Spring is here, and for most of us in the equipment rental space, that means one thing: it is go time. The busy season is here, and growth is the name of the game. I sat down with Dan Crowley, CEO of the Peer Executive Groups, on episode 102 of the Rental Roundtable to talk through what is actually working right now in sales, marketing, and growth.
Dan works with hundreds of rental companies through his peer groups, so he has a clear view of what the best operators are doing differently. This post breaks down the biggest takeaways from that conversation so you can put them to work in your own shop.
If you run a growing rental operation and feel like sales and marketing have taken a back seat to the daily grind, you are not alone. The good news is that most of the moves Dan and I talked about do not require a big budget. They just require a plan and the discipline to follow through.
How the Rental Industry Is Performing Right Now
Before we get into tactics, it helps to know where the equipment rental industry stands. The honest answer is that it depends. It depends on your state, your city, and the category you’re in. General tool and homeowner-focused shops are still seeing growth, but it is moderate, around 5 percent. The heavy construction side is a different story.
Dan told me the heavy iron and aerial categories are flying. Some of his peer group members are reporting growth rates that are hard to believe.
“The 12 over 12 growth rate is crazy. It’s over 20 percent right now. We had a couple people reporting close to 30, 40 percent.” (2:45)
That kind of growth does not happen by accident. A big part of it comes down to focus. The operators pulling ahead stopped waiting for the phone to ring and started building a real sales and marketing operation. That is exactly what we dug into next.
Recommended Resource: The Equipment Rental Business Performance Calculator
Building a Sales Engine That Actually Grows Your Business
Here is something I believe deep down: most rental companies underinvest in sales and marketing. We love equipment. We wake up with five operational problems to solve, and selling gets pushed to next week. But the operators who are growing carved out time for it, and it shows. Here are the sales moves Dan recommends, starting with the easiest to implement today.
Start With Inside Sales and Your Existing Customers
You do not need to hire anyone to start growing. Your best revenue often comes from the customers you already have. Dan shared a simple play that works: have your counter staff make outbound calls in the afternoon when foot traffic slows down. Then make it a contest, especially if you have multiple locations.
“When you make a contest out of it, especially if you have multilocation, it can bring some incredible results.” (15:30)
The script does not have to be fancy. Have your team reach back to past customers and start a conversation. Something like: “Hey, haven’t seen you around. Last April we were doing this. What are you working on this spring?” That kind of check-in opens the door and costs nothing but an hour a day. Every company has slack in the schedule. One hour of outreach each afternoon adds up to a full extra day of sales effort every week.
Always Ask for the Referral
While your team is on the phone, they should ask one more question: do you know anyone else I can help? Referrals are the warmest leads you can get, and the close rate is higher than most people expect. A simple frame works well: “We grow our business on referrals. We love talking to people who struggle getting equipment on time. Who comes to mind?”
Hiring and Paying Your First Outside Sales Rep
Once your team is working the phones, the next step is an outside sales rep. A lot of owners freeze up here. They have had bad experiences, or they are not sure how to manage someone in that role. Dan’s advice is to treat that hire the same way you treat a fleet purchase. You are investing in something that pays back over time.
“We like to see a person invest in their outside rental staff similar to the way they invest in their fleet assets.” (20:10)
You will not break even right away, and that is okay. Plan to draw on your balance sheet to bring that person on. One quick hiring tip that stuck with me came from one of Dan’s members, Grant Christopher: if you do not enjoy talking to your sales candidate during the interview, your customer will not enjoy talking to them either. Hire someone who is smooth, likable, and easy to spend time with.
Recommended Resource: Episode #64 – How Intentional Sales & Niche Focus Win in Rental
Sales Compensation Benchmarks
For a general tool rental operation, a typical base salary is around $40,000. You cover the rep up to roughly $80,000 to $90,000 in their first year through guarantees, then scale back the base as they grow into a commission-heavy plan. The goal is for that rep to earn $120,000 to $130,000 over time, with the business generating about three times their compensation in gross profit.
On the heavy construction side, roughly double those numbers. Bases around $80,000, with reps eventually generating a couple million in gross profit each.
Do Not Sleep on Sub-Rental Partnerships
When utilization climbs and you run low on certain equipment, you do not have to turn the customer away. You can re-rent from a trusted partner. Sub-renting used to carry a stigma, but Dan has seen groups of independent operators build real partner networks that help everyone fill inventory gaps. One group in North Carolina runs almost entirely on re-rent revenue and has a solid business.
There is nothing to be ashamed of here. You may not own the asset, but you own the customer relationship and the service experience. Just go in with your eyes open. Re-renting will compress your gross margin percentage because you make less profit per deal, so measure it carefully and make sure your partner matches your quality standards. Done right, those dollars help cover overhead and fund growth.
How AI Is Changing Marketing and Lead Generation
Marketing and lead generation look different from what they did a year ago, and AI is the reason. This is where I get genuinely interested, because the tools are finally doing work that nobody on your team ever has consistent time for.
Make AI a Daily Habit in Your Business
You do not need to be a tech expert to start. Dan suggests every business should have an AI champion, someone who spends a little time each day learning the tools. He treats it like a daily habit, doing 20 minutes of AI work every morning. One approach he likes is using the tools against each other. He will build something in ChatGPT, then hand it to Claude and ask it to pick the work apart and suggest improvements. It is a straightforward way to sharpen your ideas fast.
AI Agents That Grow and Protect Your Revenue
At Quipli, we built Quinn, which we think of as a team of AI agents, each with its own specific job. These are not generic chatbots. They take real action on your behalf, doing the work that people rarely have time to do consistently.
The Website Chatbot That Books Rentals
One agent answers chats on your website 24 hours a day, asks the customer what they need, gives pricing, and books the rental. I told a four-location group about it, and they turned it on before it was even ready for full production. The results spoke for themselves.
“The good news is people are using it and engaging with it, and we’re getting brand new customers, really big customers.” (7:50)
Even on day zero, with early bugs and not ready for scale, it pulled in two new renters, including a large contractor. If you could add two new customers a day by clicking a button, would you do it? That is where things are headed, and it only gets better from here.
Permit-Crawling Agents for Proactive Outreach
Another agent watches for new construction permits, summarizes them, and emails your sales rep with the builder’s contact info and likely rental needs. We had a case in Utah where a permit was issued and within seconds the agent had crawled the web, pulled the details, and handed the rep a warm lead. The rep called right away and booked two rentals on the spot. If your competitor is getting that lead in seconds and you find out a week later, you have already lost it.
Predicting and Preventing Customer Churn
Not every agent grows revenue. Some protect what you already have. We built one that predicts churn. It flags the customer who used to rent every month but has gone quiet and ignored your last three calls. That is a high-risk account you should reach out to today. The agent is not smarter than a good employee. It just does the work nobody has the time or bandwidth to do consistently.
“It’s not replacing people. It’s doing the work that people don’t have time to do.” (11:20)
Recommended Resource: Episode #90 – The Rental Playbook for 2026
Your Spring Growth Game Plan
Dan’s closing advice follows a clear order. Start by knowing your numbers. Look at fleet utilization by category and study your missed rentals. That tells you where you have room to sell more.
Once you know you have capacity to grow, run a two-track approach. Inside, get your team on the phones in the afternoon, run a contest, and ask for referrals. Outside, do not be afraid to hire that first sales rep and use route planning tools to help them see more customers in a day than they could before.
Weave the AI tools through all of it. Whether it is a chatbot booking rentals on your site, an agent surfacing fresh permit leads, or a tool flagging at-risk customers, the technology is ready to take real work off your plate. As I keep telling operators, this is the worst AI will ever be. Every single day it gets better, so the sooner you start, the further ahead you will be.
Take advantage of what is in front of you this season. Know your capacity, commit time to sales and marketing, and do not be afraid to invest in your people and your tools. It works.
