Earning plumbers' trust with humility

In this episode of To The Point Home Services Podcast, Chris and Chad sit down with Tony Patino, President of Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical, to unpack one of the most impressive leadership journeys in the home services industry.

Tony joined Abacus in 2017 from outside home services. Fast-forward to today, and he’s helped scale the company from roughly $30M to over $100M+, while expanding service lines, redesigning systems, and building elite teams across multiple trades.

This conversation is loaded with practical insights for operators, leaders, GMs, and anyone looking to grow inside (or break into) the home services world.

⭐ What You’ll Learn

• How Tony transitioned from retail, Aramark, and moving services into plumbing/HVAC/electrical
• How to earn trust from seasoned technicians when you’re “not from the trades”
• The mindset that helped Tony scale Abacus through major transitions:
• new facility
• ServiceTitan rollout
• adding electrical
• building water treatment
• launching generators
• Why humility, curiosity, and solving simple technician pain points are core to leadership
• How Abacus built a unified sales process across trades
• Why cross-selling and a single “VIP Membership” structure transformed their business
• Lessons from working with industry legends like Alan O’Neill, Kevin Comerford, Darryl Bingham & others
• The biggest hiring mistakes—and the one sales hire that changed everything
• What contractors consistently overlook when building new verticals

Whether you’re at $3M or $300M, Tony breaks down the frameworks that actually move the needle.

⏱️ Timecodes

00:00 – Intro: gloomy weather, fat-face jokes, and basketball trash talk

01:16 – Introducing guest: Tony Patino

02:00 – Tony’s background: retail → Aramark → moving → recruited to Abacus

05:00 – Why being a “student of the game” matters

05:25 – Tony’s first podcast ever

06:00 – Early management lessons & leadership foundations

07:30 – Getting recruited… twice

09:23 – How Tony won over plumbers without being a plumber

12:00 – Misconceptions Tony had about the industry

14:00 – How he built trust with techs & managers

16:40 – Rolling out ServiceTitan and using tech to earn credibility

18:45 – Little changes that fix big technician pain points

20:00 – Growing electrical and learning multiple trades

24:00 – Mentorship from industry giants & learning from Wrench Group leaders

25:50 – Deep dive: building water treatment as a real vertical

27:30 – Launching generators the right way

28:50 – The biggest internal gap Tony identified: sales leadership

29:40 – Hiring the wrong sales leader—and fixing it fast

32:00 – Merging new and existing sales teams without destroying culture

36:00 – Cross-selling across trades: where contractors mess this up

38:00 – Building a unified VIP membership

41:00 – Why Abacus scaled fast—and what’s next

🔗 Resources & Mentions

• Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning & Electrical — https://www.abacusplumbing.net/

• Wrench Group — https://www.wrenchgroup.com/

• ServiceTitan — https://www.servicetitan.com/

🙌 Connect With the Guest

• Tony Patino — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonypatino/

Thank you to our Sponsors!

Basic Capital: http://basiccapital.com/tothepoint

Chiirp: https://chiirp.com/

Contractor Commerce: https://www.contractorcommerce.com/ryno/

Bluon: https://www.bluon.com/get-demo?referral_code=ToThePoint

Avoca.ai: https://avoca.ai/r/tothepoint

👍 Enjoying the Podcast? Do Us a Quick Favor!

If you found value in this episode, help us keep making great content:

✅ Subscribe to the channel

💬 Drop a comment with your biggest takeaway

🔁 Share this episode with your team or another operator

🔔 Turn on notifications so you never miss an episode