Double Growth with Better Booking
What’s the fastest path to double your business growth? Chad Petermen, President & CEO of Peterman Brothers, says it’s mastering your call center! Most contractors already have good lead volume, but they don’t properly manage them. The real opportunity is booking more of the calls you’re already paying for, routing the right tech to the right job, and treating the call center as a revenue engine — not a cost center.
On this episode of Cracking the Code, Chad breaks down the simple disciplines and KPIs that drive higher booking rates, stronger close rates, and faster growth without increasing your marketing spend. Learn how dialing in your call center can transform your business by being there the right way, at the right time, every time.
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00:00:00:00 – 00:00:21:04
The call center is the lifeblood of of how you’re going to scale your business. We look at a number of different data points to determine who is best suited for this call. You could probably double the size of the business if you just booked calls properly. You.
00:00:21:06 – 00:00:45:16
Welcome to Cracking the Code where we make Hvac success clear, simple, and stress free. I’m your host and contractor, University general manager David Holt. This episode is the latest of a 16 part series that introduces you to the awesome speakers you’ll see at epic 2026. If you don’t want to miss next week’s episode, please subscribe and turn on your notifications.
00:00:45:18 – 00:01:15:17
And here’s a quick reminder. Your voice really matters. So please visit my contractor university.com to participate in our annual contractor survey for Hvac business leaders. You may even win a prize package that includes a two night stay at Bellagio and an all access pass to Epic 2026. In today’s episode, we’re honored to speak with Chad Peterman, president and CEO of Peterman Brothers.
00:01:15:19 – 00:01:44:21
Chad is presenting a breakout session during our epic 2026 conference entitled Internal Operations the Key to Driving Sales Performance. In his session, Chad will explore how call center operations directly connect to sales performance. He’ll highlight opportunities for retention and upselling. He’ll dive into strategic dispatching, and I’ll even share practical steps you can use to optimize your operations and boost your bottom line.
00:01:44:22 – 00:02:08:15
So let’s get cracking. So welcome to cracking the code, Chad. Thanks for having me, David. I appreciate, appreciate the invite and, excited to, chat today. It’s going to be great. We really, really do appreciate the, participation, of you in our in our epic 2026 breakout sessions. And this is going to be really good.
00:02:08:16 – 00:02:31:20
So, Chad, you’ve said that the call center is more than just about answering the phones. It’s really a strategic asset. So what’s one specific change you made at Peterman Brothers that turned your call center into a true revenue driver? Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, for us, the call center and I think like in most contracting businesses, it’s kind of an afterthought.
00:02:31:21 – 00:02:50:18
You know, most owners or founders or, you know, probably from the field and, you know, it’s they just someone answer the phone and I’m going to go take care of the work. And, I think as the business scales, you know, the call center is the lifeblood of of how you’re going to scale your business. You know, a lot of people are like, oh, I need to spend more money in marketing.
00:02:50:18 – 00:03:15:23
Well, if you can’t book the calls, you’re kind of setting money on fire. And so, you know, for us, it was one of those things where if we wanted to spend more money on marketing, we need to make sure our internal operations were really, you know, on point and really dialed in. And so, you know, I think one of the biggest things that we’ve done is, is really just track the data, and the KPIs to understand how we’re doing.
00:03:16:01 – 00:03:38:12
Or if there’s people struggling, what are they struggling with? How can we help them? Is there scripting that we can provide that can help them, you know, kind of work through, you know, objections and different things like that. And I think also the biggest thing for us was understanding how the call center to, inform other parts of the business.
00:03:38:13 – 00:04:03:18
So, for example, you know, if you’re, if you’re booking rate is slipping, why is that? So, you know, every morning, our call center manager sends me a, log of what each CSR looked at yesterday. So on actual leads, how many of those did they book? And then what are all the ones that we didn’t book and was the reasoning for it?
00:04:03:20 – 00:04:25:12
And so we run 11 different locations across the Midwest. So, you know, looking rates and staffing levels can can vary quite widely, across, across our platform. And so what we figured out very early on is like, oh, shoot, we need some more technicians in this area because we’re getting more calls and we’re telling people they’re going to be three days out and they’re not booking.
00:04:25:12 – 00:04:42:03
That’s not the CSR, Sal. That’s, you know, recruiting and operations. And we need to get some more technicians. So I think there’s a lot of information that can be gleaned from the call center. I think first and foremost, as you got to know your numbers and you got to know, you know, how many leads, how many qualified leads that we get in.
00:04:42:05 – 00:05:03:18
And then how many of those that we book. One little nugget I’ll give you is typically what we see or have seen is that about 50% of your calls that come in to your business are not leads. So it’s important to basically segregate those. As to this was a telemarketer as a customer call. And you know, make sure they were still on the schedule, whatever it may be.
00:05:03:23 – 00:05:23:21
And then these were actually people with problems and did we book them or not? We can fix their problem that we bucket. Are we going to run that job. So I think that’s the big shift that we made is really just putting the emphasis on that and understanding where our numbers are, you know, and capacity. You mentioned, you know, really capacity planning is a huge thing.
00:05:24:02 – 00:05:49:13
I know when I was running my dad’s business, we were much, much, much smaller. One location, but it was, it was a challenge. Keep an even for us because we didn’t have all the technology that we have today. It was a challenge for us to keep for cruise, like, completely booked up, you know, and it was like, okay, but when we got busy, you know, during a summer, especially down here in Georgia for guys or for cruise simply wasn’t enough.
00:05:49:13 – 00:06:11:04
Right? So it’s like balancing that, that capacity. That’s a big thing. So for sure. Converting incoming calls to actual appointments that turn into sales, it’s critically important. So in your workshop you’re going to dive into like dispatching even and key performance metrics. That’s that’s super, super, super important. You kind of touched on it just now a little bit.
00:06:11:04 – 00:06:46:09
But for a contractor that’s listening right now, what’s the single most important metric that they should start tracking tomorrow to improve both your customer experience but also the sales performance. Yeah. So sales performance, you know, like we just talked about you got to know how your CSRs are booking. What’s their true booking rate. And then I think for dispatch, what you have to give the dispatcher as a tool is you’ve got to give them a batting order, like who’s performing well and you know, fortunate for us in the contracting space in 2025 is there’s a lot of tools out there that make this really, really simple.
00:06:46:11 – 00:07:10:01
Who is performing well. And you can take all sorts of data. You know, we look at a number of different data points to determine who is best suited for this call. But I think angel arching, it’s getting the right tech to the right call, you know, not this tech needs to go to this opportunity because I like him or he’s a really nice guy or whatever it is.
00:07:10:01 – 00:07:26:10
It has got to be based solely on performance. How are they performing? And again, you’re going to have ebbs and flows. You know, not a sales guy doesn’t perform at top notch all the time. They’re going to hit rough spots and they don’t close a few leads and so on and so forth. And you kind of work through those and massage out the numbers.
00:07:26:10 – 00:07:40:10
And hey, you know, we need to give Billy an opportunity. He’s, you know, kind of turned the corner. We brought him in for training, so on and so forth. I know his numbers don’t show it, but like, let’s go against the batting order and let’s let’s see if we can get him back on track. And so there’s nuances to it.
00:07:40:10 – 00:08:03:17
But I think overall where we got better is when we started tracking each individual tech’s KPIs on. And we even take it down to call types now like who’s best at selling toilets? Well, who’s really good at kitchen faucets for whatever reason? We’re not sure, but that’s what the data tells us. She’s the kitchen faucet master, so we need to send him on all kitchen faucet calls.
00:08:03:19 – 00:08:30:08
Because he can convert those like nobody’s business. But really understanding what the tech numbers are and then giving those to the dispatcher. There’s so much data that we hold for internal apps. I’ll give you another example that was hugely impactful for us, mainly in the call center. But, you know, you as the owner or founder or service manager or whatever role you play, you probably know how much it costs to get a lead.
00:08:30:10 – 00:08:54:13
You know, how much we’re spending and pay per click or you know, TV or radio or whatever it is. We never told our call center this. And so like every phone call was just like, well, it’s just a customer we got to take care of. It wasn’t until we started telling the CSR is like, no, when you see this lead source, when you see like say, I already paid for that lead, so we might as well run it, so be it.
00:08:54:15 – 00:09:10:16
Whatever you have to do, we need to book that lead. You know, same with pay per click. You know a new install lead could be a couple hundred dollars depending on, you know, what the, what time of year it is. Well, we’ve already paid for those, so. And we paid directly for that lead. So we need to book those.
00:09:10:16 – 00:09:30:03
And when we did that, they were like, well, that’s some really useful information. And we’re like, well, sorry we hadn’t given it to you. But, I think it’s understanding how that data can impact someone’s ability to do their job. And then what data do we need to, you know, impart on them, or at least give them so that they can do their job more effectively?
00:09:30:05 – 00:09:50:03
That’s that’s some powerful stuff, man. I know the the technology is crazy. I was just listening to, I was just listening to you on a recent podcast where you’re talking about how AI’s come into play with that and, you know, being able to measure things now with the assistance of AI and the resources that are available. I mean, it’s just like it’s night and day.
00:09:50:03 – 00:10:07:04
I was a pen and paper guy. I was the yellow page guy back in the 90s, right when dad sold the business in 99. We didn’t even have a website yet because, I mean, small business websites in 1999 were, you know, Google’s just getting started in 99. You know, it’s like things have changed a lot. But one thing I’ve learned hasn’t changed.
00:10:07:04 – 00:10:28:04
And that is it’s a still a people to people business. And the, the data can provide us with gifts, if you will, for our people to actually help them improve more. And obviously you can’t pay them what they you don’t earn as a business. So the more you earn as a business, the more you can pay them. And that’s that’s always a good thing.
00:10:28:04 – 00:10:50:09
So it’s interesting how and and you kind of pointed to this earlier a little bit that a lot of contractors out there, they see a call center as a cost instead of a profit center. So they see it as a cost center instead of a profit center. So how do you recommend shifting that mindset, and what kind of results can contractors expect when they get this right.
00:10:50:11 – 00:11:13:15
Yeah. So there’s there’s a number of different things I’ll touch on two really important ones. So we talked a little bit about marketing. And you know you’re you’re prepping for I’m not sure when this will come out, but you’re prepping for 26 and you’re like, you know, we spent X amount of dollars in marketing money. You’re not sure what your booking rate is, you’re not sure maybe what your conversion rate is all of this stuff.
00:11:13:17 – 00:11:40:00
And you say, I want to grow. So I want to spend double the amount of marketing dollars or, you know, but that maybe 50% more, whatever it is. So you want to double that. What I would encourage you to do is I would encourage you to really dig in to what your booking rate is. My guess is you could probably double the size of the business if you just booked calls properly.
00:11:40:04 – 00:11:59:05
So for out with no extra dollars outweighed. Yeah. Maybe you put together a little incentive program for your CSR or something like that. It’s going to be minuscule when it comes to go on and spend an album. Any dollars for marketing that you don’t actually know is going to work this. It’s like you probably have I tell this to anybody that I work with.
00:11:59:05 – 00:12:24:17
It’s like you have growth in your call center. If you’re not booking at 90% or better, you’ve got room to grow. Like 90% is kind of the gold standard at least in my mind. That’s what we’re shooting for 90 plus percent booking. So we want to book nine out of every ten calls. And so I think that’s a key piece, when you’re looking at this and how can this be a profit center to me that’s first.
00:12:24:17 – 00:12:49:13
And foremost, I think the other piece of it is, is that under is to understand what internal, we call internal operations dispatch, call center, all the stuff behind the scenes. Your internal operations is in charge of two things. One, making the life of the technician easier so we don’t build processes around here to make the lives of internal ops easier.
00:12:49:14 – 00:13:10:22
We build processes to make the life of the technician who is out there serving the customer. We make their life easier. And then two, it’s about setting them up for success. If your call center rep and your dispatcher can have communications with that customer and really set the stage that they chose the right company, we’re going to take care of you.
00:13:10:22 – 00:13:29:14
We have great people. We’re on top of our stuff. We know what our schedule is. We’re going to get that technician there. What do you think his close rate is going to jump to now? He’s not going to give the call center the credit okay. So just be aware of that. And he’s not going to be coming in going you guys really or maybe you will and that will be awesome too.
00:13:29:14 – 00:13:54:07
But if we can we can improve their close rate by how we interact with the customer prior to the technician ever showing up. And if you don’t believe that, just do some testing, like think about all the services you use, purchased, procured, whatever it is I always think about when I go to a restaurant, if I have a great waiter or waitress, like that meal is inherently better.
00:13:54:09 – 00:14:15:07
And if there’s something that’s not cooked right or whatever it is, I’m still likely to say, you know what? Things happen. It is what it is. But if my waiter or waitress, like, never comes back to fill up my water or didn’t ask in anything like that, or didn’t give me a recommendation or anything like that, like anything that goes wrong in that call, I’m not around that dinner.
00:14:15:09 – 00:14:37:04
I’m going to be like, I’m never coming back to this place ever again. And so I think that there’s a whole lot more power in internal operations than we give it credit for. And then it’s about connecting all those pieces. So then when the technician walks in, he’s super friendly. He’s given options. He’s doing all this. What do you think the chances of that customer saying, let’s go ahead and move forward with work.
00:14:37:06 – 00:15:01:20
Versus well, I didn’t like Sarah on the phone and Bill was kind of mean and dispatch and told me won’t be there when we’re gonna get there. And like all of these things, like there’s just so much, that can be said for the ability to connect all the, all the customer touchpoints, if you can connect those with the same message and the same, you know, customer service, you’re going to be more successful.
00:15:01:22 – 00:15:20:18
You know, that’s that’s kind of what I was saying earlier about things haven’t changed a lot. They’ve changed a lot on technology side. But that one part right there is people serving people. That part hadn’t changed. But when we can do it better than the rest, we stand out like I mean, in a in a really good way.
00:15:20:18 – 00:15:42:05
I mean, I think about the restaurant industry, my, my daughter’s involved in the restaurant industry up in Boston, and her biggest pet peeve is when she sees an empty glass. If her server sees a front of house kind of service manager, actually, that’s her title is service manager at this particular restaurant. And her she goes haywire with people.
00:15:42:05 – 00:16:04:00
If her people aren’t watching for those little things and helping people enjoy the experience. Right. So that customer experience is absolutely critical and treating people as important rather than like this is an adversarial relationship that I have with you. Because what do you mean, Chad? What do you mean you didn’t like the steak the way they cooked it?
00:16:04:02 – 00:16:22:17
That’s a great. You know, I mean, come on. Really? But there’s been I’ve I’ve seen it and heard it. It’s like. Right. Well, welcome to Peterman. What do you want? You know, that would not fly too well I bet. Yeah. And I think you make such a great point. And I think it’s important to to point this out, mainly because of all the technology that is in our space right now.
00:16:22:17 – 00:16:41:18
You got I got this she got that all of these things. And I think to your point, the most important thing to remember in contracting businesses is it is people to people. Technology should only enhance our service. It’s never going to take the place. I say never, I don’t know, whatever. I hope I’m long gone. Yeah. I don’t know what I’m that long.
00:16:41:18 – 00:17:00:18
God, before that day. But anyway, it’s. It is. It’s people to people. We are one of the. You know, my CEO always says that we are literally one of the last like, industries that is still people to people. Like, I got to come into your house, did it your kitchen table talk this over and then do work in your home.
00:17:00:20 – 00:17:26:05
Like let’s take pride in that. And technology should only accelerate, the level of service that we’re able to provide, and enhance the overall customer experience. Exactly right. Exactly right. Our mutual friend, over at Power Selling Pros likes to talk about your call center as the directors of First Impressions. Right. And think about that when you think about that.
00:17:26:07 – 00:17:48:18
It is is so true because the person who answers the phone can either make or break your entire organization. So I think it’s an a huge, huge, huge topic. And I know that the folks that attend your breakout session are going to get it, get a ton of good ideas and thoughts about it. So we really appreciate you sharing this with us today, Chad, and look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas, man.
00:17:48:18 – 00:18:11:12
It’s going to be great. Absolutely. I’m excited to be there. And yeah, we’ll we’ll share some some knowledge. And the good thing is a lot of the stuff I share not super complicated. It’s it’s very nuts and bolts. These are the basics. It’s just sometimes we we get lost in all the shiny objects and forget about, you know, the blocking and tackling which makes these businesses successful.
00:18:11:14 – 00:18:38:08
Chad, thanks for joining us today and sharing your insights. I know your epic 2026 breakout session will be fantastic. For more information about Chad’s breakout session, visit the epic 2020 6.com website and check out the agenda for Friday at 11 a.m. if you haven’t already registered for the conference, make sure you do so as it will surely sell out just like it has in past years.
00:18:38:13 – 00:19:12:21
Click Register Now at Epic 2020 6.com so you don’t miss out. Also, please do us a favor like and share this episode so we can help more HVAC contractors improve their business. Thanks for watching! Cracking the code where we make Hvac success clear, simple, and stress free. See you next time!
