“How to Sell Like There’s No Tomorrow” is one of the training topics that Tom Grunstra recently led for 180 contractor attendees at a fully-packed, one-day Fujitsu split systems training course in Grantville, Pa. Grunstra explained that long before contractors can close the sale they’ve got to stop, look, and listen.
Ask almost anyone in the industry and they will tell you the proper fill level of HCFC-22 in a recovery cylinder is 80 percent of the water capacity. Wrong! Most will also say this is an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule. Wrong again!
In the current economy, focusing strictly on survival could cost struggling members of the HVACR industry their business. When economic hardships come, survival is understandably the main concern, but survival without preparations for the changing economic future can be deadly.
Distributors think outside the box, but most of them won’t venture past its four cardboard walls to find new revenue streams. That is what Peter Bonfe, president of Bonfe’s Plumbing, Heating & Air Service Inc., Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minn., discovered when he went in search of a distributor to help him haul equipment off a jobsite.
Contractors may need to increase their awareness of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements, and prepare for a visit. The agency said it’s stepping up its safety inspections. Having formal, written safety programs is one of the best ways to be prepared.
Indifference doesn’t sound so bad - it’s not so good, but it’s not so bad. That’s true unless you are in the customer service business, like HVAC contractors. Woody Woodall of W.E. Bowers pointed out the “zone of indifference” to attendees of the Unified Group’s 2009 Service Management Forum.
Registration for the Heating, Airconditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International’s (HARDI’s) 2009 Annual Conference begins at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, but the association is already “Turning Up the Heat on Recovery.”
The Unified Group goes to great lengths to make sure its contractor meeting attendees get a lot out of their sessions. It even gives them “homework” to fill out in preparation. It was sent out to members recently in anticipation of the 2009 Annual Meeting and Owner’s Forum, to be held in Palm Springs, Calif., Nov. 11-14.
It’s not often that I find myself speechless, but that’s exactly what happened at a recent speaking gig. In the middle of explaining tracking what leads come from what source, a voice piped up from the middle of the room.
Two independent refrigerant legislative actions are in line to affect supplies of all HCFCs such as R-22 and all HFCs such as R-410A. But the HVACR industry is moving to prevent either action from negatively affecting the ability of contractors to do service work. That was one aspect of an Executive Roundtable Audio Event hosted by DuPont.
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