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Marketing research

SEND NO Never Fuller Demo DID +1 (650) 476-2005 only Web render · leads redacted

At a glance

ICP, kill rules, batch results (redacted), market findings, competitive positioning.

Updated 2026-09-20 07:12 PT · full detail in the sections below — jump straight to one:

1. Ideal customer profile (what the research selects for)
2. Kill rules (any one = drop)
3. Tracks
4. Batch results (as of 2026-09-19)
5. Findings that repeat every metro
6. Competitive positioning
7. Channel strategy
8. Pricing position

Details

2026-09-19 (PST) · Sage@miniPC · LIVING Derived from: leads criteria + kill rules (agents/leads/leads-data.json method block, leads materials page) · batch results (agents/leads/progress.md, 5 metro batches) · SELLING-SYSTEM.md §3–5 · competitor notes (research/competitor-features). Web version note: lead business/owner names are redacted to Lead A–K labels on the site.

Standing locks: AUTHORIZE SEND NO · Never Fuller · demo DID +1 (650) 476-2005 only.

1. Ideal customer profile (what the research selects for)

Owner-run small shops in after-hours-sensitive trades — plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, auto — plus dental/laundry/restaurant/law variants. Signals required, all read from the shop's official site only (no scraped directories, no purchased lists):

Printed hours with a real dark window — the missed-call pain the $199 pitch prices against. A shop closing at 4:30 PM has ~65 after-hours rings a month going to voicemail.
Owner's name printed — the decision-maker is reachable by name; personal stake in every missed call ("the name on the truck").
Published business email — lowest-legal-risk cold channel (CAN-SPAM-compliant email; no TCPA exposure). This defines Track A.

2. Kill rules (any one = drop)

24/7 or emergency-line claim anywhere on the site.
No owner/GM name printed on the official site.
Chain / mega-op / call-center already staffed nights.
Jobber / Housecall Pro / ServiceTitan AI already answering.
Guessed or scraped email (Track A requires the email printed on the official site).

3. Tracks

Track A — verified business email printed on the official site → eligible for the email pipeline (Legal review → draft → QA → HELD → Barry authorization).
Track B — phone-only → parked inventory. Never dialed, never texted.

4. Batch results (as of 2026-09-19)

33+ shops researched · 17 keeps across 5 metro batches · 11 Track A · 6 Track B parked · 4 legally cleared drafts HELD · 0 sent ever.

Batch	Date	Researched	Keeps	Notes
Austin TX	09-03	n/a (early records)	3 (2 A dossier · 1 B)	Plumbing + electrical
Columbus OH / Denver CO	09-04	n/a (early records)	4 (2 A dossier · 2 B)	Auto + electrical
Jacksonville / Indianapolis / Louisville / Omaha	09-04	14	4 (3 A dossier · 1 B)	10 dropped by kill checks; HVAC, electrical, plumbing/HVAC, auto
Dallas–Fort Worth TX	09-15	3	2 (2 A cleared + drafted, HELD)	Legal PASS WITH HOLDS + QA PASS
Houston TX	09-16	16	4 (2 A cleared + drafted, HELD · 2 B)	12 dropped by kill checks; Legal CLEAR-WITH-CONDITIONS incl. one DTPA hold (capture-layer angle only — that shop sells after-hours)

5. Findings that repeat every metro

The yield is in suburb family shops. Metro-core shops all sell 24/7 — kill rule #1 wipes the city center. Multi-generation family businesses (est. 1913, 1949, 1965, 1966 in the current keeps) publish owner names, real hours, and real emails.
Kill-rule attrition is ~70%. Houston: 16 researched → 4 keeps; the new-metro batch: 14 → 4. Budget ~4x research volume per keep.
Auto and electrical widen the funnel beyond plumbing/HVAC; same pain, same pitch.
Phone-only shops are common (6 of 17 keeps) — Track B inventory waits for a compliant channel; it is never a send queue.
Near-misses can be resurrected (e.g. a Houston shop findable via license lookup) — logged, not pursued.

6. Competitive positioning

Human answering services (Ruby, Smith.ai): bill per-minute for every answered call including junk; digest features cost extra (~$35/mo at Smith.ai). We flat-rate $199/mo, filter spam free, include the morning recap.
Field-service platform AI (Jobber / Housecall Pro / ServiceTitan): if it already answers the shop's phone we drop the lead (kill rule #4) — we don't compete inside their install base; we serve the shops those platforms haven't captured.
Do nothing (voicemail): the real competitor. Counter-math: one missed $450 emergency job > two months of service; 33 booked jobs/mo × $500 ≈ $16,500 captured vs $199 cost.

7. Channel strategy

Email-first, single-shop, hand-held. Cold email to the printed business address, CAN-SPAM footer (postal address pending Barry), truthful subject, the shop's own printed hours quoted back, demo hub + demo DID explicitly disclosed as a fake shop. Per-shop legal review (CAN-SPAM / TCPA / DTPA) before drafting. Every draft HELD until Barry authorizes that shop by name; sends go from Barry's Gmail, one shop per email. No cold calls, no SMS, no purchased lists — Track B stays parked.

8. Pricing position

$199/mo national · $249 Bay Area · $99 test-city (pilot only; floor $59/mo anywhere). No free trial. Pitch anchor: "one extra completed job pays the month." Only voice is priced; text/web-app/website offerings say "contact us" until Barry prices them (gap G7).

Web-version note: specific lead business and owner names are redacted here to “Lead A–K (metro, vertical)” labels. Full names live in the private repo registry (agents/leads/leads-data.json) and the live leads pipeline.

Generated 2026-09-20 07:12 PT from receptionist/docs/marketing-research.md by bin/publish-docs.py. Republish: python3 ~/apex/bin/publish-docs.py then rsync docs/ per COS-DEPLOY.md. Never Fuller.