The Handyman Startup Podcast · Dan Perry: Handyman | Small Business Owner

How to sell your services, book more jobs, and grow a $200 million home service business with Tommy Mello

·1 hr 11 min·4 clips

Tommy says A1 Garage Doors closes 62% of quoted jobs and 98% of service tickets.

Tommy opens by saying a lot of people are three feet from gold but do not realize it. He uses free shop tours to show pay-for-performance, training, and sales coaching. He says the tours are free and that he gets value from meeting people and helping more people. Dan introduces Tommy as the founder and CEO of A1 Garage Doors, a company that does over $200 million in revenue and operates in 22 states. Tommy then turns to hiring. Eye contact matters. Smiling matters. Body language matters. He also listens for whether someone can tell a great story. Then he asks what they want out of life and whether they are trying to build something bigger or just get by. He likes the candidates who say they need to make $200,000 and are figuring out how to get there. He says those people tend to stay more open to learning. The ones with a lower ceiling tend to stay there. He adds that A1 Garage Doors changes all the time, so comfort with change matters. He explains that about 60 percent of revenue comes from service and 40 percent from new install. Technicians handle the repair call. A product specialist closes the deal over the phone. He says they learned that handoff model from HVAC, where the tech brings in a comfort advisor after spotting a replacement opportunity. That keeps the process efficient. It also keeps the team focused on what each role does best. Tommy gives garage-door examples to show how a repair becomes a bigger conversation. Worn paint, damaged trim, bad bottom rubber, and a non-insulated door all point toward replacement. He treats that as a turnover, not a hard sell. The way he describes it is simple and direct. He also pays attention to wording. He prefers investment over cost, top of the line over most expensive, and builder grade over cheapest. The language matters because it changes how customers hear the offer. Dan closes by pointing listeners toward his handyman courses, which are meant to take someone from beginner to a six-figure handyman business. The whole conversation stays grounded in what happens on the job and in the office.

As heard by us

A grounded sales-and-hiring walkthrough for growing a service business.

Dan Perry's conversation with Tommy Mello, founder and CEO of A1 Garage Doors, centers home-service growth on sales language, hiring discipline, and job-site habits.

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Why you'd press play

Learn how a garage-door giant turns service calls into install turnovers.

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