Speak to the Pain Points: Selling Benefits Over Products | Podcast Ep. 123 | Toolbox for the Trades

Jonathan Brewster, you are the VP of Business Development at Aquaclear Water Systems. I am so happy to have you on the podcast today. Welcome.

Thanks for having me. Super grateful to be here and to see your pretty face.

Oh, my goodness. Flattery will get you everywhere, Jonathan. J.B. how? I'll call you throughout the show. You have been a service tank customer for a couple years now. You're a member of our TORCH network, which is our network of customers who help each other out and learn about all new things, get access to new products. So I'm so excited to chat with you today, but we're going to start this conversation the way we do, every single one, which is, how did you get into the trades?

That's a great question. So I tell people I was born in a brine tank, so my family's been in it most of my life. So, you know, just always working with my dad. Pictures of me at 5 years old handing out water at home, shows in the company car. You know, he. Funny story. I didn't know this, but he used to take me on his demos, like his sales calls, and he would just put me in the client's house, and at the end, he'd say, you can help feed starving children, you know, if you buy today. Most ridiculous thing ever. But he did it.

Oh, my goodness. And this was at Aqua Clear Water Systems, Right, because your dad worked at another company prior to the family business. Do I remember that correctly?

Yeah. So this was in Alabama. He worked for a water treatment company there. And this was during that phase.

All right, cool, cool. So tell me about Aquaclear Water Systems. It's a family business, so I know your brother and sister work there. So why don't you give me the brief history of the company where you fit into the equation right now?

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, we help people live healthier lives through better water and clean air. We do air filtration, too. So we started about 2005. My family moved from Alabama back to Tennessee. My dad filled his dad's garage with equipment and started door knocking. I just grew at Grassroots, and then, you know, I worked every summer during high school. I quit football when I was a sophomore in high school, and he said, you're going to work. So every day after school, I would work in the warehouse, sweeping, building equipment, things like that. And then in the summers, I'd go out on the install trucks and help the installation professionals, you know, install equipment. And then went to college, finished that, and then, you know, jumped in.

Yeah. And you always envisioned yourself Working at the family business, unlike your siblings, right?

Yeah. So I was the one that, you know, that was always my dream to work in it. I just, me and my dad always talking ideas, you know, so that was always my dream, you know, and my brother, he said I never worked there and then, you know, he ends up there. So kind of opposite.

Got it. All right, very cool. So I know that you and your dad right now tag team really to make the business better. And I would love it if you could tell us a little bit about how your dynamic works.

Yeah, so he, you know, I think about, you've got this one entrepreneur that's like the hustler, you know, when you got to get things going, it's just a different mindset and then you reach a level where like what got you here won't take you to the next level. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's just a different, we gotta adapt. So, you know, he wasn't, he's not like a tech guy, I guess I could say. But the thing I love about my dad is he's super open minded, you know, he's not like closed minded. Like this is, it has to be this way, it has to be that, like open to new ideas. So, you know, I kind of brought in a different perspective. You know, our CRM before Service Titan was one that was siloed like the only way you could get into it if you were in the office. So when I got into the business, I'm like, you know, there's got to be a better way than this. We were uploading pictures and like having to turn into a file, email to someone, they put it in. I mean it was, it was bad. So, you know, he went the cheaper route and, and bought another software because he's like, this is too much. And then end up six months later we switched to Service Titan. So we did the work twice, so. And yeah, just bringing different perspectives of using technology. So since I started, we had about 38 employees when I started about four years ago. And now we have about the same amount of people and we doubled our, you know, revenue with the same amount of people. So. And that's not all me by any means. I mean, it's the whole team. I'm just saying, you know, we did things with technology where we could have the same amount of people but still do a lot more, you know, business. So it's been really cool to build that over the last four years.

Yeah, I love what you said about your dad being open to open minded. And being open to change. Because I sometimes don't hear that. Exactly. I've had guests on this show who have kind of been waiting in the wings for when they can take up leadership and that's when they make changes. But it sounds like your dad's really collaborative and really open to your suggest suggestions. When we first spoke, I kind of compared it to like old school versus new school. So it sounds like you guys are working really well together.

Yeah, I mean, I meet people in, you know, family businesses and they'll be like, you know, it's kind of like the, the dad is like, it has to be this way and they don't get any say in how things go. And I'm just really grateful for our relationship, just how we can, you know, he'll listen to me and then, you know, we go back and forth a little bit. But like, he's always open minded to try things and then, you know, the proofs in the pudding at the end of the day. Does it work? Does it not? So it's, it's been really fun.

That's awesome. I know when also when we first started talking, when I first was introduced to you and going back to what you shared of, you have the same amount of employees that you had when you first started four years ago, but now you've doubled revenue with that same amount, that same team amount of team members. You said one way that your dad and you looked at business differently is your dad looked to hire, whereas you look to automate. And it sounds like maybe he's now more on board with the automation technology process.

Yeah, 100%. So he's kind of put a cap on us. He doesn't want to go above 50 employees just because all the red tape involved in it. So I think that's kind of, it's kind of fun in a sense because it's like, okay, we know our cap. So like, what can we do to grow revenue with this cap on us? I don't know, it just makes you think outside the box more versus like, okay, we can hire someone for this. We can do that. You know, you don't start thinking that hard because you're just like, we're going to hire someone for that. If that makes sense.

No, that 100% makes sense. I don't think we've ever had that point of view on the podcast before putting a cap on. Okay, we're not going above this many employees, so that's our cap. So now we have to learn how to innovate within this restriction it's actually a really interesting way, I think, to discover new technology and new automation.

Yeah, 100%. And then when you open the glass ceiling and you take the restriction off, you're just like a super efficient business because you put these restraints on yourself, you know, so. Yeah, and it's worked out. I mean, you know, in our, in our sense.

That's awesome. And I love that we're talking about innovation because you believe that change in an industry comes from outside of an industry. Right. You don't think that big change happens from within. And you gave the excellent example when we first spoke about Jim Abrams service agreements. So I would love to know how this played out when it came to partnering with a marketing agency for you guys.

Yeah. So something I've heard before, I didn't invent this, but it's called the Nightingale principle. So it's basically look at what everyone else is doing and do the total opposite. So I don't know if that's true for everything. But just having that frame of thinking is like, my business is water treatment, so I can't speak to plumbing and H vac as much. So like in my industry, you know, everyone's got the same offers, right. In marketing of like, like I just called a plumbing company today to come look at something. 99 dispatch fee, you know, whatever it is. So like if you're in the marketplace, you don't have a usp which is unique selling proposition. So like what's the difference in hiring one guy versus the other? Like you got to differentiate. So for with the marketing piece, you know, we had a marketing company that just did water treatment and you know, every website's the same, every offer is the same, everything. So I just started thinking like, what if I went outside of who does this every day and just look for a company that, you know, had a different perspective than I did. So we hired one out of Australia and it's been phenomenal. You know what, we've grown with them because they look at things differently than we do. So you know, like outside of industry innovations like McDonald's invented their drive thru concept from Formula One. Like that's the interesting, like outside of industry innovation, you know, Dyson vacuum looked at a sawmill cyclone and invented their vacuum based off a sawmill cyclone. So like all these innovations usually happen outside industry from my perspective.

Yeah, I didn't know that about the sawmill or about the McDonald's drive thru. I will definitely be using those fun facts at my next party. So thank you so much for that.

And one more Is, is eggs. You know, they come in the carton. Have you ever ordered wine online? It comes in the carton. So they took that innovation from eggs and did the same thing like that. So there's just these little things, you know, out there that happen.

That's so interesting. So give me a little bit more details. How does your marketing right now differ from your competitors?

So, you know, a lot of people sell on like the efficiency of equipment or like, for instance, for us, we're a kinetico dealer. So like most of all, the marketing is our systems non electric. It's an American brand. You know, it's the most efficient. You know, things like that. Right. But that's what everyone says, you know what I'm saying? Like, I personally go out and sell every day. Every sales guy coming behind me is saying their equipment's the best, it's the most efficient, all this type of stuff. So we think about when we're marketing is why are people buying this? They're buying it because they want better skin because their water is hard and it's wearing their skin out. They want the chemicals out because they want to keep their families safe. So in our marketing, we speak to the pain points of why they're buying this versus why our equipment is better. And, you know, all these type of things. We're, we're talking directly to the deep reason of why they're buying this. And when we go into a sales environment, we don't really talk about the equipment super heavy. We're talking about the benefits of having this into your home versus other people that come in and just like, you know, it's this, this, this. They're not speaking to the pains.

Yeah, I love that. And I have to say, since Service Titan started servicing water treatment, I've just like, hated that I'm a renter because if I had my own home, I would 100% be looking for water treatment options, especially for the hard water concept, which is very much a problem in Los Angeles. So I'm always very jealous.

Well, I'm going to, I'm going to send you the best countertop unit on the market to purify your water. So I'll hook you up.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Jb. So you mentioned already that you are. Oh, actually, before we even get to that, you were one of the first kinetico dealers on Service Titan. So you actually were kind of a pioneer when it came to. When we opened up to the water treatment industry.

Yeah, I don't know the exact numbers on it, but I would say so. And then made the introduction to Connecticut a service titan. I mean, I'm not saying we did that totally, but we definitely were a proponent of it. Just talking about how great it is. And, you know, I personally consult, like Connecticut dealers and help them optimize service titan. Just because I've got three years of knowledge and made all the mistakes. So try and help people not do those.

Totally, totally. So I know in water treatment, which again, very different from plumbing, very different from H vac, you leverage the power of demonstration to make a sale. And I'm so happy I got you to talk about those pain points because now I'm thinking about how we can show the difference. Right? Like how we can really speak to those pain points in real time. So what are some key points you try to hit in a dynamic presentation to increase the likelihood of making a sale?

Yeah. So our sales team is about like a 75% close rate overall, which is in our industry industry average, like 30%.

Wow.

So I would say we have the most dynamic sales team in the nation. And water treatment, you know, only. So what really separates us is we hit all senses. So when we come out, we're gonna do a questionnaire to uncover the pain of like, why did you. Why do you invite us into the home today? You know, what would you like to improve about the water? And then digging in to like, the real reasons not keeping it service level, you know, really trying to understand why we're here and how we can help the client. And then once we do that, we test the water with like, it's called a centrifuge, and it spins it for 60 seconds, gives us the data. And then we also educate that we have a miniature water system. It's like this tall. And we hook it up to their kitchen sink and run their water through it and then do things with it to show them, hey, this is where you are. This is where you're going to be once we put this in. So we're future pacing there of like, this is what it's going to be like. So we wash their hands in the soft water. So I tell people, I'm not Jesus, I don't wash feet, but I do wash hands.

So.

We do a hand wash so they can feel the silky difference on how it would be on the skin. We make tea with the pure water versus tap water. It's a major difference. And that's why Starbucks uses water filtration. Chick fil a McDonald's, because it. It's like, you know, water's 99 or teas 99 water. And then we, you know, do a chlorine test, show people how chlorine absorbs in your skin after, you know, a shower, which is very powerful. You know, we do a soap test showing them, hey, this is what builds up on your skin, the soap scum like this. So it's about an hour presentation, you know, that really makes them see all the benefits, you know, versus just this equipment's efficient and your water heater is going to last 10% longer, whatever it is. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. You're really targeting the lifestyle differences that your service is going to offer them.

Yeah. And then we also do a cost savings, because there is a lot of cost savings on it. We're not cost savings heavy. Some people really do the cost savings piece, but we're more, you know, the. What you're going to get with this and how it's going to help your family and your health, you know, overall.

Yeah, I love that. I mean, honestly, it sounds like a very fun demonstration. I don't know, you know, what's coming to my mind. I don't know if anyone listening is going to. Is going to resonate with this, but. Have you ever gone to the Lush store in the mall?

I can, I can say I've never been there.

It's basically. It's basically a soap store. It's basically like a beauty product store. And they go in and they give you a demonstration. You're like, this is what my skin does. And they're like, well, let us show you our products. They like, wash your hands.

They'll eat it all out.

And before I know it, I've just spent 120. I didn't, I didn't expect to spend on stuff that I need to keep in my fridge. So I love that. And I think that really goes to, like, what time and consideration can go to when you give that. When you give that time to a customer. Right. Because you said the demo takes about an hour.

Yeah. So, you know, in our business, we never call anyone a customer. A customer is transactional. A customer, if you look it up, it's a transaction. It's very transactional relationship. Everyone is a client. We want to build relationships for life. So everyone's a client in our business. So if you think about it, if a guy just comes in for 10 to 20 minutes and like, hey, I'm going to look at the plumbing, I'll test it with some pool drops real quick. And here's a Quote, I mean, that homeowner's not going to feel that confident in this or really see the value of it. So we serve our clients at a deeper level by explaining everything, showing them all the benefits so they can make an informed decision, you know, on what's best for their family.

Yeah, I really like that. When I eventually am able to purchase a home in Los Angeles, I'll call you out and I'll ask you to do a demonstration for me. I will ship all the equipment all out here. Does that sound good?

Well, just get the service titan team on. We'll do a thing like this, and I'll show you the whole demo.

Oh, my goodness.

Then you'll. Then you'll open up your hands, but I can do everything else.

All right, sounds good. So one thing I thought was really interesting when you and I first talked is you believe that plumbing companies are missing the boat on water treatment opportunities. So tell me about that.

So y' all can get these secrets for free, but. And I am kind of hurting my industry by talking about this. But, you know, everyone wins at the end of the day, so think about it. And again, I'm not in the H Vac and plumbing space. This is just my perspective outside of industry. Right. Another thing, you know, outside industry here. So H Vac companies love turnover leads. They come out to your H Vac, they're like, hey, it's, you know, it's on its last leg. May make sense to get a quote here. Let me send a consultant out. Okay. Plumbing companies, they are there for plumbing problems. And why do plumbing problems happen? Because of the quality of the water, mostly. So let's say you're going to replace a water heater, and there's going to be a ton of limescale in that water heater. That probably broke it. So let's say you finish the water heater, you show Mrs. Johnson, hey, look at all this calcium that's in this, you know, water heater that wore this out. You know, we got it done today. You're going to have hot water. But I don't want this. I don't want to come back again in five to seven years, you know, to fix this. Because we're not getting to the root problem here, which is the water quality. So would it make sense to have, you know, one of our water treatment experts come test the water and kind of show you some different options we have, and we'll give you X amount off your install today? So then you're maximizing that customer acquisition cost because you're getting a new opportunity to sell a, you know, new product. So I think people would go for that because most people just give a quote for a water softener, you know, at the house, but they're not showing them all the benefits of it, walking them through a cost savings, you know, going deep into this. So I would say like most H vac companies don't just let the technician give you a quote there, they send a covered consultant out. So if you had one person in your business, that was the water treatment expert and that's all he did from those turnover leads you've got, you know, all the leads he could do on that.

Yeah, yeah, I think that is actually really brilliant. Again, I'm not in the plumbing industry either, so I'm just going to do a call out to everyone who listens to Toolbox for the trades. If you've heard of this or, or if you think this is a great idea, please let me know. I just think it makes no sense. It's like a no brainer, like and I think positioning it as like, hey, I don't want to come out back out here in five to seven years and you have the same problem. How about we send out a water treatment expert to get to do an assessment of your water and we'll give you a discount. Honestly, it is kind of like a no brainer. It's like, yeah, sure, you'll give me 5% off, 10% off now and I just have to have another guy come in my house and tell me about my water. Sure, why not? Because you already have that trust built up with them, right?

100%. And if anyone out there wants to test this out, I mean, I'm open to helping you all build it, but I just think I, I talked to a lot of companies and I've never seen anyone do it and it just blows my mind. I think the thing is you got to have one person doing it. You can't have a technician that does plumbing also do this. You got to have one guy and this is all he does.

Yeah, yeah, I like that. I think that's a really cool concept. So speaking of cool concepts, and you've mentioned already before that when you think about clients, you want to have clients for, for their lifetime, you want them to be lifetime customers. You developed a software that is very cool and I'm not going to try and summarize it, I want you to summarize it. So tell me a little bit about what you've working on on your own and when it Comes to technology and when it comes to getting the lifetime value out of a client.

Yeah, absolutely. So because of Service Titan, because it brings all bad things to light, Full transparency on everything. And I started listening the calls, which every, you know, business owner makes you want to beat your head against the wall when you listen to calls sometimes is I was noticing clients were leaving us because they were moving, and I started like, researching, is there anything out there that can tell me when my existing clients have listed their home for sale or sold their home and nothing existed out there? And I was looking through my client list, and in Service Titan, every time someone moves, we just put new homeowner in the name. And we don't even know the new homeowner's name. We just put that and it was like 500 clients. So I'm like, this is a massive amount of business that's been lost just because we couldn't reach out to them before they moved. So we invented a software that syncs to Service Titan. It's called Is my customer Moving? You know, pretty simple name. And as soon as that client lists their house, you get a notification that says, hey, John Smith at 123 Main St. Just listed his home for sale. We call John Smith and say, hey, just saw that you're moving. Is that true? And they're like, yeah, well, congratulations. Are you moving here local? Yeah, we're moving right down the road. What do you like, as do a water test at the house, see what type of equipment you need there. So we're retaining that client. And then when the home sold, our software puts tags in Service Titan Home sold. And then we use Marketing Pro to send postcards behind there that says, you know, we've been servicing your house for years. This equipment in the house needs maintenance. Call in the schedule. Then we're getting that new homeowner's information and servicing that every year. So we're picking up a client and then keeping an existing one.

That's really cool. That is really. And I have to. I have to give you props on just the simplicity of the name. Is my customer moving? I just absolutely love it. I was like, icmc. That's the way you can. Like with icmc. Oh, no, I am cm. Imcm. Is my customer moving. I think that's just so brilliant.

So.

So what type of ROI have you seen on it so far since you implemented it?

So just off the postcard, within a month and a half, we've done about 17,000 in revenue just from one postcard and then from new sales of like, we're calling them and saying, hey, you know, what are you doing for your new house? You know, thinking proactively for them. It's about 25,000 on new equipment. So overall, I mean, it's a massive roi because the software is not that expensive. It depends on how big your customer list is, is what we base it on. But, you know, it's a hundred and fifty dollars to, you know, a thousand a month, depending on how big your list is, and then the postcard piece. So it's just another tool in the tool belt. You know, it's not the end all, be all, but it's just if we can retain a client, they're five times cheaper than acquiring a new one. You know, if you can retain.

Yeah, 100%. I love that. So go ahead.

So one thing that also understood me is I recently moved, and I went through that experience, and I have ADT security system, and they are the only company that reached out to me and said, hey, just noticed you're moving. You know, I'm a relocation expert with adt. I'd love to get you set up in your new house, and you get a discount because you're an existing client only company. So I called him up, said, hey, man, how'd you know I was moving? And he's like, we built this software internally that monitors, and then they put it in my, you know, CRM of like a new lead, and I just call these. And, you know, I asked him, are these the best leads? He's like, yeah, absolutely. But he's catching me before I move, because as soon as I get to this new house, I don't know how it is in your area, but door knockers, hey, do you want a new alarm system? So they're retaining me before any competitors can get me.

Wow, that's really smart. Definitely not like that in Los Angeles. Generally speaking, unless I ordered food, if the door knocks, I'm not answering it. But that's the difference between.

Probably a good idea.

Yeah, that's the difference between Los Angeles and. You're in. Are you in Nashville? You're in Tennessee, right?

I'm in Knoxville. It's about two hours from Nashville.

Okay, cool. So that's what happens in Knoxville. Good to know. So I am. I've been playing around with some new questions to end the show with for about 40 episodes. I always ask folks, if you had to choose a soundtrack, if you had to choose a song to be the soundtrack of your life, what would it be? But I think we're time. It's time to retire that. And given that you are very into tech automation, adding new tools, adopting new processes, I thought I could ask you, if you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why?

That's a good question. I'm gonna have to use that when I talk to people. I would say the drive time for selling because our coverage area is two hours. It's a ton of wasted time to. Yeah, it's massive. So the wasted time of driving is pretty, pretty hard for me. So I want to be able to just sell virtually so I don't have to drive.

I love that you chose something that was business focused and not personal focused. Because I'm answering it for myself and I'm like, oh, my God, if I could, I would, like, shower, hair done, makeup done with, like, snap of a finger done. That would be mine. And you're like, nope, I want to optimize my business, want to keep. I want to get as many leads as I can in one day. So I admire you for that.

My girlfriend would say the same thing. She'd say, of course he chose business.

That's so funny. Jb, it was so great to chat with you, man. You gave me so much great stuff in today's interview. I hope you had as much fun as I did. Thanks for coming on Toolbox for the trades.

Thank you so much, and thank you for all service Titan does for us.