“Can You Name the Most Important Link in Your HVAC Sales Chain?” 

This one oversight keeps contractors from getting to the “next level” – no matter the effort – losing piles of profit just inches from your grasp…

Dear Contractor Friend,

You spend lots of time and money for one thing: to make the phone ring. You know a ringing phone leads to sales, more customers, more referrals, and healthy profits.

Yet even when your phone does ring, something can happen – in just a few seconds – that rips stacks of dollars right out of your pocket. It actually pushes customers to your competition. It can happen every hour, of every day, all year long.

Like a silent and clever thief, this plagues virtually every contracting business, but you may not even know it. Don’t feel bad; over 90% of contractors admit they “Don’t even check”! After nearly 6,000 research calls to contractors, believe me: you want to know because it is costing you a fortune.

The “thief” is Customer Service – or lack of it. Done poorly, it’s called Customer Erosion and it’s so prevalent in contracting that it has become a joke behind your back. I hear the jokes; I talk to the customers; heck, I am a customer. It happens constantly. In fact, a full 55% of your “lost” customers leave because they didn’t think you cared!

Let’s make this clear: I’m not talking about “hearsay” from non-customers, or mealy-mouth competitors, or tweed-jacketed professionals that charge for their opinions, I’m talking about “paying customers and earned prospects”. These are the people you attracted with advertising (at a cost) or through word-of-mouth who quit using you because of rude, indifferent, or unsatisfactory customer service.

These customers go straight to your competition…who didn’t pay for the lead, by the way. You did. They didn’t “earn” those customers or referrals. You did. But they didn’t drive your customers away either – you did. (Sorry, I was never good at candy-coating bad news.) This problem is too big and too costly to gloss over, because it’s your money and customers leaving. Personally, I feel like you earned something you’re losing.

Fortunately, fixing this is much easier than you think…

First, please realize that losing a customer isn’t a one-time loss. Why? Because all their future “deserved” sales are never made. Plus, those customers tell others behind your back. (Sadly, people are 7 times more likely to repeat a story with a negative outcome than a positive one.) Lastly, these customers don’t contact you or refer you again. They’re just gone.

Second, I believe you can fix most anything you can see. However, this problem is nearly “invisible” (well, until we performed thousands of calls, interviews, and behind-the-scenes research). Hard to fix what you can’t see or didn’t know about.

Sure, you might pass a house you used to service and see a different truck out front. Or different equipment. Or competitors’ trucks working in a neighborhood you “should” own. And you wonder “Why?”

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