Get paid for the conversation
you already have.
You're on a service call for a leaky faucet. You spot the twelve-year-old tank in the garage. You mention it to the homeowner. Nothing happens — until the tank fails at 2 am six months later and the emergency-replacement guy pockets a $600 markup. We want to fix that, and pay you for the scouting.
You're already the trusted voice in that house.
The homeowner called you. They trust your read on their mechanical systems. If you say "your tank's on its last year," they believe it. What they don't have is an easy next step — pricing, rebates, scheduling — that doesn't force them back into a research spiral.
Kettle is that next step. You can hand them off for a flat referral fee, or you can be the installer we route the job to. Both tiers pay well. Neither asks for exclusivity.
We're not competing with you for emergency replacements. We can't beat a same-day truck. We're taking the planned-replacement window that's already slipping through everyone's fingers.
You bill the homeowner for labor at your normal rate. You buy the equipment from us at wholesale and keep the markup. You pay us a flat lead fee per closed job — drops from $450 to $250 as you scale. No rebate chasing, no QMID lookups, no Form 5695. We handle the paperwork, you run the wrench.
Refer, install, or both.
The fee drops as you scale.
We don't sign anyone to a contract that loses them money. Every ZIP we operate in, we rebalance the lead fee against local labor rates and rebate stack so the partner's effective hourly stays at or above their organic rate. The published schedule:
| Tier | Volume | Lead fee | ZIP exclusivity | Warranty service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | Onboarding · 0–4/mo | $450 | Open ZIP | — |
| Silver | 5–14/mo | $350 | Dispatch priority | First-call right of refusal |
| Gold | 15+/mo | $250 | Exclusive | Exclusive in your ZIP |
What a typical Austin install looks like for you.
At Silver: cash net ~$179 (effective ~$459). At Gold: cash net ~$279 (effective ~$559). Equivalent to your organic close at Gold — with predictable schedule and zero admin time.
Different ZIPs have different labor rates, different rebate stacks, different equipment costs. We model every cell before we push a lead. If your effective hourly drops below $30/hr at Bronze, the lead doesn't get sent to you — we either offer it at a reduced fee or we eat the difference.
Concretely: in higher-cost-of-living ZIPs (NYC, SF) we lean more on equipment markup and less on lead fee. In lower-cost ZIPs (rural TX, deep South) we lean more on the lead fee. The ladder above is the Austin baseline. Your offer letter spells out your specific ZIP.
Our commitment: no signed partner ever loses money on a Kettle lead. If the math breaks, we route it elsewhere or eat the spread.
Apply, ship stickers, start.
- 01
License check
Upload your plumbing or HVAC license and insurance cert. For the refer tier, we just verify. For the install tier, we also confirm 240 V service experience and schedule a fifteen-minute intro call.
- 02
Gear arrives
Refer tier: a hundred pre-printed stickers in the mail within a week. Install tier: the same, plus a dispatch-app invite, a technical brief on Rheem and AO Smith install quirks, and your ZIP routing turned on.
- 03
Paid by ACH
One payout every Friday covering all completed installs from the prior week that sit past their cancellation window. 1099s at year end. Our ops team is a text message away.
The gotchas.
- Do I have to drop other vendors?
- No. Refer or install Rheem, Home Depot, or anyone else on the same truck. Our QR only tracks Kettle bookings.
- What if I'm already selling tanks directly?
- Keep doing it. If a homeowner says no to your standalone quote, that's when the Kettle sticker earns its keep — you still get paid on the booking you didn't close.
- What about warranty service later?
- Install tier contractors get first right of refusal on warranty calls in their ZIP. Paid at standard service rates, not referral-only.
- Is there a quota?
- No quota on the refer tier. On the install tier, the Bronze ladder has no minimum — but you stay at $450 lead fee until you hit Silver volume (5+/month). At 5+/month you drop to $350. At 15+/month you drop to $250 with exclusive ZIP rights. There's no penalty for staying Bronze; the tiers reward scale, they don't punish.
- What if the math doesn't work in my ZIP?
- We model every ZIP's labor rate, rebate stack, and equipment cost before sending leads. If the partner economics fall below a fair effective hourly at Bronze, we either offer the lead at a reduced fee or route it elsewhere. Our commitment: no signed partner loses money on a Kettle lead. The full schedule for your ZIP appears in your offer letter.
- Which brands do I install?
- Rheem ProTerra (50/65/80 gal), AO Smith Voltex (50/66/80 gal), Bradford White AeroTherm G2 (50/65/80 gal). All Energy Star QMID units, all US-built. We pick per job based on what fits the panel and form factor.