Obsidian Solutions · Business Development
You don't sell a product. You build a book — and you keep earning from it.
Commission only. No cap, no territory, no cold list. We hand you a CRM, a partner offer that closes itself, and half the net profit on every file your partners send us.
Start here
What you'd be representing
Obsidian is an end-to-end restoration company that doesn't own trucks. Vendors do the work, so we're not stuck inside a service radius — we run a claim anywhere. Think of us as a TPA, except we work for the policyholder instead of the carrier.
One point of contact from first notice of loss to final repair: insurance negotiation, mitigation, contents, demo, full reconstruction — at no cost to the homeowner. Live work today runs primarily through Oregon and Washington.
The offer
The pitch you'll be making
You are not asking anyone to switch vendors, change process, or spend a dollar. You're asking them to hand off the work they already turn away — and get paid for it.
What they're actually trying to do
A broker with a book of two thousand clients, a property management firm with a portfolio, a mitigation company that doesn't rebuild — different businesses, same two motives:
- Get money back. There's real revenue attached to work they can't or won't run, and today it walks out the door for nothing
- Protect their reputation. The second they hand something off, their name is on it. If it goes badly the customer blames whoever referred them.
Paperwork, liability, coordination, timelines — all of it is downstream of those two. Lead with the two.
What you hand them
- One handoff. We take the whole claim as GC, first notice of loss to final repair
- Model A — up to 5% of gross revenue on every closed job, paid when funds land
- Model B — a 50/50 split of the net profit, for partners who'd rather share the upside than take a fee
- Reciprocal work sent back their way
- Zero paperwork, zero project management, zero liability
- We never poach. Their reputation is literally our business model
The role
Find partners. Onboard them. Keep them producing.
What you actually do
- Identify, contact and onboard referral partners — the CRM and target lists are already built
- Explain how claims management works and what's in it for them
- Track every prospect through the pipeline with real documentation
- Stay in the relationship so files keep flowing after the handshake
- Hand off cleanly to Operations and Project Managers
- Feed the field back to us so outreach and onboarding get sharper
Who you call, in order
- Repair vendors — our own super sub network. They want jobs, not insurance work. Warmest calls on the list
- Mitigation companies that don't do reconstruction. 18–60 handoffs a month sitting at a single shop
- Plumbers, roofers, tree services, HVAC — standing right at the origin of the loss
- Adjusters — closest to the decision, hardest to reach
- Property management — steady flow, thinner files
- Brokers & agencies — they get the first notice of loss. Slowest to earn, best files once earned
What "producing" means, precisely.
A producing partner sends at least four qualifying projects in a 30-day period, each at $5,000 or more in gross revenue. That's the bar for your bounty and the bar we hold ourselves to on your behalf. Signed paperwork is not a partner. Files are.
Compensation
Three ways you get paid
No draw, no cap, no ceiling. Two of the three pay early — which matters, because restoration files take months to turn into cash and we'd rather tell you that now than have you find out in month three.
- 1
$1,000 per producing partner
Paid once a partner you recruited hits the producing bar. This is your bridge through the ramp — it lands months before the profit share does.
- 2
$1,500 more for a zero-fee partner
If they sign without taking a referral fee, the file is worth materially more to us and we pay you a share of that directly. A single zero-fee partner is worth $2,500 in bounties on day one.
- 3
50% of the net profit on every file your partners send
Not a percentage point on the topline. An even split of what the file actually makes — the same structure we offer our largest strategic partners, extended to you from day one because the partner you sign is your partner.
| A file worth | Net profit | Your half |
|---|---|---|
| $15,000 reconstruction | $3,750 | $1,875 |
| $15,000 — zero-fee partner | $4,500 | $2,250 |
| $21,000 caught at first notice of loss | $7,770 | $3,885 |
| $35,000 larger loss (thinner margin) | $7,000 | $3,500 |
Net profit = gross revenue, less labour and materials, less the direct expenses of the job — including any referral fee the partner takes. Which is why a zero-fee partner pays you a bonus up front and about 20% more on every file after that.
Where each dollar of a $15,000 file goes
Same file, same delivery. The only variable is which model the partner signed.
Model A — partner takes a flat 5% fee
Model B — partner takes a 50/50 net split
- Your half of the net
- Obsidian
- The partner who sent it
- Cost of delivery + overhead
The numbers
Run your own numbers
Move the sliders. This is the real model, ramp included — not a best case with the slow months deleted.
Your first twelve months
Assumes you land two partners a month starting in month two, files begin the month after a partner signs, the bounty is paid once that partner has actually delivered a producing month, and your share pays out about two months after a file starts.
Month · paid to you
- 1Prospecting. Conversations open, nothing signed yet.
- 2First partners sign.
- 3Their first projects start coming in.
- 4First producing-partner bounties land.
- 5First profit share hits. The ramp ends here.
- 6+Full book, compounding.
At 3 partners sending 6 files each, your book runs at 18 files a month.
Year one total
$261,750
bounties + profit share, ramp included
Month 12 alone
$33,750
what the last month pays by itself
Run rate, year two
$405,000
$33,750/mo at full book
If they're zero-fee partners
$486,000
same book, 20% more per file
The ladder
Where this goes if you're good at it
Your own book is the floor. What sits above it is leverage — other people's books, and eventually the seat that runs all of them.
- 1
Business Development Officer
Bounties plus half the net profit on your book. Commission only, 1099, no cap, no territory restriction. Set your own hours; the CRM and the partner materials are handed to you. Open books at job level on your own files — a profit share only works when both sides can see the arithmetic.
- 2
Channel Lead
Your own book keeps paying exactly as it does. On top of it you recruit and run other business development officers, and earn an override on every file their partners send — the same way our partners earn on the partners they refer to us.
This is where the ceiling comes off. One person can only work so many rooms. A team can work all of them.
- 3
Head of Business Development
A salaried leadership seat with your book intact and the team override on top — you keep what you built and stop living entirely on the ramp. This is the role the whole structure is designed to produce, and it is filled from the inside.
Your half, by the kind of file
Reconstruction is the bread and butter. Note that a bigger file does not automatically mean a bigger cheque.
- Reconstruction — the core of the book
- Caught earlier, or a bigger loss
Straight talk
The parts most job posts leave out
Money is slow before it's good
A partner takes about a month to commit and start sending. The file takes weeks to reach its first insurance draw, and months to complete. Your share lands about two months after a file starts, so realistically the first real cheque arrives somewhere in month four to five. The bounties exist specifically to bridge that. If you need income in week three, this isn't the right seat — and we'd rather say so now.
But then it compounds
Every partner you land keeps paying you while you go land the next one. Month twelve isn't twelve times month one — it's the whole book firing at once. Two of our existing partners alone produced $1.5M in gross revenue. That is what a book looks like once it's built.
What we expect, in writing
- Three producing partners within 90 days. That's the bar, and it's achievable — the warmest tier is our own vendor network
- Hit monthly referral KPIs and keep the pipeline honest in the CRM
- Document properly. A partner nobody logged is a partner nobody gets paid for
- Represent the company the way it earns its living: integrity, diligence, efficiency, creativity
This is for you if
- You've sold B2B and you can close a room without a script
- You know construction, mitigation, roofing or restoration — or you learn a trade's language fast
- You're a self-starter who'd rather have upside than a salary ceiling
- You're organised enough that the CRM stays real
- You read people well. Half this job is trust, not pitch
It isn't for you if
- You need guaranteed income in the first 90 days
- You want leads handed to you fully qualified
- You'd rather work a list than build relationships
- Documentation feels like someone else's job
Next step
One conversation, then a working session
We'll talk for thirty minutes about who you already know in the trades. If that goes well, we'll sit down with the target list and build your first ten calls together — before anyone signs anything.
Apply nowJake Ryan · Founder & CEO · JakeRyan@ObsidianSolutions.global · +1 (541) 780-0640
DYNAMICS VIDEO
Video Revisions:
- Video states 1%, and older materials say 2% — both are outdated. Your Biz Dev program is a 50/50 split of the Net Profit on every project from partners you land. The 1% is for our PPP (Partners Partner Program), Partners who get us other Partners, which is unchanged
- Obsidian will go up to 5% Gross Revenue kickback upon project completion, but no more than that, but ideally none if we can swing it. Partners can alternatively choose a 50/50 Net Profit split instead of the flat kickback — if they do, their half comes off before yours is calculated, so pitch the flat fee first. If you obtain producing partners with 0 kickback, you will get a $1,500 bonus!
INTRO & THE BASICS
If you are here, it is because we think you can sell black paint to the white house and/or have copious experience and contacts in the property claims industry.
Tight Role Definition:
Sales just close deals… You are a Business Development Officer.
Biz Devs find, build, and grow relationships that lead to new business.
Core Mission
Your role has three stages:
1. Prospect
Identify potential referral partners.
Examples:
- plumbers
- roofers
- mitigation companies
- HVAC
- insurance brokers
- tree guys
Use any ethical method:
- door knocking
- cold calling
- networking
- digital outreach
- industry events
- referrals
2. Close
Get Clients to sign (or you can fill it out for them) our New Partner Form (in Key Links section below) and get them to start sending projects.
You must:
- understand the pitch
- handle objections
- educate partners
- make the process easy
3. Maintain
Get them to continue sending projects. After a partner sends projects, you must:
- check in regularly
- answer questions
- reinforce the process
- make sure projects keep flowing
This is why the role functions part sales + part relationship management.
The One Metric That Matters
Everything reduces to:
Producing partners.
A producing partner = a partner who sends at least 4 projects per month that are at least $5K gross revenue (industry average property claim is $16K with recon being $15K.
PARTNER TYPES
1) MIT COMPANIES THAT DO NOT DO REPAIRS
Summary / Dynamics with Us
These are one of the most proven partner types we have because they are already on the loss early, understand insurance work, and naturally hand off at the repair phase. They are further down the claim-origin chain than plumbers/adjusters/brokers, but they are still extremely valuable because the handoff into reconstruction is direct and logical. They are often distrustful, protective of their reputation, and money-hungry, which makes them sometimes difficult to land.
2) PLUMBERS
Summary / Dynamics with Us
Plumbers are one of the best origin-point partners because they often get called first on leaks, bursts, and overflows. They are closer to the source of claim origination than mit companies. They often discover the problem is more than just plumbing and currently send that work to mitigation or restoration companies. You want to intercept that handoff. They can be easier to obtain than mit companies, but increasingly harder because other companies are throwing huge kickbacks at them.
3) ROOFERS
Summary / Dynamics with Us
Roofers that do not do insurance work or do not want to handle all the non-roof fallout are valuable because when they do send something, it’s often a bigger project. The issue is not usually getting them to say yes — it’s getting them to actually remember you when the right job comes up. They are closer to claim origination than mit companies when the loss starts at the roof, but less frequent than plumbers.
4) HVAC
HVAC is very similar to plumbers. They get called to source problems, moisture, condensation, equipment failures, and situations where the issue is bigger than the HVAC scope. They are a good partner type because they are close to the source of some claims, but they are generally less frequent and less natural than plumbers.
5) ADJUSTERS (DIRECT + INDEPENDENT)
Adjusters are one of the highest-leverage partner types because they are often among the first people in line once a property claim is active. They do not need a financial kickback because that is generally a non-starter through licensing/compliance. The pitch is purely: we make your life easier, help the file move, and reduce friction. They can be difficult because many are forced into preferred-vendor structures like Alacrity, AccuServe, Contractor Connection, etc., but some still have real autonomy and will send work if you consistently make them look good and make their files cleaner, which me do.
6) IA FIRMS
IA firms are one layer above individual independent adjusters. They can be valuable because they may influence many adjusters, but they are also more bureaucratic and often less flexible. The main play is not “be our partner” in the trade-referral sense — it is “when your adjusters are buried, let us help move the project side cleanly and reduce file friction.” They are harder than individual adjusters but can unlock more volume if landed.
7) BROKERS
Brokers are one of the big fish because they are close to claim visibility without being the claim handler. They sell insurance, place clients with carriers, and often get alerted when a client files a property claim — but they usually do nothing with the project itself. That creates a high-leverage opening: they can be a source of early claim visibility and volume, especially if they trust you not to make them look stupid. They are harder to land because they are often larger entities, more corporate, and less transactional than trade partners.
8) TREE COMPANIES
Tree companies are event-driven partners. They are not as close to recurring claim origination as plumbers, but when they touch a job it can be meaningful: tree on house, roof damage, structural issues, water intrusion, emergency tarping, exterior/interior fallout. They are easier to land than many categories, but lower-frequency. Good secondary channel.
9) MGAs / CARRIERS / TPAs
Practically impossible to ascertain and not worth pursuing
These are the big fish and mostly irrelevant for our Biz Devs early on, just like you said. The volume potential is enormous, but the sales cycle is long, credibility threshold is high, compliance scrutiny is heavy, and you usually need proof, systems, data, and references before they take you seriously. Useful to understand, not useful as primary Biz Dev hunting ground unless a real door opens.
FINAL PRIORITY STACK — WHERE Biz Dev TIME SHOULD GO
Tier 1 — Best use of Biz Dev time
- Plumbers
- Mit companies that do not do repairs
- Roofers
- Individual adjusters (direct + IA)
- Brokers
Tier 2 — Good but secondary
- Tree companies
- HVAC
Tier 3 — selective/opportunistic only
- IA Firms
Tier 4 — not core EO hunting ground
- MGAs / Carriers / TPAs
SIMPLE TRUTH BY CATEGORY
Best source proximity
- Brokers
- Adjusters
- Plumbers
Best actual realistic partner conversion
- Plumbers
- Mit companies
- Roofers
Best long-term recurring volume
- Mit companies
- Brokers
- Plumbers
Hardest but highest upside
- Brokers
- Adjusters
- MGAs/Carriers
Easiest to land
- Mit companies
- Plumbers
- HVAC
- Tree companies
EO BOTTOM LINE
The best partner is not just the one closest to claim origination.
It is the one that is:
- close to the source
- unable or unwilling to handle the full project
- motivated by either money, simplicity, or file relief
- easy enough to land at scale
That is why your bread-and-butter should still be:
Plumbers + Mit companies that do not do repairs + Roofers