Marketing for painting companies. One per market.
Start with the outcome. Work it backwards.
Most agencies start at the top of the funnel and sell you leads. We start with the revenue you need and work the problem backwards — brand, sales, process, close rate, set rate — until we know exactly what the top of the funnel has to do. Then we build the system that does it.
Your agency makes more money when your marketing costs more.
Paid a retainer plus a slice of a growing media budget, an agency’s best client is one who spends more. One of the largest agencies in this trade publishes a ten percent cost of marketing as its target. Read that again: their goal is for you to spend more.
We are the only people in this trade whose stated goal is to make your marketing cheaper.
How many leads do you actually need?
Six inputs. Two answers, all in. The full version does the rest.
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The problem, worked backwards
The checklist.
The number you need is the only fixed point. Everything else is a variable we solve for — in this order, every time, because each one sets the target for the next.
Outcome
The revenue you need this year. From that: the jobs, the proposals, the leads — the whole funnel, sized before anything is bought.
Brand
What you’re known for, and whether the market can tell. Positioning, proof, and the process story that makes you the obvious choice before a proposal is written.
Sales excellence
The option ladder, proposal on site, financing at the table, follow-up that doesn’t quit. Close rate is a skill, not a statistic.
Business process
Who answers the phone, how fast, and what happens next — phone to calendar to crew. Set rate is a process problem, and it’s usually the cheapest one to fix.
The funnel
Every stage measured. Every lead tagged to its source and carried through to booked or lost. Cost per booked job by channel — the only number that decides anything.
Top of funnel
Only now: Google Search, Local Services, Meta. Sized to the number, not to the budget. Bought last because it’s the only step that costs money.
Business, sales, and a best-in-class marketing strategy — built as one system, so it keeps working when we’re not in the room.
One system. Four disciplines.
Marketing on its own doesn’t move revenue. These four do, together.
Brand
Positioning that makes the premium price make sense. Proof that’s real — reviews, photographs, the process — and a story the owner can tell in one breath.
Sales excellence
The option ladder, proposal on site, financing at the table, follow-up cadence. Coached by someone who sells painting for a living, installed in the CRM so it happens without a reminder.
Business process
Speed to lead, answer rate, missed-call text-back, the handoff from phone to calendar to crew. The unglamorous work that moves set rate — and set rate moves everything.
The marketing system
Google Search, Local Services, Meta, call tracking, one clean conversion signal, closed-loop economics. Run as one portfolio and documented so it survives without us.
The pilot
Twenty-five years in enterprise. Then a painting company.
David Rule ran go-to-market and sales for Fortune 500 technology companies for 25 years, leading organizations that carried $100 million-plus portfolios. He retired at 47 and bought Kevin Turner Painting, a Kansas City company doing under $350,000 a year. Now in year four, it’s on pace for $5 million in residential revenue.
Enterprise rigor, contractor reality
Most agency owners have run ad accounts. David has run $100M portfolios and a painting company’s Monday morning: the phones, the estimates, the crew schedule, the close.
Sales, not just marketing
Twenty-five years carrying a number. Set rate and close rate get coached, not just reported.
Pipeline, not leads
Enterprise sales runs on forecast, stage conversion and cost of acquisition. So does every client here: cost per booked job by channel decides the spend.
Proven on his own money
Every playbook ran inside Kevin Turner Painting before a client ever saw it.
Same method at both ends: start with the number, measure every stage, coach the close, buy media last.
We’ll show you our own account. Broken parts included.
That painting company is where we built the thing we now install for other people. Here is what we found when we audited our own agencies. Nobody in this trade publishes this.
That’s the audit you get in week one — run on your account, with the same honesty.
The first ninety days
Nothing scales until it works small.
Four stages, in order. Each one earns the next.
Preflight
Four numbers
Leads in, appointments set, jobs won, average ticket. Plus a full audit of every account you’re already paying for. You get the findings whether or not you hire us.
Days 1–30
Taxi
Funnel first. Speed to lead, answer rate, missed-call text-back. Local Services and your Google profile go live — the fastest route to a real lead that doesn’t need history to work.
Days 31–60
Takeoff
Signal, then search. Call tracking and lead events wired properly. Search campaigns built on a clean signal instead of guesswork. Close-rate coaching runs alongside.
Days 61–90
Climb
Scale what proved. Budget follows cost per booked job. Retargeting and the dormant-lead list — the cheapest leads you own. Meta when the funnel has earned it.
The Charter Five
Five painting companies. One per market. Closed.
The first five got terms nobody after them will: the build fee waived, the rate locked for twelve months, and a hand in shaping the system. All five seats are taken, and their numbers get published here as they come in.
Manifest — Charter closed · 5 of 5 seats filled
Preflight
The full audit and a ninety-day plan. Yours to keep and act on with anyone. Credited in full toward Flight Director.
Flight Director
Full strategy and the people who run it: Google Ads, Meta ads, Meta organic, and ongoing management of your website. One Flight Director accountable for cost per booked job, working the ninety-day plan and everything after.
Website build
A conversion-built site, migrated onto our hosting, wired for call tracking and a clean conversion signal. Ongoing management is part of Flight Director.
Your media budget
Paid directly to Google and Meta, on your card, in accounts you own. We never touch it and never take a percentage of it — or of your revenue. One number. No incentive to spend more of your money.
One painting company per market. When one in your market signs, that market is closed. Call tracking and reporting tools run about $100–200 a month and are billed at cost.
One painting company per market.
It’s written into the agreement. We will not take a second client in a market where we already work, because the playbook is the same one and two of you bidding against each other with it helps nobody.
Best fit: $750K and up, owner still sells, willing to change the sales process.
Rather talk first? Book a time with David. You’ll talk to him, not a sales rep.