great. What do you think that looks like? Push for the number, not the feeling: "What's the business doing a month in that picture?"
Killer question 2 — the one that does the work
So what do you think is stopping you from already doing that? Why haven't you done it yet?

Whatever he names is what you build the plan around. If he names something you can't fix — his crew, his pricing, his own follow-up — you just found the disqualification early and cheaply.

Killer question 3 — the magic wand (the safety net for the answer he was too proud to give)
If you had a magic wand — what's the one thing you'd change about how marketing or sales works today?

Deliberately scoped to marketing and sales — not an invitation to redesign his whole business.

Then the swing — back to back, neither works alone
And if it's still like this instead — what does that cost you?

The picture alone is a daydream; the cost alone is two gates of bad news. The swing between them is what makes someone act now instead of next quarter. Read the picture as a qualification signal: smaller than ten jobs in 6 weeks → they were being polite on the setter call. Bigger → your claim just became a step toward their goal.

What you'll hear back

They sayWhat it means / what you do
"Add a second crew, stop doing estimates myself."Bigger than ten jobs — your claim just became a step toward his goal. Say so at the close.
"I don't know… just steadier, I guess."Smaller than the claim — he was being polite. If standing still costs nothing, disqualify with grace.
"Money, I guess." (what's stopping you)Almost never the real answer. One level down: "Money to spend on what, though — ads, or another guy on the crew?"
"I just never got around to it."The best answer you can get — a priority problem, and priority problems close on a call. Play it back at the close: "You told me the only thing stopping you was never getting to it. That's what I'm for."
"My guys don't follow up."⚠️ He named something you cannot fix, and the guarantee depends on his team answering the phone. Go to the damaging admission NOW (stage 6). This is a real disqualification signal.
"Magic wand? More leads."He answered with your product, not his problem — a reflex. One turn deeper: "Say the leads were there tomorrow. What would break first?"
"I'd stop chasing people who ghost me."The real one. It goes in the plan verbatim, in his words — not "we improve speed to lead."

Next stage → 5 · Concerns

Stage 5 — Concerns who decides, what's still in the way

~3 minutes. A hard gate. Never show a price with a concern still open.
Patch · war game · replaces the one-line hard stop Three rungs, not one. 1 · The dated three-way: "When can the two of you get on together?" 2 · If he can't get them on — arm him: "Then let me give you something better than your memory of this call. What would {the owner} need to see with his own eyes?" Send the recording, or a three-minute recap built on his numbers from this call. 3 · If the owner is screened, not merely busy: "Let's not pitch him secondhand — where does the decision actually get made?"
Why: the old single hard stop assumed the owner was just absent. In the simulation he was screened — the champion was the screen — so the branch dead-ended with the whole close still ahead. In the real record the champion who said "if it were my company I'd write the check today" was left to re-sell a frugal owner alone, and lost. Note also: on this buyer, lead the money conversation with the deposit, not the total — the smaller number is what a cautious absent owner vetoes.
Capacity + authority — verify, don't re-ask
You told me on the phone you could take ten more in 6 weeks. Is that real, or was that a good day? Where does it actually break — crew, trucks, scheduling? And who besides you needs to be comfortable with this?
The plan-B question — the cost of inaction asked as logistics, which is why it works
And if you don't end up working with me — what's your plan to get to {his target}?

Three possible answers, all of them help you: "I don't really have one" (he just said there's no plan B) · "keep doing what I'm doing" (→ "and how long does that take to get you there?") · a real credible plan (take it seriously — finding out at minute twenty beats closing him badly at minute fifty).

The certainty question
What would you still need to feel certain this works in your business? When you say {their words}, what specifically worries you?
Hard stop: if a second decision-maker exists and is not on the call, the goal for the rest of the call changes from "close" to "get both of you on a call with a date." Say it out loud: "Then let's not have you play telephone with this — when can the two of you get on together?"

What you'll hear back

They sayWhat you do
"My wife does the books — she'd have to see it."Hard stop, goal changed. Don't pitch twice.
"How do I know you're not full of it?"The predictable answer on a cold-booked call. Hand them the method to catch you: "Ask your homeowners whether anyone else contacted them." Never improvise this one.
"What if your leads are junk?"The qualification standards are set with him — his service area, his job types. Junk never books.

Buyer-type branches at this stage

BreakawayThe absent partner is almost always the majority operational owner. Reschedule rather than pitch twice — losing a session here is the only reason this call ends in a yes instead of "I need to figure out how they feel."
Legacy FamilyExpect two or three family members in the decision. Ask by name and role. In the real calls, the family surfaced ten minutes AFTER the price — which is exactly why this stage is a hard gate: the price conversation moves to the call they're all on.

Next stage → 6 · The pitch

Stage 6 — The pitch permission, three steps, the one-thing frame

~5 minutes. Only after the label is confirmed and concerns are surfaced. Put it on the screen — text the preview to their phone, share screen, narrate. They hold it while you walk it.
Ask permission first
I can see exactly where I'd attack this. Want me to walk you through the plan?

Three steps, each tied to something they said — never a feature list

  • 1 · Create demand you own. "Pain-led ads for the exact {job types} you named, in {market}. The leads are yours — no shared vendors, no waiting on referrals."
  • 2 · Respond, qualify, book. "The moment somebody raises their hand, it follows up, qualifies against standards we set together, and books it. Real people on the conversation, not AI."
  • 3 · Learn from sold jobs. "We track what got quoted and what actually sold, so it improves off real revenue instead of clicks."
The one-thing frame — say it before any proof story. This is what makes a one-call close possible.
And here's how I'd think about the whole thing if I were you. Forget the ads for a second. Forget the tracking, forget the dashboard. Say every single one of those falls flat. If the only thing that changes is that the {inquiries} people already reaching out get answered in sixty seconds instead of the next morning — that alone is the {monthly cost} a month we just talked about. That's the piece I'd bet on. The ads on top of it, the qualification, the tracking on what actually sells — that's upside on top of a thing that already paid for itself.

If he says "so the ads are extra" — the frame landed. Confirm and stop: "The ads are what take you past it." Note whose claim it is: not a promise about the product — a claim about his own existing demand, which he quantified himself. Don't dilute it with a second one-thing.

Patch · ruled 2026-08-14The three-P difference stack.
Why: the call answered "how are you different" in scattered pieces across three stages, so a shopper never heard it as one thing. Every contractor's problem is one of three — unpredictable flow, junk quality, or jobs not closing — and half of what gets called "bad leads" is really speed-to-lead nobody admits to. One breath, three answers, then stop.
The difference stack — the ruled answer to "how are you different from everyone else?" (three P's, one breath)
Everybody you've tried fails in one of three ways: you can't predict the flow, the leads are junk, or they don't turn into jobs. So — three things.

Predictability. Everyone else fights over the three percent of homeowners who are searching right now. I go get the other ninety-seven — people who haven't started looking yet. That's demand I create, not demand I'm bidding against four other guys for. Straight with you: those people are lower intent, which is exactly why the follow-up is automatic and instant instead of you chasing them.

Quality. No forms. Every single person gets talked to — qualified against your standards, your zips, your job types — before anything reaches your phone.

Profitability. It's guaranteed in revenue, in closed jobs in your book. Not leads, not clicks. So it pays for itself or you get your money back.

Then stop. This is the one place a stacked answer is allowed — it's a comparison, not a pitch. The honest admission about lower intent is load-bearing: it's what makes the other two believable to a man who's been lied to. And the vetting line if he pushes: "that's also why there's a fit call instead of a sign-up button — I only take shops I'm sure I can hit the number for."

The 3%/97% frame — for "I already get leads / I have a guy"
There's 3% of your market that's like, I want this fixed today. There's another 97% that's like, I'll do it when I get to it — I know I need to, but maybe next week, maybe next month, maybe next quarter. Your funnel is like this, mine's like this. Yours has a higher close rate. Mine has way more volume. I'm the gas.
The damaging admission — say it before they ask
To be straight with you, this doesn't work if the team lets booked appointments sit, won't tell us which jobs sold, or doesn't have capacity. I can build and run the engine — I can't make a company answer the phone. Is any of that a concern here?
Hand the math back — once, then stop
So on your numbers — {their ticket} a job, closing {their rate} — if this puts {volume} qualified appointments in front of you, that's {their revenue}. Against what it costs, you can do that math faster than I can.

Their ticket, their close rate. Never a borrowed multiple.

Buyer-type branches at this stage

Legacy FamilyLead the demo with the human-not-AI point — he is actively burned by an AI vendor right now and can spot generated creative on sight. The live demo is worth more to this buyer than to any other.
Portfolio OperatorSkip the creative story entirely. Show the delivery path — endpoint, payload, his stack — and offer his engineer a call rather than bluffing technical depth. "We don't use Slack, we'd prefer a POST to an endpoint" is not an objection; it's his buying process.
BreakawayThe sidekick asks the mechanism questions — answer him fully. He relays it to the boss and to the absent partner. And when the "how do we know that?" challenge lands, hand him the audit tool: "ask your homeowners whether anyone else contacted them." Handing a sceptic the method to catch you converts him.

Next stage → 7 · The money

Stage 7 — The money the anchor was set at minute one — now the math, the yeses, the breakdown

~4 minutes. The price is already on the table from the open — this stage earns it. Never run the breakdown with a concern still open. (Re-ruled 2026-08-14: revenue-target offer; the old $6K six-rung ladder is retired.)
1 · Play the anchor back against HIS numbers
So let's come back to the number I opened with. At your ticket — {job value} a job — a hundred grand is about {n} closed jobs in 6 weeks. You told me your crew could take that. And the gap we found is already costing you {monthly cost} a month doing nothing. So the question isn't whether the hundred is possible in your shop — it's whether we catch what you're already dropping and stack new demand on top of it.

His ticket, his close rate, his capacity — never a borrowed multiple. If {n} jobs is more than the capacity he stated, you're on the wrong tier: anchor the $50K target instead, before he does the math himself and calls the whole thing inflated.

2 · Devil's advocate — make him argue your case before the breakdown
Before we get into how the money's structured — is there any reason you wouldn't be able to pull this off with what we've just gone through? What makes you confident it'd work in your shop?

Either he finds nothing — and just talked himself into it out loud — or he names the real blocker while you still have room to handle it.

3 · Two yeses
Before we talk about the breakdown — do you feel this solves the problem we laid out? Why?
Money aside, if I added a hundred grand in closed jobs to your book in the next 6 weeks — is that something you'd want?
And if most of the money were only due after that result showed up, are you all in on the plan itself?
Patch · war game · the quiet one If his burn story is about profit, do the breakdown in profit. When you hear "four times wasn't enough after labour and materials," capture what he actually keeps per job during the funnel walk, then play the money back in his own denomination: "at your margin that's about {kept} in your pocket against fifteen — and ten of the fifteen only happens after the work's already in your book."
Why: a profit-thinking buyer silently re-runs your revenue figure as kept dollars. A hundred grand of closed work at his margin might be forty in his pocket, so the case thins by two-thirds while you're still talking — and you never see it happen. Do the conversion for him, out loud, or he does it against you.
4 · The breakdown — then eight full seconds of silence
Can I be straight with you about how the money works? It's fifteen thousand all-in, like I said up front — but here's the structure. Five thousand is a one-time onboarding deposit. That covers the whole build: your ads live — ad spend's inside it, nothing on top — the automations, the booking bot, your dashboard. The other ten thousand is my fee, and my fee is ten percent of the target. You only pay it once the hundred grand in closed jobs is in your book. And if we don't deliver, you're entitled to every dollar back — the deposit too. So look at who's holding the risk.

The eight seconds belong after the breakdown and after the ask — never after a reframe. Silence after a reframe hands them the pen, and they fill it with "let me think about it." Every objection answer ends by asking again: "So with that handled — do you want me to build this for {company}, or is there something else still sitting there?"

Waiting on a ruling · the biggest credibility leak Name what's inside the deposit — the split isn't set yet, so don't improvise one. Once ruled, this becomes canon: say how much of the five is his own ad money and how much is build, set the ad-spend number in writing before the deposit clears, and add the collectibility line — "the ten never leaves your account in the first place. Your whole exposure is the five, and most of that is your own ads." A second rail is also unruled: for a buyer who refuses on principle — his card, his ad account, spend visible live, our ten percent after.
Why: "five to start, ad spend's inside it" read three different ways to three buyers and all of them bad. The interrogator heard the exact sentence his fired agency used before hiding the budget. The refuser heard money leaving his hand and entering ours — and he pays his current guy 12.5% after the fact, which is more than our ten, so the fee was never the problem; the bundle was. The fee survived every single simulation. The bundle is the only thing that produced a clean no.

Until it's ruled, say only this: "Five to start covers getting your engine built and your ads live. I'll set the exact ad number in writing before a dollar moves."

The ladder — four rungs, in order, stop at the first yes

Never open on a lower rung. The downsell is right-sizing, not discounting — same machine, smaller target, both numbers scale with it (the fee is always 10% of the target).

RungSay it like this
1 · The anchor"$100K in closed jobs in 6 weeks. Fifteen all-in — a five thousand onboarding deposit to start, and my ten percent fee after the hundred lands."
2 · The guarantee, restated"If we don't deliver, you're entitled to every dollar back — deposit included. The guarantee covers the full 6 weeks — it starts when the 6 weeks do; week one is build and ramp."
3 · The downsell"If a hundred's more than the crew wants to swallow, we can right-size it: $50K in closed jobs in the 6 weeks, eight thousand all-in — three to start, five after the fifty lands. Same machine, smaller target."
4 · The 3-day trialLast rung, never volunteered — it's the answer to "$0 down" and to a hard stall on the deposit: "Then let's do exactly that. I'll turn it on for three days — no money, no contract — and you tell me what you think." Define out loud what three days proves, and set the conversion ask before the trial starts: "if it does what I think it'll do, we start the 6 weeks Monday. Deal?"
Waiting on a ruling · a rung that isn't official yet Splitting the deposit weekly, instead of dropping the tier. Roughly $750–850 a week across the 6 weeks for the anchor tier. It is not a ruled rung yet — don't offer it as a standing option until the terms are set.
Why: the one buyer in the real record who closed same-day on a comparable structure closed on weekly payments, not a lump sum. In the cashflow simulation, splitting the deposit and dating it to the buyer's receivable is what saved the call — and both moves were off-script, meaning the rep improvised terms. That's exactly how bespoke deals get invented on the phone. Rule it and it becomes a rung before the downsell; leave it unruled and reps will keep reaching for it anyway.
Below the trial, nothing exists. If the $50K tier and the trial are both refused, that's a disqualify-with-a-check-back-date, not a negotiation. And the trial is rung four for a reason — volunteering it before "$0 down" comes up prices your own offer down.

Buyer-type branches at this stage

Performance NegotiatorHe will counter with revenue-share — "I'll pay you 3% of everything I sell off what you generate." Refuse, with the real reason: it was tried, and what got reported back didn't match reality — verifying would mean auditing his homeowners. Then point at the structure he already has: two-thirds of the fee only exists after the target lands — that IS the skin in the game he's asking for, already built in. Nothing further to concede. He is the fastest close of the six, and he will find the seam in any refund that covers spend but not fee — so name the pocket first.
BreakawayHe wants a floor with a refund. Never improvise a bespoke guarantee live. The guarantee IS the floor: the target across the full 6 weeks, or your money back — and say out loud why it's measured across the whole window: week one is build and ramp.
Comparison ShopperDon't fight on volume: "Their fee moves with your spend, mine doesn't — so as you scale, my cost per job falls and theirs doesn't. And right now neither of us knows which of your sources actually closes." Then take the conditional close — never let a shopper leave without it: "If you make those calls and nobody else will put a hundred-grand target on the table with two-thirds of their own fee behind it, are you comfortable starting with me?"

Next stage → 8 · Endings

Stage 8 — Endings four valid ways off the call. "I'll think about it" is not one.

EndingWhat you say
YesTerms in writing first — result, job types, territory, what counts as a new job, the fee. Then onboarding form, access, assets, kickoff. Reinforce their reason, not your pitch.
No"Totally fair — what specifically?" Then let it be a no, and say what would have to change for it to be worth another call.
Dated decision call"What exactly are you deciding, who's involved, and when will you have the answer?" In the calendar before you hang up. Not "in a couple of weeks."
Disqualified"Honestly, I don't think you should buy this right now — here's what I'd do instead." Then set a check-back date anyway.
On a yes — four beats before the paperwork
Before we do paperwork — this works when you answer the phone and when you tell me which jobs actually sold. I'll build it and run it, but those two are yours. You good with that?
When the first job closes off this, text me. I genuinely want to know.
Don't go silent while they fill out paperwork — dead air is where people re-think.
It's ACH off an invoice — no cards. It usually takes a day or two to land, so don't worry if you don't see it move today.

Buyer-type branch at this stage

Performance NegotiatorRoute to a payment link. Never read card details aloud on a recorded call.

War game — run the script against a buyer before a buyer runs it against you

The drill that produced most of the branches in the stages above. Run it before any new script goes live, and after any real call that got away from you.
What it is, in one lineYou take a buyer type, you play them honestly using their real words and their real behaviour, and you run the script at them start to finish looking for the exact minute it breaks. Then you patch the script at that stage — not with a clever line, but with a branch anyone can run. It is rehearsal with a scoreboard: the output isn't "that went well," it's a named break, a named patch, and a predicted ending.

The five steps

  • 1 · Pick the cartridge, not a mood. One of the six buyer types, anchored to a real call if you have one. Load their actual objections, their vocabulary, their pace. A made-up prospect is a prospect who lets you win.
  • 2 · Run the script cold, in order. Every stage, no skipping, no improvising a save. The point is to find the break, so let it break.
  • 3 · Mark the attack — the stage and the words. "Attacks at the pitch: we don't use Slack, we'd prefer a POST to an endpoint." A break you can't name by stage is a break you can't patch.
  • 4 · Write the patch as a branch, not a line. It has to be sayable by anyone on any call of that type. If the patch only works because you thought fast, it isn't a patch.
  • 5 · Predict the ending, then check it against reality. Same-call yes · dated decision call · reschedule with the partner · correct disqualification. When the real call lands somewhere else, that gap is the next war game.
The rule that makes it worth doing: a patch that was invented live and never written down is a bespoke term for one client. Every concession, floor and averaging window gets pre-approved in the script before it's ever said on a call — otherwise you're negotiating from memory while the buyer is negotiating from a plan.

What the six runs found

Buyer typeWhere it attackedThe patch — now live in the stages abovePredicted end
Portfolio OperatorMinute three: "just give me your speech real quick." Then, at the pitch: "we don't use Slack."The deflection at the open, kept verbatim — he respects process, he runs 19 of them. Then delivery-path-first at the pitch, and his engineer gets a call instead of you bluffing technical depth.Dated decision call — finance controls his timing
Legacy FamilySoftly, at the funnel walk: a lead-cost expectation that isn't achievable.Correct it there, with the reason, before he anchors on it. The real break was elsewhere: wife and daughter surfaced ten minutes AFTER the price — so the decision-maker stage became a hard stop.Dated decision call with the family present
BreakawayAt the pitch: "not to say you're not telling the truth, but how do we know that?" Then at the money: "if we do 11 two months running, does the price adjust?"Hand him the audit tool — ask your homeowners whether anyone else contacted them. And a pre-approved floor with the ramp reason said out loud, instead of a guarantee improvised live.Reschedule with the partner, then yes
Self-SufficientNothing — he asks almost no questions. That is the trap.Send yourself to the overlap check at minute four, before you've invested him in a pitch you should be pulling. Nothing else in the script stops you closing a willing buyer you shouldn't take.Correct disqualification with a check-back date
Comparison ShopperAt the money: a competitor quoted close to your price for more volume.Ask for closed revenue by source at the funnel walk — he'd never pulled it. Then the fee-structure contrast, and a named date with the deciding question. "Within two weeks" is not an ending.Dated decision call + measurement homework
Performance NegotiatorAt the money, immediately and hard: revenue share, then the seam — "that ad spend is my money."Refuse rev-share with the real reason, then ONE pre-approved concession delivered in a single breath instead of putting him on hold to phone a partner.Same-call yes — the fastest of the six

The scoreboard, and what it taught

  • 1 of 6 held clean. Only the Legacy Family run survived the script as written.
  • 4 of 6 needed a patch — all four now sit in the stages above as branches, not as things you have to remember.
  • 1 of 6 disqualified correctly. That's a win condition, not a loss.
  • The most common failure was the decision-maker. Three of six real calls had someone who was never in the room, and none of the three were found before the price. That single finding is why the owner question moved into the first two minutes.
How to run it nowTwo people, twenty minutes, one cartridge each. One plays the buyer from the tells in The rules tab; the other runs the stages in order. Stop the moment it breaks, write the stage and the words down, and don't resume until the patch is written as a branch. One cartridge per session beats all six done shallow — and the next one to run is whichever type you last lost a real call to.

Objections — one table, every channel

Every objection is a question (needs info) or a fear (needs reassurance) — diagnose which before answering. Two or three sentences, then stop.
The golden move — isolate"If money and timing weren't the issue, would you do this?" A yes means it was never a real no — one blocker, name it and clear it. On any stall: "What specifically — is it the money, the timing, or whether it'll actually book you jobs? Let's name the real one."
Patch · studied scriptFour beats before any isolate.
Why: fired cold, an isolate is a gotcha and the buyer feels it. Naming it, neutralising it, setting it aside and then asking what's really behind it gets the true objection without the ambush — and the CAN question that follows turns his own reasons into your close.
Before you isolate — the four-step diffuserFired cold, an isolate is a gotcha. Run it in four beats instead: 1 · Name it (which stall is it — partner, or think-about-it). 2 · Neutralise it — "Totally fine, that's not a problem." 3 · Set it aside — "Before you go talk to him / before you think it over…" 4 · Then find the real one — "What exactly is making you want to do that? Just so I can help while I've still got you."

Then the CAN question, which does the work: "Do you feel like what we've gone over actually CAN get you to {his target}? … Why do you feel it can?" His answer becomes your closing ammo. If you hear hesitation on the CAN, stop closing — the offer isn't clear yet, and no amount of pressure fixes an unclear offer.
They sayYou say
"$15,000 is a lot.""It is. And look at the shape of it — five to start, and the other ten you only pay after a hundred grand in closed jobs is in your book. Against your own numbers: the gap we found is costing you {monthly cost} a month right now, doing nothing. So which part's the problem — the five to start, or whether the hundred lands?" Isolate, then answer only the one they name. The downsell tier only if it's genuinely the number.
"How do I know you'll actually add the $100K?""You don't, on my word. That's why the money's shaped the way it is — my fee is ten percent of the target and you only pay it after the hundred grand lands. If we don't deliver, you're entitled to everything back, deposit included, and the ad money I already spent is my loss. I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm asking you to look at who's holding the risk."
"Let me think about it."Isolate twice first — fired cold it's a gotcha and he'll feel it: "Totally fair. Before you do — is it the money, or is it whether this actually works in your shop?" → wait → "And if it were running Monday and the calls were getting answered inside a minute, is there anything else that'd stop you?" → wait. Only when both answers are clean: "You can absolutely take a couple of weeks. But those weeks cost about {monthly cost}, because that's what the gap runs you every month it stays open. So it isn't fifteen grand versus nothing — it's {monthly cost} a month to wait, against five grand to start on a guaranteed number. Which do you want?" ⚠️ {monthly cost} must be HIS number from the funnel walk. No number, no line — go back and get it.
"How much does it cost?" (early, any channel)"Depends on your area and how many jobs you can take. Ten minutes on the phone and I'll give you a straight number — what's good today?" Word for word. Pre-call surfaces never carry a number — the price belongs to the call, where it's now the opener.
"We already do marketing / have someone""Good — what's it actually booking you right now? Most guys I talk to are paying for shared leads or waiting on referrals, and that's the exact trap this replaces. No lead vendors, no referrals, and I don't sell your leads to anybody else."
"Bad experience with agencies before""Yeah, I hear that a lot — what specifically went wrong last time? Nine times out of ten they took a retainer up front and you carried all the risk. I flipped that — five grand starts the build, the other ten thousand doesn't exist until the hundred grand in closed jobs does, and if we don't deliver, you get your money back. If it doesn't produce, I don't keep a dollar."
"Sounds too good to be true / what's the catch""Fair — here's the catch: I put my own money on the line with the guarantee, so I only take guys I'm sure I can get results for. That's why there's a fit call, not a sign-up button."
"I don't have time for this""That's kind of the point — you're the bottleneck right now. I build it and I run it, you don't touch it. About 15 minutes to get set up, then jobs just show up."
"Just send me some info""I've got all of it right here — what's the one thing you actually want to know? Faster if I answer it now than you digging through a PDF Thursday." Sending info stalls the close ~80% of the time. Stay on the phone.
"I need to talk to my partner"First, find out which kind it is: "Makes sense — is it a money thing for them, or a does-this-actually-work thing?" then "If they said yes tomorrow, are you ready to move?"

If they genuinely co-decide (co-owner, spouse on the books, the money is shared): hard gate — dated three-way call, and you say why: "Let's not have you play telephone with this."

If he signs alone and just wants cover — use the responsibility close, with respect and no snark: "Whose responsibility is it to grow this? … The last five years of results — the wins and the bad calls — that was you, right? … With respect, does she ask you how to bid a driveway? So why hand her a decision she's not in and isn't responsible for?" Never run this on a real co-decider — it insults the person whose signature you need.
"I don't have the money right now"Separate value from logistics before anything else: "Money aside — do you feel what we've gone through gets you there?" → "If the fifteen were sitting in your hand right now, would you do it?" A yes means this was never about the offer: "So it's a HOW do I do it, not a SHOULD I do it." Then structure — weekly split on the deposit, or date it to his receivable. A no means go back to the offer; you have a value problem wearing a money mask.
"We're slammed / it's busy season""Perfect time actually — you want the pipeline full for when it slows down, not scrambling then. This runs in the background, you don't lift a finger. Want me to set it up now so it's working when you need it?"
"Your ad said $0 down."Don't argue it — go to rung 4: "Fair enough. Then let's do exactly that — I'll turn it on for three days, no money, no contract, and you tell me what you think." Define what three days proves; set the conversion ask before the trial starts: "if it does what I think it'll do, we start the 6 weeks Monday. Deal?"
"Can I just pay the start fee and run my own ads?""No, and here's why — the ads are how I control whether the target lands. If two-thirds of my fee only exists when you hit a hundred grand, I need my hands on the thing that produces it. Same reason I don't guarantee results on somebody else's ad account."
"What happens after the 6 weeks?"Ruled 2026-08-14 — there's finally a real answer: "If you want to keep going, it's ten percent. That's the only thing I charge — no new deposit, no retainer. The onboarding fee was one-time." Nothing beyond that sentence — don't invent contract lengths or scope.
"What if we land at $70K, not $100K?"Ruled 2026-08-14: "Then you're entitled to every dollar back — deposit included. That's your call, not mine. Honestly, most guys sitting at seventy grand of new closed work want to talk about finishing the job instead — and I'm open to that conversation. But the refund is yours if you want it." The full refund is his RIGHT; anything else is a negotiation he chooses.
"Are you market exclusive?""One {niche} company per market — and don't take my word for it. Ask your next three homeowners whether anyone else contacted them. You'll know inside a week." Handing him the method to catch you is worth more than any case study.
Gone quiet mid-callSilence is a tool. Ask the question, then shut up 8+ full seconds. Most people cave and fill it. Don't rescue it.

Their problem → your pitch — six buckets, pitch only the one he named

Every problem a contractor names lands in one of six buckets. Hear the problem, know the bucket, talk about that single piece — nothing else. Walking all six is the feature dump that makes you sound like every other vendor. The rest of the machine gets one sentence at the end: "and the rest of it — the ads, the qualification, the tracking — sits on top of that."
The working ruleAnswer the bucket he raised — but excavate speed-to-lead and tracking before you price anything, because he can't object to a leak he's never measured. The one he says is the one you handle. The one he can't see is the one you sell.

1 · "Nobody's raising their hand" — demand

You'll hear: "Referrals dried up." · "It's feast or famine." · "We plateaued."

What's broken: his demand is inherited, not created — however many people happened to think of him this month is his ceiling.

Say this
Right now every job you get comes from somebody who already knows you, or knows somebody who does. That's not a small thing — it's just a ceiling, because it's however many people happened to think of you this month. This puts you in front of people who've never heard of you, in {market}, who are looking at a {job type} problem right now. No lead vendors. No depending on referrals.

2 · "They raise their hand and nothing happens" — speed the one-thing

You'll hear: almost never said out loud — you get the symptom: "we don't have the bandwidth to follow up quickly." He's not hiding it; he's never measured it. This is almost always the biggest number on the call.

Say this
You told me it's {his callback answer} before somebody hears back. That's the rung that's bleeding — {gap} people reached out last month and never got on your calendar. This answers them inside a minute, at eleven at night, on a Sunday. Same people. Same ad spend. They just get caught instead of dropped.

If he only buys one bucket, make it this one — it's the only bucket where the arithmetic alone justifies the fee.

3 · "The wrong people raise their hand" — quality

You'll hear: "The leads are junk." · "Sold to ten other guys." · "The homeowner said don't call me, I didn't talk to them."

Say this
The standards are yours, not mine — your zips, your job types, and they have to be the homeowner with a real number. Anything that isn't those never reaches your phone; sorting that out is my job, not yours. And I only work with one {niche} company per market, so nobody else is calling the same homeowner an hour after you do.

4 · "They book but don't buy" — closing do not claim

What's broken: the driveway — his pricing, his presentation. There is no piece for this, and saying so out loud is the fastest credibility you'll buy all call.

Say this
Straight with you — I can't fix your close rate. I can put more of the right people in front of you and make sure they're expecting you. What happens in the driveway is yours. If closing is genuinely the broken part, I'd tell you not to buy this.

If he says closing IS his problem, that's a disqualification signal, not an objection — the guarantee is a revenue target in CLOSED jobs, and his close rate decides whether you pay out. Don't sell past it. The safe version: "You close two out of three estimates you run. I'm not touching that — I'm betting on it. The hundred grand is your close rate applied to more estimates."

5 · "Nobody knows what worked" — tracking

You'll hear: "I couldn't tell you what my Google spend does." He can't see it, so you have to surface it — when he can't answer the funnel walk, the silence does the work.

Say this
You just told me you couldn't say what your {current spend} produces. By week two you'll know exactly, because every lead has one button on it — booked, quoted, won — and we reconcile it monthly. And that's not a report I email you, it's a number you can check at midnight. It's also how the ads get better: they learn off what actually sold, not off clicks.

6 · "I've been burned / prove it" — risk two-thirds of everything

You'll hear: "Paid an agency three months, got one lead." · "I have a hard time putting money down with no guaranteed return." This is the default posture — money worries are the only objection a buyer knows how to say out loud.

Say this
The guy who burned you got paid whether your phone rang or not. I don't. Two-thirds of my fee doesn't exist until a hundred grand in closed jobs — signed contracts, accepted quotes — is in your book. And if we don't deliver, you get your money back. I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm asking you to look at who's holding the risk.

Name which pocket the refund comes from, unprompted — this buyer has seen the trick where a "refund" comes out of his own unspent ad budget. A real refund, not a credit.

The reverse lookup — every feature, the one problem it kills, the half-sentence

The pieceKillsThe half-sentence
Pain-led video ads, his job types, his market1 · demand"people who've never heard of you"
One page per market, one buyer per market3 · shared leads"nobody else is calling the same homeowner"
Answered in under a minute, day or night2 · speed"caught instead of dropped"
Qualification against his standards3 · junk"the junk never reaches your phone"
Delivery his way — text, CRM, group text3 · friction"it goes where you already look"
One-button outcomes in the portal5 · the black hole"you'll know by week two"
Optimises off sold jobs, not clicks5 · wasted spend"it learns off what actually sold"
Two-thirds of the fee due only after the target lands6 · price"you're five in, not fifteen"
$100K in closed jobs or your money back6 · risk"look at who's holding the risk"
6 weeks, no contract past it6 · retainer fatigue"it ends on its own"
Done-for-you: built and run2 · no time"you don't touch it"
ACH off an invoice, no cards6 · fees"no three percent eating either of us"

Two things deliberately absent: the 3-day trial (it's the last rung of the ladder and the answer to "$0 down" — volunteering it prices your offer down before he's objected) and any speed benchmark ("under a minute" describes the mechanism; a seconds number is a fossil).

Talk like them — their words, not yours

The trade's own vocabulary is the cheapest credibility on the call; the wrong word marks you as another marketer in four seconds.
SayNot
set and sold · set rate · close rate · at-bats"conversion funnel"
booked estimate · priced estimate · quotes per week"appointment" (fine, but theirs is better)
cost per appointment"CPL" — a per-lead number doesn't map to anything he's measured on
crews · production schedule · capacity"fulfilment"
pier and beam · slab · access holes · footer · helical pier · carbon fibergeneric "foundation work"
sagging floors · bowing walls · sticking doors · negative drainage"structural issues"
encapsulation · vapor barrier · moisture control · radon"crawl space services"
poly lift · flatwork · concrete leveling · concrete coatings"concrete"
the actual vendor that burned him — Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack"lead vendors" in the abstract

How deals actually die — and the unforced errors

From 21 analysed calls: deals rarely die on an objection — they die on an unowned exit. The seller wins the argument, then hands the calendar to the prospect.
The stallThe counter
Partner / spouse / accountant (the #1 killer)Caught at minute two, not fifty: the owner question in the six facts, "anyone else in on this call with you?" on every pre-call, and the hard stop — the goal becomes both-on-a-call-with-a-date. The cheapest fix in the whole corpus.
"Let me think about it"Isolate twice + the delay-cost answer priced from HIS number, then the four valid endings.
Burned before / won't pay upfrontThe structure IS the answer: two-thirds of the fee only exists after the target lands, and a miss means the money comes back. He's five in, not fifteen.
"Send me examples first"Never send-and-hope. Show it live — the preview IS the proof — and anything sent gets a dated decision attached.
Price / "start smaller"The four-rung ladder, in order — anchor, guarantee, the $50K tier as right-sizing, the 3-day trial last. Never opened before the guarantee has landed.
Genuinely can't payThe $50K tier at $3K down, then the trial. Below the trial nothing exists — disqualify-with-a-date beats a fake maybe.
Comparison shoppingThe conditional close: "If you make those calls and nobody else will put a hundred-grand target on the table with two-thirds of their own fee behind it, are you comfortable starting with me?" A yes makes the other calls a formality; a no says price was never the issue.

Seven unforced errors — traps, not objections

  • A vague guarantee. This buyer has seen a "refund" paid out of his own unspent ad budget. Name the pocket, unprompted: a real refund of what he paid — never a credit, never his own unspent ad money handed back as a favor.
  • Selling unlimited scale. Ten jobs into a shop that wants ten is a gift; fifty is a threat. Ask his capacity and sell to it.
  • Aggressive follow-up. Ask how he wants to be chased, then obey it exactly.
  • Quoting cost per lead. Answer in his unit — appointments, or better, closed jobs: the only unit the guarantee speaks.
  • Anything that smells of AI. A competitor's AI caller produced homeowners saying "don't call me, I didn't talk to them." Lead with the real conversation; be straight about what's automated.
  • Asking him to change his tools. Be the bolt-on: "it goes where you already look." Never ask him to adopt yours.
  • Percentage-of-spend pricing (theirs). Say the structural thing: a flat fee means his effective cost per job falls as he scales, and theirs doesn't.

The single most persuasive thing on the table, from the one deal that closed in that corpus: the vendor put its own fee at risk, not just the ad spend. If I miss, I keep nothing.

Inbound call — they applied, didn't book

Application in, no call on the calendar. Text at 5 minutes, second text day 1, then the dial batch. Double-dial before any voicemail. 3–5 minutes.
StrategyThe frame is status + value, not filtering: you're the person they'd work with, checking fit on your own end, and they leave with something useful either way. Confirm what the application already told you — never re-ask it. Book live on the call; never send a link.
First text · inside 5 min · lowercase, signed alex
hey {first}, this is alex with stpierre.ai — got your application for {niche} jobs. quick one: you the owner?

Niche field empty? Never send literal braces: "…got your application. quick one: what kind of work do you run?"

Phone open — like someone they were expecting, because you are
Hey {first}, it's Alex with stpierre.ai — you just put in a request about getting more {niche} jobs. Did I catch you at an ok time?

This'll be quick — I'm not going to sell you anything on this call. I just want to ask you three or four things, make sure I can actually help you, and if it's a fit I'll show you what it looks like. Cool?

The fit gate — conversational, not a form

  • Niche: "You're doing {niche} work, right? That's the whole game, or part of it?"
  • Capacity — the one that matters: "If I put 10+ new jobs on your calendar in the next 6 weeks — could your crew actually handle that, or would that break you?"
  • Decision-maker: "This is your shop — you call the shot on this, or is there a partner in it too?"
  • Timing: "Looking to fill the pipeline now, or is this more down-the-road?"
  • Confirm the rest: "Application says you're covering {service area} and spending {marketing spend} a month — both still right?"
The value beat — give one thing before you ask for anything
One thing before we book anything, and this is yours whether we ever talk again. Between now and the call, count one number: how many people reached out to you last month — and how many of those actually got on your calendar. Almost nobody knows it, and it's the number that decides everything.
Book live — never send a link
Alright, you're exactly who this works for. Next step is a real working session — about an hour, on video, and I'll have a preview built for your market before we talk. I've got {day} morning or {day} afternoon — which is better?

Done — I just sent the calendar invite, can you accept it real quick? If it's not accepted it drops off my calendar and we lose the slot.

What you'll hear back

They sayYou say
"How much is it?"The deflection, word for word (see The rules). Here "ten minutes on the phone" means the discovery you're booking — never a number on this call.
"Just send me some info""I've got all of it right here — what's the one thing you'd actually want to know? Faster if I answer it now than you digging through a PDF Thursday."
"I'm not the owner"Run the gatekeeper play — get the owner's name and best time, thank them, off.
"We're slammed right now""Perfect time actually — you want the pipeline full for when it slows down, not scrambling then. This runs in the background. Fifteen minutes to see it, then you decide."
Obvious wrong fitDisqualify gracefully — status is also knowing who you don't take: "Straight with you — I don't think this is built for where you're at right now. Here's what I'd do instead: {one honest pointer}. If that changes, you know where I am."

Cold call — we dialled them, they never applied

You are not closing the program on this call. A "yes, send it" is the win. A booking is a bonus, not the bar. 2–4 minutes.
StrategyLead-first: the free lead IS the pitch — proof by giving, not telling. Permission first, always. Every ask that gets an objection: agree → get him talking → ask again, three or four loops before you accept a no. Good callers get hung up on 80–90% of the time; that's the job done right. Only quote a weekly lead number that is true in that city this week — if you don't know it, you're not cleared to dial that city.

The spine — six steps

  • 1 · Permission (never skip): "Hey {first} — {first}, it's Alex with stpierre.ai. I know I'm catching you out of the blue. Can I grab thirty seconds, tell you exactly why I called, and then you tell me if it's even relevant?" Then stop talking.
  • 2 · Confirm the owner: "Appreciate it. Remind me — you run the {niche} crew directly, or is there a partner in it too?"
  • 3 · The overflow line — the honest version: "So — I run a local page here in {city} that generates {niche} jobs. Homeowners with sunken driveways, cracked patios, that kind of thing. Right now I'm pulling {honest weekly number} of them a week and I've only got one crew taking them."
  • 4 · Capacity: "Two quick things. First one — do you actually have the capacity right now to take on ten-ish extra {niche} jobs over the next 6 weeks? Or are you booked solid?" Then shut up — eight full seconds if you have to.
  • 5 · The lead drop — this is the whole call: "Before we even talk about how any of this works — can I just text you one? A real homeowner, in {city}, who asked for a {niche} quote this week. Yours, no charge, no strings, whether or not we ever speak again. You call them, you quote them, you keep the job. Cool if I send it over?"
  • 6 · Book — logistics question, never "are you interested": "Sending it now. One more thing — I'd rather show you where it comes from than explain it on the phone. Fifteen minutes this week? You a morning person, or is afternoon better?" Send the invite while he's on the phone; ask him to accept it.

What you'll hear back

They sayYou say
"Not interested""Totally fair — honestly I should've assumed you'd be all set. Just so nobody from my side bugs you again — is it that you've got more work than you can handle, or that you've been burned by a marketing guy before?" Then: "Either way, I've still got the lead. Want me to send it? Costs you nothing."
"I already get enough leads""Good — that's the answer I want to hear. Then this is just capacity insurance for the slow weeks. Can I still send you the one I've got? Worst case you book a job off it."
"What's the catch?""No catch on the lead — it's free because it's how I show you I'm real instead of telling you. Fair?" Never over-explain free — the longer you justify it, the less free it sounds.
"I got burned by an agency""Then you already know more than most guys I call. What broke — lead quality, follow-up speed, or close rate?" His answer is your entire discovery call later. Attack the model, never a company.
"How much?" (early)"Depends what you're trying to hit — price with no context always sounds like too much. Let me send you the lead first, then we'll go through the numbers properly."
"Send me an email""Will do — what's the best number to text the lead to as well? That's the part worth having."
"Is this AI?""Ha — no, it's Alex, I'm in Maine, it's raining. That's why I'm calling instead of blasting you." Keep it light.
"I'm on a job / bad time""Course you are. Twenty seconds and I'll let you go — I've got a homeowner in {city} who wants a {niche} quote. Want me to text you their number and you call them when you're off the ladder?"

Self-booked call — applied and took the booking link

Call same day, inside the hour if you can. 2–3 minutes. This call also does the confirmation call's job — they get SMS confirms only afterwards.
StrategyThey've already given you everything and committed a time — this call is mostly status: the person they booked is calling them personally, same day. Confirm, don't re-ask. Catch the second decision-maker now, three days before the close instead of on it.
Open
Hey {first}, it's Alex with stpierre.ai — you're on my calendar for {day} at {time}, so I figured I'd call and say it with a voice instead of an email. I'm the one you'll be talking to. Got two minutes?
Confirm, don't re-ask
Your application's in front of me — {niche}, covering {service area}, doing about {revenue} a month, spending {marketing spend} on marketing. Anything in there I should read differently?

One thing that's never on the application: if I put 10+ new jobs on your calendar in the next 6 weeks — could your crew actually handle that, or would that break you?
The value beat + what to bring + the decision-maker gate
Two things for {day}, both for your benefit. First — be somewhere you can see a screen, because I'll have a preview built for your market and it's better looked at than described. Second — count one number before we talk: how many people reached out last month, and how many got on your calendar.

And who besides you should be on the call? If there's a partner in the decision, better they hear it from me than secondhand.

Calendar invite's on your phone — accept it real quick so it holds. See you {day}.

What you'll hear back

They sayYou say
"Can't we just do this now?"If you genuinely have the hour and can improvise their preview — take it; speed beats polish: "You know what — yes. Give me two minutes to pull your market up. Stay on." Otherwise: "I'd rather do it right than do it now — the preview I'm building you is the whole point. {day}'s worth the wait."
"What's it cost?""Depends on your area and how many jobs you can take — that's half of what {day} is for. You'll have a straight number before we hang up."
"My partner handles this stuff"A gift — caught three days early: "Then let's make sure they're on. Same time work for both of you, or should we move it?"
No answerDouble-dial, then one text: "tried you just now — alex, stpierre.ai. we're on for {day} at {time}. reply YES so i know you're good, and i'll send your preview walkthrough."

Confirmation call — 24h out and the morning of

Fires at booking, again 24h out, and the morning of. Most no-shows are really un-confirmed calls. 90 seconds. (Self-booked leads already confirmed on the status call — they get the SMS touches only.)
Open — you're locking a slot, not asking permission
Hey {first}, it's Alex with stpierre.ai — we're set for {day} at {time} to walk through your preview. Just locking it in. That still work for you?

Cool. I just sent the calendar invite — can you accept it real quick? If it's not accepted it drops off my calendar and we lose the slot.
SMS if no answer
Hey {first}, Alex from stpierre.ai — we're on for {day} at {time}. Reply YES so I know you're good, and I'll send your preview.

What you'll hear back

They sayYou say
"Actually, can we move it?""No problem — I've got {day} or {day}, which is better?" Two specific slots, pinned on this call. Never "I'll find a time."
"Do I need to prep anything?""Nope — just be somewhere you can see my screen. I walk you through the whole thing."
"Remind me what this is again?""Quick one — I show you your real ad and booking bot in your market, and if it's a fit we turn it on. No lead vendors, no referrals. Two minutes and you'll see it."
Second rescheduleThat's a temperature reading, not a calendar problem: "Happy to move it once more — straight question first: is this still something you want, or has it dropped down the list?"

No-show — rescue, zero guilt

5–10 minutes past the start, same day while the preview is fresh. Guilt kills rebooks.
Phone — give them the out first
Hey {first}, it's Alex — we were set for {time}, figured something came up. No stress at all.

Your preview's still live — it's your real ad and booking bot in your market, not a template. Want to grab 15 minutes today or tomorrow so I can actually walk you through it? I've got {day} afternoon or {day} morning — which one?
SMS ladder · 10 min / 2h / next morning
missed you just now, {first} — no stress, things come up. grab a new time here: {booking link}
i'll hold your spot either way — what happened earlier?
here's the link again so you don't have to dig: {booking link} — whenever works, i'll make it fit.

What you'll hear back

They sayYou say
"Sorry, I got slammed""Happens to everyone — that's kind of the point of this, right? Let's grab 15 minutes when it's quieter. Today or tomorrow?"
"I don't think I have time for this""That's exactly who this is for — I build it and I run it, you don't touch it. Fifteen minutes to see it, then you decide."
"Eh… I'm not sure anymore"Isolate, don't push: "Totally fair — is it a timing thing or a does-this-actually-work thing?" Soft no → "Want me to keep your preview on file, or close it out?"
Silence on every channelKeep the build on file 30 days, drop to the reactivation lane. No guilt text, ever.

Gatekeeper — someone else answers

60 seconds. A name and an email is a won gatekeeper call.
StrategyAsk for help first — that's the whole move. People help people who ask for help; they deflect people who pitch.
Open — wait for the yes before continuing
Hi, this is Alex — could you help me out for a moment?

Appreciate it. We build and run appointment engines for {niche} companies — new jobs land on the calendar without buying shared leads or waiting on referrals. I'd like to build them a free preview so they can actually see it working in {market}. Costs them nothing. Who'd be the best person to talk to about that?

What you'll hear back

They sayYou say
"What's this about?""Fair. Two sentences: we put new {niche} jobs on their calendar, and I'll build a free preview so they can see it before deciding anything. That's the whole thing."
"He's out on a job""Course he is — that's a good sign. When's he usually back at a desk, and is this the best number or does he have a cell he actually answers?"
"We're not interested""Totally fair — can I ask one thing so I don't bug you again? Is it that the schedule's full, or that you've been burned by marketing calls before?" One question, then let it go.
"Send something over""Will do — what's the best email? And just so it doesn't die in the inbox, what's his name so I can address it right?"

Voicemail — no answer

Double-dial before any voicemail — call, hang up, call right back. VM on the second miss. Two voicemails ever, then stop.
StrategyNo pitch in a voicemail — a pitch gets it deleted. A voicemail roughly doubles the reply rate on the text or email you send after it; that's most of what it's for.
Inbound lead (they applied) — 17 words, curiosity
Hey {first}, Alex with stpierre.ai — quick question about your {niche} jobs, give me a ring back.
Cold VM 1 — ~15 sec, context only
{first}, it's Alex with stpierre.ai. I run the {niche} page here in {city} — I've got a homeowner asking for a quote and nowhere to send them. My number's {phone}. Again, Alex, {phone}.
Cold VM 2 — ~30 sec, context + proof
{first}, Alex again, stpierre.ai. I run {niche} ads in {city} — about {honest weekly number} homeowners a week come through and one crew can't take them all. I'll send the next one your way free if you want it. {phone}. Again, Alex, {phone}.
After every dial that doesn't connect — one text inside 5 min
just tried you — alex. {niche} homeowners in {city} asking for quotes. want me to send you the next one?

Warm-list texts — two texts, then the dial batch

Warm list only — anyone who gave you a number. Cold scraped numbers never get texted; they stay on email. Send 9am–7pm their local time. No links in the first message.
StrategyTouch 1 asks if he has room, not if he's interested — he qualifies for you. The opt-out is folded into the sentence, never a bolted-on robot line. Any reply at all — including "who is this" — is a yes: don't text back, call inside 5 minutes.
Touch 1 · day 0
{first} — Alex with stpierre.ai. You and I talked last year about {niche} jobs at {company}. Can you take ten more in 6 weeks, or are you booked solid? Reply stop and I'm gone.
Touch 2 · day 1, only if quiet — real lead version
I've got {niche} homeowners in {city} asking for quotes and one crew taking them. Want me to send you the next one? Yours either way.

Nothing live in that city yet? Say the real number, never inflate: "I run the ads and the follow-up for a {niche} crew in Dallas — about ten homeowners a week. I'm putting the same thing up in {city}. Worth ten minutes?"

Touch 3 is a call, not a text
{first} — Alex, stpierre.ai. I sent you a couple of texts about {niche} jobs, figured I'd just call. Thirty seconds and you tell me if it's relevant? → then the cold-call spine, step 2 onward.
Close-out text, after the dial batch also misses — usually pulls the most replies of the whole sequence, because it's a real exit
Last one from me, {first}. If {niche} work ever gets thin, text me — Alex, this number. Otherwise, good luck out there.

Reply rules

They replyYou do
Anything at allThat's a yes. Call inside 5 minutes — don't text back.
"How much?"Never in writing. On the phone, the deflection word for word.
"Yes" / "send it"Send the lead inside 5 minutes: "{first} — here's the one I mentioned. {lead name}, {lead phone}, {suburb}. {one-line job description}, wants a quote this week. She knows you'll be calling. Yours, no charge. — Alex"
Any version of stopInstantly and forever, every channel: "sorry about that! we won't message you again unless you reach out"
Before any walkthrough or numberOne message, always: "Anyone else in on this call with you?"

Cold email replies — same day, a human presses send

The cold email asks one thing: can you handle ten-ish jobs in 6 weeks — reply yes and your best number. Anything not clearly a no is treated as positive.
They replyYou send
"Yes" + a numberStraight to the phone — text plus double-dial within 5 minutes. Email as paper trail: "Calling you now — Alex."
"Yes" but no number"Good — what's the best number to text? I've got a {niche} homeowner in {city} I can send you this week, yours either way."
"How much does this cost?"Never a number in writing: "Depends on your area and how many jobs you can take. Ten minutes on the phone and I'll give you a straight number — what's your cell?"
"What is this exactly?""I run {niche} ads in {city} and hand the homeowner leads to one crew per market. No lead vendors, no depending on referrals. Easier shown than written — what's the best number?"
"Remove me" / "no"Marked do-not-disturb the same day. Nothing further, ever.

Pre-call video — seven minutes, sent at booking

Goes out the moment a discovery is booked. Warms them up, lifts the show rate. It never states price.
StrategyRecorded once per niche; personalised for ~20 seconds at the top and ~10 at the tail. Open on the demo, not on talk. Label a mock-up as a mock-up, out loud. No industry rule-of-thumb numbers — that's a benchmark, and benchmarks are banned.
The send wrapper — text, at booking
One more thing — I'm building you a quick preview: your real ad and booking bot running in your market, not a template. I'll text you the seven-minute walkthrough. Have a look before we talk so we're not starting cold.

The recording outline — six beats

  • 0:00 · Personal top (re-record per prospect): "Hey {first} — Alex. This is for you and {company}, about seven minutes. You told me {one fact from their application} — keep that in your head while you watch."
  • 0:20 · The claim and the agenda: "The claim on the table is ten closed {niche} jobs in 6 weeks — and on our call I'll show you the whole machine that does it, built for {market}, not a template."
  • 0:45 · The walk: the ad a homeowner sees → what happens the second they tap it → follow-up firing inside a minute, day or night → the qualification standards → the booked estimate landing on a calendar. Narrate over real screens for the niche.
  • 4:30 · The one number: "Before we talk, count one thing: how many people reached out last month, and how many got on your calendar. Almost nobody knows it — and it's the number the whole call turns on."
  • 5:30 · What the call is and isn't: "First half is your numbers, not my pitch — I'm checking whether I can actually do this in your market, and if I can't, I'll say so. If I can, I'll show you your build and give you a straight number for what it costs. Nothing gets decided in this video."
  • 6:30 · Personal tail: "See you {day} at {time}, {first}. Have the number handy."

Decision call — pitched, not closed

The call ended on a dated decision or a maybe. The follow-up leads with a give, not a chase. SMS same day / day 2 / day 5, then the call on the date they named — not before.
SMS · same day
good talking today, {first}. here's the 7-Ad Blueprint — the exact ads we'd run for your {niche} jobs: {blueprint link}
SMS · day 2
start with ad #1 — that's the one that fills the calendar fastest. which of the 7 feels most like your market?
SMS · day 5
ready to move when you are — here's the link again so you don't have to dig for it: {booking link}. No lead vendors. No depending on referrals.
The decision call — on the date they named
Hey {first}, it's Alex — you said {day} was when you'd know. Where'd it land?

Hedging → isolate once: "Is it the money, the timing, or whether it'll actually book you jobs? Let's name the real one." Still floating → a real exit beats a fake maybe: "Want me to keep your file open, or close it out? Either answer's fine — floating helps neither of us."

What you'll hear back

They sayYou say
"We're in. What's next?"Straight to kickoff. Confirm the rail on this call: ACH off an invoice, no cards.
"Partner's not sold.""What's their sticking point — money, or whether it works? Let's get the three of us on for fifteen minutes so they hear it straight."
"We went another direction.""Good — how's it actually booking you jobs? No harm keeping your file open. If it's shared leads, you'll want this number in 6 weeks." Clean close-out, check-back date set.

Kickoff — first call after the money lands

Closed = settled payment, never a CRM stage.
Open + lock the build inputs
Welcome aboard, {first}. Today's simple — we're just getting your engine live. I'll confirm a couple things, tell you what happens next, and then I build.

First, let me lock your setup: what city and area are we covering? How many extra {niche} jobs a week can you take on? And which job types do you want first?
Expectations — the risk story + the counting rule, day one, out loud, every time
Here's what happens: I build your engine, then jobs start showing up on your calendar. You don't run ads, you don't chase leads — I handle all of it. And I've got {the target} in closed jobs riding on it — most of my fee only exists after it lands, so I'm as motivated as you are.

A closed job is a signed contract or an accepted quote. You press the button in your portal when one lands, and we reconcile it monthly.

I'll text you the dashboard link so you can see everything in one place. Let's set a quick check-in for {day} to make sure it's flowing. That work?

What you'll hear back

They sayYou say
Cold feet / "did I just make a mistake?"Re-anchor the risk, don't re-sell: "Totally normal to feel that — but the risk sits on my side. You're in for the start fee; the rest of my money only exists after {the target} in closed jobs is in your book, and if we don't deliver, you get your money back." Then straight back to collecting inputs.
"How soon will I see jobs?""You'll see leads and booked estimates as the engine ramps, and I'll keep you posted at every step — no black box." Never name a day count; never promise a launch date until access and quality checks pass.
"What do you need from me?""Almost nothing — your area, your job types, and to answer the phone when a job comes in. I run the rest."
Can't give inputs now"No problem — I just need your area and your job types. Text those to me by {day}? I'll start the rest." Hard deadline, inputs flagged pending.

Reactivation — gone quiet 30+ days

One light touch. Re-open the door or get a clean close-out — no chasing ghosts.
Open — light, not a chase
Hey {first}, it's Alex with stpierre.ai — you looked at getting more {niche} jobs a while back. Not chasing you, just checking if the timing's better now than it was. Where's your head at on it these days — still on the radar, or did you go a different direction?

Nothing's changed on my end — still no lead vendors, no depending on referrals. Want me to keep your file open, or should I close it out?

What you'll hear back

They sayYou say
"Actually, yeah — it's been rough since fall."Roll straight into the fit gate from the inbound call and book: "Let me ask you two quick things and if it's still a fit I'll build you a preview."
"I went with someone else""Good — how's it actually booking you jobs? If it's shared leads or you're waiting on referrals, that's the exact trap this replaces. No harm keeping your file open."
"I forgot who you were""All good — stpierre.ai, we put 10+ new {niche} jobs on your calendar. You raised your hand a while back. Worth two minutes to see if it still fits?"
Still a no"No sweat — I'll keep your file open in case timing changes. You know where I am." Clean close-out, reason logged.

Decline · STOP · DNC — instant, permanent

The only reply a STOP ever gets
sorry about that! we won't message you again unless you reach out
  • STOP — any version (stop, unsubscribe, cancel, quit, remove me) suppresses that person instantly and permanently across SMS, email, calls and ads. No last word, no win-back, no reactivation lane.
  • STOP binds the exact number. A fresh number with fresh consent may be contacted; the number that said STOP never may.
  • Decline is not STOP. "Not interested" → acknowledge once, stop, tag, never re-qualify. It needs you to actually stop, not a suppression row.
  • Consent + quiet hours. No automated SMS without captured consent; an inbound reply is itself the consent event for that thread. Send window: 8am–7pm recipient-local.

This page is the field manual — strategy + script only. The full canon (six full call transcripts with internal notes, the war-game simulation, the live-call review, the 90-row objection review, the terms archive and the 38-call negotiation record) lives in the local source file and can be re-published on request. Examples and quotes are pseudonymised or invented stand-ins.