Nick Stevens from Legacy Decks on Driving Success in a $5M-6M Business | F&D Mastery Podcast #38

Nick Stevens came to Legacy Decks with zero construction experience — via Enterprise, insurance, and a punishing software business-development role that, in hindsight, trained him best for phone work with homeowners.

When homeowners say 'you're way more expensive,' Nick stopped defending the price and instead replies 'we should be' and lets the silence sit — prompting the homeowner to list, in their own words, all the value that justifies the higher number.

A personal video message sent before the appointment (imperfections and stutters left in) drops the homeowner's sales-resistance wall, humanizes the consultant, and instantly differentiates Legacy from competitors who never do it.

Pre-qualification is the core of the process: front-desk screening plus a rehearsed pre-qual script that stacks small yeses — earning agreement to a $1,000 plan-and-design fee before ever asking for the big deposit.

Nick gives buyers explicit permission to walk away ('maybe this doesn't make sense for you'), which paradoxically builds trust — one $40K-budget homeowner ended up signing an $83K deck contract after seeing the full-backyard vision.

Follow-up is 'next-step obsessed': Nick always dictates the pace with a scheduled next touch (even a calendar invite months out), which is how he closed an $8K railing lead that grew into a $123K project two years later.

The team runs on EOS/90.io metrics — leads, appointments run, design-fee close ratio, contract close ratio per rep — and treats salespeople as whole people, because a stronger home life directly produces stronger commission-only sales performance.

The single biggest change was adopting a design-build 'plan and design' phase about 2.5 years ago; it lifted average sale from ~$24,000 to just over six figures, alongside niching down to composite decking and higher-value clients.