National Comfort Institute Summit Provides Action Plan for HVAC Contractors

The National Comfort Institute (NCI) gathered in Savannah, GA April 10-13, for the organization’s 13th annual meeting, to the benefit of more than 140 HVAC contracting attendees.

The theme of this year’s NCI Summit focused on “connecting the dots” between Home and HVAC Performance. Over the years, NCI has taught HVAC contractors about the concepts of Performance-Based Contracting and addressed preliminary action plans on how to actually implement it into their companies.

The “dots” are the three major components necessary to be successful: Generating Leads, Closing the Sale, and Delivering the Products and Services.

“Two thumbs up for the 2016 Summit in Savanah,” said David Squires, president of Vincent’s Heating and Plumbing, Inc., Port Huron, Mich. “For those who couldn’t make it, there was a lot of new content and useful tools and more value added to the membership. I already have Scottsdale in my calendar for April 2017.”

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THIS YEAR'S NCI AWARD WINNERS

In addition to the classes and networking, attendees were treated to an opening session skit and video show that took a humorous look at the difficulties of implementing Home and HVAC Performance into individual businesses. Attendees met the fictitious management team from Connor’s Heating and Air Conditioning, who were struggling with getting their field personnel onboard with Performance-based Contracting™.  An “intervention” was organized by the NCI team to help Connor’s team understand the relationships between the home and its HVAC system, and then connecting the dots to help make their customers raving fans.
 

NCI CEO Dominick Guarino led a five-member contractor panel who addressed questions from the audience on the difficulties, success, and roadblocks to implementing Home and HVAC Performance into their companies. The lively Q&A event threatened to run into overtime as the audience and panelists interacted together, sharing tips and advice.

Panelists included:
• John Ellis, So Cal Air Dynamics, Northridge, CA
• Tom Johnson, TM Johnson Bros., Cambridge, MN
• Rob Basnett, Basnett Plumbing and Heating, Littleton, MA
• Mike Hartman, Thomas E. Clark, Silver Spring, MD
• Mark Pippin, Pippin Brothers, Inc., Lawton, OK.

Event sponsors were impressed by the panelists remarks, and by the overall content of the Summit.

“I gained so much knowledge about NCI, how much its technical training impacts the companies and lives of the members it works with,” said Tracy Johnson, from R.E. Michel.
“I was truly touched by the panel discussions on how the technical trainers impacted their companies, to the awards ceremony on how NCI has changed the future of those companies, the lives of the families within those companies, and how NCI truly is a family with their members.”

R.E. Michel, which is one of NCI’s newer vendor partners was also recognized as the group’s 2016 Vendor Partner of the Year.

Says John Ellis about the panel and Summit overall, “NCI has delivered another first class event. I’m looking forward to next year in Arizona.”

To learn more about the Summit 2016, visit the NCI website at gotosummit.com. Vist NCI online, at nationalcomfortinstitute.com.
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