The Three Keys to Lasting Success
Who’s really running your business and what should you focus on? How should you think about finances? The answers to these fundamental questions are often more straightforward than we make them out to be.
On this week’s episode of Cracking the Code, David Holt, General Manager of Contractor University, takes you back to the basics. Through a powerful whiteboarding session, he reimagines how you should view your HVAC business and reveals the three keys to lasting success. Discover how shifting perspective can transform your business into a customer-driven operation that delivers profit, consistency, and long-term growth.
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00:00:00:00 – 00:00:25:23
Welcome to another episode of Cracking the Code, where we uncover the principles that drive real success in the Hvac industry. Today, we’re asking a question that might surprise you. Who’s the head of your business? Is it the boss, the owner? The leadership team? The truth is, the answer is quite simple and far more powerful. In this episode, I’ll take you inside a philosophy that’s been field tested for nearly 40 years.
00:00:26:01 – 00:00:43:21
You’ll learn how to unlock the three keys to lasting success. Big smiles, timely payments and referrals that fuel growth. So let’s get cracking.
00:00:43:23 – 00:01:13:09
So who’s the head of your business? This is a question I’ve asked contractors for years. Hi, I’m David Holt, general manager for Contractor University and Hvac distributor University. And I want to take you through a quick little presentation. It kind of shares with you the way I see the Hvac contracting business. And here’s a little note. It’s the same whether you’re in distribution or in contracting.
00:01:13:10 – 00:01:36:03
But I’m going to do this through the eyes of a contractor. So who’s the head of your business? Well, most people, if I ask this question of a bunch of contractors, are going to say, well, my bosses or my wife is if they’re right, they’ll say their wife is right. But the reality is the customer. Is the head of the business.
00:01:36:03 – 00:02:02:14
Because without customers, you have no business at all. Think about that. Without customers, you have no business at all. And even if you’re like, my grandfather was a one trucker. If you’re the boss. If you’re the owner. Right? You think you’re completely in control. Wrong. Customers are in control. They control the checkbook, right? They control whether they call you or not.
00:02:02:16 – 00:02:27:16
So the customer’s the head of the business. As long as we look through the eyes of the customer and we understand what they need, what they want, and what they deserve, then we achieve the three most important goals in business. Number one most important goal in business is to put a smile on the customer’s face. Putting a smile on a customer’s face is how you get paid in full and on time.
00:02:27:18 – 00:02:49:16
Putting a smile on a customer’s face is how you can get a premium price for a premium product, right? Helping them understand what you’re talking about puts a smile on their face. If you use jargon technical jargon with a homeowner, the homeowner is going to say, I understand what you say and they’re not smiling, they’re frowning. That’s not good.
00:02:49:18 – 00:03:11:11
So number one most important goal in business put a smile on the customer’s face. Number two most important goal in business get paid in full and on time. Now I know I went to business school. They said number one most important goal in business make a profit. Well guess what? They never worked in the service business. You ever try to collect from an unhappy customer?
00:03:11:13 – 00:03:31:12
Is that usually a profitable job when you have to give some sort of concessions to keep them on the customer list? No. Put a smile on their face. Do the right thing. Earn the right money. They’re going to pay you. It’s a beautiful thing. Number one most important goal. Put a smile on their face. Number two, get paid in full and on time.
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Number three.
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I want referrals. I want referrals I want to grow my business based on that happy customer. Sharing their story with their next door neighbor. With their coworker at work. With their Sunday school teacher with their soccer coach. With the parents on the soccer team. I want them to be focused 100% on the fact that we help them have the safest, healthiest, most comfortable and energy efficient home on the planet where others have failed.
00:04:12:16 – 00:04:36:05
We put such a smile on their face. We created such a wow experience that they easily refer us to more business to help us grow our business, right? That’s a beautiful thing. And then if I take this information because that’s all that is, right? That’s information, a name and address, a telephone number and email address. And I do something with it.
00:04:36:07 – 00:05:03:05
I have a plan to take action with that information. If I do something with it, guess what? The cycle continues. I got another happy job. I got another happy customer. I got another profitable job. I’m earning the money that I deserve. I’m growing my business through referrals. I got to take action to get that done. Now the question is, how do we get that done?
00:05:03:07 – 00:05:29:20
In the Hvac industry, what do we do to do this? How do we operate this thing? So think about this. Our business operates. On something called cash. Now I’m not saying that this is all about money because, you know, people think about and you see, I put it in a heart. It’s like, oh my gosh, here we go.
00:05:29:20 – 00:05:51:20
The love of money. Now, it’s not about that. In fact, probably some of you are her love of money. Love of money? Oh, man. Money is the root of all evil. Well, that’s not what it says. It says the love of money is the root of all evil and isn’t about love and money. This is about understanding that in a business.
00:05:51:22 – 00:06:17:11
Cash is blood. Just like in my body. If the blood stops. Guess what? So do I, right? I got to have cash to operate the business. I got to have cash to pay the bills. You got to have cash to pay to watch this video, right? If you’re watching this video, you’re either thinking about or you already are a member of contractor university of or Hvac distributor university, you’ve made an investment in your education.
00:06:17:11 – 00:06:53:14
That’s why you’re here, right? And so that took some cash. Well, that had to come from somewhere. Well, guess where it came from? Came from the customer. Your customer provided you that cash. Remember, the customer is the head of the business. This is where the money starts. We got cash. Our business is pretty darn technical. As contractors, we service and install Hvac equipment.
00:06:53:16 – 00:07:10:09
That’s some technical stuff. That’s where SDR and a few SPF and all those kind of fun things. That’s where that needs to stay. Is right here in this little box. It doesn’t need to be up here in this person’s ears right now, because that puts a frown on their face. Don’t put a smile on their face. It needs to stay here within the company.
00:07:10:11 – 00:07:26:17
Okay. We’re going to say this is our company down here below the customer. The customer’s up here, right? That’s their part of this situation. Now the way we touch the customer three ways.
00:07:26:19 – 00:08:00:01
We got install crews. Stories. We got service techs. Just. And I’m just going to call the rest of everybody. That’ll be comfort advisors, customer service reps, people answering the phone, people in accounting. All the other representatives of the company sit right there in the neck of this little drawing. So we touch customer three way service techs, reps and crews.
00:08:00:04 – 00:08:34:09
Now in order to keep them smiling, we have to insulate them from this technical stuff. We got to insulate them from this technical jargon. So this is where our sales and marketing come in. This is where we package up what we do in such a way that the homeowner is protected from the technology. We serve it up to them in a way that makes them smile.
00:08:34:11 – 00:08:51:17
That’s our job. It’s about making that wow type of relationship, that wow experience. Now, if the company is going to stay in business for any length of time, it has to stand on two principles.
00:08:51:19 – 00:09:19:15
Quality. I’m going to do it from this side and integrity. Quality and integrity. If you’re going to stay in business for any length of time, you have to stand on those two principles. You got to do what you say you’re going to do with a great deal of integrity. Do what you say you’re going to do with a great deal of quality.
00:09:19:17 – 00:09:51:04
It’s all hugely important. Says easy, does hard, especially if you haven’t communicated what you think as an owner or manager. The level of quality and integrity should be for your organization. Now, usually, like I said, when I ask people who’s the head of your business, they say the boss, the owner, right? Well, they do have a role here.
00:09:51:05 – 00:10:25:13
I want to put a financial term here. It’s called owner’s equity. The owner lays the foundation for the whole business. And if the owner does their job right, what they’re going to do is they’re going to empower and equip their techs, their sales reps, their CSRs, their crews. They’re going to empower and equip everybody in this business. So the business.
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Is everything from here to here.
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Where this line. Becomes the culture. Where is the quality and integrity. Does everybody buy into the company culture? If this is the responsibility owner owners, managers, senior leaders, your responsibility is to define the culture and live out the culture. Empower and equip your team. With the tools and training they need to be successful. And putting that big smile on that customer’s face.
00:11:08:20 – 00:11:14:15
So it’s pretty simple. Now think about this. What is a customer?
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What does it take to become a customer? One purchase.
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That’s all it takes. That’s all it takes to qualify to be a customer. You bought a service call from me. You bought a filter from me. You somehow know that you’ve transacted with me. You’re now a customer. What kind of relationship you got with the customer? Well, if it’s a first time buyer, you don’t have a lot of relationship.
00:11:40:23 – 00:11:54:01
That’s a one time purchase. I want to grow these people. I want them to go from a customer to a client.
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Where it’s a multi purchase situation. Right? It’s multiple purchases. Now you can have people that buy from you multiple times, but there’s actually a better level even than client. And I like to call that one my partner.
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These guys.
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They’re lifetime. That is where you create a business that will grow. You got a lifetime partner. That’s referring people all the time. You’re taking action with that referral. You’re converting it to more happy customers that are paying a premium price for a premium product. And this smile just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And this person is sitting here saying, wow, why would I choose anybody else?
00:12:52:21 – 00:13:23:01
Well, guess what? If you’re a distributor watching this. Same thing for you. The only thing that changes is you’re not servicing and installing equipment. You’re selling and delivering equipment. You’re specifying and delivering equipment. Okay. You’re you’re selling us cardboard boxes as contractors. We open the box and we put it in homeowner’s house. Right. So it’s a partnership. And what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to make sure that both partners in this big thing win.
00:13:23:06 – 00:13:41:23
But most importantly, the number one person we need to focus on winning is that customer. So think about that the next time you make a decision. If you look through the eyes of your customer, provide the products and services they need they want. But most importantly, what did they deserve? Then you’ll achieve the three most important goals in business.
00:13:41:23 – 00:14:10:03
Put a smile on their face. Number one get paid in full on time. Premium price. Premium products. Number two. Number three get referrals to grow your business. So that’s it in a nutshell. I’ve been living this business for philosophy since 1985 and I can tell you it works. It worked in 1985 and it works in 2025. When I’m recording this right now, 40 Holy crap, 40 years later.
00:14:10:05 – 00:14:26:18
So think about it. Who’s the head of your business?
