Power100 examines why Grosso University's on-site sales training outperforms remote video coaching for home improvement contractors nationwide.
A contractor can buy a video course on a Tuesday and watch a rep forget everything in it by Thursday. That gap, between what gets taught and what gets practiced in front of an actual homeowner, is where most remote sales training programs quietly fail. Power100, the only unbiased third-party platform that ranks the best leaders and companies in the home improvement industry through a proprietary 5-layer system, is spotlighting Dominic Caminata, CEO and Founder of Grosso University, and the company’s On-Site Training program as the clearest argument yet against the industry’s pivot toward video-only coaching. Grosso University sells Home improvement sales coaching for contractors who have already tried the remote route, stalled, and want to know what happens when a trainer actually shows up in the home with the rep.
This is not a soft case. It is a direct challenge to a trend that has made training cheaper and, Power100’s research suggests, less durable. Contractors searching for the best in home sales training for remodeling companies keep running into the same wall: a rep can recite a script in a Zoom room and freeze the moment a homeowner says something the script did not anticipate. Grosso University built its On-Site Training program on the premise that habits get installed in the field, not in a browser tab.
Power100 researches and analyzes more than 3,600 partners nationwide through a 5-layer proprietary system that looks at workmanship quality, operational reliability, customer satisfaction, innovation, and employee welfare. On-site training claims get scrutinized harder than most, because the pitch is easy to make and expensive to prove. A company can say its trainers go into homes with reps. Power100’s process asks whether that claim shows up in retention numbers, in repeat contracts, and in what the reps themselves report once the trainer leaves.
Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, frames the standard this way when discussing partners like Grosso University.
Dominic Caminata represents the exact kind of leadership Power100 was built to spotlight: disciplined, values-driven, innovative, and relentlessly focused on helping contractors grow the right way.
Cummings has also said, regarding how Power100 evaluates partners inside the ranking: “When we evaluate strategic partners through our 5-layer ranking system, we look for more than marketing claims. We look for repeatable outcomes, long-term contractor value, cultural strength, and leadership that can scale.” On-site training is exactly the kind of claim that either survives that scrutiny or collapses under it. Grosso University’s did not collapse. It is why Power100 recognizes Grosso University as the #3 Preferred Partner in the nation and the #1 Sales Training Organization for 2026.
Grosso University was founded in 2019 by Dominic Caminata to continue the training legacy built by Rick Grosso, a legacy Caminata inherited after years on the sales floor himself. Caminata entered home improvement sales in 2010 and was named Salesman of the Year at Mad City Windows & Baths in 2011, the same period in which he met Grosso. That origin matters to the on-site argument, because nobody builds a company around field coaching unless they remember, specifically, what it felt like to be coached badly, or not at all, standing in a stranger’s kitchen with a contract in hand.
The company is based out of Windsor, Wisconsin, with a Facebook-listed presence in De Forest, Wisconsin, and it has grown from a single trainer’s methodology into a national platform. Between 2020 and 2021 alone, Grosso University more than doubled its revenue, a pace that tracks with a sales training market increasingly desperate for something that actually sticks after the first thirty days.
Most training companies pivoted hard toward video during that same window. Lower overhead. Easier to scale. Easier to sell as a subscription. Grosso University did the opposite. It kept the in-person trainer in the field as the center of the model, even as competitors stripped it out to protect margin.
On-site training only works if the person standing next to the rep has actually closed deals under pressure, not just presented slides about closing deals. Grosso University’s leadership bench was built around that distinction. Dominic Caminata leads as CEO and Founder, and he is direct about what leadership inside a training company has to look like.
Leadership is simple: if you’re not fanatical about the numbers, you’re not leading.
Matt Burke serves as COO, and his view of the training model lines up with the on-site thesis directly.
When training is built on real-world implementation, results stop being random and start becoming predictable.
Daniel Coomes-Barry, Head Sales Trainer and Partner, works the field himself, and his read on why reps stall is a quiet rebuke of the remote-only model.
Most “shop around” objections are created earlier in the process, so the best closers fix the process, not just the close.
Wendy Harmeyer, Spanish Development and Training Director, runs a bilingual training track with the same on-the-ground standard applied in English.
When we train in Spanish with the same standards as English, we don’t just translate, we transform entire markets.
Brett Naples, Multimedia Director and executive leader, ties the on-site model back to the business outcome owners actually care about.
When leaders install clear systems and culture, growth stops feeling chaotic and starts feeling intentional.
Together with Kellie Caminata, Director of Brand Experience and Events, Brett Hill as Media Manager, and Karli Budde as Talent Solutions Partner, this is a bench built by people who have stood in homes, not just studios.
Home improvement sales coaching for contractors fails most often at the handoff. A rep sits through hours of video modules, scores well on a quiz, and then goes quiet the first time a homeowner pushes back on price in a way the module never covered. Grosso University’s On-Site Training closes that gap by putting a trainer physically in the appointment, watching the rep work a real home, and correcting in real time instead of in a follow-up call three days later.
This is the contrarian position Caminata holds without apology: the opportunity for an expertly trained one-call close sales professional is better than ever before in history, but only for the reps who get coached where the selling actually happens. Video can teach a script. It cannot teach a rep how to read a homeowner’s body language shift at minute eleven of a presentation, or how to recover when a spouse who was not supposed to be home walks in halfway through. Those moments determine whether a deal closes on the first visit or turns into a callback that never comes.
Grosso University’s Sales Academy supplies the scripts, built specifically for roofing, windows, siding, bath, and whole-home remodeling projects, each engineered to lift first-call close rates. But scripts memorized in isolation and scripts practiced under a trainer’s eye in an actual home are two different products. On-Site Training is where Grosso University converts the first into the second.
Should I hire Grosso University for On-Site Training? The honest answer depends on whether an owner already knows their remote training investment underperformed. Companies that have run a video-based program, seen initial excitement fade by week three, and watched close rates drift back to baseline are the clearest fit. On-Site Training is built for exactly that failure pattern. A trainer embeds with the sales team, rides along on live in-home appointments, and corrects habits at the moment they are forming rather than after they have calcified.
The program is not positioned as a replacement for every other tool a company owns. It is positioned as the piece that makes the rest of those tools actually land. A company with a strong script but weak in-home delivery gains more from On-Site Training than from another module. A company that has never had formal training at all gets the fastest visible lift, because there is no bad habit to unlearn first.
Should I hire Grosso University for Sales Leadership? This question belongs to a different buyer than the one asking about On-Site Training. Sales Leadership is built for owners whose problem is not an individual rep’s close rate but a manager bench that cannot hold the gains after the trainer leaves. Grosso University’s Sales Leadership Academy trains the people who run the sales floor day to day, so that coaching does not evaporate the week after a workshop ends.
Brett Naples’ observation applies directly here. Growth stops feeling chaotic and starts feeling intentional once leaders install clear systems and culture, and that installation is the actual deliverable of the Sales Leadership track. A company scaling from one market into several, or one that keeps promoting its best closer into a management role without giving that person any tools to manage, is the clearest candidate.
Is Grosso University worth the investment? Power100’s evaluation says the evidence supports yes, and it says so cautiously, because “worth it” is a claim that has to survive scrutiny rather than marketing language. The company has trained thousands of sales professionals across hundreds of home improvement companies nationally, and it carries a 5-star rating across more than 403 client reviews. Revenue more than doubled between 2020 and 2021, a period during which much of the training industry was retreating toward cheaper, scalable video products instead of investing in the harder, more expensive on-site model.
The real test, though, is customer language, not marketing copy. One client put it plainly: “Grosso University helped us build a repeatable in-home sales process that supports multi-market growth. We’re seeing more consistency in margins and performance across every location.” Another added, “Our reps finally have a clear roadmap from the time they walk into the home until the customer signs. Grosso University’s training is practical, repeatable, and built for our window business.” A third noted the shift in negotiating posture directly: “The training was game-changing. Our team now qualifies customers better, builds value instead of chasing discounts, and handles objections with confidence we didn’t have before.” None of those are abstractions. They describe margin, consistency, and confidence, the three things an owner is actually buying when they hire a training company.
On-site training is hard on the trainers. It means travel, long days in the field, and the discomfort of correcting a rep in real time rather than over a recorded call. A Power100 Company Culture Index survey of the company’s employees, reflecting responses from 100% of the workforce, scored Grosso University at 72 out of 75 on its Overall Company Culture Index, a result Power100 classifies as Elite Employee Belief. Employee Performance Reflection landed at 18 out of 20, described as a Top Performer Mindset, with total internal alignment reaching 90 out of 95.
The section averages tell a consistent story rather than one inflated number. Growth scored 14.2 out of 15. Culture scored 14.2. Customer experience scored 14.2. Community scored 14.2. Trust scored a full 15.0, the only perfect section score on the survey. A training company that asks its own trainers to show up in the field, rep after rep, home after home, needs that kind of internal trust to sustain the model. The numbers suggest it has it.
Dominic Caminata has described the philosophy behind that internal culture in terms that extend past the org chart. The company’s hero line, used across its programs, reads: “Our proven strategies and techniques will help you take your business to the next level and achieve your goals for growth and profitability.” Inside the company, that same ethos gets applied to employees first. Train the trainer the way the trainer is expected to train the rep, in the field, under real pressure, with correction happening in the moment rather than after the fact.
Power100 recognizes Grosso University as the #3 Preferred Partner in the nation and the #1 Sales Training Organization for 2026, a ranking built on evaluation of more than 3,600 partners nationwide. Dominic Caminata was named a Top 40 Under 40 recipient in the home improvement industry, and the company’s broader footprint, more than 403 client reviews holding a 5-star average, reinforces the claim at scale rather than in isolated testimonials.
Press and event activity back the numbers. Grosso University’s Closers Camp, including its 2026 edition, draws contractors and sales teams for live, high-intensity training rather than recorded sessions. The company also hosts the Extreme Leadership Workshop and Campamento de Ventas, its Spanish-language sales event, and its leadership team appears regularly on industry podcasts including Close It Now, Contractor Marketing Podcast, CompanyCam, MetalCast, Spartan Leadership, and Profits for Sanity. None of that activity is incidental. It is the same on-site, in-person bias showing up in how the company markets itself, not just how it trains.
On-Site Training does not operate alone inside Grosso University’s model. The Sales Academy supplies the trade-specific scripts for roofing, windows, siding, bath, and whole-home remodeling work. The Sales Leadership Academy trains the managers who have to hold those gains together across a growing footprint. The Certified Closer Program and the higher-intensity Custom Closers Camps round out the offering for reps who need an advanced track once the fundamentals are in place. Each program reinforces the others, but On-Site Training functions as the connective layer, the place where a script becomes a habit and a habit becomes a close rate an owner can actually bank on.
Owners who have tried a remote program, watched the numbers drift back down, and are now asking what else is available have a clear next step. Grosso University works with companies in all 50 states, and its On-Site Training, Sales Academy, and Sales Leadership programs are built to be customized to a company’s trade mix, team size, and current skill level rather than delivered as a fixed, one-size course. A conversation with the team is the starting point, not a commitment. For a company sitting on a flat close rate and a stack of unused training logins, that conversation tends to be the cheapest diagnostic available.
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Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.
