The Buying Triggers Most HVAC Contractors Miss
When contractors lead with specs, brands, and “SEER talk,” homeowners do what they’ve been trained to do: compare quotes and pick a number. But when you translate your work into what they actually care about — better sleep, fewer allergy flare-ups, quieter rooms, a home they can finally enjoy, the conversation changes.
In this episode, Drew Cameron breaks down how to use education and emotional currency to become the only contractor worth choosing, without “selling” at all.
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00:00:00:02 – 00:00:12:06
Unknown
By teaching them, I put them in a better position to make a buying decision. And because I was the only one having that conversation with them, more of them were compelled to buy from.
00:00:12:08 – 00:00:16:21
Unknown
Me?
00:00:16:23 – 00:00:43:13
Unknown
Welcome back to Cracking the Code, drew. Let’s talk about compelling people to buy through emotional currency. Third segment of our Selling by design, not by default series. Yeah, well, thank you for having me, David. As always, always good to be with you and always love having these conversations around sales and selling and, and and I think in this, this section we’re going to talk about today about being compelling.
00:00:43:15 – 00:01:04:04
Unknown
Being compelling is actually not about selling. Right. And so I always have said sales and selling our myths and sales people. Right. You know, our myths when you think about it, people choose to buy. They choose not to buy. They choose to buy for their reasons and their reasons alone. Right? You so you never have, nor will you ever sell anything to anybody.
00:01:04:06 – 00:01:22:21
Unknown
People are either going to give you the business and their money, or they’re not going to give you the business in the money, right? And so selling makes us think that we’re in control and can and can get the results and outcomes. And if you believe that, yes, you can and you can be successful living and operating that way in business.
00:01:22:23 – 00:01:47:17
Unknown
What I realized was years ago, if I taught people how to buy and where to get value from and what a good contractors does and what, you know, not so good contractors don’t do. And I taught them about how they get the life experience, the results that they haven’t had. Right then I was compelling people. I actually was alluring and magnetic to people who were coming to me.
00:01:47:17 – 00:02:15:02
Unknown
I never had to sell anything to anybody. I just taught them right. And in essence, by teaching them, I put them in a better position to make a buying decision. And because I was the only one having that conversation with them, more of them, not all of them, more of them were compelled to buy from me. So instead of commodity in comparison, selling I got into, I got away from that, I became compelling.
00:02:15:03 – 00:02:39:23
Unknown
And then there was no comparison. And I was no longer a commodity because I wasn’t selling the things. When I was coming in to find out was, who are these human beings? What was life like before I got here? What happened? What maybe caused that, and where do they want to go going forward? Most people don’t like to go backwards in time, backwards in life, backwards to a a lesser level of existence.
00:02:40:01 – 00:03:03:02
Unknown
What people buy in life, no matter what it is that they buy, whether it be appliances, cars, electronics, clothing, meals, trips and of course home services, what people buy is a better version of themselves and a better lifestyle for them and their families. And I think contractors, we miss that. We focus on selling things. It’s so, so, so true.
00:03:03:02 – 00:03:27:23
Unknown
So I’m a I’m a kind of my I guess my little motto is I’ll try to make I try to help people be better tomorrow than they are today, just on a regular basis. You know, whether it’s working with a contractor as a as a trainer or a coach, whether it’s, you know, working with a homeowner and trying to help them be safe, healthy, comfortable and efficient in their homes, doesn’t matter.
00:03:27:23 – 00:03:58:19
Unknown
It’s all about serving others, right? And when when you are honest, when you have a high degree of integrity, when you, you know which is do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it, if you’re understandable, like if we start talking CPR and if you and SPF and all those kind of fun things that go with, you know, in one ear and out the other, and, you know, people think that I’m just trying to show them how smart I am because I can throw these out.
00:03:58:23 – 00:04:19:12
Unknown
Know what you’re doing is you’re making them feel dumb because they don’t know what you’re saying. And in fact, it’s kind of funny because I always ask this question when people start throwing those terms out. I said, okay, wait a minute. Hold on. You’re talking to a homeowner, right? Yeah. And let’s say that you’re at the steakhouse with the homeowner and you say sear.
00:04:19:12 – 00:04:25:08
Unknown
How are they going to spell that?
00:04:25:10 – 00:04:48:10
Unknown
So it’s going to be c.a.r. and they’re going to be thinking about grill marks on a steak. And if you’re saying sear and they’re you’re hearing grill marks on a steak, they’re like, And I’ll throw another one at you. You’re going to put a five ton system on my house. That’s 10,000 pounds. Isn’t that going to like, tear up my yard?
00:04:48:12 – 00:05:15:06
Unknown
How are you going to get that 10,000 pound piece of equipment? Why is it that must be a monster minute thing I got over there. It’s not that big, right. But we’re speaking in terms that this is not compelling. It’s not understandable. So if you can be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, very clean, and if you can be a Boy Scout, if you can educate at the same time and be understood.
00:05:15:06 – 00:05:46:16
Unknown
Right. What is our buddy, Mr. Covey? I said seek first. Understand? Oh, you have to ask them. Then be understood. Oh, you have to communicate in a way that they understand. That’s compelling and it’s way, way, way crazy that most of our brothers and sisters in this industry like to go in with all the techno nerd conversations and use their techno geek speak and and then wonder why it always comes down to a lowest price.
00:05:46:18 – 00:06:11:03
Unknown
It’s crazy. Anyway, sorry I got off on a little bit of a rant there, but, you know, compelling people has to be something they buy, right? They’re buying you. They’re buying your solution. If they don’t understand you and they don’t understand your solution ain’t buying right. And another I’ll throw out another sear at you. Right. The way we spell sear, which is actually not even spelling Sears sear is an abbreviation or an acronym in our industry.
00:06:11:03 – 00:06:32:21
Unknown
It’s not a word. Right. So Sear reading is not a word. It’s an abbreviation. Right. For seasonal energy efficiency rating or ratio, depending on how you look at it in the, you know, the timeline you come from, right. But sear ACR in the dish in the dictionary means savant or all knowing, right? Yeah, I’m omnipotent to some extent.
00:06:32:21 – 00:06:55:00
Unknown
Right. And so but the problem is, like you said, if you didn’t ask questions and listen right and hear and understand and believe what the customer is telling you, how do you know what conversation to have that’s important to them, right. Because all of the the only conversation you can have is the conversation that you always have about your company, how long you’ve been in business, how big you are.
00:06:55:02 – 00:07:17:01
Unknown
Right? The things that you do right, brand model, efficiency, capacity, price, warranty. Right. All the same things that every other clown in town talks to them about. Now you’re all using the same FSM or CRM software to generate a proposal that looks eerily alike like everybody else’s. It’s got pictures of equipment on, it’s got logos of the manufacturer on it, and so the and of course pricing.
00:07:17:07 – 00:07:46:07
Unknown
And so what does the customer do? They shop the exact things that you told them that were important. You didn’t talk in terms of how your people are different than their people. Your processes are different than their process. The way you approach the business is different. Different tools that you use in the home. Right? You actually you pull out a flow and you pull it out of a doc later and you pull it out of, static pressure test, you pull it out of, thermal imaging, you know, camera and blower door and duck blaster and load calculation of software.
00:07:46:07 – 00:08:15:14
Unknown
And and you looked at the building envelope and you went in the basement, the attic, in the crawl space, and up on the roof right where the other guys, you know, came in, showed up. Square foot rule of thumb, brand model efficiency, capacity, quote unquote, home spraying. Pray leave behind the proposal. Right. And so if there’s three or 4 or 5 of you all doing the exact same thing, the exact same way against what the customer treats you like that, see if sameness and they don’t buy on price, people do not buy on price.
00:08:15:19 – 00:08:41:10
Unknown
There is no such thing as a price. Objection. Price people are not price sensitive, okay? They are risk averse. And so money price, if you will, is a function of risk where people based buy based on perceived affordability, perceived value right and perceived risk. And so if we got if we tapped into something let’s call it pain if you will.
00:08:41:11 – 00:09:06:22
Unknown
Right. We call that emotional currency. In my world what’s emotional currency. You throw out terms like a little bit earlier. Comfort, efficiency, you know, maybe longevity, reliability, dependability, things like that. Right. Quite right. Well, those are all nebulous. Those are not emotional. There’s no emotion tied to those words. But I can enjoy my back family room, you know, during the holidays.
00:09:06:22 – 00:09:24:03
Unknown
Because when it gets crowded with all the family coming over, we get really uncomfortable back there and we can’t enjoy it. Right. My son doesn’t get a good night’s sleep because it’s just his room is right over the system, and the system is very noisy, so Billy doesn’t get a good night’s sleep. As soon as you on the second floor, her her room’s over the garage and it’s not comfortable, especially during the winter.
00:09:24:03 – 00:09:47:07
Unknown
It’s very cold. And she has really bad asthma, allergies. And so we sometimes have to basically keep her home from school. And she can’t even enjoy sports because her asthma, allergies. Right. See, those are emotional currency things. Those are the things that we can basically but typically turn healthy air into Susie’s allergies and asthma. Right. We can talk comfort into Billy and Susie being more comfortable in their spaces.
00:09:47:12 – 00:10:08:07
Unknown
We can enjoy your you can enjoy the family holidays right in the family room. Right? That’s comfort. But if you’re talking nebulous stuff wrapped around brand model efficiency and capacity, you haven’t tapped into the customer’s emotional currency. And then you wonder why they don’t spend the currency with you, especially if you’re the premium provider with a better result, the better solution.
00:10:08:07 – 00:10:39:22
Unknown
It might be $2,000 more, $3,000 more, or $5,000 more. You haven’t shown the customer actually how year 2 or 3 or $5,000 different than everybody else in town who is basically focused on selling the things because you’re the one solving the problems. And so it’s it’s people buy basically static identity problems, resolved life impacts, experiences. You know, identity status, better livelihoods, better lifestyles.
00:10:40:03 – 00:10:56:02
Unknown
Right. Peace of mind. You know, that, you know, I’ve done a good thing for my family, that I don’t have to worry about this when I’m traveling. I know that they’re comfort, healthy, comfortable, healthy, and safe everywhere in the house. Oh, and guess what? I can also check that on my phone so I know that that’s what’s going on, right?
00:10:56:03 – 00:11:17:07
Unknown
That’s what people buy, is they they buy those vibrations and those frequencies and and those emotions. The problem is, is as contractors, we’ve been convinced to sell things and people don’t buy things. They buy all that stuff I just mentioned a moment ago. They get the things. It’s like nobody buys a big screen television to get a big screen television.
00:11:17:09 – 00:11:36:19
Unknown
They buy an immersive experience and getting the you’re watching the movies and the shows that they enjoy or time with their family, or others that come over and hang out with them. And they enjoy that immersive experience on the screen. Right? They got a thing, right? Yeah, that’s what they got. I mean, they, you know, they bought the experience, the the emotional escapade.
00:11:36:19 – 00:11:58:08
Unknown
You know, I was I was watching, Mission Impossible final, final reckoning last night. Right. 100in is about right in my living room. Right. For that immersive experience. Right? I wasn’t thinking about the television now. Right. I was think about Tom cruise in that, you know, hanging on to a plane for dear life, flying into my living room and, you know, around my head in surround sound.
00:11:58:10 – 00:12:27:05
Unknown
Yeah. I was seeing Top Gun in that one. So just so you know, but the think about this, you you can have that really cool, really nice set up in your den. Watch that TV. And if you got a dinosaur in a closet right around the corner and that thing fires up and you got to turn up your TV so you can hear, hear the show now it’s like, man, if you if you can’t connect to that, you got something missing and that and that is the emotional part, right?
00:12:27:07 – 00:12:48:03
Unknown
I mean, and also obviously like on the big screen TV idea, I’ve got, I’ve got a set up in my living room where I can put 127 inch diagonal up on the wall. Now it’s a projector, but I’ve got it set up where I can take a couple of, pictures off the wall and we can watch the Philly dogs if we want to.
00:12:48:03 – 00:13:04:18
Unknown
Or we could watch the Georgia dogs if we want to on there. And we’ve had, you know, 15 or 20 people in there watching the game and, you know, everybody’s like, oh, this is so cool. This is so cool. And it’s like, so that’s a little bit of an emotional thing, right? Getting stroked for having a a cool setup where you can have parties and all that.
00:13:04:20 – 00:13:20:07
Unknown
But yeah, I didn’t buy the projector just for that. I mean, it’s a side benefit, but if I was out there trying to sell those things, that’s what I’d be talking about. So how many people are you going to have in a room? You know, what do you think they’re going to say when they see this set up?
00:13:20:07 – 00:13:46:20
Unknown
Right? That’d be the things I’d be wanting to think about. Right. And I and I know people that buy, buy things based strictly on their own, for their own purposes, their own reasons. My wife is one of them, one of the first renovation projects we did in the house that we’re in, was, windows. We replaced a bunch of cheap residential new construction windows in this house as we planned to be here for a while.
00:13:46:22 – 00:14:06:13
Unknown
And, the guy started talking about. Well, let me talk to you about our basic stuff, and she just shook her head. She says, I don’t want to hear about that. I already got that. And he’s like, oh, she said, let’s start from the top and work our way down. Well, he didn’t talk five minutes. And she said, when can you put them in for right?
00:14:06:14 – 00:14:29:13
Unknown
It’s like, because she wanted to have the best windows that she could put in the house. And it wasn’t a money issue because she knew one way or the other I’d figure out a way to pay for it. So, but she got what she wanted, right? And it was it. And it’s funny because half the neighborhood has come over to check out our windows because she’s out there bragging on how it’s also helped in the noise.
00:14:29:18 – 00:14:50:08
Unknown
We don’t hear any noise in our house anymore. Right? And it’s like people, people miss quiet as a part of comfort, right? Because it is a part of comfort. Right? Just like you were saying earlier, my son can’t sleep because the unit so loud. Yeah. Yes. I made the house more beautiful inside and outside. There’s no drafts. It’s quieter.
00:14:50:10 – 00:15:12:13
Unknown
And that makes for a more, you know, just a more lovely house. And people don’t. And thinking about selling on payback and return on investment, nobody really cares. I mean, maybe an accountant does, but, you know, people are buying this stuff because they’re going to live and enjoy the experience in the house. Right. And and so that’s the other part of this too, is we focus on selling things based on price.
00:15:12:13 – 00:15:36:23
Unknown
Right. And so customers have to select what they think they can afford, okay. Versus subscribing to the lifestyle that they want. And nowadays basically my television, my cell phone, my my mortgage, if you will rate my car payment, my music services, you know, I am subscribing to lifestyles everywhere I go. And as contractors, we haven’t embraced a subscription based lifestyle.
00:15:37:01 – 00:15:55:23
Unknown
And we’ve got to be really a lot better at doing so. Because people basically are buying and gets us to subscribe to the life that they want versus trying to pay for the life that they can afford. Yeah. So we got to figure out how to sell safety, health, comfort and efficiency as a service, right? Because that’s really what it comes down to.
00:15:56:04 – 00:16:14:10
Unknown
Yeah. But it specifically as it relates to these people. Right. Because the that definition as I said a little bit earlier. Right. It’s very unique. Right. Billy and Susie are different than Joe and Jane in another house. And so you can’t just talk about improving comfort, safety, health, efficiency fabulously and generically. It’s got to be very specific and unique.
00:16:14:10 – 00:16:36:12
Unknown
You got to be that boutique for the discerning homeowner with distinctive tastes. Absolutely right. And everybody buys for their own just own purposes, own decisions, right? Their own needs, wants, desires. My thinking is we all, all, all in this industry need to focus on three pieces of the puzzle. What do they need, right? If it’s hot outside and cool if it’s cool outside, I need hot.
00:16:36:14 – 00:16:54:10
Unknown
What do they want? Can’t know unless we ask. So that goes back to our, systematic approach of asking the right questions and so forth. We talked about it in the first session of this series, and then what ultimately do they deserve? And I know this would be true at John Cameron in the same way, it was a whole service.
00:16:54:12 – 00:17:18:04
Unknown
We truly believe all our customers deserve the best, period. What’s best for them, not what’s best for us, what’s best for them. So it is their decision, not ours, as to what that looks like. But that’s also starts David with and again, I know you believe this too, at your company. And the people that you’ve worked with over time, it starts with me believing that I am the best.
00:17:18:06 – 00:17:33:23
Unknown
I gotta believe that I’m the best resource. Not from a cocky and arrogant standpoint, but from a confidence and confidence and certainty standpoint that there’s nobody that’s going to do what I do the way that I do to get the results that I get my myself, my team are going to get for you. That doesn’t make us the most expensive or the least expensive.
00:17:34:01 – 00:17:55:12
Unknown
It makes us the best value for your dollar, because we’re going to make sure we take care of you and give you to your point. You know the things that you want and and deserve, right? And if I don’t believe I’m the best and that if they buy from somebody else because I didn’t educate them to the level that they need to and connect with them, I got to believe that they’re getting a raw deal, right?
00:17:55:12 – 00:18:19:20
Unknown
And that’s not on them. That’s on me. I, I betrayed these people because I didn’t get them to see the value in doing business with the best provider, designer service, maintenance and customer care company in town. And they’re going to go over somewhere else, maybe spend less, and they’re just not going to get what they’re paying for from those people, but they’re definitely not going to get the experience and outcomes that I know my team would have achieved for them.
00:18:20:00 – 00:18:42:22
Unknown
So do you know the term land? Yep. I try to land. Yep. It’s a it’s a Cajun term. It means like it’s the 13th donut. Right. The baker’s dozen. Right. So it’s doing a little extra. So I got I got a proposition for you. We, we promised a three part series. What if we had a fourth part and we talked about being the best.
00:18:43:00 – 00:18:52:02
Unknown
So you can give what your customers deserve. What do you think about doing that? Let’s do that. All right. We’ll see you on the next crack in the code. You.
