Marketing Matters – 48 – Marketing My Way to $158M (Jeff Gear from TSR Concrete Coatings)

Jeff Gear's organization finished at $158M gross last year across 44 concrete-coating and 12 fence-and-deck locations, built through a mix of organic growth and acquisitions.

He entered home improvement with zero industry background — a former police officer who answered an ad — proof that operational drive transfers across careers.

Growth came from running and later separating multiple business lines (coatings and bath), then going all-in on concrete coatings full-time in 2020.

Close rate stays remarkably steady at 39-41% regardless of lead source; the source mainly changes how many appointments get set, not the net close.

TSR shifted TV dollars away from major networks toward OTT/CTV streaming, and deliberately ran an experiment to find the ceiling of how much TV spend the business could absorb.

Acquisitions were executed rapid-fire — selling a $23M collective to Bertram in February 2022, then buying additional companies within days.

Greenfield expansion follows a deliberate 'spiderweb' model — opening new locations two to three hours from existing ones to keep overhead, maintenance, and problems low.