BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. - Contractors and technicians in the HVAC, plumbing, and electrical fields have a new solution to the challenge of finding the time to do daily sales training in the morning.
In regards to websites, some used to say, “Build it, and they will come.” That might’ve been good enough for a field of dreams, but in today’s reality, seemingly everyone over 11 years old has a website.
There is a bit of a boogeyman out there for HVAC contractors. It is people selling equipment online to homeowners and the customers who are purchasing them.
There is a rising murmur that can be heard at HVACR industry events regarding the threat online retail sales pose to wholesale distribution, and there is some validity to that growing concern. U.S. online retail sales will surpass $1 trillion by 2027 compared to $445 billion this year, according to a forecast by business advisory firm FTI Consulting Inc.
We ran a poll at achrnews.com where more than 300 contractors voted. The results showed that 30 percent of contractors are willing to install products purchased by customers online while 70 percent would not. There were still more people saying no, but it was much closer than I imagined it would be when we posted the question.
In response to requests by customers and in-depth research on how contractors use The Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute’s (AHRI’s) certified products database, Carrier Enterprise (CE) developed CE’s AHRI HVAC System Builder, an online tool that provides HVAC dealers and contractors with a simple way to build AHRI-certified HVAC systems.
Online purchasing is where our economy is going, and HVAC has to change with the times. And, while this is most likely factual, let us investigate all the ramifications before we merge too quickly onto the information superhighway.
Conley said when he gets out in the field, he sees a lot of dysfunctional applications. In fact, he believes, more often than not, condensate traps are put in incorrectly.