The saying, “Failing to plan is planning to fail,” is attributed to Ben Franklin. While I wasn’t around to hear him say it, it’s a statement that certainly applies to HVAC contractors. In the past, I’ve talked about the need for long-range planning, and that need is still there. Today, however, I want to talk about planning for that next replacement job. It is important from the contractor’s profitability standpoint, as well as the customer’s satisfaction, that the job is planned out carefully in advance. As a contractor, you need to have systems in place to ensure the proper planning is done for every job.
Once the sale has been agreed upon, our next step is to arrange an installation date in order to have the job on our installation board. The salesman and replacement foreman determine the skill set needed for the job and assign the job to one of the lead installers with those skills.