It was after midnight and the train was late. Danny tossed and turned in his bed. Liz was fast asleep as usual. Her early mornings gave way to 10 PM bedtimes, dozing off while watching the local news.

Danny would stay up awhile longer and have a late night snack while channel surfing through mainly the large array of Science, History, or Discovery programs. He had seen most of them already but occasionally a new one would pop up. Well at least there was something good about so many cable channels he would force himself to admit. When his eyelids got heavy he would make his way up the stairs and hit the sack. During the busy times when Danny worked 10-12 hour days, falling asleep was no problem....

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When asked who he thought his 'competition' was in the local marketplace, an HVAC contractor told me "If they're breathing, they're competition." Although this is somewhat of an extreme position to take, it does give cause to wonder. Just who IS your competition? I have tried in the past to point out differences between competition and participants in our industry. But here, I want to focus on competition; particularly that competition that you would not normally expect to encounter.

Do you know where your competition is? Would you be surprised to learn that it is closer than you might think? Now this may not come as a revelation to everyone, but to others it may, and for that reason I believe it is worth bringing up. Some of your biggest competition may be right in your own organization. Now a lot of your personnel are going to take exception to this statement. It is not directed to those honest, loyal employees that have earned your respect and trust. No, the ones I am talking about are those that may feel compelled to 'compete against you for your own customers.'

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When a potential customer asks what do you sell, do you tell them you sell Trane, Rheem, Lennox, Carrier or any of the other manufacturers equipment?

Do you sell equipment or do you sell your services? If you just sell equipment without putting the priority on service, you have a major problem.

Please, Stop selling equipment!

I can hear you screaming, if I can’t sell equipment I will go out of business.

I didn’t say you couldn’t install equipment; I just want you to stop selling equipment.

Still don’t understand? Let me explain.

What is the first thing you do when someone calls your office or you are out on a sales call and someone asks you what kind of equipment you sell, what do you tell them?

99.99% of HVAC contractors tell them a particular brand (Trane, Rheem, Lennox, Armstrong etc).

Once you do this, the customer puts you in the same pile as all the other contractors who sell that particular brand of equipment, even the lowball seller.

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