ORLANDO, Fla. - If you choose service over replacement sales, you are only making a living. But if you choose replacement sales over service you are making a healthy profit. That’s according to Terry Nicholson, president of Success Group International and a regular columnist forThe NEWS.Nicholson was talking to members of AirTime 500 at the group’s fall meeting in Orlando, Fla.
He said it is important for contractors to move from the fix-it mentality to the replacement mentality because “the reason we are in business is for the replacements.” He added, “Your techs need to lose the super repair tech mentality and become super replacement techs.”
One of the tools that AirTime 500 members have available to get into the replacement mentality is the Inspector, which is a camera that goes inside of a furnace and looks for irregularities in the heat exchanger, including cracks, holes, rust, debris, etc. The purpose is to find any problems that cannot be seen by the naked eye or with mirrors and point them out to customers.
But now AirTime 500 contractors have a newer weapon to fuel replacement sales, a step up from the original Inspector. The new Inspector Quantum adds sound to videos made by the Inspector and used in sales presentations. Customers can now hear what technicians are saying about their furnaces and get a better understanding of why a furnace needs to be replaced and not just serviced.
The entire inspection process can be downloaded onto a computer and burned on a CD, customized, and delivered to homeowners during a sales presentation. According to Tom O’Connor of Shamrock Industries Inc., Carol Stream, Ill., and inventor of the Quantum, contractors who use the device will have “18 ways to skyrocket replacement sales.”
Some of those ways were outlined by O’Connor, who said the Quantum provides the “eyes and ears” of the technician. He noted the video provides visual proof of an inspection and documentation in the event of any legal recourse. And he added that technicians, through the Quantum training, can “become superstars in days, not years.”
O’Connor also said contractors can view all of the furnace inspections in the comfort of their easy chairs at home, allowing them to manage their business “easier than ever before.”
Using O’Connor’s own example, he said the Quantum reduced his own company’s callbacks by 13 percent, built up club memberships (service agreements) by 18.4 percent, increased average sales tickets by 23.1 percent, increased generated leads by 11 percent annually (37.6 percent during fall tuneup season), and resulted in a closing rate of 87.9 percent on replacements.
“Add up all of those percentages and then ask yourself, what would that mean for your business?” he asked. “Our company’s annual sales increased an additional $927,000.”
The Quantum is available to any HVAC contractor but the training is only available to AirTime 500 members.
For more information, visit www.shamrockindustries.com and www.airtime500.com.
Publication Date:10/29/2007
