What Alliance Heating & Air learned when it decided to grow
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For more than four decades, Alliance Heating & Air Conditioning built a successful business without formal marketing. The Connecticut-based company developed a strong reputation, a steady referral pipeline, and approximately $14 million in annual revenue. But when owners Chuck Wilkerson and Kane D’Amico began thinking about the company’s next chapter, the question was no longer how to maintain what they had built. It was how to grow it intentionally.
Many ACCA members will already know D’Amico. In addition to serving as Vice President of Alliance, he has been actively involved with ACCA for years through committee leadership and currently serves on ACCA’s Board of Directors and as Chair of the ACCA Events Committee. When he and Wilkerson decided to grow Alliance’s residential service and replacement business, they realized the company would need to approach growth differently.
Cornerstone Advertising recently documented the first year of that journey in a 2026 case study, From “We Don’t Market” to “We’re Scaling.” What makes Alliance’s story particularly relevant for contractors is that the company didn’t begin marketing because the business was struggling. It began because its existing model could only take it so far.
When more demand reveals more about the business
Alliance entered the process knowing it needed to create more demand for service and replacement. The company rebuilt its website, launched its first paid digital campaigns, increased its visibility, and began establishing tracking and attribution.
The marketing worked, and that created an unexpected lesson.
As more opportunities came in, Alliance quickly saw where its existing structure and capacity would make it difficult to scale. At one point, paid lead generation was paused while the company addressed those constraints. Wilkerson described an organization where people had become accustomed to “wearing 12 hats.” The increased demand made it clear that what had worked for the company historically would not necessarily support where it wanted to go next.
Marketing had done more than generate leads. It had exposed where the business needed to evolve.
Finding the right kind of marketing partner
That broader view of growth also shaped what D’Amico and Wilkerson wanted from a marketing partner. Alliance had never had internal marketing expertise, and D’Amico had met plenty of marketing providers through his years of involvement with ACCA. They weren’t looking for someone to simply manage a few digital channels.
Wilkerson describes their search as looking for a “one-stop shop” capable of addressing the entire marketing picture. Many of the firms they considered were primarily digital, while Alliance wanted access to both digital and traditional marketing as its strategy evolved.
For D’Amico, another distinction became equally important: education.
“When we ask questions, we get good answers and good explanations,” he says. “So early on, that’s what made us so comfortable with working with Cornerstone.”
That understanding became increasingly valuable as Alliance gained better visibility into its marketing. Tracking and attribution began replacing assumptions with actual information. As D’Amico puts it, having real data rather than simply saying “I think it’s working” has been “a big confidence booster.”
Contractors don’t need to become marketing experts. But if marketing is expected to help drive the next stage of the business, leadership should understand what it is designed to accomplish, why the strategy makes sense, and whether the numbers support the decisions being made.
Building for what comes next
Alliance is still early in its growth journey. Its first year has largely been about building the infrastructure, systems, visibility, and strategy needed to support what comes next. The longer-term goal is ambitious: double the business by 2028.
For contractors planning for 2027, Alliance’s experience offers an important perspective. Growth isn’t simply a matter of increasing the marketing budget or generating more leads. The strategy, systems, capacity, and people behind the marketing all influence what happens when more opportunities start coming through the door.
Alliance started this process looking for a way to grow service and replacement. Along the way, D’Amico and Wilkerson discovered that preparing marketing to scale also meant preparing the business to scale.
Read the full Alliance Heating & Air case study
There is much more to Alliance’s story. In From “We Don’t Market” to “We’re Scaling,” D’Amico and Wilkerson share how Alliance approached its first formal marketing program, what happened when new demand began coming through the door, and what the company is putting in place for its next stage of growth.
Download the full Alliance Heating & Air case study here
Exclusive ACCA Member Marketing Review
As you plan for 2027, consider one question: Will your current marketing and advertising program get you to the sales number you’re trying to reach?
Cornerstone Advertising offers ACCA members a complimentary one-on-one ACCA Member Marketing Review to look at where you want the business to go, what your current marketing is designed to produce, and whether the two realistically line up.
Schedule your complimentary ACCA Member Marketing Review.
- What Alliance Heating & Air learned when it decided to grow - November 9, 2026
- Why Your 2027 Marketing Plan Shouldn’t Start With a Budget - October 13, 2026
- Helping home service contractors grow with clarity, consistency, and accountability - January 27, 2026
Posted In: Corp Partner Spotlight, Marketing
