“It really has to be a partnership, not a supplier-customer relationship,” said Zachary Perge, vice president of distribution strategies at Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI). “It has to be two organizations that are working together towards the same goals.” 

“As technical as the world becomes and as cell-phone-ish and iPad-ish and computer-ish ... I found that people still like doing business with people,” said George “Butch” Welsch, president of Welsch Heating & Cooling Co. in St. Louis, Missouri, “and I want a relationship with a distributor who, I know the person, who is a responsible person, that if there’s an issue I can contact them and realize that they’re going to know who I am.” 

“The best distributor-contractor relationship is a true collaboration,” said Scott Hager, vice president of HVAC at distribution giant Ferguson Enterprises. “Contractors build relationships on trust, reliability, and the goal of getting the job done right. They need more than just a supplier; they need someone who understands their business, anticipates their needs, and helps them navigate opportunities and challenges.” 

But developing those kinds of distributor-contractor relationships isn’t easy, and packed employee schedules, technological changes, the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, and a host of other factors can get in the way. 

Barton James, president and CEO of ACCA, would like to see more interaction between distributors and contractors, whether that means attending each other’s conferences and workshops, holding training sessions, or just having honest conversations about business needs and goals. 

ACCA is actively working on distributor-contractor relationships. The group recently saw Parts Town sign on as one of its strategic partners, the first distributor to do so. 

James said he doesn’t see a lot of distributors attending ACCA events, which, he said, are a valuable resource. 

“Our members are doing more than half the work in the U.S.,” James said. “And even if all of them aren’t there, it just seems like such a missed opportunity to engage.” 

Contractors, James said, need to communicate their business patterns — their equipment needs, their projections, their expectations — to their distributor partners. 

“I’m not sure we’ve gotten into the cadence of the contractor — ‘Hey, you know, this is what I used last year. I’m projecting this much growth. I have these expectations’ — where they’re helping the distributor forecast,” he said. 

Perge raised a similar point, saying distributors need to be tuned into the goals of their contractor customers. 

“It has to be two organizations that are working together towards the same goals,” Perge said. “So if a contractor is focused on growth, then the distributor develops a strategy with them for growth. If it’s on profitability, they focus on profitability together.” 

Understanding the various goals of the contractors they work with, and helping them toward those goals, is a big, but necessary, task, Perge said. 

“It has to be something they’re strategically doing together. It can’t just be, ‘This is a branch. I go and I pick up parts and supplies, and that’s it,’ because you can get that anywhere,” Perge said, “You can get that from e-com platforms, you can get that from big-box stores.” 

“Contractors aren’t just looking for materials,” said Hager. “They need a partner who understands their business, helps them adapt to shifting regulations, and provides the right resources to keep up with increasing project complexity.” 

The COVID-19 pandemic, Perge and James agreed, changed the distributor-contractor dynamic because of the supply-chain crisis it caused. 

“I think it exposed them (contractors) to other ways to access the supplies they need to do their job,” said James. “And it made them realize that it’s about business.” 

“No distributor was immune,” Perge said. “Contractors were forced to shop around and buy from different distributors that they maybe haven’t worked with before, just because they had the product. So that created an opportunity for contractors to be exposed to different distributors in the market.” Distributors who were seen as partners to contractors during that crisis, Perge added, did very well. 

Welsch said he values loyalty and regular communication with distributors. 

“Open communication and a lot of communications, especially now, probably more than ever. Price increases are going to happen, equipment changes are going happen,” Welsch said. “The earliest that we can find out about those things, the better it is for our business. What is difficult for us is when we get last-minute notifications.” 

Equipment pricing, while important, isn’t at the top of his list, Welsch said. He wants to install good products that he can stand behind, and that means “it’s most likely not going to be the cheapest,” Welsch said. 

“I don’t have to have the rock-bottom lowest, but we have to be competitive,” he said. 

“Sure, price matters, and the overall value we bring is just as important,” said Ferguson’s Hager. “Helping contractors avoid delays, solve problems, and work more efficiently adds even more remarkable impact beyond a low price tag.” 

But transparency in pricing, said Perge, is good for contractors. 

“I think you can run into trouble sometimes where a salesperson will give a contractor one price,” he said. “The price is listed differently on the website. When they go to a branch, that price is now a third different price. And so continuity of pricing is very important.” 

Perge spends a lot of time, especially early each year, representing HARDI at contractor-dealers meetings around the country. HARDI annually publishes a Voice of the Contractor Survey and a State of the Channel Report (the newest State of the Channel was just issued), which Perge touted as excellent resources for a better understanding of the current HVACR market and what’s important to contractors. 

“We realize that our job at HARDI is not done once the product goes from supplier to distributor,” Perge said. “Our job really only begins at that point.”