It’s not often that I find myself speechless, but that’s exactly what happened at a recent speaking gig. In the middle of explaining tracking what leads come from what source, a voice piped up from the middle of the room.

We all like to think that customer retention is there, working for us because we’re just so darn good at our job. No customer could ever forget how timely, fair, and magnetically unleavable we are. Until they actually leave, taking their business and referrals forever. Contractors are too often swooned by the cheapness of what I call anti-retention.

E-mail has turned into the digital telemarketer during dinner. It’s too much, too often, and - in my lowly estimation - too cheap. I wish they’d charge for it so the spammers, slammers, and scammers could just go bother someone else.

Reacting to others’ needs naturally puts the needy in control. It can understandably make a contractor develop a “wait on the weather” mindset (soon enough, a “wait on the call” outlook). Thus, a “wait for the economy to improve” thought process is not - cannot - be far behind. Danger is written all over that.

HVAC contractors, amid the gloomiest economic times since the Paleozoic era, may be dismissing one of the most lucrative programs ever created. To recap: the federal government allows a tax credit of 30 percent - up to $1,500 - on the purchase of new, high-efficiency air conditioners, heat pumps and furnaces.

From my office window, I see sweating people. They are not engaged in manual labor, nor using a Thigh Master; they are in fact, just standing there. I’m no meteorologist, but in Alabama, this signals summer.

It’s a tricky balance. Techs are technical; salespeople are salesy. (You can quote me on that if you like.) Combining the two is like finding an accountant who’s the life of the party. Yet, the combo of a selling technician can give you a radically effective one-two punch.

My fearless editor, Mike Murphy, who shall remain nameless, wrote an editorial about the tax credit stimulus package for energy savings. He felt that the ARRA program was fairly difficult to obtain compliance for the credits.

Twitter and other social media sites are indeed the rage. Facebook, with a mere 200 million users, is hardly a kiddies’ playground anymore. LinkedIn is “the” social hangout for commercial connections. With myriad other discussion groups, subgroups, and topical hotspots for micro-niching, how’s a marketer to make it anymore?

All marketing efforts are really doors into your business. But it doesn’t matter how many doors you’ve thrown open if you don’t turn entrants into sales. If you’re not closing the sale, you’re sending these costly prospects right to your competition.