CRACKING THE PUBLIC RELATIONS CODE, PART 3: 16 THINGS TO INCLUDE IN A PRESS KIT
A press kit (also called a media kit) is a packed set of promotional material designed to give the media essential information about your company. It should provide background information, establish your credentials, and position you or your company for the media. ...
What Disgusts Me About HVAC Comfortech
In September, a couple of thousand contractors will descend upon Atlanta for HVAC Comfortech 2008. It’s disgusting!...
THE SECRETS TO SURVIVING A SLOWDOWN PART 2
It’s important to have faith that a slowdown will be short lived. As a rule, slowdowns are short lived, lasting around eight months. The most notable exception was the Great Depression, which economists now consider to be a series of economic recoveries aborted by government meddling....
Oh No! What If It Gets Colder?
I'm positively gleeful about the prospect of runaway global warming - anthropogenic (i.e., man caused) or otherwise. You see, we've got the solution to global warming. It's air conditioning. Eureka - the future is bright!...
THE SECRETS TO SURVIVING A SLOWDOWN PART 1
s NOTE: These two articles are reprinted here from The Serviceroundtables Comanche Marketing Newsletter. Are we really heading for a recession? The media...
WHAT'S THE OBJECTIVE?
Does anyone play softball? If you do, here's a test. Next time you get up to bat, close your eyes. Take your best cut and wait for the roar of the crowd to let you know you've knocked it out of the park. What's the matter? Not going to happen?...
Go Beyond Benefits
One of the newest marketing approaches (at least, new in that it's becoming recognized in the mainstream) is experiences. This goes beyond features, beyond benefits. Experiences. People pay a premium for the right experience. People recall experiences. The sharper, more vivid, more distinctive the experience, the greater the recall. Of course, this can work for you or against you....
Plot Your Effort and Track Your Results
A service company in Southern California decided to embark on a massive door hanger campaign in key communities. To keep things straight and ensure he didn't miss any streets, the owner bought a large map of the area and had it dry mounted at a local framing shop. As each street was canvassed, he highlighted the street on his map. If a street was hit a second time, the map was highlighted with a thicker line....
The Rant: This Industry Has Gone a SEER Too Far
The HVAC industry did a magnificent job adjusting to the 13-SEER mandate. But it doesn’t change the fact it was a stupid regulation imposed on the public because not enough consumers were buying 13-SEER air conditioners. Too many people looked at the installed and energy costs, and concluded that 10 SEER was a better deal....
Don't Send Your Tech Out In The Field Without Any Tools
You would consider it the height of insanity to send an untrained, ill-prepared service technician out on a call without any tools. The only thing crazier would be expecting him to solve the customer's problem. Yet, service companies do it all the time. They don't send the technician out ill-prepared technically, just ill-prepared to answer customer questions about new services and products....
Copy the Automakers ... Prepare an Owner's Handbok
Automakers provide them. Appliance manufacturers provide them. But seldom do service companies provide an owner's handbook or manual. Why not?...
Encourage Your Employees Spread the Word
Do your employees let the world know where they work? Probably not. And yet, they encounter people everyday that might be candidates for your products and services. Not only are they candidates, they're highly attractive prospects if — and I stress the word, if — they know that your employee works for a company who's services they might need....
California to Repeal the Laws of Physics
California is moving towards a mandate for zero net energy for residential new construction by 2020. Zero net energy means the home cannot consume more...
Just Buy The Customer
One of the simplest ways to acquire new customers is to buy them from your competition. In other words, buy your competition. It doesn't have to be that difficult, especially if you target small operations. ...
People Judge the Intangible by theTangible
A "service" is consumed at the time it's purchased. It can't be picked up and examined like a tool in the hardware store. You can't kick the tires of a service. To try it is to buy it. As a result, consumers look for signals that indicate what kind of service they will receive. Surprisingly, they also judge the quality of the service by similar tangibles. ...
A Little Recognition Goes a Long Way
Everyone's heard of the marketing mix. It's the four "P's" of marketing: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place (or distribution). The marketing mix applies to manufacturing companies. As a service company, you've got to add at least one more "P" — People. People are an intricate part of a service company's marketing mix....
Give Something Back with this Low Cost Promotion
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, people are in a generous mood. People think more about others this time of the year. Charitable opportunities proliferate, but so do needs....
Exploiting Environmental Hysteria for Fun & Profit
In his keynote speech at HVAC Comfortech 2006, Contracting Business Residential Contractor of the Year Steve Miles declared, “As a person in the air conditioning business, I’m all in favor of global warming, but I don’t know if we’re causing it.”...
Solve the Customer's Problem
p align="left" class="style5"Sometimes your customers may want something that you don't provide. While there's merit in understanding your business and...
Hurry! There's Still Time to Give Thanks
p class="style5"Despite your best intentions, you missed sending out Thanksgiving cards to your customers. Heck, it's hard enough to get cards out for...
Empower Your Front Line
p class="style5" When a customer calls you with a problem, the immediate focus should be on the customer and the problem, rather than company policy....
Quadruple Your Radio Recognition for Next to Nothing
p class="style4"Trivia buffs know that the first video MTV aired when it began broadcasting more than two decades ago was based on the song "Video Killed...
The First Man of HVAC
img src="/images/archive/70967therant010_00000046377.jpg" width="142" height="200" border="0" align="right"October 3, 2007 marks the 205th anniversary...
Don't Lie to the Customer
p class="style5" Sometimes we hesitate to tell our customers news they don't want to hear. We think they might not like us or they might not do business...
Answer The Phone!!!
p class="style3" There's nothing worse than spending a pot of money to attract new customers, only to lose them because they can't reach you when they...
