Four Behaviors That Set the Top 10% Apart
Every contractor wants to know what separates the best operators from the rest. ServiceTitan had the same question.
So the company turned to its platform data for answers, analyzing commercial and residential contractors across HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage door, water treatment, and other specialty trades. Top performers were defined as contractors in the 90th percentile of revenue within their trade and market segment.
Four behaviors stood out.
What was surprising is how consistently the top 10% practiced all four compared to everyone else.
1. They answer the phone — and book the call
Top performers book 62% of their inbound lead calls. The rest average 39%.
That's a 23-point gap, and it sits at the very front of the funnel, where every dollar of marketing spend is on the line.
The contractors converting at that rate have built real infrastructure around their front door: overflow coverage, online booking flows, scheduling tools that turn a "yes" into a confirmed appointment almost instantly.
If your booking rate is closer to 39% than 62%, the problem probably isn't your marketing. It's often what happens in the first 60 seconds after the phone rings.
2. They give customers a choice
On 57% of residential jobs, top performers present good-better-best proposals that give the homeowner a real decision to make. The rest do this on 41% of residential jobs.
Two things tend to happen when customers see options. Average ticket size increases, because some homeowners will choose a higher-value solution when they can actually see it. And decisions happen faster. A single price creates hesitation. A structured set of choices gives customers a path forward.
This is the most coachable of the four behaviors. Every technician on every job can be trained to present multiple options. The challenge isn't teaching it, it's making it consistent.
3. They close before they leave
Top performers close 77% of their estimates during the same visit. For the rest, that number is 62%.
The 15-point gap comes down to momentum. The longer the window between a quote and a decision, the more time a customer has to call a competitor, get distracted, or talk themselves out of the project entirely. Same-visit close rates measure something specific: how well a technician handles objections, frames financing and asks for the sale in the moment.
There's an operational benefit, too. Fewer follow-ups. Fewer return trips. Less time chasing jobs that haven't closed.
4. They run a membership program — and actually work it
87.5% of top performers run an active service agreement or membership program with paying members. Among the rest, that number is 68.7%.
Memberships aren't a new idea. Execution is what separates the top tier.
A well-run program does three things: it smooths revenue by creating recurring work in slower seasons, it increases customer lifetime value through repeat business, and it builds the kind of loyalty that makes customers less likely to shop around next time they need service.
The gap here isn't about awareness. It's about discipline: billing consistently, delivering scheduled visits, retaining customers over time.
The pattern underneath all four
Taken together, the findings reveal something consistent. Top performers systematically tighten the parts of the business where others tend to lose ground: the inbound call, the sales conversation, the moment of close, and the customer relationship after the job is done.
Each of these is a discipline. All of them compound.
Want to operate like the top 10%?
The four behaviors in this analysis are the same ones we see in the data over and over: top contractors win in call handling, sales process, speed to close, and recurring revenue. ServiceTitan helps contractors run their businesses with the operational discipline these findings describe, from call intake and dispatch to estimating, sales workflows, and reporting that shows whether your team is operating at top performance.
See how ServiceTitan helps contractors thrive ›
Based on internal analysis of aggregated, anonymized data from participating ServiceTitan customers, trailing 12 months through January 2026. “Top performers” are defined as contractors in the 90th percentile of revenue within their trade and market segment. These metrics describe behaviors correlated with higher performance and do not imply that any specific product feature or practice caused the observed outcomes. Certain metrics apply to residential jobs only. Results reflect platform-wide patterns among participating ServiceTitan customers; individual results will vary.
