Jake Sheldon is a cofounder of Pest Control Millionaires, and he owns a virtual staffing company called Next Gen Virtual Staffing. He has helped hundreds of pest control companies grow online, and he has owned pest control companies himself.
He shared a lot, so here’s what stood out.
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This one surprised me. Jake said he gives away free service when he opens in a new market just to stack up reviews.
As Jake put it, “I will do services for free until I get to 50 reviews. I’ll go knock on 50 houses, I’m gonna get 50 reviews.” He said he can do that in less than a week, and then he keeps going until he hits 100.
Why? Reviews build trust on Google, and the faster you rank, the faster the phone rings. A lot of those free customers sign up for real service anyway, so he wins twice.
He also said to post real photos on your Google profile every week. Not stock images, because Google can tell and it does not like them. Keep your name, address, and phone the same everywhere, and add your Q&A. He said to clear your calls and add photos often, and you almost always see more calls right after.
Don’t sell the service. Sell the warranty.
Jake started in cold markets like Omaha and Kansas City, where winter is hard. Bugs slow down, and people want to cancel.
His fix was to pre-frame the sale up front. He told people they were paying for a year-round plan and a warranty. If they saw a bug between visits, he came out for free.
That is how the best door knockers sell too. They do not sell one service, they sell the whole experience. When you frame it that way, the cold season stops scaring people off.
He also fought the winter dip with pre-season mosquito sales and bed bug ads. That is a smart way to keep money coming in when business is slow.
Know your lifetime value, then go win the customer
This was the core of the whole talk, because Jake does not care about making money on the first visit.
He told me, “I’m not going after the initial money. I’ll even lose money on the beginning if I know that I can get that customer forever.” The math is simple, he said: “The guys who make millions are the guys who know their LTV, their lifetime value customer.”
He gave a great example. One guy will not get out of bed for less than $250, while another guy down the street charges $39 for the initial. That cheap guy has 50,000 accounts and gets the customer forever, and the expensive guy gets nothing.
His first year running ads for a client backs this up. They put about $36,000 into the ad budget, and that client landed 736 new pest control accounts.
Use “clover knocking” to grow off your own customers
I loved this trick. After you service a home, talk to the customer and thank them, then ask if their neighbors might want pest control too.
Most people say yes, so then you ask for the neighbors’ names. Now you walk over with a warm intro and say the neighbor sent you. You shake their hand and let them know you will be working in the area soon.
You are not a stranger now, you are a referral. Jake said you can put on 500 accounts in a few months doing this.
Make your prizes something people can hold
Jake shared a retention idea that flips how most guys do referrals.
Most companies give a $50 credit for a referral, and Jake used to do that too. Then a successful owner told him to stop, and the reason stuck with me.
As Jake explained it, “People want something tangible when they give you something. If they’re going to give you something, give them something back. Don’t just put a credit. They’re not going to see the credit. You can’t touch a credit.”
So Jake switched to cash and Amazon gift cards. It is the same money, but it feels different, and his referral and retention rates both went up.
He pairs this with a gift giveaway, where customers earn a ticket each time they send a referral that signs up. More referrals means more tickets. He pulls a name and gives away a prize like a phone. Then he films it and texts the whole list, and now everyone wants in.
The little touches keep people for years
Two stories here made me smile. One owner asks each customer their favorite song. The next visit, he plays it on a small speaker on his belt while he works. Another writes down the dog’s name, then asks about the dog by name on the next visit, and the customer cannot believe he remembered.
That is how you charge a little more and keep people happy. Small stuff, big payoff.
Spend enough on ads or don’t bother
A lot of owners waste ad money, and Jake explained why. Facebook runs on an auction, and you are not just bidding against other pest control companies. You are bidding against dentists, chiropractors, and everyone else. As Jake said, “If you don’t spend enough money, Facebook doesn’t want to show your ad to those eyeballs.”
His floor is $600 a month if you run it yourself, because spend less and you are throwing it away. He would rather test with $3,000 over a month or two.
He also said to know your demographic. For his markets, the buyer is often a woman age 30 to 55. Then give a strong offer, because everyone runs $50 off and that will not cut it. And use a bold image, because people scroll in a trance and a bright red or yellow image snaps them out of it.
If you are new and have time, Jake says learn ads yourself on YouTube, since it is cheaper than hiring out.
Extra money: refer customers to solar
Here is one most owners miss: if you have a big customer list, you can earn from solar. Jake said most solar companies pay $250 to $1,000 per referral that closes. You partner up, share a tracking tool, and send them customers. He knows owners with a few thousand customers who made hundreds of thousands of dollars this way.
Save on staff with virtual assistants
Jake’s newest push is offshore staffing, and he uses virtual assistants for his own companies, mostly out of Mexico. He pays around $5 an hour for someone to post in local Facebook groups all day.
I tried this myself, and it changed our Tuesdays. My payroll used to eat four to five hours for two of my top, well-paid people. We brought on one assistant to handle it, and now they just check her work before it runs. It is the same job for way less cost, and the team’s mood on Tuesdays got a lot better too.
The mindset that ties it all together
The best advice came near the end, when Jake said every business breaks. Things go wrong that cannot go wrong, and the winners just adjust.
As Jake put it, “The guys that I talk to are making millions and millions of dollars. They have the same exact problems that you have had. They just figured out how to get past that.”
So stop blaming your circumstance. A dog ate a bait station, or a customer canceled, but it happens to everyone. Solve the problem and move on. That, plus knowing your lifetime value, is most of the game.
