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How to Build and Manage a Highly Successful HVAC Residential
Retail Business and Dominate Your Market
(Note from Tom: If you don’t know
who Ron is then let me just say that he’s the guru’s guru in our
industry. He’s tried it all and done it all, sometimes with great
success, and sometimes not. He candidly shares his lessons-learned
with all of us so we can save time, save money, save effort, save
stress…and prosper! Here are just a few excerpts from his book. Buy
this book, read it, and apply it NOW at
www.ronsmithhvac.com. Send him as much money as he
wants…it’s worth 1000 times any purchase price.
Chapter 1: Business Is Not Complicated
Your HVAC residential retail company is entitled to a 25% net
profit. An owner can become wealthy. Company leaders and all of the
coworkers can share in the success and in the rewards. Furthermore,
you can all have fun doing it.
Ron’s business, Modern Air in Ft. Myers, Fl, became the dominant
HVAC contractor in that market…and had the highest prices. They
accomplished this by “earning it”; they had clean and attractive
trucks, they did a lot of advertising, they were open until 7:00 PM
M-F and 7:00 AM – 1:00 PM on Saturday. Their technicians and
installers were all trained in customer service and had to meet
personal dress and grooming standards. And they were good community
citizens…giving back to the community that supported them.
Keep It Simple
Here are some of Ron’s guiding principles:
-
Stay
focused on business fundamentals
-
If you
hire mediocre people you’ll have a mediocre company
-
Training
is management’s greatest responsibility
-
You are
not limited by time; you are only limited by what you want to do
-
Owning
and managing a business is a game
-
Your
coworkers are your “inside” customers
-
Extraordinary people are often ordinary people with
extraordinary determination
-
Market
your company, not your products
-
When the
rate of change outside your company exceeds the rate of change
inside your company, the end is in sight
-
Set
goals for yourself and your business
-
Work on
doing all things in your business 1% better (Watch for more
1%’ers in future articles)
Ron has a
message for all readers: You had better be committed if you want to
be successful.
Next month: Chapter 2: The Three C’s: The Three Important
Entities That Make Up a Company
Ron Smith founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc in Ft. Myers, Fl in
1965 and built it to a $15M company before he sold it. He purchased,
grew and sold three other HVAC companies before founding Service
America, the first national HVAC franchiser. He founded Ron Smith
and Associates in 1991 and created and presented his ground-breaking
Dominant Market Share program. He became the Chief Operating Officer
of Services Experts and helped grow that business to include over
200 contracting companies. He is one of only 28 individuals to be
elected to Contracting Business magazine’s Hall of Fame. He
is one of the founding owners of Service Roundtable (
www.serviceroundtable.com ), a contractor networking
group, and is currently a contributing author to HVAC Business
Magazine. He does limited consulting and can be reached at
www.ronsmithhvac.com.
July 2007
issue
Chapter 2: The Three C's: The Three Important Entities That
Make Up a Company
Growing your company means the owner(s) have to be willing to let go
of some of the day-to-day tasks they have been doing, and may even
like to do, so that they can focus on other important matters. There
are three important groups:
1. Customers
2. Coworkers
3. Company
It’s the owners/manager’s primary job to
facilitate the relationship among these groups.
Customers come first because without
customers there is no business. Everyone knows this but it’s surprising
to see so many companies where customers are treated shabbily. When this
happens, either the owner doesn’t care, or the coworkers don’t
understand the value of every single customer, or the coworkers aren’t
properly trained.
Training is management’s most important responsibility. Some owners
don’t want to invest in training out of fear that the employee might
leave. The bigger truth is that the best potential coworkers will come
to your company once they learn that you provide consistent, quality
training programs.
Research suggests that less than 35% of Coworkers enjoy their jobs.
There is a very high turnover rate in our industry. The reasons for this
include:
• Hiring too
quickly without proper research
• Generally only hiring white males
• Not paying properly
• Not providing proper training
• Not keeping coworkers informed
• Not providing adequate rewards
The Company will be successful when the
owner properly addresses all of the needs of the Customer and Coworker.
The success will continue when important decisions are made with due
consideration given to what’s best for the Customer and Coworker first.
The next three chapters will go into more detail on each of these
groups.
Ron Smith founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc in Ft. Myers, Fl in
1965 and built it to a $15M company before he sold it. He purchased,
grew and sold three other HVAC companies before founding Service
America, the first national HVAC franchiser. He founded Ron Smith
and Associates in 1991 and created and presented his ground-breaking
Dominant Market Share program. He became the Chief Operating Officer
of Services Experts and helped grow that business to include over
200 contracting companies. He is one of only 28 individuals to be
elected to Contracting Business magazine’s Hall of Fame. He
is one of the founding owners of Service Roundtable (
www.serviceroundtable.com ), a contractor networking
group, and is currently a contributing author to HVAC Business
Magazine. He does limited consulting and can be reached at
www.ronsmithhvac.com.
July 2007
issue
Chapter 2: Customers: Your Most Important Asset Is Not the Balance
Sheet
Customers are so valuable they should be identified as assets on
your company’s balance sheet.
Most companies don’t know how many customers they have. As a rule of
thumb, if you company hasn’t done business with the homeowner in the
past three years, they are probably someone else’s customer by now.
With proper marketing and customer service every customer is worth
$750 per year. How would you feel if one of your coworkers threw
away $750 in materials? Not working to keep customers is the same
thing as throwing them away.
You have 4 basic customer types:
-
Customers who own one of your Precision Tune-Up agreements and
you provided maintenance for them in the past year.
-
Customers who don’t own a PTU agreement but you did some kind of
work for them in the past two years.
-
Customers who don’t own a PTU agreement but you did some kind of
work for them in the past three-five years.
-
Customers who don’t own a PTU agreement and you have done no
work for them in the past 5 years.
Everyone else is a non-customer.
Your targeted marketing plan will address each of the 4 groups
separately and appropriately. This strategy is discussed in Chapters
6 Marketing and 7 Sales in Ron’s book.
There are 4 customer expectations that have to be met in order to
keep their business. They are:
-
On Time
Delivery: Show up when you said.
-
Quality
Work: Doing what is promised.
-
Ethical
Corporate Behavior: Communicating clearly verbally and in
writing, respectful of customers and their home, having
competent company employees and clear and fair pricing.
-
Convenient To Do Business With: Hours of operation, financing,
communications must be equal to the best “retailers”.
Customer care is critical. Company
coworkers must be hired and trained to recognize and deliver this.
When a customer is disappointed or angry the problem can be quickly
and appropriately addressed, turning an angry customer into one who
will boast about you to their friends and acquaintances.
It’s important to create “More Than Satisfied” customers. They will
continue to buy from you, and tell others of their happy experience.
Delivering on this isn’t hard or expensive; it comes from the simple
things like a service technician offering to replace a light bulb or
smoke detector battery, or help getting Christmas decorations out of
storage. Involve coworkers in brainstorming sessions on how to
exceed customers’ expectations…and have fun doing it.
Next Month, Chapter 4: Coworkers: "Your Internal Customers”
Ron Smith founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc in Ft. Myers, Fl in
1965 and built it to a $15M company before he sold it. He purchased,
grew and sold three other HVAC companies before founding Service
America, the first national HVAC franchiser. He founded Ron Smith
and Associates in 1991 and created and presented his ground-breaking
Dominant Market Share program. He became the Chief Operating Officer
of Services Experts and helped grow that business to include over
200 contracting companies. He is one of only 28 individuals to be
elected to Contracting Business magazine’s Hall of Fame. He
is one of the founding owners of Service Roundtable (
www.serviceroundtable.com ), a contractor networking
group, and is currently a contributing author to HVAC Business
Magazine. He does limited consulting and can be reached at
www.ronsmithhvac.com.
September 2007
issue
Chapter 4: Coworkers: Your Internal Customers
Ron was very successful hiring highly-qualified people from outside
of the HVAC industry. Part of the reason for this success was that
everyone received extensive training in customer relations and they
understood their role in providing this as well as the day-to-day
duties of their jobs.
He made it a practice to hire from outside the industry. By doing
this, you get these important advantages:
• You
increase your candidates
• Those you hire have no “bad habits” from prior HVAC
experiences
• They bring ideas from other industries with them
There are six areas that must be
addressed to properly staff a company:
1. Recruiting
Hire the best individual you can. Newspaper ads can work (see
examples in Ron’s book). Encourage and reward your coworkers to
recruit for new job openings. Support your local vocational school
and pick from the best graduates. Retired military personnel are
highly trained and qualified. Look for candidates in other trades.
Advertise in out of town publications, the internet, trade journals,
supply houses, attend job fairs and put signs on your company
trucks.
2. Hiring
Look at hiring as if you were selling to your customers. That means
being prepared and following a three-meeting guideline: First, have
a get-acquainted meeting in a neutral place, such as a restaurant,
where you can chat. No interview, no application yet. Next have an
interview meeting where you sell your company and have the candidate
complete the employment application. Consider using a tool such as
DiSC® Behavior Profiling or similar. Later, do a background
screening and vehicle driving report (must have permission to do
these).
3. Mutual Hiring Decision
If everything is on track, the third meeting is where you make your
offer. Your evaluations will create some questions to ask and you
will want to probe deeper around how they might respond to certain
business situations they are likely to encounter. Be prepared to
discuss compensation, new-hire orientation, future training and the
“orientation period”.
4. Training
Your business plan should include 80 hours minimum annual training
per coworker. Someone must be put in charge of a company-wide
training program. The training director is responsible or creating
appropriate curriculums, acquiring the best trainers, directing the
trainers to accomplish company goals, managing a training budget and
a lot more. Training is done on company time and is mandatory.
General topics include technical, customer relations and systems and
processes.
5. Motivation
Inspiring people to take appropriate action comes naturally so some
leaders/managers but most of us are not naturally blessed with this
talent. Look for this capability in the managers you hire. The
motivated individual will respond to many rewards for excellent
behavior and performance such as recognition, compensation, career
growth, being part of a good company and self esteem.
6. Retention
The hiring process and the total compensation you pay your coworkers
add up to a lot of money. It’s critical that you have a low turnover
rate and this rate should be monitored and managed quarterly.
Next Month, Chapter 5: Company: Is yours really an organization.
(Note from Tom: If you don’t know who Ron is then let me just say
that he’s the guru’s guru in our industry. He’s tried it all and
done it all, sometimes with great success, and sometimes not. He has
candidly shares his lessons-learned with all of us so we can save
time, save money, save effort, save stress…and prosper! Here are
just a few excerpts from his book. Buy this book, read it, and apply
it NOW at
www.ronsmithhvac.com. Send him as
much money as he wants…it’s worth 1000 times any purchase price.
Ron Smith founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc in Ft. Myers, Fl in
1965 and built it to a $15M company before he sold it. He purchased,
grew and sold three other HVAC companies before founding Service
America, the first national HVAC franchiser. He founded Ron Smith
and Associates in 1991 and created and presented his ground-breaking
Dominant Market Share program. He became the Chief Operating Officer
of Services Experts and helped grow that business to include over
200 contracting companies. He is one of only 28 individuals to be
elected to Contracting Business magazine’s Hall of Fame. He
is one of the founding owners of Service Roundtable (
www.serviceroundtable.com ), a contractor networking
group, and is currently a contributing author to HVAC Business
Magazine. He does limited consulting and can be reached at
www.ronsmithhvac.com.
November 2007
issue
Chapter 4: The Company: Is Yours an Organization?
An organization is a group of people who have a common purpose, goal
and/or belief. The company needs to determine and develop that
common purpose. At Modern Air, the company purpose was, “Get and
keep customers.” Here’s why this is so important.
HVAC retail companies provide two fundamental services to the
homeowners, keeping them comfortable and saving them money. Once
coworkers understand the company’s purpose and what the primary
company services are, it then becomes simple to make decisions on
what new products and services should be added as the company grows.
Modern Air started out in the residential new construction business
(write Ron and ask him what it’s like to install ductwork in a 2 ½
foot high attic) and later got into commercial HVAC and plumbing.
Those experiences taught him that the retail, homeowner market was
where the profits were and over time that became the primary part of
his business.
Each coworker must understand that the homeowner/consumer has high
expectations around customer service. It follows that the coworker
must be hired with the necessary personal attributes that are needed
to provide great service and that the company must continually train
them to consistently be the best-in-class at this.
There are time-tested benchmarks of success, called Key Performance
Indicators (KPI’s) that should be achieved (see page 99) including
these gross profit margins:
•
Residential demand service 60-65%
• Residential service agreements 55-60%
• Residential equipment replacements 40-45%
• System enhancements / IAQ 50-55%
• Total Gross Profit Margin 40-50%
• Operating Expenses (Overhead) 25-30%
• Net Profit Margin 15-20%
Also there are KPI’s that help you measure your efficiency and
effectiveness in other areas:
• Annual
revenue per coworker (all) $130,000
• Residential service agreements 1,200 per $1M in revenues
• Residential equipment cost 25-30% of revenues
• Residential labor cost 7-9% of revenues
If your company is performing at these benchmarks…congratulations!
If not, the good news is that you can get there.
Next month: More on the importance of creating an organization where
everyone understands their part in the company’s success, and how
they are recognized and rewarded for their contributions.
(Note from Tom: If you don’t know who Ron is then let me just say
that he’s the guru’s guru in our industry. He’s tried it all and
done it all, sometimes with great success, and sometimes not. He has
candidly shares his lessons-learned with all of us so we can save
time, save money, save effort, save stress…and prosper! Here are
just a few excerpts from his book. Buy this book, read it, and apply
it NOW at
www.ronsmithhvac.com. Send him as
much money as he wants…it’s worth 1000 times any purchase price.
Ron Smith founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc in Ft. Myers, Fl in
1965 and built it to a $15M company before he sold it. He purchased,
grew and sold three other HVAC companies before founding Service
America, the first national HVAC franchiser. He founded Ron Smith
and Associates in 1991 and created and presented his ground-breaking
Dominant Market Share program. He became the Chief Operating Officer
of Services Experts and helped grow that business to include over
200 contracting companies. He is one of only 28 individuals to be
elected to Contracting Business magazine’s Hall of Fame. He
is one of the founding owners of Service Roundtable (
www.serviceroundtable.com ), a contractor networking
group, and is currently a contributing author to HVAC Business
Magazine. He does limited consulting and can be reached at
www.ronsmithhvac.com.
January 2008
issue
Chapter 6: Marketing Part 1
by Ron Smith
1.
Determine three geographical marketing areas
a.
Your dominant area where you will be proactive
b. Your response area where you will be reactive
c. Your no service area where you will not go
2.
Calculate an estimate of the total annual residential retail
revenues in your selected marketing area
a.
You will be surprised how much potential exists in your
dominant area
b. 15% market share is achievable
c. You can continue to grow past 15% market share in your
dominant area by adding complimentary products and services
3.
Separate your present customers into groups
a.
First are those customers who own a service agreement
b. Then those who do not own a service agreement but have
had work done in the past two years
c. Ditto in the past 3-5 years
d. Ditto beyond 5 years
4.
Determine your portfolio of products and services
a.
Customer #1: Replacement equipment and enhancements
b. Precision Tune-ups to Service Agreements to
Replacement/Enhancement sales
c. Precision Tune-ups to Service Agreements for general
marketing promotions
d. New customers via a PTU/SA strategy
5.
Determine an annual retail revenues marketing budget
a.
6-9% of your sales plan…this includes your manufacturer’s
co-op funds
6.
Complete a 12-month marketing plan calendar
a.
Create a 12 month, 52 week calendar (spreadsheet)
b. List your revenue producing products and services i.e.,
Demand Service, Replacements, PTU’s, Service Agreements,
Enhancements and mark those weeks when your marketing
effort/program will be implemented
7.
Understand basic marketing principles and methods
a.
Next Month’s Topic!
(Note from Tom: If you don’t know who Ron is then let me just say
that he’s the guru’s guru in our industry. He’s tried it all and
done it all, sometimes with great success, and sometimes not. He has
candidly shares his lessons-learned with all of us so we can save
time, save money, save effort, save stress…and prosper! Here are
just a few excerpts from his book. Buy this book, read it, and apply
it NOW at
www.ronsmithhvac.com. Send him as
much money as he wants…it’s worth 1000 times any purchase price.
Ron Smith founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc in Ft. Myers, Fl in
1965 and built it to a $15M company before he sold it. He purchased,
grew and sold three other HVAC companies before founding Service
America, the first national HVAC franchiser. He founded Ron Smith
and Associates in 1991 and created and presented his ground-breaking
Dominant Market Share program. He became the Chief Operating Officer
of Services Experts and helped grow that business to include over
200 contracting companies. He is one of only 28 individuals to be
elected to Contracting Business magazine’s Hall of Fame. He
is one of the founding owners of Service Roundtable (
www.serviceroundtable.com ), a contractor networking
group, and is currently a contributing author to HVAC Business
Magazine. He does limited consulting and can be reached at
www.ronsmithhvac.com.
April 2008
issue
Chapter 6: Marketing Part 2: Understanding marketing
principles and methods.
by Ron Smith
Before you do anything else, study your “competition’s” marketing
programs. The competitors aren’t other HVAC contractors; they are
the retailers in your area who sell cars, boats, jewelry, computers
and on and on. These businesses are well-versed in how to get
customers in their doors and we can learn a lot from them.
The next area to focus on is in generating internal leads. An
internal lead comes from your team members including sales persons,
technicians, installers…everyone.
Media advertising, including newspaper, TV, radio, yellow pages,
billboards, home shows and the internet must have a way to track
leads so you can know what is working and what is not. Understand
that you will be spending a lot of money to reach people who will
not become your customers.
Direct response, including direct mail and telemarketing, can be
sharply focused with your message, your offer and your target
customer. There’s an example of how effective this can be beginning
on page 170.
Guerrilla marketing includes all of those creative and relatively
inexpensive tactics used my many businesses including door hangers,
yard signs, equipment stickers, truck signage and so on. For
hundreds of examples of this go to
www.comanchemarketing.com and sign up for Matt Michel’s
free monthly newsletter.
In all advertising you should include three elements:
1. Make
a bold statement. SAVE $300 ON YOUR GAS BILL.
2. Include urgency. Hurry. This offer ends on May 3.
3. Dollars Off. $500 off if you act now.
Next Month: How to run a successful direct mail sales campaign.
(Note from Tom: If you don’t know who Ron is then let me just say
that he’s the guru’s guru in our industry. He’s tried it all and
done it all, sometimes with great success, and sometimes not. He has
candidly shares his lessons-learned with all of us so we can save
time, save money, save effort, save stress…and prosper! Here are
just a few excerpts from his book. Buy this book, read it, and apply
it NOW at
www.ronsmithhvac.com. Send him as
much money as he wants…it’s worth 1000 times any purchase price.
Ron Smith founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc in Ft. Myers, Fl in
1965 and built it to a $15M company before he sold it. He purchased,
grew and sold three other HVAC companies before founding Service
America, the first national HVAC franchiser. He founded Ron Smith
and Associates in 1991 and created and presented his ground-breaking
Dominant Market Share program. He became the Chief Operating Officer
of Services Experts and helped grow that business to include over
200 contracting companies. He is one of only 28 individuals to be
elected to Contracting Business magazine’s Hall of Fame. He
is one of the founding owners of Service Roundtable (
www.serviceroundtable.com ), a contractor networking
group, and is currently a contributing author to HVAC Business
Magazine. He does limited consulting and can be reached at
www.ronsmithhvac.com.
May 2008
issue
Chapter 6: Marketing Part 3: How To Run a Successful Direct
Mail Campaign
by Ron Smith
Direct mail allows you to market to the exact group of customers or
not-yet customers in the exact area, exactly when you want to, with
the exact product you wish to promote. Direct mail’s response is
immediate so you know if it worked or not. And it allows you to test
ideas without investing a large part of your limited marketing
budget.
The fundamentals:
• Use a
standard business envelope
• Print/type the customers’ name and address on the envelope AND
the letter
• Mail to past customers/clients should be mailed first class;
mail to not-yet customers can be sent bulk mail with a permit
• Date each letter
• BOLD the mail message in the first paragraph of the
letter
• Mention the “dollars off” offer more than once
• Mention the “urgent call to action” more than once
• The last paragraph should say, “Call Mary at 1-222-222-2222”
• If it’s a Precision Tune-up offer or system enhancement offer
you should include the price; if it’s a higher-end enhancement
or equipment offer include the monthly investment amount
• The sales lead coordinator or equivalent should personally
sign the letter so s/he will receive the call
• Include at least one P.S….two is even better. The P.S. should
state the essential offer; it’s often all that the reader will
notice.
Next Month: What sales results should you expect from direct mail
marketing
(Note from Tom: If you don’t know who Ron is then let me just say
that he’s the guru’s guru in our industry. He’s tried it all and
done it all, sometimes with great success, and sometimes not. He has
candidly shares his lessons-learned with all of us so we can save
time, save money, save effort, save stress…and prosper! Here are
just a few excerpts from his book. Buy this book, read it, and apply
it NOW at
www.ronsmithhvac.com. Send him as
much money as he wants…it’s worth 1000 times any purchase price.
Ron Smith founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc in Ft. Myers, Fl in
1965 and built it to a $15M company before he sold it. He purchased,
grew and sold three other HVAC companies before founding Service
America, the first national HVAC franchiser. He founded Ron Smith
and Associates in 1991 and created and presented his ground-breaking
Dominant Market Share program. He became the Chief Operating Officer
of Services Experts and helped grow that business to include over
200 contracting companies. He is one of only 28 individuals to be
elected to Contracting Business magazine’s Hall of Fame. He
is one of the founding owners of Service Roundtable (
www.serviceroundtable.com ), a contractor networking
group, and is currently a contributing author to HVAC Business
Magazine. He does limited consulting and can be reached at
www.ronsmithhvac.com.
June 2008
issue
Chapter 6: Marketing Part 4: What Results Should You Expect
From Direct Mail Marketing
by Ron Smith
July 2008
issue
Chapter 6: Marketing Part 5: Telemarketing and Guerrilla
Marketing
by Ron Smith
August 2008
issue
Chapter 7: Part 1: Sales: Turning Marketing Into Results
by Ron Smith
Step 1. Sales Lead Coordination.
Every sales lead is precious yet most companies don’t carefully
protect them. Hard-earned money is spent creating qualified sales
leads and some are lost or not completely followed through on. The
only way to guard against this is to set up and manage a structured
sales lead process where all leads are assigned to a comfort advisor
and tracked to final disposition. Along the way some very meaningful
information is compiled.
Sales lead coordination is so important it is often the first area I
focus on when working with a new consulting client.
Here’s how you do it. (Page 180 for more details)
• An
office coworker is designated as the sales lead coordinator.
This is usually a part time assignment.
• All leads, for full systems or service agreement, are directed
immediately to the coordinator.
• The ccoordinator completes a sales lead form (sample on Page
181).
• All leads are followed through to final disposition. Final
reports are created.
Next Month: A Day in the Life of the Sales Lead Coordinator
(Note from Tom: If you don’t know who Ron is then let me just say
that he’s the guru’s guru in our industry. He’s tried it all and
done it all, sometimes with great success, and sometimes not. He has
candidly shares his lessons-learned with all of us so we can save
time, save money, save effort, save stress…and prosper! Here are
just a few excerpts from his book. Buy this book, read it, and apply
it NOW at
www.ronsmithhvac.com. Send him as
much money as he wants…it’s worth 1000 times any purchase price.
Ron Smith founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc in Ft. Myers, Fl in
1965 and built it to a $15M company before he sold it. He purchased,
grew and sold three other HVAC companies before founding Service
America, the first national HVAC franchiser. He founded Ron Smith
and Associates in 1991 and created and presented his ground-breaking
Dominant Market Share program. He became the Chief Operating Officer
of Services Experts and helped grow that business to include over
200 contracting companies. He is one of only 28 individuals to be
elected to Contracting Business magazine’s Hall of Fame. He
is one of the founding owners of Service Roundtable (
www.serviceroundtable.com ), a contractor networking
group, and is currently a contributing author to HVAC Business
Magazine. He does limited consulting and can be reached at
www.ronsmithhvac.com.
September 2008
issue
Chapter 7: Part 2: A day in the Life of the
Sales Lead Coordinator
by Ron Smith
Step 1. Sales Lead Coordination.
The sales lead coordinator is a dispatcher in sales. Their primary
job is to connect with the customer-prospect and schedule the
comfort advisor for the sales call. They will set the appointment at
the customer’s convenience and gather some preliminary information
(see Prospect Alert Form on page 181).
This avoids the tendency for some sales persons to “prequalify” the
prospect, forming an opinion about their likelihood to buy. This can
result in lost sales.
The two questions asked up front are:
1. “Mrs.
Jones, can you share with me what prompted you to phone us and
where did you get our name?”
2. When is the most convenient time for our comfort consultant
to come to your home and provide all of the information?”
If the customer seems willing there is
additional information that should be gotten at that time.
The sales lead coordinator keeps each comfort advisor’s schedule and
knows when they are and are not available.
After the appointment the comfort advisor updates the sales lead
coordinator of the result, including any follow up commitment that
was made. If the job is not sold in 30 days it is recorded as such.
The comfort advisor is encouraged to continue to follow up with the
prospect.
The sales lead coordinator keeps the sales manager regularly
informed including a monthly report on all leads, their source, each
comfort advisor’s sale results and more. This is a very important
part of the sales lead coordinator’s job.
Next Month: Determining the portfolio of products and services
(Note from Tom: If you don’t know who Ron is then let me just say
that he’s the guru’s guru in our industry. He’s tried it all and
done it all, sometimes with great success, and sometimes not. He has
candidly shares his lessons-learned with all of us so we can save
time, save money, save effort, save stress…and prosper! Here are
just a few excerpts from his book. Buy this book, read it, and apply
it NOW at
www.ronsmithhvac.com. Send him as
much money as he wants…it’s worth 1000 times any purchase price.
Ron Smith founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc in Ft. Myers, Fl in
1965 and built it to a $15M company before he sold it. He purchased,
grew and sold three other HVAC companies before founding Service
America, the first national HVAC franchiser. He founded Ron Smith
and Associates in 1991 and created and presented his ground-breaking
Dominant Market Share program. He became the Chief Operating Officer
of Services Experts and helped grow that business to include over
200 contracting companies. He is one of only 28 individuals to be
elected to Contracting Business magazine’s Hall of Fame. He
is one of the founding owners of Service Roundtable (
www.serviceroundtable.com ), a contractor networking
group, and is currently a contributing author to HVAC Business
Magazine. He does limited consulting and can be reached at
www.ronsmithhvac.com.
October 2008
issue
Chapter 7: Part 3: Determining the Portfolio of Products and
Services
by Ron Smith
Step 1. Sales Lead Coordination.
What products can your company have
that meet the following criteria?
• Keep
people comfortable
• Save people money
In residential replacement/upgrade the
list includes equipment, enhancements, demand service, service
agreements, precision tune-ups, duct cleaning, hearth products,
ultra-violet air treatment, humidification, dehumidification, air
filters of all kinds, extended warranties and much more.
It is great company exercise to have a meeting with all employees
and have them identify new products and services that can be offered
to customers. Asking for their suggestions will create involvement
and their commitment.
Next pare the list down to the basics to get started. You can add
one or two new items each month.
Train your coworkers on the benefits of the products, value,
presentation and installation. Your coworkers will be are going to
play a very important part in creating business you wouldn’t get
without them.
Next Month: Creating sales leads for system enhancements
(Note from Tom: If you don’t know who Ron is then let me just say
that he’s the guru’s guru in our industry. He’s tried it all and
done it all, sometimes with great success, and sometimes not. He has
candidly shares his lessons-learned with all of us so we can save
time, save money, save effort, save stress…and prosper! Here are
just a few excerpts from his book. Buy this book, read it, and apply
it NOW at
www.ronsmithhvac.com. Send him as
much money as he wants…it’s worth 1000 times any purchase price.
Ron Smith founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc in Ft. Myers, Fl in
1965 and built it to a $15M company before he sold it. He purchased,
grew and sold three other HVAC companies before founding Service
America, the first national HVAC franchiser. He founded Ron Smith
and Associates in 1991 and created and presented his ground-breaking
Dominant Market Share program. He became the Chief Operating Officer
of Services Experts and helped grow that business to include over
200 contracting companies. He is one of only 28 individuals to be
elected to Contracting Business magazine’s Hall of Fame. He
is one of the founding owners of Service Roundtable (
www.serviceroundtable.com ), a contractor networking
group, and is currently a contributing author to HVAC Business
Magazine. He does limited consulting and can be reached at
www.ronsmithhvac.com.
November 2008
issue
Chapter 7: Part 4: Creating Sales Leads for System
Enhancements
by Ron Smith
The #1 strategy is for the service
technician and precision tune-up specialist (and installers to a
lesser degree) to appropriately offer products to customers when
they are in the home. If the technician sells the product at that
time they receive the Coworker Spiff; if they do not sell it they
turn the lead over to the sales coordinator who assigns it to a
comfort consultant.
It works well for the technician to demonstrate a product when
possible, such as a programmable thermostat.
The #2 for selling system enhancements is for the comfort advisor to
sell then with every equipment sale.
The third method is to send a direct mail letter 3-4 times a year as
described in the past marketing article. These letters and product
offerings should be appropriate to the season.
The fourth method includes all of your guerrilla marketing tactics
such as including a product brochure in any kind of mailing you are
sending to any customer in any category.
None of these strategies are very expensive. For a sample direct
mail letter for system enhancements see page #188 in my book.
Next Month: Cost effective sales leads for demand service
(Note from Tom: If you don’t know who Ron is then let me just say
that he’s the guru’s guru in our industry. He’s tried it all and
done it all, sometimes with great success, and sometimes not. He has
candidly shares his lessons-learned with all of us so we can save
time, save money, save effort, save stress…and prosper! Here are
just a few excerpts from his book. Buy this book, read it, and apply
it NOW at
www.ronsmithhvac.com. Send him as
much money as he wants…it’s worth 1000 times any purchase price.
Ron Smith founded Modern Air Conditioning Inc in Ft. Myers, Fl in
1965 and built it to a $15M company before he sold it. He purchased,
grew and sold three other HVAC companies before founding Service
America, the first national HVAC franchiser. He founded Ron Smith
and Associates in 1991 and created and presented his ground-breaking
Dominant Market Share program. He became the Chief Operating Officer
of Services Experts and helped grow that business to include over
200 contracting companies. He is one of only 28 individuals to be
elected to Contracting Business magazine’s Hall of Fame. He
is one of the founding owners of Service Roundtable (
www.serviceroundtable.com ), a contractor networking
group, and is currently a contributing author to HVAC Business
Magazine. He does limited consulting and can be reached at
www.ronsmithhvac.com.
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