One
of the greatest challenges facing the HVAC contractor today is that of hiring,
retaining, and increasing productivity of employees. The industry must overcome the persistent employee shortage. It starts with increased technician income through increased service charges, and it must include a visible career path.
Years of positive experiences and expensive lessons affect everything Boomers buy, especially when it is something unfamiliar or complex like a replacement comfort system. Too many sincere salespeople lose sales because they don’t understand how the Boomer “rip-off prevention system” works.
We need to listen customers into buying. When we listen and they talk we get people engaged emotionally. This is a good thing since that is how they buy - emotionally. They then justify it with logic. And the buying process becomes an event, just like my Starbucks time.
Extending the TD Banknorth Garden’s commuter foot traffic area 100 feet into the adjacent train shed relieved congestion, however it took innovative HVAC engineering and architecture to make the retrofit an energy-saving and aesthetic solution.
A new name, new logo, new building, and a new challenge. About 30 sales reps from Canada, Australia, and the United States came not only to get an advance peak at the new manufacturing facility in Lakeland, Fla., but also to get jazzed up about some other changes at the former ECR Technologies.
Chicago and Louisville are great and distinct communities. But as different as they are, each community holds similar business concerns for HVAC contractors, namely licensing (or the lack thereof) and qualified technicians (or the lack thereof). The NEWS recently sat down with Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) members in each community to talk about these topics during informal roundtable discussions.
“You really want to put a system in place that rewards people for doing the right things,” said Dr. Ron Collier during a panel discussion held at the 40th Annual Conference and Indoor Expo of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America.
Larry Taylor does not just want fellow contractors to think outside the box, he wants them to throw the box away. That was the message Taylor, owner of AirRite Air Conditioning Co., Fort Worth, Texas, delivered at his workshop titled “Selling Air: Marketing HVAC as a Service, Not a Box” at the 2008 ACCA Annual Conference and Indoor Air Expo.
Bigger, Bolder, Broadmoor! Nearly 1,000 people trekked to the Rocky Mountains seeking the wisdom of the HVAC sages. What they found near the shadows cast from Pikes Peak and beneath high-flying F-18 fighter jets from the nearby U.S. Air Force Academy was a plethora of ideas to transform common business dilemmas into business opportunities.
Why do customers call us? What do they want? Answer: Customers call us for one reason. They want our help. So the next question needs to be asked: Are we helping our customers or are we making it hard for them to get the assistance they need to make their family safe and comfortable at home?
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