8 Tips to Boost Your Plumbing Sales & Increase Profit

Growing your plumbing company in a competitive market means driving and capturing plumbing leads and transforming them into revenue, all while delivering excellent service to your customers. 

Equipping service technicians with the right sales training and tools (like our plumbing software, ServiceTitan) helps them provide stellar customer service and sets your plumbing business apart so you can increase plumbing sales and grow your business.

Since we’ve been helping plumbing businesses big and small grow their sales for over 10 years, we thought it would be useful to share the tips that we’ve learned from seeing the best plumbing businesses grow. These tips can help boost your plumbing sales and increase your profits.

8 Tips to Boost Your Plumbing Sales

1. Provide top-quality customer service

2. Dispatch for profit

3. Utilize on-site software tools

4. Price accurately to build customer trust

5. Follow up estimates to maximize opportunities 

6. Prioritize training to empower technicians

7. Promote your expertise with targeted marketing

8. Track sales performance to improve sales

Tip #1: Provide Top-Quality Customer Service

• Prioritize customer experience

• Improve efficiency with real-time data

It may sound simple, but excellent customer service is the foundation of any good plumbing business, and it’s essential for maintaining and increasing plumbing sales. 

Provide the best plumbing experience to maximize customer satisfaction in these three ways:

Super-Efficient Call Handling

New customers want helpful, knowledgeable customer service reps the moment they make their first service call for plumbing problems (e.g. a leaky faucet). When they seek plumbing services from a local business, they want a quick response and efficient, top-quality work.

To help our customers make this step very efficient, our call booking software speeds up the entire booking process by letting CSRs gather the right information, ask the right questions, and efficiently book the job without keeping the customer waiting. Your sales team can automatically see who’s calling before picking up the phone. Plus, drop-down menus and custom prompts help them note all the job details and finalize the booking, all from one screen.

First-Class Presentation

First impressions, such as presentable plumber uniforms and trucks let customers know you’re serious about your business and will get the job done right the first time.

A solid team of professionals (including CSRs, sales reps, sales managers and plumbing contractors) using high-tech software (like ServiceTitan) that deals with plumbing bookings swiftly instills confidence that your plumbing services company is slick and efficient. 

Stellar Customer Communication

Show customers you value their time by notifying them when a plumbing tech is on the way to their home (if it’s a residential plumbing job, or to their commercial property). 

ServiceTitan’s software uses GPS tracking so team members always know exactly where plumbing techs are and how jobs are progressing. 

This means that dispatchers can send customers a picture and bio of the tech, and even a locator map so customers can track their travel in real-time. Customers can also text your team if they have any questions or wish to reschedule.

This service is convenient for customers who otherwise may have taken unnecessary time off work to wait for someone to arrive within several hours. With ServiceTitan, customers know who to expect and when they’ll arrive to diagnose their plumbing problem.

Tip #2: Dispatch for Profit

• Send skilled communicators to high-value jobs

• Utilize integrated property information

Increase your chances of closing plumbing sales by sending the right person to the right job. 

While not every tech has the ability to fluently communicate with customers, with ServiceTitan’s dispatch software, you can make sure you send the most skilled communicators with plumbing sales experience to high-value jobs. This means you don’t need to hire outside sales representatives to pitch for specific plumbing sales jobs. You can utilize staff that have the skills and years of experience in sales from your existing team. 

That’s the strategy of Nikolai Matveev, one of the owners of Cardinal Plumbing, Heating & Air in Northern Virginia, who sometimes sends his plumbing manager to do estimates for big-ticket projects, such as water- or sewer-line replacements.

“There is more communication (necessary) on the repairs than actually the skill and how to do the job, because you have to explain (the job) fairly well — and then you have to justify the price,” Matveev says. “You have to be almost part salesman, so you’re going to have to sell your job first before you even do the job.”

ServiceTitan dispatch software enables your company to attribute certain skills to certain technicians, and build a technician scorecard so you know who’s capturing the highest average tickets and generating the most leads. You can also adjust the schedule accordingly in cases where a plumbing contractor is only working part-time (versus full-time). 

With ServiceTitan, you can dispatch the most suitable technician to every single job. 

Technicians are also given a head start on the sales process with integrated property data information, so they know as much about the customer’s property as possible, including past work and any other communication with your company. The software records the complete service history, the techs who conducted previous services, existing parts and plumbing systems, and any current memberships or service agreements, 

Note: ServiceTitan offers an add-on product, Dispatch Pro, with more advanced dispatching features. Using machine learning, Dispatch Pro’s algorithm runs thousands of scenarios to find the best technician for every job. This, plus its intuitive dispatch board automations saves your dispatchers time, improves customer service, and maximizes profit. 

Tip #3: Utilize On-Site Software Tools

• Use mobile software for easy access to customer data

• Present customers with immediate digital estimates, prioritizing repairs

Empower your techs with mobile plumbing software that gives them access to up-to-date customer data and allows them to deliver on-site quoting and estimates. Accurate estimates lead to more income and more profit for your company.

ServiceTitan’s Mobile App syncs with our call booking software so that technicians can access all the information the CSR collected on the call, including customer details, service history, outstanding estimates, prior invoices, any notes, and even a recording of the call. Having all this information reduces the number of calls to the office and the chance of missing key details. 

ServiceTitan Mobile also lets techs create branded digital estimates while in the field, so customers can make an instant decision about the job, without waiting days for an email or phone call from your company. Accurate, quick estimates are essential in an emergency, when a customer needs their plumbing problem fixed immediately.

Prioritizing repairs for a customer shows your company’s honesty, and allows the customer to make the right decision. For instance, if your technician finds 10 problems during a plumbing inspection, customers should know what needs to be fixed right away, what can wait, and what is optional. You’ll likely receive repeat business, and even referrals on social media, if you prove your company is trustworthy, efficient, and fairly priced.

Tip #4: Price Accurately to Build Customer Trust

• Offer competitive rates and flexible financing options

• Show value of good-better-best options

With the average cost of a plumbing job ranging from $180–$490, upfront pricing helps your customers avoid sticker shock.

Learn how to create plumbing pricing by working backward — start by figuring out how much your business needs to make in hourly wages each week. After determining wages based on actual billable hours, add the cost of taxes, insurance, and overhead, as well as plumbing supplies and profit margin. Compare the hourly rates of other plumbers in your area to make sure your rates are competitive.

You can also use ServiceTitan’s Pricebook Pro to give accurate prices to customers. This follows the flat-rate pricing model and comes pre-loaded with content. You can customize it by using the built-in feature to calculate prices to charge for each service while setting your own company’s markups and labor rates. This means you can create a dynamic flat-rate pricebook that lets your team build accurate estimates that bring in profit.

By presenting detailed good-better-best options, you help aid homeowners in their decision-making. Plus, when plumbing contractors provide three service options for customers, it generally increases plumbing sales (and most will opt for the mid-priced option). 

ServiceTitan Mobile makes it easy to prepare Good-Better-Best proposals when out in the field. ServiceTitan’s Pricebook Pro provides photos and prices for thousands of items, and includes upgrades and recommendations. Techs can show customers exactly what they are recommending when discussing repair or replacement options. 

To win more customers, offer flexible financing options. With ServiceTitan’s integrated financing feature, you control which plans you offer and set the rules to suit your plumbing business. 

The ability to offer flexible financing options in person when on a service call gives customers instant access to funds and increases the likelihood of techs closing bigger jobs and boosting sales.

Tip #5: Follow Up on Estimates to Maximize Opportunities

• Use software to capture plumbing leads

• Create a long-term plan for follow-up

With the busy day-to-day responsibilities of a plumbing business, it can be difficult to stay on top of details like unsold estimates.

“We’d all like to believe our sales people are great at following up, but let’s be honest, it’s pretty tough. When it gets really busy, the follow-ups tend to tank.” says Chris Hunter, ServiceTitan Director of Customer Relations, and founder of Hunter Super Techs and co-founder of the GoTime Success Group.

Follow-up should start within 48 hours after delivering the estimate, and not end until you get a yes or no, says Hunter, who hosted a webinar on the topic. There should also be a long-term follow-up plan for customers who aren’t ready to immediately commit.

ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro will do the work for you by sending out emails or texts based on customer data already collected in ServiceTitan. The software lets you set audience lists that focus on specific customers, such as those who have yet to respond to an estimate, so you can follow up at whatever interval you choose and no sales opportunities are missed.

Sending targeted emails is easy. Choose from our huge range of email templates, adjust the text to fit your campaign, and deliver to your chosen audience. 

Tip #6: Prioritize Training to Empower Technicians

• Empower techs to sell

• Align incentives with goals

Provide proper tools and training for your employees to empower them to turn plumbing leads into plumbing sales. Implement plumbing sales training for your preferred procedures and sales techniques so your team stays on the same page. 

Hunter suggests if you want an employee to push, say, unsold estimates, align incentives with the behavior you want. Make it worthwhile for employees to close plumbing service leads or upsell products and services.

If a tech answers a call to fix a clog or water leak, it’s a great time for them to check water heater status or other potential maintenance issues. Make it protocol for techs to communicate other services, for example, offering maintenance contracts to new customers.

Without software like ServiceTitan, figuring out which customers would benefit from a maintenance contract, which already have one, and managing those agreements (when they need servicing or renewing) is challenging.

ServiceTitan’s software gives your plumbing techs the tools to upsell maintenance contracts on all service calls. Techs can use pre-approved maintenance agreement templates that suit different membership types, present them to the customer, and get them signed while on a job. This maximizes sales opportunities and brings in additional profit for your plumbing company. 

Tip #7: Promote Your Expertise with Targeted Marketing

• Give maintenance tips and advice

• Target marketing to the right audience

A plumbing company that focuses on the importance of educating customers, rather than simply making plumbing sales pitches, tends to experience better success.

Not every customer knows the parts of their water heater or potential problems resulting from high water pressure. Help customers remain proactive by educating them with content posted on your plumbing website, or through targeted, seasonal plumbing marketing emails.

ProSkill Services in the Phoenix area gives tips on their website about water heater maintenance, helping customers avoid costly water heater replacements. Roto-Rooter’s website features a “how-to” section where visitors can get answers to common plumbing questions or submit a question to a master plumber. Other companies showcase how-to videos or seasonal tips, such as ways to keep your pipes from freezing in winter.

Providing information for existing and potential customers instills trust and encourages customers to call your plumbing company for their plumbing problems. 

ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro can help manage advertising and marketing campaigns and attract new customers with:

• Email Marketing: Build hyper-targeted audiences, automate email campaigns, and track true ROI. 

• Direct Mail: Send automated direct mail campaigns to your existing customers and prospects for one flat-rate.

• Lead Tracking and reporting: Use Dynamic Call Tracking that ties unique phone numbers to each ad source and attributes campaigns to calls, jobs, and revenue.

• Reputation management: Generate more quality reviews via automated review requests.

• Integration with Google Local Services Ads: Connect your Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts to ServiceTitan and match campaign performance to actual jobs and revenue for true ROI.

You can learn more from our comprehensive plumbing marketing guide.

Tip #8: Track Sales Performance to Improve Sales

• Track metrics to monitor plumbing sales

• Analyze results against KPIs to improve performance

To monitor plumbing sales, marketing activities, and individual performance of your CSRs, sales team and plumbing techs, it’s critical to track KPIs carefully. This allows you to make necessary adjustments and improvements. 

With ServiceTitan’s reporting software, you can view specific KPIs via the dynamic dashboard for every plumbing job, technician, CSR, and marketing campaign.

With our technician scorecard, you can stay up-to-date on every plumbing tech’s stats (such as number of calls per day, generated revenue, memberships sold, response times, and more). This helps monitor which techs are outperforming expectations and which may need assistance. Likewise, our CSR scorecard lets you monitor metrics for your customer service team, such as number of calls handled, conversions, etc.

You can also create a marketing scorecard of all your current campaigns, and tie all new customers to the specific marketing campaign that brought them to you. Then, you can boost spending on campaigns with higher returns, and drop channels with poor performance. 

ServiceTitan lets you view your metrics at a granular level as well as the big picture of your business so you can see exactly what’s driving plumbing sales and where there’s room for improvement.

Ready to Try ServiceTitan Software to Help Drive Plumbing Sales?

Equipping your team with the right sales training, tools, and plumbing software (like ServiceTitan) helps them provide exceptional customer service and sets your plumbing business apart — so you can increase plumbing sales and grow your business.

From start to finish, ServiceTitan’s software is designed to support your company and improve your relationship with customers. It keeps your company’s goals at the forefront, so you can track ROI, steer your company in the right direction, and be a leader in the plumbing industry.

Book a free demo to find out more about how ServiceTitan can help you optimize your plumbing business (or any other home services company, such as HVAC) and increase sales.