Facts Solve Mystery of 'Intangible' HVAC Benefits
Insurance sales is a difficult job, because it's difficult to sell an intangible benefit. Selling something that can't be seen or touched requires special selling skills and visuals. In past articles, I've written about the all-important selling tools that myself and other sales professionals swear by. As our industry changes, due to increased competition, and in an economy demanding the lowest price for everything, we must also change. ...
ONLINE RESOURCE GUIDE: Get App-y!
Mobile applications allow HVACR technicians to carry portable libraries, in hand-held devices packed with calculations, estimating forms, equipment locators, and more....
ONLINE RESOURCE GUIDE: Online Training: Accessible & Relevant
Online training is an important addition to on-the-job training. It's gaining in importance, as the HVACR industry faces energy efficiency mandates. ...
Online Social Networking: How to Grow Your Business
Social media is all the rage today. You hear stories about small businesses around the country that are leveraging social media and social networking to grow their businesses. In some cases, substantially grow their businesses. You receive emails from HVAC industry associations and see articles like this one in trade magazines, telling you that you’re late to the social media party. ...
Tools of the Trade
Enterprise HVAC Service & Control is the 2011 ContractingBusiness.com Commercial HVAC Contractor of the Year. The company was founded by Dick Starr in 1977. He and the entire Enterprise team are champions in providing the highest levels of service and integrity to their customers, who manage a wide variety of commercial buildings. ...
Accident Management for Companies with Medium-Size Fleets
20% of a fleet's drivers will be involved in some type of loss in any given year. A fleet management plan can help business owners make wise decisions regarding repairs....
The Value of Peer Groups
Contracting business owners are learning that they can’t go it alone when running a business. They need somewhere to go for inspiration and answers to their everyday questions. An easy way to find those answers is to join a peer group....
'First Officer' Excellence
From a distance, one HVAC company looks just like the next. It's when you open the door and start walking the aisles that you know if you're visiting a well-managed company, or one that's hanging on the ropes. ...
Tools of the Trade
Hobaica Services is the ContractingBusiness.com 2011 Residential HVAC Contractor of the Year. The company serves residential and light commercial customers within a 25-mile radius of Phoenix, AZ....
10 Tips on How to Improve Your Field Technician's Performance
Productivity in the workplace is a fascinating subject and a never-ending topic of discussion; it has been a topic of academic research as early as the beginning of the 1800’s. One of the most notable researchers of that time concluded employees were more productive when their employers rewarded rather than punished their employees....
Tools of the Trade
With more than 50 years of combined experience, the leadership team and staff at Champion AC believe they're leading the way in "going green" in the San Antonio area. They're committed to helping San Antonio residents save money by offering high efficiency, energy-saving, and environmentally friendly products and services....
Simple Steps to a Tough Job: How to Build a Winning Team
Your people are your company’s most important asset, so how do you ensure that you’re hiring the right people? By carefully recruiting and screening. The process can be a time-consuming and arduous, but the rewards of your efforts — namely, having a first-class team of people representing your company every day — are well worth it. ...
Social Media: It's Where Your Customers Are
Why should you get involved with social media? Because that’s where your customers are! If you became aware of a home and garden show that would be attended by 35% of adults in your community, would you want to exhibit? Even if the show attendance skewed towards younger adults, 35% is a huge number. You would want to be there, right? ...
Commissioning from a Contractor's Perspective: Providing Value to the Owner
Shaw Mechanical has established a set of procedures for commissioning and retrocommissioning which other contractors can implement in their service regimen. In this article, I will review what you can expect if commissioning is specified on your project; enumerate Shaw Mechanical’s procedure for retrocommissioning; examine common problems we encounter, and opportunities for improvement....
Customer Retention
There have been many articles written on customer retention, but this one is going to take a little different direction than what you might expect. Customers, you can’t live with them and you can’t kill them. Did I just say that? You may want to cause some customers bodily harm, but you would be better off just firing them. However, for the most part, a customer, saved is many dollars earned. It takes many dollars to get a new customer. What does it cost you to get new customer, not a referral, but a customer from scratch?...
SEO Content Tips You Can't Afford to Miss
Here are some statistics about search engine optimization (SEO), that you may not know, but need to. • 80% of all Internet users go immediately to a search engine when online. • 30-40% click on the first organic listing. • 62% of users click a link on the first page of search results. ...
Promotion on a Budget
Usually promotion is a term used by marketers and it is part of the four “P’s” of marketing, product, price, place, and promotion. Most promotions involve products but promotion can also involve promoting a business or promoting a service. For the purposes of this article, we’ll talk about promoting your business or your service on a budget. ...
A Video Strategy for Contractors
More contractors are using video as part of their overall marketing strategy. Once a high barrier to entry due to the expense of video creation, production, and marketing, contractors can now launch effective video tactics with just a few thousand dollars....
Chill Out
The boys slumped against the wall of the dugout; you could read the despair on their faces. "What's the point?" mumbled the right fielder, "We're just going to lose again." The team was on an eight game losing streak, with a record of 3 and 8, and five games left to play....
Love and . . . taxes? As 2010 Ends, the Waiting is the Hardest Part
As businesses wait to see what the lame-duck Congress will do about the Bush tax cuts, here's what we do know about the near future as it relates to your business taxes....
The Essentials of Design/Build
A strong Design/Build team can collectively understand and provide all aspects of the process....
Advertising Season
Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! It’s advertising season! It sure seems like every year holiday advertising, oh heck let’s not be politically correct, Christmas advertising starts earlier and earlier. This year it started right after Halloween, with the typical Black Friday sales coming very early this year in an attempt to extend the Christmas buying season. So, when is advertising season for your business? Do you advertise in the spring and again in the fall? These are the two traditionally slow periods for the HVAC business. Do you advertise year round? Do you advertise at all? What should you do?...
15 Social Media and Online Marketing Keys to Success
I've been blogging for almost four years now. Over 500 posts later, I can tell you it has been the single most important marketing tactic I’ve done to grow my business....
Social Media for Contractors: It's All about Execution
Social media strategy is critical to the success of any social media effort. Not having a strategy is like playing baseball without the bases (envision people running everywhere...not a pretty site)....
