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The Moneyball for Home Services: How You Can Catch the Jobs You’re Missing

Service Business Mastery for Skilled Trades: HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical Home Service

Release Date: 07/01/2026

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More Episodes

Most contractors think they need more leads.

But what if the real problem is that you’re already missing the jobs you paid to generate?

In this episode of Service Business Mastery, Tersh Blissett and Joshua Crouch sit down with Shaun Ritchey from Breezy to talk about Moneyball for home services and how contractors can use AI, better data, and smarter systems to uncover the jobs hiding inside their existing business.

Just like Moneyball changed baseball by finding overlooked value in the data, this conversation shows how contractors can find overlooked revenue in missed calls, slow follow-up, poor booking processes, weak web conversion, and underused customer lists.

Shaun explains why the biggest opportunity is not always spending more money on marketing. Sometimes the fastest path to growth is fixing the leaks already inside your sales funnel.

They also discuss:

How Moneyball applies to home service businesses
Why contractors often lose the most money during their busiest seasons
How missed calls create major revenue leaks
Why speed-to-lead can make or break a booked job
How AI agents help contractors answer more calls and book more jobs
Why AI should support CSRs, not replace them
How web visitors and younger homeowners are changing the booking process
Why low-value tune-ups can block high-value replacement opportunities
How call tracking, transfer rules, and better data improve lead handling
Why AI needs training, monitoring, and human oversight
How contractors can use AI to analyze pricing, inventory, and operations
Why bad data creates bad AI output

If you’re spending more money on leads but still missing calls, losing web visitors, or struggling to understand where revenue is leaking, this episode will help you think differently about growth.

Timestamps

00:00 Explaining the Moneyball strategy

05:29 Challenges of manual call analysis

08:10 Helping contractors book more jobs

11:00 A CRM for the trades industry

14:23 Integrating AI with CRM Tools

17:18 Discussing AI's role in customer service

20:14 Discussing AI's strengths and limitations

21:57 Issues with AI voice providers

27:40 Using CRM for cost analysis

31:42 Using call tracking for marketing

33:09 Overbooked with low-margin appointments

36:10 Using AI for Business Transparency

41:52 Evaluating Client Booking Efficiency

43:52 Recognizing trends in social media marketing

48:40 Updating and trusting sales data

51:31 Getting help with my project

54:00 Pricing strategy for offers

 

Follow the Host and Guest

Tersh Blissett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tershblissett/

Joshua Crouch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-crouch/

Shaun Ritchey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaun-ritchey/ 

Breezy: https://getbreezyapp.com

Connect with Us

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/service-business-mastery
• TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@servicebusinessmasterypodcast
• Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/servicebusinessmasterypodcast
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/servicebusinessmasterypodcast

This episode is kindly powered by:

UpFrog: upfrog.com

MarketStorm is an AI-powered advertising platform. Results vary by market, budget, and campaign configuration: https://marketstorm.ai/

Get Your 14-Day Free Trial with CallRail!: https://www.callrail.com/sbmpod

CompanyCam: https://companycam.com/

Breezy: Capture 25-30% more clients with Breezy AI Agents. Use code “SBM” to book a demo and get $500 on us: https://getbreezyapp.com/schedule-demo

PhoneTAP: Your calls hold the key to growing your business. PhoneTAP gives you instant AI analysis, real customer lifetime value, and tools to coach your team. Learn more: phonetap.ai/demo