There’s a tricky line companies have to toe sometimes between making a profit in every area of the company’s business and ensuring we’re not sacrificing our principles by leading with value for the customer.

Nowhere is this more evident than with IAQ products, which are typically a part of any HVAC company’s stable of products. While they might not be a primary revenue-driver, they represent a great deal of potential revenue during the sales and service processes.

Upsells, which can be a dirty word for many, don’t have to be avoided to feel as though you’re being honest with customers. It’s all in the execution.

The Range of IAQ Options and Benefits

Without belaboring what many of you will already know, when I refer to IAQ products, I’m talking about things like filters, air purifiers, dehumidifiers, and humidifiers.

And when I talk about upselling, I’m referring to those points either on a sales call or during a service appointment where the topic of IAQ products is brought up and suggested. Many companies have quotas for such products, while others simply offer them as optional add-ons that can be added to a job or installed separately.

At Fire & Ice, we offer home air-duct cleaning and ductwork disinfecting, which we consider to be under the IAQ umbrella. But, because these are more niche, I’ll focus on the other areas in this article.

Prepping the Conversation

When a sales professional mentions a humidifier to a potential customer at an in-house appointment, is it the first they’ve heard of it? It shouldn’t be.

This is easier with existing customers, where you can utilize things like email marketing. But, even in an initial email, call, or text, you shouldn’t hesitate to introduce people to the range of products and services available to them. This way, it won’t seem as much like a sales pitch but rather a natural extension of the services an HVAC company offers.

Having the Conversation

For anyone to spend something, the need must exceed the price. This is an odd comparison, because need doesn’t translate exactly to dollars. But, in practice, the principle remains true.

There’s also no great way to create a need in someone without high-pressure sales. The alternative, though, is discovering their needs first.

People will tell you all about themselves if you give them the chance. Specifically, they’ll tell you about their pain points and the problems in their homes. This is because, instinctively, they know you are someone who can help them solve their problems.

But, they won’t simply volunteer the information in many cases. So, a system of uncovering needs is necessary to meet these needs and make a sale.

Salespeople know this principle well, but it can be a foreign concept to technicians, who are more used to the physical, mechanical side of the job. Training them to identify and uncover areas of concern is not easy, but it’s a worthwhile skill to train. Service technicians who are skilled at selling aren’t just additional revenue generators, they’re also trust ambassadors for your brand. 

HVAC contractors are legitimately helping people, though, sometimes, selling gets a bad reputation. But, if you know for a fact that a home will be much more comfortable, for example, in the wintertime with a whole-house humidifier installed, that is a value-add that will reward residents for years or even decades. If you can connect that desire to honestly help people to the work your technicians do every day, you’ll have solved the issue of IAQ sales at your company.

Reinforcing the Conversation

You and I know the value of things like variable-speed air conditioners, upgraded media filters, and whole-home humidifiers. But, most of our customers don’t. Reinforcing the value they’ve received is crucial to creating repeat customers and happier customers who trust the home investments they’ve made with you.

This could be done in an automated way, through email communications. Or a print mailer. Or a follow-up call from a sales professional, answering any questions they may have.

Or, it may come a year after installation, when you’re starting to perform maintenance on a system. That one-to-one interaction may be what it takes to reinforce the decisions made in the initial sale.

Customer retention strategies aren’t sexy, because they don’t involve a direct sale. But these methods make the process about customers and their benefits rather than the company. In doing so, they have great potential to benefit the company long-term.

Believing in Value

For these strategies to work, you have to believe in them and standardize the processes throughout your company. When I said you have to tie the process to employee knowledge and passions, I wasn’t joking. That’s the single biggest key to all of this. If an employee of yours would want it for their own home (and they often will), they should want it for their customers because they see the value a product provides.

The only remaining step is to find the best ways to impart that knowledge and excitement to the customer. Hopefully this gave you some ideas for how to do exactly that and that it benefits your company as much as it has mine.