Tommy Mello

Sales word swaps: 'investment' not 'cost', 'top of the line' not 'expensive'

Tommy's word-choice rules for service sales: never say cost (say investment), never say most expensive (say top of the line), never say cheapest (say builder grade). Small language swaps reframe the entire pitch.

“You never say the cost, you say the investment. You never say the most expensive, you say top of the line. You never say the cheapest, you say builder grade. These words matter.”

Steal thisReplace cost with investment, expensive with top of the line, and cheapest with builder grade in every quote.

A1 Garage Door: from $540M to ~$1.7B as EBITDA tripled

Tommy Mello sold a stake when A1 Garage Door was valued near $540M at $27M EBITDA. After growing EBITDA past $80M, the business is now worth close to $1.7 billion.

“The original valuation was about $540 million. We were at $27 million of EBITDA. Now the business is north of $80 million of EBITDA. So now it's worth close to $1.7 billion.”

The hustler had to die for the leader to be born

Tommy's turning point: after closing four failing markets he realized scrappy hustle caps a company. He stopped being the top doer and became a systems-and-processes leader, diagnosing every problem as either no system, the wrong system, or a system not being followed.

“And what I tell people now, they're like, what had to change? I said, the hustler had to die for the leader to be born. And I truly mean that. Now I'm a systems guy. Now I sit down and I work on systems and processes. And if the system's broken, Either there's no system, it's the wrong system, or the system's not being followed.”

Success leaves clues: just ASK the people ahead of you

Tommy's playbook for scaling fast: identify someone who already dominates the thing you want (Yelp, payroll, a new market), buy their team lunch or call them, and ask exactly how they do it. He says his favorite three letters are ASK and that almost everyone gives him their playbook for free.

“If you wanna find out how to be number one on Yelp, Go find an HVAC or roofing company, pick the phone up and you call them and you say, my name's Tommy Mello. I wanna let you know I'm super impressed by your company. I read your book, I've used your business. I wanted to buy your whole company lunch today.”

Steal thisFind someone who already dominates the skill you need, buy their team lunch, and ask them to walk you through exactly how they do it.

Circle what you hate on the org chart and delegate it first

Tommy's delegation rule: map the org chart, circle the hats you wear that you hate, and offload those first. He proved the company runs without him by setting revenue records while away in Costa Rica for ten days.

“So the first thing I got rid of, if you set up your org chart and you've got, you wear a lot of the hats, first thing you do is circle what you hate.”

Steal thisList every role you personally fill, circle the ones you hate, and make hiring those out your first delegation priority.

A1 spends $4.3M in a single month on marketing

Tommy Mello says A1 Garage Door is not afraid to spend big on demand generation, dropping $4.3 million in one month on marketing because 'sales cure everything' and good sales require good leads.

“You know, sales cure everything. And to get sales, you need good leads. And I'll tell you this, I'm not afraid. We're going to spend $4.3 million this month. In marketing, not afraid to spend a lot of money.”

A $35K rebrand brought a line of people wanting to work for A1

At $30M revenue Tommy resisted, then paid Dan Antonelli's Kick Charge $35,000 to redesign A1's logo and truck wraps. Three weeks later there was a line of people wanting to work for the company, and the brand now lives inside the building too.

“Guess how much it cost me to get a new logo and new brand on the trucks? $35,000., and at this time I'm going, I'm $30 million. I'm like, dude, it's working. Why would I switch? And I just, I trusted Al and I bit the bullet and I did it.”

Steal thisInvest in a professional brand and truck wrap before you feel ready; a strong brand recruits talent and commands premium prices.

Sell like a doctor: diagnose before you prescribe

Tommy trains technicians to behave like physicians: ask questions, run a thorough diagnostic, then state the fix with authority. Customers don't ask a doctor for multiple estimates because the doctor diagnosed the problem before prescribing, which earns trust and removes price haggling.

“Would you go to a doctor if the doctor walked in and just looked at you and said, hey, here's your medication? No, the doctor walks in, he smiles, he says, let me ask you a few questions. How's the alcohol? What's the stress level? Are you any recreational drugs? How much are you working out? I'm going to run a few tests here.”

Steal thisBefore quoting a price, run a visible diagnostic and ask questions so the customer sees you as the authority who earned the prescription.

Buy Back Your Time: hire a driver, chef and house manager

Dan Martell's book Buy Back Your Time reframed Tommy's time: after computing his hourly value in the hundreds of thousands, he hired a driver to reclaim 11 hours a week of driving, plus a chef and house manager, to stay focused on high-value work.

“Well, I'll tell you that the latest one was Buy Back Your Time. And Dan Martell, he goes, let's just do this. He goes, when do you think you're going to sell? So we wrote it down. He goes, how much do you think you'll make? And I wrote the number down. He goes, how many hours do you work a week?”

Steal thisCompute your true hourly value, then buy back your lowest-value hours (driving, cooking, errands) so you can spend them on growth.

AI booking agents hit 87% vs 92% for human reps

Tommy says A1's AI call-center agents booked at 87% yesterday versus 92% for human agents, a 5% gap that keeps narrowing. His plan is a hiring freeze, keeping only the best of 68 agents rather than firing.

“My AI agents were 87% booking rate. My real agents were at 92%. So it's a 5% variance, but the AI continues to get better. And the goal is not to get rid of people. The goal is to go on a hiring freeze and keep the best.”

Pest control is the sleeper services roll-up at 22-25x EBITDA

Tommy's favorite under-the-radar service business is pest control: a public comp pays 22-25x EBITDA, so a $2M-profit company can fetch $50M. The proven playbook is door-to-door sales (pioneered by Utah Mormon missionaries) then Google and radio.

“Well, well, the fact is, pest control is the only company that went public. And right now they're paying 22 to 25x EBITDA. So if you could get your business to make $2 million, you're going to get $50 million.”

Steal thisBuild a pest control company to $2M EBITDA; at 22-25x multiples that is a $50M exit.

Demand-generated services earn higher exit multiples

Tommy's rule for valuing service businesses: must-do, demand-generated trades (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage doors) command 15-20x EBITDA past $20M, while discretionary trades like windows get only 8-12x. The more urgent the need, the higher the multiple.

“but a window company might get 8 to 12x, whereas HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage doors, there's just these must, must-dos are getting, you know, 15 to 20 when you get past $20 million of EBITDA.”

Steal thisFavor urgent, demand-generated trades over discretionary ones; the must-do nature is what earns the premium multiple.

Garage doors return 268% on investment, per WSJ

Tommy notes garage doors were named the number one home improvement investment by Remodel Magazine eight years running, and the Wall Street Journal reported a 268% return on investment.

“Wall Street Journal came out with 2 articles last year, 268% return on investment. You put a buck in, you take $268 out.”

Be good at 5 things 1,000 times, not 500 things once

Tommy's anti-complexity philosophy: most of his playbook is repeatable across home services, not garage-door magic. Success comes from mastering a handful of fundamentals repeatedly rather than chasing many tactics.

“You don't need to be good at 50 things or 500 things. You need to be good at 5 things 1,000 times over. So it's understanding. Don't overcomplicate it. It's pretty simple.”