Inside Pantheon

ServiceTitan hosted its annual Pantheon event this week and was friendly enough to invite me. Beyond the typical schmoozing — “Contractors, this new feature is gonna be huge for you” — it was fun and well put together. 

And, in a good way, it had everything you’d expect when you cram 4,000 people into a Marriott: Product announcements, educational sessions, and a hint of drama. 

Some quick hits from my notebook: 

💻️ Products: ServiceTitan launched two new Pro products: Contact Center Pro and SalesPro. 

• Contact Center Pro unifies email, phone, web, and social media messages into a universal inbox, managed by virtual assistants. 

• SalesPro, built in partnership with Siro, a competitor of Rilla, the event’s main sponsor, records and analyzes in-home sales conversations, allowing managers to perform virtual ride-alongs with field professionals. 

• I talked to Rilla’s CEO to get a pulse check after the announcement, and I thought his viewpoint made sense: Siro aside, by launching SalesPro, ServiceTitan, in a way, validated the product category. 

👌 Incentives: Rainforest Plumbing & Air’s co-owners delivered a simple yet insightful talk on structuring reward programs and incentivizing employees. 

• The company uses the “CATS” framework for designing incentives: Clear, Attainable, Trackable, and Scaleable. 

• For example, it rewards technicians for every 5-star review. The program is clear because it’s specific — 5 stars or nothing. It’s attainable since it’s ongoing, trackable in ServiceTitan and Awardco, their reward software, and scaleable because, in their case, it’s low-cost. 

👨‍💼 Operations: A panel featuring the CEOs of ARS, Flint Group, and TurnPoint Services covered industry changes, day-to-day operations, and more.

• ARS: “I’m thinking about comfort advisor pay right now because of price increases. If you’re paying a percentage of the sale and the average ticket shoots up, that’s a big raise you have to give them.”

• Flint: “From 2020 to 2022, it was like fish in a barrel. It was easy to sell. But I don’t think the industry’s changed much. You block and tackle, present options, answer the phones, and collect money. Do the normal stuff really well.” 

• TurnPoint: “I would hire for competencies. I don’t think there’s a right place to find people; they come from all over — car dealerships, bars. The competencies you’re looking for… write them down. And then have the discipline to onboard those people.”

The bottom line: I wish I could have attended more panels, but all in all, I got a good vibe from my conversations. Everyone seemed to be on the same page — among the announcements, panels, and coffee breaks — thinking simply about how to grow, serve customers, and do the right thing.

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