Wesley Tribbitt’s Journey in Building a Thriving Fence & Gate Business | F&D Mastery Podcast #20

Leading Edge grew out of Leading Edge Access Systems, an automated-gate company his family (Rick and Lisa Burns) founded in 1992; Wes took over in 2015, brought in his two brothers and sister, and added fencing around 2016.

Gates are more profitable than fencing, with higher material cost but less labor, and it's a specialized niche fewer competitors can do, which also gives them a more careful, security-minded perspective on fence jobs.

His three sales fundamentals are: answer the phone (many competitors go dark in busy season), match the customer's excitement, and above all listen and solve their problem instead of proving how much you know.

Wrapped and lettered trucks act as driving billboards; because you see the same vehicles around the same area, customers assume the fleet is far bigger than it is and regularly call saying they spotted a truck in the neighborhood or on the highway.

BNI, his 53-member Middletown chapter, catapulted the fencing side of the business by effectively giving him 53 salespeople, and its 'givers gain' philosophy of giving without expecting anything in return is central to his approach.

Local Services Ads work great for fencing thanks to a dedicated fence category with disputable install-only leads, but there is no gate category, so gate businesses must rely on search ads; SEO drives roughly 70% of traffic but only within a limited radius.

Reviews are the hardest part and you simply have to ask, using thank-you cards with Facebook and Google review links plus follow-up calls that walk customers through it, since reviews are nearly 20% of Google's ranking factors, and JobNimbus automations keep leads from feeling forgotten.