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Chris Cisneros, the owner of Diamond Plumbing, didn’t start with a roadmap.
At 16, he was helping his dad — a one-man-in-a-truck plumber — generate leads.
The “office” was the back of his mom’s thrift store.
Calls were answered by family.
Vans were parked at home because there wasn’t any parking.
For the first three years, they made the same mistake most new operators make: they focused 100% on field work while ignoring the office.
Every fire was a field fire.
Every problem was solved with tools, not systems.
They guessed at numbers, checked the bank account, and hoped profit would show up at the end of the year.
It didn’t.
That changed when Chris started seeking out mentorship.
Instead of winging it, he invested in guidance in the form of a $200/month mentorship group. That group reshaped the future of Diamond Plumbing.
With mentorship, he stopped guessing. With sales training, he proved to skeptical technicians that a system worked.
At just 18 years old, Chris ran trial runs himself. He showed that by using emotional sales techniques, average tickets could triple. Once the techs saw results, they bought in.
At the same time, he shifted attention from the field to the office. Numbers became non-negotiable:
- Booking rates — not just how many leads came in, but how many were actually booked.
- Speed to lead — the faster the response, the higher the conversion.
- Customer acquisition cost — the real measure of whether marketing dollars were paying off.
By tracking these metrics, Chris built a business that could grow on purpose instead of by accident.
Why Mentorship Matters
Chris’s story is proof that mentorship compresses time.
Instead of spending years learning by failure, you can buy speed:
- Mentorship exposes blind spots you don’t know you have.
- Sales training transforms “just give a price” techs into revenue drivers.
- Proven systems eliminate the guesswork of pricing, closing, and profitability.
It’s hard to fathom, but $200 a month turned out to be the highest-ROI investment he ever made.
Staffing the Right Way
Hiring was another turning point.
When their CSR left, Chris tried local replacements and couldn’t find one. Out of necessity, he convinced his dad to try overseas staffing. It worked.
One CSR became three, covering nearly 24 hours of the day. Overseas talent now backs up their office manager and answering service, creating a system that supports growth instead of bottlenecking it.
The lesson?
Don’t wait for the “perfect” local hire. Test, prove, and scale with global talent if that’s what gets the phones answered.
Lessons for Operators
When you’re building or buying, ask yourself these questions:
- Am I learning the hard way, or am I paying to learn faster from someone who’s already done it?
- Do I know my booking rate, speed to lead, and CAC—or am I still guessing from the bank balance?
- Am I proving systems with trial runs and quick wins before asking my team to buy in?
- Am I solving staffing bottlenecks creatively, or waiting for a unicorn hire?
Final Word
You can’t scale on guesswork. You just can’t.
Chris proved that mentorship plus disciplined office focus is what turns a one-truck shop in the back of a thrift store into a company with multiple trucks, nine employees, and 24-hour coverage.
