Contractor Selling

Cut Through Hard Times

Although we try hard to not listen to the news we realize that the world around us as we know it is changing rapidly and for independent businesses in the contracting industry, mostly not for the better.  Many of you that started out as a family enterprise are now struggling with the many challenges that face us going into the new millennium.

This is especially true when it comes to our industry. It only takes a moment of listening to the news to hear about the difficult economy. People are working more hours for minimum wage and small businesses are devastated by the lost jobs and the demolition of the local economy.

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Whenever I have a task that I don’t want to do, I find anything other than doing that task simply irresistible. Basically I put my head in the sand by doing the things I enjoy like talking to a client on the phone about how to turnaround their sales results or working on a new script to help a company convert more callers into buyers.  The time I spend avoiding the work I need to do can be very productive.  However, at the end of the week or month or quarter, I am still left with the task I HAVE to do.  What’s worse and more dangerous is that now the task seems more daunting because it is so far overdue.

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Shed Light On Dishonesty

I want to start by saying that I am against government interference in the contracting industry as much as anyone.  It is certainly hard enough to profitably operate an hvac service contracting business without another partner who is guaranteed their profit before the contractor owner has to pay all of the bills associated with each job to reveal if there even IS a profit.

However, one of the places where local government and some dishonest people in the trades makes a mockery of the statutes and laws, is in the area of licensing and permits.  The reason for licensing and permits is to protect the public against unsafe work being performed. There is also an element of consumer protection.  Local government has registered and tested licensed professionals to protect against unsavory characters that are posing as legitimate service contractors.

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Should We Get Paid To Refer?

I recently wrote an article that was very popular about the 7 Things That Customers Never Want To Hear. In the article it stressed that clients never want to hear, “We don’t do that kind of work.” My suggestion was that we refer someone or find someone to do work for our client that we ourselves are not qualified to do.  Recently a client asked a question about whether we should get paid for referrals or just provide them at no cost to our clients.

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A Sad State Indeed

With the economy seemingly in an endless loop of futility and so many people in the contracting trades struggling, it is inevitable that we reached this point in time.  That, is when a consumer has a problem with their HVAC, plumbing or electrical system but they are shocked at the prices at first glance and decide to tell the proud tradesman they want to either find someone who is cheaper or put the decision to move forward on hold.

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Uncommon Thoughts

I want you as a service professional to think about some of the situations where you said things to clients when you really weren’t thinking.  Thinking before talking is one of the most uncommon skills that people possess in this new era of tweets, likes and post.  Unfortunately, chances are pretty good that if you actually put thought into what you said you would regret it. You may have even unknowingly driven customers into frustration to the point where they silently decided to not do business with you again.

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Band-aids Cause Callbacks

In a recent discussion on the ACCA Linkedin group, an intense discussion broke out amongst HVAC contractors about the reason some techs generate callbacks while other do not. Callbacks are caused by techs who are NOT thorough in their diagnosis. Why are some techs very thorough and others not? That is a question for the ages.

One thing I do know is that callbacks happen because techs fail to take into consideration the age, neglect, design and installation of a system and ONLY focus on the immediate problem.  Fixing the immediate problem is a temporary solution sort of like a band-aid. It does not take into consideration the big picture issues that caused the problem in the first place.

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Paper Pushers Not Managers

The state of sales management today is getting worse than I have ever seen it. I believe this is because sales managers have been trained so inadequately that they have basically given up on the coaching aspect of their profession. They have turned into glorified paper pushers and have gotten away completely from the essence of managing which is to change strategy and behavior that is not working and replace them with functional ones that do.

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Contracting Heaven Or Hell?

“The mind is it’s own place and can make Heaven out Hell or Hell out of Heaven.” – John Milton

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