The water business, explained by someone who runs one.
How to generate your own water treatment leads, sell filtration in the home, and build the operation behind it. Written from real dealer experience — not an agency pitch.
01Getting Started
Water Treatment for Roofers: Turning a One-Time Customer Into a Recurring One
Roofing is a one-and-done sale. Water treatment gives roofers recurring revenue, a second ticket from a trusting homeowner, and canvass work between storms.
Water Treatment for HVAC Companies: A Second Product for the Customers You Already Visit Twice a Year
Why HVAC companies are built to sell water treatment: maintenance plans, comfort-advisor sales, financing and slow seasons, and how to add water cleanly.
Water Treatment for Plumbers: The Add-On You're Already Qualified to Sell
Plumbers already have the license, the customers and the scaled-up water heaters. How to turn service calls into water sales without making techs salesmen.
Service and Recurring Revenue: Turning One-Time Installs Into a Base That Pays for Years
Step 9 of the Roadmap. Service intervals, maintenance contracts and the recurring-revenue model that separate a dealer with a business from a tech with a truck.
Manufacturers, Dealer Agreements and Fulfillment: Setting Up the Behind-the-Scenes
Step 8 of the Roadmap. Choosing a manufacturer, dealer terms and territory, inventory, and warranty and fulfillment so equipment shows up and margin holds.
Marketing and Lead Generation for a Water Business: Offers, the Water Report Play, Referrals and Cross-Sell
Step 7 of the Roadmap. A predictable lead flow: the offer, the Water Report ad play, Facebook and Google, the referral engine, and cross-selling your own base.
Pricing and Financing Water Treatment: Price on Value, Present the Payment
Step 5 of the Roadmap. Stop competing with the cheapest bid: cost-to-value framing, protecting margin, three options, and presenting a monthly payment.
Installation Fundamentals: The Bypass, the Drain, the Order of Stages and Startup
Step 4 of the Roadmap. What a correct install looks like: the loop and bypass, drain and air gap, stage order, valve programming, commissioning, sanitizing.
System Selection and Sizing: Matching the Technology to the Problem and the Equipment to the House
Step 3 of the Roadmap. From test result to the right technology, then sized to the house: grain capacity, service flow, backwash flow, tank and valve.
Media, Resins and Treatment Trains: The Water Treatment Equipment Field Guide
Step 2 of the Roadmap. What goes in the tank, what each media and resin does, and the order rules for chaining stages so one never destroys the next.
How to Start a Water Treatment Business: The Operator's Roadmap
What it takes to start a water softener and filtration business: the two ways in, learning the water, equipment, licensing, first customers, and the mistakes.
Test Before You Spec: The Water Test That Starts Every Water Job
Step 1 of the Roadmap. What to test for, what each result means, reading a city's water report next to the live tap test, and why equipment never comes first.
The Water CheatCode Roadmap: 9 Steps From Home Service to Water-Business Ready
What Water CheatCode teaches, in order: test the water, learn the equipment, size it, install it, price it, sell it, market it, source it, service it. Free.
The Kitchen-Table Sale: The In-Home Close That Leads With the Report
Step 6 of the Roadmap. The question-led close: lead with the city's report and a live tap test, walk seven phases, and don't present until they've decided.
02Lead Generation
Reviews, Service and Repeat Business: The Water Treatment Lead Source That Gets Cheaper Every Year
Every installed system is a relationship, not a closed file. Turn your customer base into reviews, referrals, upgrades and service revenue that compounds.
Referral Partnerships for Water Treatment: Turning Plumbers, HVAC and Other Trades Into Your Lead Source
How water dealers build referral partnerships with plumbers, HVAC and other trades: who to approach, what to pay, how to make it effortless, why most fizzle.
Google Ads for Water Softener Leads: Paying for Intent Without Burning the Budget
Google search ads for water treatment that convert: keyword choice, negatives, the landing page that has to match, call tracking, and when PPC is worth it.
How to Get Water Treatment Referrals From Every Appointment
The in-home water test is the best referral engine in the business, if you ask right. The three moments to ask, the exact words, and how to make it a system.
Google Business Profile for Water Treatment Companies: The Free Lead Source Most Dealers Ignore
Set up a Google Business Profile that puts your water company in the map results: categories, photos, reviews, posts, and the mistakes that keep you invisible.
Door-to-Door Canvassing for Water Treatment: The Zero-Budget Appointment Machine
How to canvass for water softener appointments without being the guy everyone avoids: where to knock, what to say, and how one install fills a street.
Water Treatment Lead Generation: How to Get Your Own Leads (Without Paying an Agency)
The lead sources that actually work for water treatment dealers, what each one does, and how to build a pipeline you own instead of renting one from an agency.
Should You Buy Water Treatment Leads? What to Ask Before You Sign With an Agency
An honest look at buying water treatment leads: shared vs. exclusive, the questions that expose a bad vendor, and when buying leads actually makes sense.
Facebook Ads for Water Treatment Leads: What Actually Works
How water dealers run Facebook and Instagram ads that book real appointments: the offer, the targeting, the follow-up, and the mistakes that burn budget.
03Hiring & Training
Water Treatment Sales Rep Compensation: Commission Plans That Attract Closers Without Giving Away the Margin
How to pay in-home water closers: percent of installed value vs. flat, draws for new reps, tiers, setter splits, chargebacks, and what quietly kills margin.
How to Pay Canvassers: Hourly vs. Per Appointment vs. Close Bonus
Hourly, per appointment, or close bonus? What each does to canvasser behavior, the hybrid low-turnover teams use, and rules that stop junk sits and no-shows.
Hiring, Training and Keeping Water Treatment Salespeople: The Operator's Playbook
Who to hire for in-home water sales and canvassing, where to find them, how to try them out, how to pay them, and how to stop the quitting before day 90.
Skip the guesswork. Join free.
The full Water CheatCode curriculum — products, the in-home sale, lead generation, hiring and operations — is free to start.