What Are Your Priorities on Sales Calls?

An HVAC Contractor in Iowa asked:

If I offer 3-4 accessories on each service call it would add an extra 30 minutes to each call, which seems like a lot of time. Why should I do this?

EGIA faculty member Weldon Long began by reminding the audience that they need to have their priorities set before they get into a call.

“Is your priority to see how quickly we can run a call or is the priority solving problems for homeowners, improving the quality of their life and thereby indirectly increasing our revenue?”

Long continued by stating that building a relationship with a customer takes time, and if you’re constantly rushing to the next job that you’re not being ‘efficient with the relationship.’

“You can be efficient with machines, you can be efficient with computers, but with people you just have to be effective,” said Long.

Gary Elekes added by saying that, financially speaking, it’s in your best interest to prioritize spending more time with the customer rather than prioritizing efficiency. To Elekes, as long as your pricing is set correctly, you should be able to make enough off of upselling to justify the ‘loss’ in efficiency that taking extra time with the homeowner creates.

Drew Cameron also added that the additional 30 minutes should not be seen as just an extra time to sell more to a customer, but really to instead approach the conversation as offering a higher level of service. “It would be irresponsable of you and underserving the customer not to take the time to make them aware of things that you can address issues for them,” said Cameron.

Weldon Long, Gary Elekes and Drew Cameron are experts in the HVAC industry and regularly give their wisdom in Contractor University’s content.

Our faculty members have also answered questions on other topics related to sales in the contracting world, including Company Culture and a Selling Mindset and Establishing an Install Price.

Hear more from our “Ask The Experts” faculty members on “Cracking The Code,” our weekly web series.

Contractor University members can click here to log in to their member dashboard and submit a question through the Ask the Expert portal.