Welcome to “Mission Critical,” a brand new series from KnowHow that explores how today's restoration leaders are navigating the industry's most urgent challenges. Sales are soft, margins are thin, and getting paid feels like pulling teeth. In this series, we spotlight elite restorers who share battle-tested systems and strategies from the trenches.

Each feature dives into specific tactics leaders use when everything's on the line—from stabilizing cash flow to driving profitable growth in unpredictable markets.

If you want concrete strategies to hit your sales numbers and produce work profitably, you're in the right place. Expect real advice, actionable insights, and takeaways from leaders who've been through the storm and come out sharper.

Ready for the mission brief?

The customer, who’s the headmaster of a private school, is mid-sentence when Nate Weathers does something most sales leaders won’t.

He stops talking.

After listening for a bit, he asks: “If we built an emergency response program for you specifically, what would that look like?”

Silence. Pen hovering. Notebook open.

The headmaster lights up and starts talking: Fast response, so students don’t miss class when the lab floods (parents paying expensive tuition expect continuity). No nightmare of coordinating contractors during a crisis. Most of all, a partner who understands that schools can't just shut down for a week.

Nate writes it all down.

He'll have this same conversation eight more times over the next three months. Different schools. Same question. More notes.

“We shut up and took notes,” Nate recalls. “We did that again and again and again.”

At the end, he examined every conversation until he found the patterns. Then, he built a program from the customers’ exact words.

“I felt like we had the playbook to win the game before we even snapped the ball,” Nate says. 

Most restoration companies tell sales reps to go figure out what customers want. Nate Weathers, who oversees market development for Southeast Restoration's 21 representatives across seven cities, does the opposite.

He figures out what the customers want first. Builds the playbook. Then hands it to his reps.

The playbook tells them what to say. The data tells him if they're saying it.  

Separating Fact From Fiction With Pipeline Tracking

Nate has a label stuck to the bottom of one of his monitors: “Drive with the data.”

“Before being part of Southeast, I didn't drive with the data or the metrics that I needed to,” Nate admits. “But the analytics tools that we have these days allow me to separate that fact from the fiction.”

Fact from fiction. Wheat from chaff—digging into what matters.

Because sales reps are good storytellers. “Great dinner last week. Really positive conversation. This is looking good.”

Nate got tired of listening to stories.

“It ended up being story time, and I finally decided I'm not gonna listen to the story.”

The solution? A pipeline that forces clarity.

“If it's not in the CRM, it didn't happen.”

The pipeline has stages. You can't advance without completing specific actions. Partnership agreements signed? To Nate, “that's the crack of the gun at the start of the race” because his team still hasn’t earned their business or their referrals.

Cutting Dead Weight So Reps Can Go Deep

The pipeline also reveals the accounts that aren't producing.

Southeast flags accounts with zero business in 12+ months. When reps see the list, they panic.

“Salespeople know exactly what I'm talking about,” Nate says. “They don't wanna let go of that person.”

The resistance is always the same. That person really likes me. We have a great relationship.

Nate's response: “That's great, but they're not referring business. They love you. They love all the gifts that you give. It's great that you know when their birthday is. Outside of that, there's not a lot of depth business-wise.”

The off chance that one person, one time a year, is gonna give them a million-dollar job keeps reps hanging on.

But Nate forces the cut.

“When they're not seeing traction month after month after month, we cut 'em. I tell my reps to upgrade.” 

Upgrade means finding someone better, possibly with higher potential, but definitely with a clearer pain point and authority to pull the trigger. 

Nate’s reasoning is simple. “I have found in my career,” he explains, “that less is definitely more and that allows you to go deeper.”
 

Quality Sales Touches vs. Route Stops

What does “deeper” actually mean?

“We hate using the words route stops,” Nate says. “That's what the USPS does. We do quality sales touches.”

Quality means researching questions that reveal pain points before every customer visit. Getting past surface-level conversations, as Nate puts it. 

“I have a really hard time with just drop-bys. Hey, how are you doing? Here's some candy. That's not quality. You're not at the deeper level where you're starting to really understand that person's business.”

The data tells you which accounts are stuck at 101. Then it's on the rep to upgrade. 

Four Verticals in 2025, Zero in 2026

That “go deep, not wide” mindset shows up in how Southeast approaches growth.

In 2025, Southeast released four new vertical programs. When Nate announced the plan for 2026, his team took a sigh of relief.

Zero new programs.

“When I told my team, they took a sigh of relief because I've put four new ones on ‘em last year. But what we are doing is doubling down on each one of those vertical markets.”

Most companies add programs when revenue slows. Southeast does the opposite.

“Don't be the company that goes and chases every shiny thing,” Nate says, because “that's a losing recipe.”
 

Hungry, Humble, Smart—In That Order

Not everyone can execute a system built on deep preparation and ruthless accountability.

Nate uses Patrick Lencioni's framework to source talent: hungry, humble, smart.

“Notice the order there. They gotta want it,” Nate explains.

Hungry means wanting it bad enough to cut things that aren’t working. Humble means being coachable. Smart means being able to execute the playbook.

“A lot of folks are really smart, and they know it, but they're not hungry, and they're definitely not humble,” Nate observes. “I've watched a lot of very intelligent people run businesses into the ground.”

Intelligence without hunger is just arrogance with a business card.

“You can buy smart, but you can't buy hungry and humble. Those have to be there from day one.”

Southeast builds these people internally through rigorous development plans and role-playing in every training. “I know that sounds old-fashioned,” Nate admits. But old-fashioned works.

Building the Weapon Before Sending Reps Into Battle

Most sales leaders think preparation and accountability are in tension.

Build relationships OR drive metrics. Care about people OR hold them accountable.

Nate proved they're the same thing.

The months spent interviewing customers? That's building a foundation reps can actually use.

Pipeline tracking who's stuck? That's spotting problems before reps have to admit they're drowning.

The forced account purge? That's simply freeing people from dead weight so they can go deep where it matters.

When you have 21 reps across seven cities, you can't be in every conversation. But you can give them a playbook designed to win. Then track whether they're winning with it.

Nate’s approach shows that great leaders don’t have to choose between care and data.

Instead, they can simply use data to care at scale.

What You Can Learn from Nate:

• Build Playbooks From Customer Interviews. Spend months asking: “If we built this for you, what would it look like?” Shut up and take notes. Build programs from customer language before reps make the first call.
• Separate Fact From Fiction With Pipeline Tracking. “If it's not in CRM, it didn't happen” helps to keep tension on what’s moving or not moving.
• Cut the Stagnant 20%, Mandate the Upgrade. Flag accounts with zero business for 12+ months. Force the cut. Less is more. Deeper beats wider.
• Hire Hungry, Humble, Smart—In That Order. Hungry first because you can buy/build intelligence. You can't buy hunger and humility.
• Go Deep Before Going Wide. Doubling down beats chasing shiny things.