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What is the Purpose of Your HVAC Job?

Jan. 21, 2015
Your best bet to increase sales and efficiency is to deliver a superior level of service by doing a complete inspection on every call. Draw up a comprehensive list of every single deficiency you see in order of priority, and go over it with your customers.

What is the purpose of your job?  What were you hired to do?  What was the boss hoping to accomplish by hiring you?

When I ask those questions, service technicians tend to say that the purpose of their job is to:

  • Fix things
  • Solve problems
  • Satisfy customers
  • Make friends.

There is one reason and one reason only why they hired you, put you in a uniform and sent you out on a service call; and that is to generate profits for the company.

You’re not going to generate profits long-term unless you fix it right the first time, solve problems, and satisfy customers; and I find these things are where techs seem focus all their energy.

You’re only running calls because everyone, including you, has to earn a living.  The fact that we are in a “helping” profession is a huge plus that I personally feel contributes significantly to my job satisfaction; but the only reason we put up with what we have to put up with on a daily basis, is that we need the money.

We’re only doing it for the money, but unfortunately, for many of us, there’s not that much money in it. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Since the purpose of your job is to generate a profit for the company, whether you own the company yourself or work for someone else, you're not going to get the most out of your career in service until you maximize the profits you generate.

 

Since the purpose of your job is to generate a profit for the company, whether you own the company yourself or work for someone else, you’re not going to get the most out of your career in service until you maximize the profits you generate.

Why Increase Efficiency?
If you’re going to generate more profits out of your efforts, you’ll have to increase your efficiency.  You want to bring in more money in the same amount of time, or less, than you’ve been doing.  The best way to do that is to drive as little as possible and make the most money possible (while keeping your ethics intact) on every single call.  Another way to word it is to increase the average dollar amount of your service calls, and yes, I mean to “sell” more on each call.

It costs hundreds of dollars to generate a service call and get a technician to the front door.  If you’re only doing one task per call, it’s costing more money to send you on calls than you’re bringing in.

 

It costs hundreds of dollars to generate a service call and get a technician to the front door.  If you’re only doing one task per call, it’s costing more money to send you on calls than you’re bringing in.

Your best bet to increase sales and efficiency is to deliver a superior level of service by doing a complete inspection on every call, drawing up a comprehensive list of every single deficiency you see in order of priority, and going over it with your customers.

When you go over your list, don’t go into “salesman mode.”  In fact, don’t really even try to sell them anything.  Just be sincere and confident, believe in your own recommendations, and make good eye contact.  If what you’re recommending they do truly makes sense, you’ll be successful.

Is Service Technician a Sales Position?
Most of the techs I’ve asked that question to did not know the profession involved so much selling, and did not know that their income would depend heavily on their sales ability, before they entered the profession.

It’s worth mentioning that contractors’ ability to meet their own financial goals also relies heavily on their technicians’ sales abilities.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  It’s a great thing when you know how to close!

Why Study Salesmanship?

  • You make more money
  • You get to be more helpful to people
  • It makes the job easier.  Aren’t the issues you have with people what keeps you awake at night?  Aren’t the “people” aspects of this job more difficult than the fixing of things?
  • People won’t necessarily do what’s in their own best interest and usually take some convincing.

Which is More Important?
Which is more important to service technicians, technical skills or sales skills?  The question is moot.  They’re equally important.

It doesn’t do you any good to have all the technical ability in the world if you can’t sell the work.

By the same token, you don’t want to be one of these techs that can sell it, but everybody’s got to go back and re-do everything you’ve done because you’re just not good at the technical aspects of the job.

Which is more important in terms of your earning potential?  Sales skills.

What Technicians Can Do
When we think about delivering a superior level of service, we tend to think about doing it for our customers.  Technicians who really want to get ahead make it a point to deliver a superior level of service to their employer as well.

Technicians maximizing their careers and delivering a superior level of service quit playing around and pretending like they have no control over how much income they generate.

If your career isn’t going anywhere, maybe it has nowhere to go. Have you pointed your career in the right direction?

 

Service technicians need sales goals in order to reach their own financial and career goals – and everyone needs goals. How you gonna hit the bullseye when you ain't got no target?  If your career isn’t going anywhere, maybe it has nowhere to go. Have you pointed your career in the right direction?

When you keep track of your own sales figures for your own personal edification, by default, you wind up setting your own sales goals.  When you set your own personal sales goals, you start competing against yourself to improve your daily average and your per-call average.

If you're a service tech and think you're working for someone else, you're not.  Even as an employee, you're still only working for yourself.

Charlie Greer has seen that HVAC technicians and salespeople who keep their own sales log tend to have higher sales, and that those sales tend to increase over time. For that reason, he has developed a weekly planner specifically for HVAC salespeople and service technicians, with weekly sales tips and space to track sales. For more information call 1-800-963-HVAC (4822) or visit him on the web at www.hvacprofitboosters.com. Email Charlie at [email protected].

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