From Church Mission to Pest Control Rookie of the Year

Lenny got into pest control in the most random way possible. A high school buddy recruited him to knock doors for Orkin Pest Control. The friend told him he could make 20 grand, but Lenny was skeptical. He said if it's legit, let me know next year.

Sure enough, his buddy called him in September and said he made 30 grand and was going to be running a team in Alabama. Lenny had just gotten married, so he and his wife drove out to Birmingham Alabama in 1998 to start selling pest control accounts.

His first year? He sold 500 accounts, made 50 grand, and became Rookie of the Year. That's insane for someone who had never sold anything before.

I asked him how he did it. Was he just a natural? His answer surprised me. He said he served a two-year church mission in Washington DC where all he did was knock doors seven to eight hours a day. But he made it clear that selling religion is way different than selling pest control.

The real secret? He just outworked everyone. He wasn't the top rep in his office because the experienced guys beat him, but nationwide for rookies, he was number one. His mindset was simple: if I work harder than everyone else, good things will happen.

The Retention Numbers That Caught Orkin's Attention

Here's what made Lenny different from every other door-to-door rep. It wasn't just the volume. It was the quality.

His last year knocking doors for Orkin, he sold 674 accounts in Jacksonville, Florida. Out of those 674 sales, only six people canceled. Six. He got paid for 668 accounts.

"I had six people cancel and you know out of almost 700 sales and I will say those six people probably either moved or died so you know kind of out of my control," Lenny said.

That retention rate is what got Orkin's attention. They approached him before he graduated college and asked what he was doing after school. Lenny was a broadcast communications major planning to be on TV, but the job offers were in places like Billings, Montana for 30 grand a year. He was already making more than that in four months knocking doors.

So he went with pest control instead of TV. Orkin hired him full-time to write all their sales training manuals and videos. He traveled across the nation training teams because he had developed a system that actually worked.

The Sales Flow System That Anyone Can Follow

What I love about Lenny is how process-oriented he is. When he started knocking doors, Orkin gave him a 10-page manual. He memorized it in a week and realized there was way more to pest control sales than those 10 pages offered.

So he developed what he calls his Sales Flow process. It's a six-step system that works for door-to-door, inbound calls, B2B sales, whatever. The process doesn't change.

Here's how it breaks down:

The first step is the initial approach. Those first 20 to 30 seconds when someone opens the door. Lenny's goal isn't to sell anything. It's just to start a conversation. You already have two of three strikes against you because you're knocking on their door uninvited and they don't know you. So that initial approach better be fantastic.

Step two is qualifying. This is about finding out who's worth your time and who's not. Lenny reverse-engineered every sale he ever made and identified five primary qualifiers that tell him if he should continue the conversation. So many reps waste time talking to people who don't qualify or don't spend enough time with people who are actually interested.

Step three is value building. People have all kinds of ideas about what pest control is from movies, books, personal experience. Lenny wants to make sure they know exactly what he covers. There are three types of value builds depending on how much time the person has. But you never want to go past two on a value build. People don't want to hear you rattle on forever.

After the value build comes the close. Lenny uses three primary closes. Once you close, you're probably going to get objections. He's identified the seven primary objections in door-to-door pest control sales. He calls them The Magnificent Seven and has answers for all of them.

Here's the key: after you resolve a concern, you close again. Then probably another concern. You overcome that concern and close again. It's cyclical back and forth.

Once somebody agrees to your close, then you go into solidifying the sale. There are 13 different steps to solidifying a sale. This is how you make sure they're not going to be a high probability cancellation. You're selling someone who's going to receive their initial service and become a long-term happy customer.

That's the Sales Flow. Six categories with subcategories within each one. It's completely teachable and works across any direct sales environment.

The Ultimate Compliment in Door-to-Door Sales

I asked Lenny about his tonality when he's knocking doors. It can't be salesy, right? He doesn't come off as a salesy guy at all.

He told me about what he calls the ultimate compliment. It's in his first book. The ultimate compliment in door-to-door sales is when you're wrapping up a sale and somebody says, "I'm sure glad you weren't one of those door-to-door guys that came knocked on my door."

"To me it's like I win because that's exactly how I want to come across is not one of those guys," Lenny explained.

His approach is very conversational. He doesn't close hard. He uses variations in pitch, tonality, metaverbal stuff. His nonverbal communication matters. Not just what he does but how he reads other people.

All of this came from tens of thousands of hours on the doors. They say you become an expert at 10,000 hours. Lenny's probably done 30,000 hours of knocking because he never stopped. He still knocks doors with his reps every summer. He's still learning and fine-tuning his system.

Repetition and Learning from People You Don't Sell

Lenny wasn't always a big reader. Now he listens to an audiobook every week and a half to two weeks. He loves when authors self-narrate their books because you get to hear their tonality.

When he was writing his books, he interviewed professional voice actors to do the audiobook. One guy had this great English accent, but when Lenny had him read a portion, it just didn't work. They didn't speak the language of sales. There's a different terminology and cadence that only Lenny could deliver.

But the real learning came from repetition on the doors. His brain is like a filing cabinet. Everything went in and he looked for trends. Now he has an answer for everything on the doors.

The interesting thing is he doesn't always sell everybody. Sometimes he learns the most from people he doesn't sell. That's what he teaches his reps. It's okay to not sell everyone. Those are learning opportunities.

He told me about knocking doors in Michigan last summer for his company. He sold three of the first four people he talked to. He's still got it. But as he watched his reps go through conversations, he saw where they were making little mistakes. Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of tweaking and coaching.

I completely agree with this philosophy. One of my core beliefs is always be testing. Whether it's outreach to prospects, YouTube thumbnails, titles, social posts, whatever. I'm always making little tweaks. Just changing one variable at a time to see what works better.

Lenny's done this for his entire career. That's what made him successful. Just constant testing and refinement over and over.

The Half Million Dollar Summer

The best summer Lenny ever had was in 2003. He sold about half a million dollars worth of business. A lot of reps do that today, but if you convert that to today's dollars, it's over $850,000 in revenue.

That summer he sold about 1,200 pest control accounts. The retention on those was incredible. Five years later, the good majority of those customers were still with the company. That's the difference between selling volume and selling it the right way.

Lenny's passionate about this because he knows enough people who train wrong. Some people see others having success doing things unethically and think they have to do it that way too. Good people fall victim to seeing their team leads or managers or experienced reps doing it the wrong way.

"I can sleep well at night knowing everything I was telling people was above board it wasn't I I wasn't lying to people I wasn't you know throwing up some kind of false pretenses," Lenny said.

I completely relate to this. I believe in doing everything ethically. I made a post about this a week ago where I knew I couldn't help someone. They were a super niche service in a tiny town. I can't help them with SEO, so I'm not going to take their money. I just can't lie to people.

That's how you build longevity in business. Everyone who makes quick bucks by lying and stealing doesn't last. Every successful person I've talked to who's been in the game for a long time does things the right way.

Why Summer Sales Teams Struggle with Retention

Lenny pointed out a huge problem with summer sales teams. These door-to-door reps come in for a month or two or three, then they're gone. Unless they're trained the right way, they don't really care because they'll never see these people again. They'll just move to another state and sell for someone else. There's no accountability.

Fortunately, Lenny's seeing a great trend. More and more large pest control companies sending out hundreds or thousands of reps are actually holding reps accountable for how they're selling, not just how many they're selling. Technology has helped with this.

He's glad things are trending in the right direction. It might be a slow curve upward, but at least people are more interested now than ever in doing it honestly and ethically.

That's ultimately how you get the most sales, create longevity, and build a great business. The ethical approach wins in the long run.

From Orkin to Starting Rove Pest Control

After selling for Orkin for three summers while finishing his undergrad, Lenny got hired full-time by their marketing company to write sales training manuals and videos. He traveled across the nation training teams.

During this time, he met a guy running an Orkin franchise in Albuquerque. They hit it off because the guy knew the operational side and how to kill bugs. Lenny knew how to sell. It was a perfect balance.

Lenny had some personal family stuff happen with their firstborn having issues, and he was traveling too much. So he approached this guy about starting a pest control company in Utah. They launched in 2003.

They weren't called Rove Pest Control at first. They were Mountain West Pest Control. But as they opened offices in Oklahoma, Minnesota, Arkansas, and Tennessee, the mountain thing didn't really work. So they became Rove Pest Control.

After five years, they were the largest residential pest control company in Utah. They sold that operation and kept expanding with the Rove brand. A lot of their growth came from door-to-door, but that's not the full story.

Finding the Right Business Partner

I asked Lenny about finding a great partner because his partnership has lasted since 2003. That's incredibly rare.

He told me about guys approaching him when he was with Orkin saying they should start a company together. The problem was these guys were all sales guys. "Why in the world do I want to partner with you when we bring the same thing to the table?" Lenny asked.

He's seen so many business partnerships of guys who all started with Orkin and partnered up, but they were both sales guys. They're no longer business partners. It didn't work.

Lenny's partner didn't want anything to do with selling. Lenny didn't want anything to do with spraying. They complemented each other perfectly. That's why they've been partners since 2003.

His advice for pest control owners or anyone starting a business: hire around your weaknesses. If you're really good at sales, hire technical people so you can go do what you're really good at. If you don't want anything to do with sales, your first hire should be the best sales rep you can get right away.

Door-to-door is 100% commission, so you're not risking much. Just pay to play. The sales rep goes out and sells, and you go do what you're good at.

Why You Need to Know What You Want

Lenny talked about companies plateauing or even taking steps backward. A lot of it has to do with ownership. Everyone has thresholds they hit, whether it's a revenue number, number of responsibilities, or number of employees.

You have to decide what you want. That was part of their second acquisition in 2015. They had partners running branches who were basically branch managers making six figures. These guys were happy. They didn't need to push growth. They hit where they wanted to get.

But Lenny and his business partner didn't share that same vision. So that's why they had the acquisition in 2015.

"If you have people that are always growth-minded and want to push push push and you're the owner and you're like dude I'm good I'm making what I want to make like maybe you got to you got to look at it that way as well," Lenny explained.

The moral of the story: what do you want? And that can change. Lenny's not one of these guys with a vision board for what 20 years looks like. He wants to know what the next 12 months look like, maybe 18 months. Once he gets there, he reevaluates.

I completely relate to this. My window is usually six months for goal setting and KPIs because anything longer completely changes. I started a software company a little over a year ago. The group chat was called "Virality 100 Mil" because we were going to sell it for $100 million in five to 10 years.

A year later, it went bust. We gave up on it because it was all of our side projects. None of us made it our main priority. We were all running our own agencies. Plus we didn't have the finances for it. The API we wanted was $30,000 a month, and we weren't making much money at the time.

That's why I agree with Lenny. The 6 to 18-month window is where you can get the most ROI and actually see those goals come to fruition.

The Technology Companies Disguised as Home Service Businesses

When I asked Lenny about traits he sees in the most successful companies, he said something fascinating. He feels like a lot of times they're technology companies fronting as a plumbing company or HVAC company or garage door company.

He'll get into these companies and they're sending him logins for five different pieces of technology. He's like, "I just want to teach you guys how to knock doors and sell." But everything tracks something. This does this, that does that.

Part of success is having people around you, whether partners or hires, who keep you up with technology. You have to be capitalized from a technology standpoint. Lenny doesn't want anything to do with SEO. They hire that out. They used to write all their own articles. Lenny's a communications guy and loves writing. But at some point, they realized to get to the next level, he can't write everything. They had to find someone who does copywriting.

Being really aware of technology is crucial. From the door-to-door world, there are cool technology pieces like Sales Rabbit for canvassing or Soapbox, an app that can record everything on the doors. Lenny doesn't have to go out with reps anymore if he doesn't want to. They can record conversations, and he can coach them up on the recordings. That saves him flights, hotels, car rentals, and all the hassle of traveling.

If you're not maximizing what technology offers, you're doing yourself a disservice. It's going to prohibit you from growing where you could potentially be.

Why COVID Was One of the Biggest Revenue Years

This completely blew my mind. I asked Lenny where he sees the future of door-to-door because it seemed like during COVID, people were more skeptical of door-to-door. People are more individualistic now. They want to order DoorDash and leave it at the door without looking at anyone.

Lenny's answer shocked me. Two of his most profitable and highest revenue-generating door-to-door sales summers were COVID and the housing crisis.

"100% And and this is why I love pest control," Lenny said.

He had buddies who backed off during COVID, but it depends on where you were operating and what the government was letting you do. Pest control was essential, which was great. They could service customers and canvas.

It was one of their biggest summers because everybody was home. People were answering the door all day long, not just after 5 o'clock. They talked to homeowners all the time. It was like a kid in a candy store.

People were sitting around their house, so they were probably noticing bugs more. It was the perfect blend. Not that he's calling for another pandemic, but it was a really great year for them.

That's a credit to the pest control industry and why Lenny loves it. They've been through a pandemic, bubbles bursting, housing crisis, all of it since 2003, and they're still standing strong.

How to Recruit Without Subbing Out Your Team

When I asked about recruiting door-to-door reps, Lenny gave the best advice. He said the worst thing he hears is when business owners want to sub out to a company in Utah or Idaho to hire a team for them.

That is the absolute wrong way to start if you're looking to dip your toe into door-to-door. Three reasons why:

First, the cost is crazy right now for hiring out a door-to-door team.

Second, the quality of accounts you'll get. These reps rarely know you. They barely get to know you. They're not bought into you, your culture, or your company. So the quality suffers.

Third, you're going to have horrible retention.

You're going to pay a lot for not-great accounts. Lenny would rather teach business owners how to do door-to-door themselves. It doesn't take a lot. Most of it is just networking within your personal or professional network, a church group, or something similar. Find people in their late teens to late 20s who are ambitious and competitive and willing to knock doors.

This is why Lenny's so passionate about sales training. People put so much time into recruiting and hiring. They kill themselves doing those things. Then they get a room full of reps, and their sales training is horrible. They give them a 10-page manual. Those reps aren't going to stick around. They're not going to be happy. They're not going to tell their friends. Then you have to start recruiting from ground zero next year all over again.

If you have the right sales training in place, these people have a good experience. That accelerates your recruiting because now they're telling their buddies and friends. Recruiting kind of does itself. Rather than thinking you need to be a really good recruiter, get a system for training reps so anyone you bring in will be super successful.

The Question Every Business Owner Should Ask

Lenny told me to think of it this way: if you're hiring your own kids right now, are you going to set them up for success with great training?

If you're a business owner and you don't have that yet, you should not be recruiting, especially for door-to-door.

That's brilliant advice. Set up the training system first. Then recruiting becomes easy because your reps succeed and tell their friends.

Getting to the Million Dollar Mark

I asked Lenny to break down how a pest control owner could hit that million-dollar mark. What should they expect? Is it going to take five years? Ten years? How much energy do they need to put in? Are they working 14 hours a day?

Lenny said the first thing it takes is an owner willing to do what it takes. That was his mentality and his business partner's when they started. Lenny was going to sell more accounts than he'd ever sold, however long it took. He wanted to hit a half a million in 2003, which was $850,000 in today's dollars.

That was the number where he felt like they'd have a really good shot at hiring a door-to-door team next summer and could afford them without taking on debt. The only debt they ever carried was their trucks. Lenny wasn't getting commission as an owner. His partner wasn't getting paid. They were just getting a draw on the company. The first few months, they didn't get paid anything. They each put a few thousand bucks in to get things rolling.

Best investment he ever made.

As a business owner, you have to decide what you want this to be and how you're willing to get there. Lenny was willing to answer phones. He was willing to go in at 4 in the morning and do routing before automation existed. He'd hop on a truck and spray if his business partner needed him, even though he hated it and would rather knock doors.

Both of them had that mentality where they were going to do whatever it takes. "You have to make some short-term sacrifices for long-term success I mean that's as cliche as sounds it's it's real," Lenny explained.

The first thing about getting to seven figures: you have to be locked in and willing to do whatever it takes. That's the most important thing. Everything else doesn't matter if you're not willing to do what it takes.

Software and Tools Pest Control Owners Need

Lenny uses a company called Snowball for online reputation management. When you have door-to-door reps out and your name's not familiar to people, one of the first things they'll do is Google you right there on the doorstep. If you're a three-star company, they're not talking to you anymore.

Snowball helps with reputation management, referrals, and their reputation online. Lenny felt like if they could hire somebody to do that, they could stay in their lane and focus on customer satisfaction. Making sure it's an epic experience for customers and internal customers, their employees.

Anything that detracts from those most important things, they find somebody to help with. Sometimes you can't afford not to. You need to stay where your strengths are and hire out. It's the same as picking a business partner - hire for your weaknesses.

For their CRM, they use Field Routes and Sales Routes. Lenny's COO went through all the options. He picked Field Routes because from the pest control daily operations side, it was sufficient. Then you add on Sales Routes, so now it's sufficient for their door-to-door program. Rather than trying to have two systems, they just have one.

Where Door-to-Door is Headed

Lenny's projections show over a million reps by the year 2030 knocking doors. That's massive growth.

If you're a pest control owner, you probably already deal with summer sales teams coming in taking your customers. You're pissed off about it. Lenny coaches companies on defensive strategies for door-to-door.

Or you can have the mentality of if you can't beat them, join them. Why not learn how to knock doors yourself? It doesn't have to be at the scale where you're putting on thousands of accounts. It can literally be a few hundred accounts, and that can make a huge difference in a pest control company if you know how to do it.

It's not rocket science. It's systematized. There's a way to do it. If you're willing to do it, it can change the nature of your business in terms of route efficiency.

Acquirers love door-to-door companies because everything's contained in small neighborhoods. You could send a technician and have one route in one block. You're not wasting fuel or wear and tear on vehicles.

Lenny's trained pest control company owners who don't traditionally do door-to-door but taught them how to capitalize on specific areas they want to grow. Zip codes or neighborhoods they want to grow in. They can do that with some pretty simple door-to-door tactics.

They've also been on the acquisition side buying companies. They take door-to-door teams and say, "In this zip code we're a little thin. We need 54 accounts to fill those routes right up." They deploy the door-to-door team, sell 54 accounts in that zip code, and move to the next one.

Door-to-door is a magnet for efficiency.

My Main Takeaway

The biggest thing I learned from Lenny is that door-to-door isn't dead. In fact, it's growing. By 2030, there will be over a million reps knocking doors. This isn't some outdated sales tactic. It's alive and well, and companies that figure it out will have a massive advantage.

The second takeaway is the importance of systems. Lenny's Sales Flow process works because it's teachable. Anyone can follow it. That's the difference between hiring a bunch of reps and hoping they figure it out versus having a documented system that sets everyone up for success. The system is what makes recruiting easier because your reps succeed and tell their friends.

The third thing that struck me is the ethics piece. Lenny could have made way more money over the years by training people to be pushy and manipulative. Instead, he built everything around selling the right way. That retention number - 668 out of 674 accounts - proves that ethical selling isn't just the right thing to do. It's more profitable in the long run.

The fourth insight is about business partnerships. Lenny and his partner have been together since 2003 because they complement each other. One's a sales guy, one's an operations guy. They're not both trying to do the same thing. That's why so many partnerships fail. People partner with someone who brings the exact same skills to the table.

The fifth thing is knowing what you want. Lenny doesn't have some 20-year vision board. He looks 12 to 18 months out, hits those goals, then reevaluates. That's way more realistic than trying to predict where you'll be in a decade. The business landscape changes too fast for that.

If you want to learn more from Lenny, check out his website at LennyGray.com. He's got two books out right now, "Door to Door Millionaire" and "More Door to Door Millionaire," and two more specifically for the pest control industry coming out in early 2025. You can also find him on social media at D2D Millionaire, and he's got a Mastermind group with Mark Hummel called Pest Empire Builder for pest control owners looking to scale. The guy's genuinely passionate about helping people do door-to-door the right way, and it shows.