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Al Fagundes was ready to quit. His plumbing company was doing about $500,000 a year, he was the business, twenty-four hours a day, out in the snow on emergency calls, and he figured he could make the same money working for somebody else with less stress.
Then a coach told him he was sitting on a database. Letters went out in handwritten envelopes, the jobs came back, and he texted that coach the day they hit a million dollars. Twenty-three years in, Fagundes is a $7 million plus company, and the number Al is chasing now is profit.
Sam sits down with Al to walk the whole path: the walls at $1 million and $5 million, the processes that replaced a handbook nobody read, why his technicians stay, and what he sends a homeowner instead of another follow-up about price.
In this episode:
- Why Al almost quit at $500,000, and what a coach saw that he could not
- The handwritten envelope mailer that took him toward his first million dollar year
- Why the first office hire is the hardest hurdle for a technician turned owner
- Managing personalities, and what Al wishes he had known about DISC before he hired
- Why growth felt like a blink from $1 million to $5 million, then slowed down
- The shift from chasing revenue to working on EBITDA
- The difference between an employee handbook and real processes
- How quality control works when HVAC is not a licensed trade in Massachusetts
- Why to stop following up about the estimate and send social proof instead
- How a spontaneous selfie video testimonial beats a scheduled one
- The hardest lesson of 23 years: keeping toxic people too long, and the behaviors to watch for
- Why knowing your break-even number tells you when to say no, and what walking away from new construction taught him
- Why an A player from another company often turns into a B player at yours
- Hiring from technical high school co-op programs, and sitting on the advisory board
- Tier roadmaps and performance pay that give people a reason to stay
- What the mascot goat Waddles has to do with Al’s parents leaving the Azores
Connect with Al Fagundes:
Company: Fagundes Plumbing, Heating & Air
Website and social: [add Al’s links]
Connect with Sam Wakefield:
Website: https://www.closeitnow.net
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @therealcloseitnow
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samuel.l.wakefield
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/closeitnow/
Join the Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/closeitnow
Beyond the Sales Script, December 8 & 9, 2026 in Round Rock, Texas:
Hand the same script to five people and they will all nail it in the training room. Out in the field, they get five different results. The difference was never the script, it is the person running it. Sam and Scott Sylvan Bell are teaching what lives past the script: how to read the room, how to take control of the appointment, and how to navigate the odd things that happen in a house. Capped at about 30 seats, and the VIP tier, which includes dinner with Sam and Scott and a small group conversation where you ask whatever you want, is nearly gone.
Get your ticket: https://www.beyondthesalesscript.com
Learn more: https://www.closeitnow.net (gold banner at the top)
Bring This Training to Your Team:
Sam travels nationwide to deliver on-site training for home services companies serious about raising their close rate and average ticket. Half day classroom, half day ride-alongs. Your team, your market, your systems. One format Sam is running right now with James A. Wheat & Sons: 12 months together, two week-long on-site visits, and a virtual session every week in between.
Book a call with Sam: https://www.closeitnow.net/contact
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