Growth creates a different kind of marketing challenge. It is no longer just about generating more leads. It is about building the systems, technology and data needed to make better decisions as the company gets bigger.
I recently sat down with Nate, General Manager of Lutgen Companies, to talk about how that shift is taking shape inside their business and what their experience with Predictive Sales AI has looked like so far.
Our conversation covered everything from paid media and website management to Project Showcase, Audience Manager and the importance of having a marketing partner willing to test new ideas as quickly as the market is changing.
A Marketing Relationship Years in the Making
Nate has been with Lutgen Companies for roughly 20 years. He started by picking up shingles, moved through sales and production management, and eventually became General Manager as the company began preparing for a more aggressive stage of growth.
During that time, Lutgen Companies worked with several different marketing agencies and went through multiple generations of its website.
Interestingly, PSAI was not new to Nate. Lutgen Companies had originally spoken with Predictive Sales AI five or six years earlier, but at that stage of the business, Nate felt the platform was more than the company was ready to take on.
Years later, as Lutgen prepared for another website rebuild, the conversation came back around. Referrals and conversations with other contractors helped reinforce the decision to take another look.
Looking for a Partner Willing to Push the Envelope
When I asked Nate what he was looking for after working with several other marketing companies, his answer went beyond websites, ads or any single marketing service.
He wanted a partner that was not afraid of new technology.
“The confidence in your guys' use of technology to push the envelope really pushed us to kind of jump on board.”
That mindset lines up closely with how Nate approaches Lutgen Companies itself. Whether it is marketing, software or the products being installed on a jobsite, he wants the company looking ahead rather than waiting for the rest of the market to move first.
A Stronger Foundation Is Starting to Show Up in the Numbers
Nate pointed to the new website, the ability to continually build out project and product content, and improving paid media performance as contributing pieces of that growth.
More importantly, those pieces are beginning to work together rather than functioning as disconnected marketing tactics.
Seeing Life in an Area That Had Historically Been a Struggle
One of the areas Nate was particularly encouraged by was paid search.
Nate described PPC as one of Lutgen Companies' historically hardest and most expensive marketing channels. Seeing those campaigns begin to gain momentum has been an important early win.
From Printing Photos for Home Shows to Publishing Projects in Minutes
One of my favorite parts of the conversation was hearing Nate compare Project Showcase to how contractors used to market their work.
Years ago, Lutgen Companies would print photos, put them into a physical book and bring that book to a home show. Today, Nate sees Project Showcase as the modern version of that same idea—except the company can continually put new work in front of homeowners online.
Instead of updating a website gallery a few times a year, Nate said he had uploaded roughly 40 to 60 photos in a single week while fitting the work into small openings in his normal schedule.
Giving the Business More Control Without Requiring a Developer
Nate was also clear about something that matters when introducing any new technology: if the internal team cannot realistically use it, the feature does not mean much.
He does not consider himself a marketer or a website developer. Yet after one short walkthrough, he was able to begin building and publishing projects himself.
Using Marketing Data to Help Decide Where Growth Comes Next
Audience Manager is a newer part of Lutgen Companies' PSAI adoption, but it may ultimately become one of the most strategically important.
Nate has already started building audiences as the company evaluates cities and neighborhoods on the edges of its current market. He is looking at factors such as the number and age of homes in an area and comparing them against the characteristics of the homeowners Lutgen Companies has historically served best.
The significance here is bigger than building an advertising list. The same data used to target a campaign can also help the company make more educated decisions about where expansion makes sense.
Better Information Before the Next Marketing Dollar Is Spent
The next step is taking those audiences and turning them into increasingly targeted campaigns.
Communication Has Been One of the Biggest Wins
Technology came up throughout our conversation, but when I asked Nate about his biggest win with PSAI, his answer was simpler: communication.
He described the PSAI team as exceptional compared with previous experiences and said that when a question comes up, he knows he can reach out and get an answer.
That responsiveness has also made Nate more comfortable bringing new ideas to the table. Rather than defaulting to the way something has always been done, the teams can talk through whether an idea makes sense, what the data says and when the right time is to test it.
Knowing When to Speed Up—and When to Wait for More Data
Being willing to innovate does not mean chasing every new idea immediately.
That balance is increasingly important in a marketing environment being reshaped by AI, automation and rapidly changing consumer behavior.
Reducing the Number of Vendors Lutgen Companies Has to Manage
For roughly two years, Nate has intentionally been working to reduce the number of separate vendors Lutgen Companies relies on.
The goal is not consolidation for its own sake. It is creating deeper relationships with partners that understand more of the business, its customers and where the company wants to go.
A Platform Built for People Who Are Running the Business
Near the end of our conversation, I asked Nate what he would tell another contractor who was considering Predictive Sales AI.
His answer came back to the same theme we had discussed throughout the interview: giving people inside the business powerful marketing technology without requiring them to become marketing or development experts themselves.
More Data. More Control. Smarter Growth.
Lutgen Companies is still early in what Nate sees as the potential of the relationship. Paid media is gaining traction. Project Showcase is becoming part of the company's routine. Audience Manager is beginning to influence how the team evaluates markets and neighborhoods. And the data behind those tools is becoming a bigger part of the company's growth strategy.
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