What if the secret to higher HVAC tickets wasn’t a better pitch, but a better room? Justin Deese sits down with Ryan St. Michel of Grove Mechanical to break down the showroom sales process that tripled revenue in a town of just 7,200 people.
In this Freedom Blueprint Podcast episode, Ryan shares how desperation pushed him away from bottom-of-the-barrel pricing and into a top-down selling system — five options, premium-first, every time. Then he walks through the purpose-built showroom that closes the deal: dual TVs, a wall of Google reviews, working equipment customers can touch and hear, and fresh chocolate chip cookies. Whether you run a small shop or think “that won’t work in my market,” this is a blueprint for differentiating on experience instead of price.
⏱️ VIDEO CHAPTERS
0:00 – Meet Ryan St. Michel & “Motivational Bullying”
2:30 – Buying the Family Business & Tripling Revenue
4:13 – Where the Unique Sales Process Came From
6:30 – The Shift to Top-Down Selling & Five-Option Quotes
9:06 – Why More Options Beats One Bottom-of-the-Barrel System
10:05 – Top-Down Pricing and Beating Sticker Shock
12:17 – Walking Through the Full Lead-to-Sale Process
13:50 – Inside the Showroom: TVs, Reviews & Live Equipment
16:00 – The Chocolate Chip Cookie Strategy
17:00 – Home-Field Advantage & Building Trust
20:09 – Why 95% of Customers Come In to Buy
23:00 – “That Won’t Work in My Market” — Debunked
24:34 – Shop Tours, Pack-Outs & Efficiency Wins
27:00 – KPIs, One-on-Ones & Coaching Techs to Sell
30:03 – Future Goals: Profit, People & Buying Back Time
🎯 IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:
✅ Why Ryan switched from one-option, bottom-up quotes to five-option, top-down selling
✅ The “leave your mother in the truck” rule for recommending premium systems
✅ How to build a distraction-free showroom that does the selling for you (TVs, reviews, live equipment — and cookies)
✅ How ~95% of customers agree to come in for the in-person presentation
✅ Why the “that won’t work in my small market” excuse is costing you money
✅ KPI tracking and one-on-ones that uncover the real reason techs aren’t selling
✅ Pack-out systems that cut a furnace install from 8 hours to 3.5
“If you don’t know you can have it, how would you ever buy it?” — Ryan St. Michel
If you own or run a home service business and you’ve been competing on price instead of experience, this episode will change how you think about your sales process.
🎧 Welcome to The Freedom Blueprint Podcast — real conversations with home service business owners who are leading better, growing faster, and building businesses that work for them.
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👤 ABOUT THE GUEST
Ryan St. Michel is the third-generation owner of Grove Mechanical, an HVAC company in Crookston, Minnesota.
🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS
- Grove Mechanical
- Connect with Ryan: Instagram
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