| | | Check out these resources before we get started… | |
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| | Scale Starts Inside | You obsess over external marketing. Lead flow, LSA, PPC, direct mail, call tracking. Every lever that drives revenue gets attention. | But there's another marketing channel that determines whether that revenue actually turns into scale. It's the way you market expectations, standards, and culture inside your company. | Internal marketing is how you sell the vision to your team. It's how you communicate what winning looks like, how performance is measured, and what behaviors are non-negotiable. If that message is unclear, inconsistent, or soft, performance becomes unpredictable. | High performance teams do not happen by accident. They are built when standards are clearly defined, consistently reinforced, and backed by real systems. If you want to scale, you have to market the standard internally just as deliberately as you market your services externally. |
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| Stop Fuel Fraud Before It Hits Your P&L | Fuel is one of your biggest fleet expenses. Most operators have almost no real control over it. | Receipts get lost. PINs get shared. Odometer data is unreliable. Admins waste hours on reconciliation. And legacy fuel cards rarely deliver real savings once you factor in fees and restrictions. | Coast changes that. | Coast is a smart fuel card and spend management platform built for $2M+ home service companies. You get: | Real-time fraud prevention with custom controls by driver and vehicle Universal Visa acceptance so techs can fuel anywhere and buy materials with guardrails in place Clean integrations with tools like Samsara and QuickBooks
| Milestone Home Services switched to Coast and saw: | $130,000 saved annually on fuel $23,900+ in payroll savings $88,000 in avoided vehicle costs Significant fraud reduction and near 100% receipt compliance
| And best yet, if the truck is not there, the card does not work. Now that's powerful. | *"The Coast Visa® Commercial Card is issued by Celtic Bank. All card accounts subject to credit approval." | |
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| | | | The Standard Must be Sold | Here's the core idea: every employee is your audience. | When someone joins your company, they are buying into a promise. A promise about opportunity, growth, income, culture, and leadership. If that promise is vague, inconsistent, or constantly shifting, performance will feel random no matter how talented the hire. | Internal marketing is how you make that promise clear. | It starts with defining what winning looks like. Not in abstract terms like "work hard" or "have a good attitude," but in measurable outcomes. KPIs. Expectations. Non-negotiables. What happens when you hit them, and what happens when you don't. If it isn't written down, tracked, and reinforced, it isn't real. | Next comes the system. | If one technician can sell $3 million but you cannot explain exactly how, you do not have a scalable business. You have a hero. Internal marketing is backed by systems that make performance reproducible. Training cadence. Ride-alongs. Call reviews. Scorecards. Coaching plans. The system proves the standard is achievable. | Then there's accountability. | When someone underperforms, the first question is not "How fast do we fire?" It is "Did we clearly communicate the bar and give them a real path to hit it?" Clear expectations. Documented feedback. A defined improvement plan. That structure protects the business and the employee. | Finally, culture is enforced, not announced. | If you tolerate behavior that violates your standards because the numbers are good, your team notices. If you ignore underperformance because you feel bad, your team notices. Internal marketing is not what you say in meetings. It is what you consistently reward, coach, and correct. |
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| | | | Internal Performance by the Numbers | In a private community of more than 1,200 home service operators, questions about performance, turnover, and firing come up constantly. That alone is a signal. As companies move from $1M to $5M to $10M, internal standards get tested, and misalignment becomes more expensive. | Revenue concentration is another clear pattern. It is common to see a single technician producing $80,000 per month, or roughly $1 million per year. When one person carries that much output, their behavior has outsized impact on culture, accountability, and risk tolerance. | Performance spread inside teams is often wide. A 30% conversion rate compared to a 50% team average is a 20-point gap. Over weeks and months, that delta compounds into meaningful revenue variance. Without a system to narrow that spread, output becomes unpredictable. | Note: watch this podcast episode on how to enhance team performance across the board. | Improvement timelines also matter. A 90-day performance window with weekly coaching creates measurable checkpoints. Without defined cycles like this, feedback becomes subjective and enforcement becomes inconsistent. | Growth changes the bar. A technician generating $30,000 to $40,000 per month may have been strong at one stage of the business. At the next stage, expectations rise. When revenue targets increase and service standards evolve, misalignment shows up quickly in the numbers. | The pattern is consistent. As revenue climbs, standards tighten, performance variance becomes more visible, and tolerance for ambiguity drops. Companies that scale well are the ones that communicate those shifts clearly and reinforce them consistently. |
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| | | Install Internal Marketing in 30 Days | Internal marketing is all about selling the standard. Here is how you put it in place immediately. | 1. Define the Standard in Writing | If it is not written, it is optional. | Start with every revenue-driving role and answer three questions: | What are the 3–5 measurable KPIs for this position? What is the minimum acceptable number? What does winning look like?
| Examples: | Service tech: close rate %, average ticket $, revenue per month CSR: booking rate %, calls answered %, revenue per call Sales: revenue per month, financing utilization %, option presentation rate
| Put this in the job description. Review it in onboarding. Review it again quarterly. | Clarity reduces drama. | 2. Install a Weekly Scoreboard | Most companies wait 30 days to react. That is too slow. | Instead: | Publish weekly KPIs for every revenue role Compare against team averages Highlight top performers publicly Flag gaps early
| A 30% vs 50% close rate gap should be visible by week one, not month three. | When everyone sees the scoreboard, standards feel real. | 3. Implement a 90-Day Performance Plan Framework | When someone is underperforming, do not wing it. | Use a simple structure: | | The goal is improvement, not punishment. | But structure protects the business and the employee. | 4. Audit Your High Performers | Internal marketing breaks when top producers operate above the rules. | Run this filter: | | If someone produces $80,000 per month but erodes trust, the math may not work long term. | Protecting the standard signals to A-players that you mean what you say. | 5. Close the Feedback Loop | Every termination or resignation should trigger one question: | What broke in our system? | Was it: | Poor onboarding? Weak coaching? Unclear expectations? A manager issue?
| Internal marketing improves when you treat exits as data, not just events. | The Immediate Move | If you do nothing else this week: | Pick one role.
Define the KPIs.
Publish the numbers.
Review them weekly. | Install clarity. Everything else compounds from there. |
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| | | | These Can Pop Up at Any Time | Internal marketing failures have the tendency to pop up when you least expect it. Things like: | Saying "we need higher performance" without defining the exact KPI number that equals winning Raising revenue expectations without upgrading training, coaching, or systems Tolerating bad behavior because the person produces big numbers Letting underperformance drag on past a defined 90-day window Keeping standards in your head instead of in writing Coaching reactively instead of on a weekly cadence Promoting managers who can produce but cannot coach Ignoring early signals like a 30% vs 50% performance gap Treating terminations as isolated events instead of system feedback
| Internal marketing breaks quietly, but the cost shows up loudly in your numbers. |
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| | The Fastest Way to More Leads | Big Reputation turns your Google Business Profile into a real lead engine without adding more to your plate. They keep your profile active, generate more reviews the right way, respond fast, and give you clear reporting on sentiment, tech mentions, and map pack performance across every location. | More visibility, more trust, more calls from the asset you already own. | |
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| | | Internal marketing isn't the type you often think about, but it's marketing nonetheless. Double down. |
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| | |  | Firing People Doesn't Have to Feel Terrible (But You're Doing It Wrong) |
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| Apple | Spotify | YouTube | What do you think about today's "Clicks to Calls" newsletter? | |
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| 👊 John | Disclosure: Some of the content and links in this newsletter are sponsored or affiliate links, which means we may receive payment or earn a commission if you click through or purchase. However, all opinions expressed are entirely my own. |
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