The Contractor Fight with Tom Reber

How Contractors Leak $183,000 in Profit Every Year

Most contractors think they need more leads.

They don’t.

They need to stop wasting the opportunities already coming into the business.

In this episode, Tom breaks down how an $800,000 contractor could be leaking more than $183,000 in gross profit every year without seeing a single expense on the P&L.

The money disappears through four common sales leaks:

• The Gate: Failing to qualify leads before wasting time on an estimate

• The Meeting: Showing up, measuring and quoting without running a proven sales process

• The Money: Discounting because the price conversation gets uncomfortable

• The Follow-Up: Sending a proposal and hoping the customer eventually responds

Using a $12,000 average job, a 30% close rate and a 40% gross profit margin, Tom shows how small improvements could produce:

• 84 hours of owner or estimator time recovered through better qualification

• $52,800 in additional gross profit from improving the close rate by five points

• $20,400 kept by eliminating unnecessary discounts

• Approximately $110,000 in additional gross profit from a structured follow-up process

You don’t need more water poured into a leaking bucket.

Fix the bucket first.

In this episode:

• The five steps of the Shin-Fu qualification process

• Why 80% of the sale happens during the motive conversation

• The seven-part structure of a strong sales meeting

• How discounting comes directly off your bottom line

• The five-touch follow-up sequence every contractor should use

• Why profit is the scoreboard

• How to find the biggest leak in your sales process

Find your biggest sales leak with the free Sales Leak Scorecard:

https://thecontractorfight.com/leak

Stop guessing. Find the leak. Fix the leak. Command your sales.

Take the Sales Leak Scorecard Here

Episode Description

"What's the going rate for a project like this?" Wrong question. In this episode, Tom breaks down why pricing off the going rate is the fastest way to price yourself into the gutter and what to ask instead. It's not about what everyone else charges. It's about your production rate, your real costs, and your number. If you're still shaving your price to "stay competitive," this one's for you.

What You'll Learn

• Why "going rate" pricing means you're averaging other contractors' blind spots into your own bid
• The one question to ask instead of "what's the going rate"
• The three numbers you need to know cold before you price any job
• The blind-spot costs that never show up in a "going rate" conversation
• Why revenue hides stupidity — and how a broken pricing model gets worse the more you scale it

Episode Breakdown

• Open — The question that started this episode, and why it's the wrong one to ask
• The Going Rate Problem — Why market-average pricing means pricing off other people's guesswork
• The Better Question — Production rate vs. going rate, and why one is math and the other is a rumor
• The Cost of Guessing — How "going rate" pricing quietly scales a broken business
• How to Build Your Number — The three things to track: actual time, real costs, target margin
• The Blind Spots — Access issues, waste, permits, travel — the stuff the going rate never accounts for
• The Standard — What strong contractors do differently
• The Fight This Week — Pull your last five jobs and build your real number

Key Quote

"The going rate is the kiss of death for a contractor. It keeps you tied to the average. And average is not where you want to live."

This Week's Fight

Pull your last five jobs like the one you're about to bid. Look at actual hours, actual costs, actual outcome. Build your production rate... not the going rate.

oduction rate — not your going rate.

Links & Resources

• Sales Leak Scorecard
• The Contractor Fight Website: https://thecontractorfight.com

Get Your Sales Leak Score: https://thecontractorfight.com/leak

You just found out that "small" discount is costing you way more than 10%. In this episode, Tom breaks down the actual math behind discounting a job, and why giving away 10% off your price can wipe out 20% (or more) of your profit. If you've ever caved on price because a customer pushed back, this one's for you.

What you'll learn:

• Why your costs don't move when your price does
• The real math behind a "harmless" 10% discount
• How much additional work you have to sell just to break even on a discount
• Why the math gets uglier the thinner your margins already are
• The difference between a strategic discount and a fear-based one

Timestamps

• 00:00 – The problem: contractors negotiating against themselves the moment a customer pushes back
• 00:40 – The example: a $10K job at 50% gross margin
• 01:00 – What actually happens when you cave and knock off 10%
• 01:40 – Your costs don't drop just because your price did
• 02:00 – The real hit: a 10% price discount = a 20% gross profit hit
• 02:20 – Mid-show break: the Sales Leak Scorecard — find out where your sales process is actually breaking down
• 03:20 – Back to the numbers: what it costs to earn that profit back
• 03:40 – How much additional revenue you have to go sell just to replace what you gave away
• 04:20 – The math gets worse at lower margins (30% example)
• 05:20 – When discounting is okay — legit strategic reasons vs. reacting out of fear
• 06:00 – The close: know your numbers, hold your price, protect your profit

Get Your Sales Leak Score: https://thecontractorfight.com/leak

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The Contractor Fight Website

Book a call with the team: https://thecontractorfight.com/battleground

Grab Tom's book FREE: https://thecontractorfight.com/book/

Your business is making more money than ever, but you still hate the damn thing. You’ve got the trucks, the branded wraps, the team, and a schedule that's packed tight. From the outside, it looks like you’re flying high. But you can’t take a single day off without something going sideways. You’re answering every question, putting out every fire, and your margins have anorexia. That business wasn't supposed to be a high-paying prison...it was supposed to give you freedom.

In this video, Tom Reber breaks down why top-line revenue is a bullshit metric, why scaling a broken business just helps you lose money faster, and how to stop being the ultimate bottleneck in your own company.

You’ll learn:

• Why revenue is loud, but profit is what gives you options

• Why growth doesn't fix a weak business...it just exposes it

• Why you are the biggest bottleneck holding your team back

• The 5-part order: Strong You, Strong Home, Strong Business

• What a real Business Operating System (Fight OS) actually looks like

• How to rate your business from 1 to 10 across the 6 key operational pillars

Revenue matters, but if your business owns your ass and runs entirely on your personal energy, you don't own a business...you own a personality cult with trucks and logos. It’s time to stop scaling a turd and start building a business worth having.

Chapters

0:00 - The High-Paying Prison

1:40 - Revenue Isn't The Goal

3:04 - Growth Doesn't Fix A Weak Business

4:26 - You Are Your Biggest Problem

6:04 - Real Businesses Need Real Systems

8:01 - A Business Worth Having Doesn't Mean Easy

9:29 - I Challenge You...

11:20 - Installing The Fight Operating System

Tom Reber is the founder of The Contractor Fight, host of Contractor Fight TV, entrepreneur, speaker, podcaster, and former HGTV host. For over 20 years, Tom has helped hundreds of thousands of contractors build businesses worth having by becoming the kind of people capable of building them.

On this channel you'll find straight-talk training on sales, pricing, profit, leadership, marketing, mindset, and what it really takes to build a Strong You, Strong Home, and Strong Business.

The first fight is always with yourself. Join The Fight. 👊

Check out The Fight: www.thecontractorfight.com

Is Your Contracting Business Actually Worth Having?

Most contractors are chasing more revenue, more trucks, more employees, and more jobs.

Wrong scoreboard.

You can build a $3M company and still be broke, stressed, overweight, disconnected from your family, and chained to the business you created.

In this video, Tom Reber breaks down the real test:

Is your business actually worth having?

A business worth having should:

• Make real profit
• Give you more choices
• Function without you being the hero
• Make your life better—not consume it

Revenue matters. Growth matters. But if the business owns your ass, you’re not winning.

Strong You. Strong Home. Strong Business.

The first fight is always with yourself.

Chapters

0:00 Is Your Business Worth Having?

0:29 When “Successful” Contractors Are Miserable

1:16 Bigger Doesn’t Fix Broken

2:27 Test #1: Does It Make Real Money?

3:41 Test #2: Does It Give You Choices?

4:39 Test #3: Can It Run Without You?

5:35 The Biggest Test: Who Are You Becoming?

6:20 Strong You. Strong Home. Strong Business.

6:36 Ask Better Questions About Your Business

7:27 The Five-Year Gut Check

7:42 Start Fixing the Next Thing

8:05 Build a Business Worth Having

Tom Reber is the founder of The Contractor Fight, host of Contractor Fight TV, entrepreneur, speaker, podcaster, and former HGTV host.

For over 20 years, Tom has helped hundreds of thousands of contractors build businesses worth having by becoming the kind of people capable of building them.

On this channel you'll find straight-talk training on sales, pricing, profit, leadership, marketing, mindset, and what it really takes to build a Strong You, Strong Home, and Strong Business.

The first fight is always with yourself.

Join The Fight. 👊