Your phone rings less than three years ago. You have tried a contractor or hired someone part-time, and nothing has stuck because you are not a marketing person and neither were they. PIMS is a marketing department that lives on the cloud, not on your payroll — six pillars of work an agency would bill $2,000 to $5,000 a month to do, including AI Search optimization for the AI engines that are eating local discovery — automated under $399 a month at Founding Partner pricing. One operator is live on it right now (Southwest Propane, three New Mexico locations). We have 24 of 25 Founding Partner spots left, locked for 24 months. This page is the full executive document — features, comparison, ROI math, pricing, proof. Hit the demo button when you are ready.
Pulled from demo conversations with operators who self-diagnosed and reached out. The pattern is consistent across single-location independents and 5-location regionals. The first three are visible to the owner; the last four are invisible until somebody runs the numbers.
The #1 self-diagnosis in demo conversations. Lead volume declined but the owner cannot pin the source.
40-60% completion typical among family-owned operators. Hours wrong on at least one location. Photos from 2019.
New review counts are zero or single-digit per quarter on most locations. Reply velocity even lower.
Owner watches local pack drop them to position 2 or 3. Cost-per-acquisition climbs.
Spending $400-$2,000/mo on a contractor with no attribution model and no monthly report. Output reads like social noise.
Budget justification impossible. Marketing feels like overhead, not investment. Owner avoids the line item.
Each location managed by whoever has time. No cross-location strategy. Performance varies wildly within the same operator.
One-to-one. Each pain above maps to a specific PIMS capability that works in the background once you flip it on.
| # | Problem | What PIMS does |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Phone is ringing less than last quarter — cause unknown | Local SEO + GBP audit + listings sync surface where prospects are looking and what is broken. Monthly performance report compares to baseline so the cause becomes visible. |
| 02 | Google Business Profile half-completed and abandoned | Multi-location GBP management with auto-posting, attribute completion, photo cadence, Q&A monitoring. AI-drafted review responses operator approves before send. |
| 03 | Review velocity flatlined three or more quarters ago | Post-service SMS or email review-request automation triggered by completed delivery or service ticket. Smart-routing to the right platform per customer. |
| 04 | A national chain moved into the service area and ranks above you for your own keywords | Radius-based per-location SEO + GBP work targets the exact keywords the chain is winning. Programmatic city pages cover every town inside the 30-35 mile delivery radius. |
| 05 | Hired a marketing person who posts memes on Facebook — cannot measure results | Auto-generated monthly performance report the 1st of every month. Per-hub rankings, GBP impressions, calls, direction requests, review velocity, blog traffic — all in plain language. |
| 06 | No monthly performance data — flying blind on marketing ROI | PIMS produces the same report every customer gets on Day 7 (preview) and Day 30 (first full). MoM + QoQ deltas. Auto-emailed to a multi-recipient list each cycle. |
| 07 | Multi-location sites treated as islands — strongest hub subsidizes weakest | Cross-location GBP coordination prevents cannibalization. Aggregated dashboard surfaces per-hub deltas. Multi-location SEO covers every service area without duplicating effort. |
All six pillars are included at every tier. What changes between Solo, Multi, and Enterprise is scope (locations covered), attention cadence (Bill review frequency), and per-location economics — not which pillars you get. The sixth pillar — AI Search optimization — is the channel-defining differentiator: PIMS treats Google AI Overviews / Perplexity / ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini as a first-class discovery surface alongside traditional Google search.
Category framing — not a hit piece on any specific company. Most operators evaluating PIMS have looked at one or more of these paths. Each does something well; none covers the same surface at the same price point with the same propane domain knowledge. The "Generic SaaS" column is a STACK — you would not buy one generic tool, you would assemble 3 to 5 of them to attempt our bundle, and still not get propane awareness in any of them.
The pillar-by-pillar version of this work — a specialty SEO contractor, a Google Business Profile manager, a listings-sync service, a review-automation platform, a content shop, and an AEO consultant — runs $500–$1,000+ per pillar. A piecemeal six-vendor stack lands at $3,000–$6,000/mo, with no propane-industry awareness in any of them. PIMS Solo C1 bundles all six for $399/mo.
| Dimension | PIMS Solo | Digital Agency | In-House Hire | Generic SaaS Stack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost (C1 / list) | $399 C1 / $799 list | $2,000 - $5,000 | ~$6,700/mo loaded ($80K + benefits ÷ 12) | $750 - $1,500 (multi-tool stack) |
| Setup cost (C1) | Waived (a $500 value) | $0 - $5,000 | One-time recruitment | $500 - $1,500 (across the stack) |
| Time to first output | Week 1 (auto) | 30 - 60 days (onboarding ramp) | 60 - 90 days (ramp) | 2 - 4 weeks per tool (config + integration) |
| Propane domain knowledge | Built in — operator founder | Generic — learns on client dime | Generic — learns on the job | Zero propane awareness in any of the tools |
| 6-pillar coverage (incl. AI Search) | All six included | Most (depends on scope) — AI Search rarely covered | Spotty (depends on hire) — AI Search expertise rare | Requires 3-5 separate tools — still incomplete; AI Search is its own additional category |
| Multi-location support | Designed in — cross-location SEO + GBP | Yes, but upsell cost | Manual (not scaled) | Per-location fee in each tool — multiplied |
| Monthly performance report | Auto-email 1st of month | Quarterly or by request | Ad hoc / none | None — would need a separate aggregator tool |
| Cancellation flexibility | 30-day no-questions (C1), 30-day notice after | 30 - 90 days | 2-week notice | Per-tool; 3-5 separate cancellations to manage |
| Dedicated account contact | Shared (Solo) / Account mgmt (Multi+) | Yes (account manager turnover risk) | Yes (the hire — turnover risk) | Ticket-based across multiple vendors |
| Scales with location count | Linear: Multi $1,248 / Enterprise $2,498 | Non-linear cost jump | Exponential (new hires) | Per-location fee × each tool in the stack |
Dollar ranges in the Agency, In-House, and Generic SaaS Stack columns reflect common industry pricing ranges, not any specific company. The Generic SaaS Stack range assumes 3-5 separate tools at $150-$300/mo each plus per-tool setup. PIMS pricing reflects the Founding Partner Cohort C1 monthly + waived setup.
The math behind this answers the only question that matters for an owner or CFO: how few net-new customers does PIMS need to land per year to pay for itself? Inputs: average gallons per residential customer per year × $1 gross margin per gallon × 12-year customer lifespan = lifetime value (LTV) per new customer.
Before you read the breakeven count:the piecemeal version of the PIMS stack — six specialty vendors at $500–$1,000+ per pillar — runs $36,000–$72,000/year. PIMS Solo C1 runs $4,788/year. The breakeven below is computed against PIMS' annual cost, not the alternative's.
| Tier · Annual PIMS Cost | Small (250 gal · $3.0K LTV) | Mid (450 gal · $5.4K LTV) | Large (700 gal · $8.4K LTV) |
|---|---|---|---|
PIMS Solo $399/mo · $4,788/yr | 1.60 customers/yr | 0.89 customers/yr | 0.57 customers/yr |
PIMS Multi $1,248/mo · $14,976/yr | 4.99 customers/yr | 2.77 customers/yr | 1.78 customers/yr |
PIMS Enterprise $2,498/mo · $29,976/yr | 9.99 customers/yr | 5.55 customers/yr | 3.57 customers/yr |
PIMS Solo at C1 = $399/mo = $4,788/yr. Against a mid-size customer ($5,400 LTV from 450 gal/yr × $1 × 12 yr), the math is $4,788 ÷ $5,400 = 0.89 customers per year to break even. In plain English: one net-new mid-size customer every 13 to 14 months pays the entire PIMS bill. At one new mid-size customer per quarter (industry-conservative for an operator that fixes their GBP and starts publishing a blog), payback is roughly 10 months — cash-flow-positive before the end of Year 1.
ROI math is illustrative. Replace the $1/gal gross margin with your operation's actual figure (varies by region, service mix, and seasonality), and the 12-year lifespan with your retention reality, to compute your real numbers. Most propane operations are higher than $1/gal on residential; this is the conservative input.
Founding Partner pricing is not a discount. It is a structural choice — the first 25 operators bet on us before there is a long public track record, and they get the lowest price PIMS will ever offer, locked for the longest window, with the cleanest exit. Setup fees are gifted, not discounted (the struck list price shows the value being waived).
1 location
List price: $799/mo
Setup: $500 Waived
Price lock: 24 months
📅 Book a Demo3-5 locations
List price: $2,495/mo
Setup: $1,500 Waived
Price lock: 18 months
📅 Book a Demo6+ locations
List price: $4,995/mo
Setup: $5,000 Waived
Price lock: 12 months
📅 Book a Demo| Cohort | Solo /mo | Multi /mo | Enterprise /mo | Off List | Setup Fee | Price Lock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1 Founding Partner | $399 | $1,248 | $2,498 | 50% off list | Waived | 24 mo |
| C2 Early Partner | $479 | $1,497 | $2,997 | 40% off list | Waived | 18 mo |
| C3 Volume Partner | $599 | $1,871 | $3,746 | 25% off list | 25% off list | 12 mo |
| C4 Pre-List Partner | $679 | $2,121 | $4,246 | 15% off list | 15% off list | 12 mo |
| C5 List Price | $799 | $2,495 | $4,995 | List | List | Standard |
Setup fees follow the same cohort discount as monthly recurring. C1 and C2 partners get setup fully waived as the founding-velocity gift. C3 onward, setup fees come back at the cohort discount rate (25%, 15%, list).
Southwest Propane is a three-hub family-owned propane delivery operator in New Mexico — Moriarty (main filling station + East Mountain / Albuquerque corridor), Pecos (Santa Fe corridor), and Mountainair (rural service area). Like most independents, they had no in-house marketing — just a contractor handling Google Business Profile posts on a $400 a month retainer. Dennis South brought us in because the contractor was doing generic GBP posts that were not ranking, and the operation was losing leads to a national chain that had moved into their service radius. Goal: rebuild local visibility from the ground up, fast, without hiring a full-time marketer.
Today: Local SEO live across all three hubs, GBP posting on cadence, listings aligned across 60+ directories, post-service review automation firing, weekly blog publishing in their voice. Day-30 monthly performance report goes out the 1st of every month to Dennis and the operations team. They are live as the first Founding Partner. The case study has month-zero baseline numbers and quarterly delta updates as the data lands.
See the full Southwest case study →Bill Stomp started running one propane location and grew to 87 branch offices across 12 states over a 25-year fuel-delivery operating career — peaking at 53 simultaneously. Combat veteran. Since founding Propane Insider in 2014, he's helped 200+ fuel companies. He's been on the operator side of every conversation a propane marketer would have.
PIMS exists because Bill kept watching family-owned operators get outranked and outmarketed by national chains — not because the chains had better service, but because the chains had marketing departments. PIMS is the marketing department your independent operation never had.
Not a tech founder who watched a YouTube video about propane. An operator who lived it, built the tools he wishes he had had, and is now selling them to the operators behind him.
C1 Founding Partners get 30 days no-questions, full first-month refund. After that, standard 30-day notice. You are never locked into the service. You are locked into the price.
Setup covers initial labor — data import, GBP and listings setup, vendor blog seeding, technical integration with your existing site. Waived for C1 and C2 cohorts as part of Founding Partner program. Reactivates at C3 at the cohort discount rate.
Agency rep learns propane on your dime, then leaves. PIMS is built by an operator who ran 53 simultaneous propane branches. The propane knowledge ships in the product, not in one account manager you have to train.
A junior marketer at $30 an hour times 20 hours a week is $31K a year — for someone who does not yet know propane. PIMS Solo at $399 a month is $4,788 a year for the full bundle.
Yes. Anytime after the first 30 days, on standard 30-day notice. The 24-month lock is on PRICE, not commitment. If you cancel and come back, you pay the then-current cohort rate — not your original C1 rate.
Yes. Annual prepay equals 2 months free. Combines with cohort pricing. Example: PIMS Solo C1 = $399/mo paid as $3,990 for 12 months of service (10 months paid, 2 free). Applies to standard 12-month terms only.
We work with what you have. We do not make you rebuild. We clean up GBP, sync listings, take over local SEO, and start drafting your blog. If you want a new site later, FuelSite.pro is a bundle add-on.
Multi-subsidiary chains get custom enterprise pricing per their operation. All deals at this scale require Bill's personal sign-off — book a demo or call (610) 228-0887 directly to discuss your structure.
30-min demo. We pull live data on your current rankings, GBP, and online presence during the call, then walk through what PIMS would automate for your specific locations.
Veteran-owned and operated · Founded 2014 · bill@propaneinsider.com