Free playbook · 2026 edition
The busiest weeks of the year are coming. Most offices will miss half of them.
From Thanksgiving to New Year’s, demand goes up and availability goes down. The Holiday Playbook shows you how to be the company that answers, books the job, and still sits down to dinner.
- Read time: 20 minutes
- Set-up time: One afternoon
- Covers: Thanksgiving to mid-January
- Written for: Owners who still answer the phone
Free download
Get the Holiday Playbook
Six moves you can set up in an afternoon, written for the owner who still answers the phone. Free, as a PDF.
The pattern we see most
A homeowner calls three companies on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Two go to voicemail. The third answers, or texts back within a minute, and books the job.
The first two companies never find out they lost it. There is no record of the call in their system. The lead just disappears.
Every move in this playbook exists to make sure you are the third company.
What’s inside
Eight short chapters. Six moves. One afternoon.
Why the holidays break booking
Demand goes up, availability goes down, and the weeks with the most calls become the weakest weeks for booking.
The five-minute after-hours test
Call your own number tonight from a phone that isn't in your system. Five minutes tells you more than any report.
Coverage before the rush
Three levels of coverage, from a simple rotation to a front desk that never closes, and how to set up the one you can actually run.
What to say on a holiday call
A script for the stressed homeowner who expects to be told no, and how to book them for the next open day without losing them.
Deposits and held dates
Three ways to hold a date, and the exact words that make it feel like confirming an address, not asking a favor.
Routing the overflow
The ladder for the day the schedule is full and the phone keeps ringing, so nobody leaves with nothing.
The January sweep
How to recover every lead that slipped through in December. Usually the easiest revenue of the quarter.
The one-page checklist
Everything above on one sheet, written for the person who answers the phone.
A page from inside
The dates that matter, the way your phone sees them.
Every one of these dates needs a named person covering the line. The full table runs from the day before Thanksgiving to the first week of January, with what to expect on each one.
The owner on the rotation
Your cell is still the main line after 5 PM. The playbook gets you off the whole rotation without going dark.
The office manager
You are the one who finds the weekend voicemails on Monday. Sections three and four are written for your desk.
The team with no after-hours plan
Calls roll to voicemail the moment the office closes. Start with the five-minute test, then pick a coverage level you can run.
FAQ
Common questions
Be the company that answers.
If you only do one thing from the playbook, do the after-hours test in section two. It takes five minutes.
Free download
Get the Holiday Playbook
Six moves you can set up in an afternoon, written for the owner who still answers the phone. Free, as a PDF.
Want to see where your own business is leaking first? Run the 90-second Revenue Diagnostic