Oct 20

Marketers: Want to Grow Like the Companies That Actually Exit? 7 Profit Secrets from an Investment Banker Who’s Sold Them

Selling more contracts isn’t the goal. Making more money is. Too many marketers chase top-line volume and ignore the hidden costs eating their margin—cancellations, poor targeting, slow mail, and comp plans that reward the wrong behavior. If you want exponential growth that actually sticks to the bottom line, start here. 1. Study Your Cancellation Curve […]

Oct 16

September 2025 Housing Market Analysis for Home Warranty Providers

The Great Standoff: September Housing Data Shows a Market Waiting for a Spark Summary: The fall chill isn’t just in the air—it’s settling into the housing market. September’s data reveals a slow-motion stalemate between buyers and sellers, with builders once again driving what little momentum exists. For home warranty providers, this split market demands precision: […]

Oct 16

F&I Trends Q2 2025: Profit Resilience Amid Tariff Turbulence

Even with tariff headlines and affordability concerns, F&I performance stayed solid in Q2 2025. Dealers continued to capture profit per vehicle, consumers leaned harder into protection products, and the underlying vehicle mix shifted in ways that will shape the next 12 months of opportunity. Sales Momentum Holds Despite Tariff Headwinds U.S. new-light-vehicle sales averaged 16.1 […]

Sep 16

August 2025 Housing Market Analysis for Home Warranty Providers

The Great Decoupling: New Homes Surge While Resales Stand Still Summary: The U.S. housing market has split in two. New construction is booming on builder incentives, while resale remains stuck under the weight of the lock‑in effect. For home warranty providers, growth in late 2025 will come from reallocating effort toward where transactions are actually […]

Sep 2

July 2025 Home Sales: What Home Warranty Providers Need to Know

The housing market isn’t crashing—but it is shifting. Slowly. Unevenly. And for home warranty providers, July 2025 offers critical signals about where demand is likely to rise, where lead quality is improving, and where to allocate marketing and service resources next. While national home sales totals held steady compared to June, the underlying details show […]

Aug 8

Best-in-class Metrics for VSC and Home Warranty Marketers

You Can’t Afford to Guess Most direct-to-consumer marketers in the vehicle service contract (VSC) and home warranty space know their topline numbers. Sales volume. Cancel rate. Cost per lead. But those numbers don’t tell you what’s really happening. They don’t show you which reps are killing margin, which campaigns are quietly failing, or where your […]

Jul 30

Cancellation Curves: What Slope Tells You That Totals Can’t

At high rate of early cancellation can fundamentally alter the shape of the graph.

In experience curves, the trajectory of cancellations matters more than the final number. For VSC and home warranty marketers, the timing of cancellations drives profitability. Early cancels destroy cash flow—so don’t just track how many. Track when. Why do early cancellations hurt more? If you’re a VSC marketer or home warranty marketer, you know cancellations […]

Jul 28

How to Get Your Finance Company to Lower Your Reserve Rate

When you’re scaling direct-to-consumer sales in the Vehicle Service Contract (VSC) or home warranty space, cash flow is king. You launch a $100,000 campaign. You pay your mail house and lead vendor on June 1. The mail hits mailboxes on June 10. Responses trickle in through early July. You close sales—but then wait 45 days […]

Jul 24

Why Blended Cancellation Curves Are Misleading

If you’re relying on cancellation curves from your payment plan provider—like PayLink, Mepco, or Walco—you’re only seeing part of the story. Those blended curves are useful for tracking total portfolio performance. But they won’t tell you why cancellations are happening. Because they don’t show you the differences that matter. The only way to do that? […]

Jul 22

Why Vintage Analysis Matters in Understanding Cancellations

Two curves, representing different vintages, generated by the Dark Sky Data Experience Curve.

If you’re only looking at your overall cancellation rate, you’re missing the real story. Cancellation behavior isn’t static. It shifts over time—and across different groups of contracts. That’s why you need to break it down by vintage. “A vintage is a group of contracts that started in the same period—typically a month, quarter, or. It’s […]