What HVAC Techs Need to Win More Work
How often are your technicians quoting work before the customer understands why it matters? When techs rely on jargon-heavy explanations or quote work before building value, homeowners can push back or walk away without seeing why the repair matters.
In this episode of Cracking the Code, Russ Horrocks shares lessons from the road after working directly with HVAC technicians and comfort advisors in the field. He explains why customer trust starts with clear communication, how technicians can make recommendations easier for homeowners to understand and why building value before quoting work is critical to protecting your reputation and building long-term satisfied customers.
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00:00:00:01 – 00:00:20:03
Every day I see where technicians just don’t know how to take that opportunity, and we can tell people they’re just used to it. I see it. I observe it, I quote it, and I hope it’s not good enough. We’re not serving customers if that’s the extent of our skill.
00:00:20:05 – 00:00:48:05
Welcome back to Cracking the Code, where we break down the biggest challenges facing contractors and give you real world, practical solutions you can use right away. I’m David Holt, third generation Hvac contractor, educator and business coach with Eagle Contractor University. Today we’re blessed to speak with my good friend, Mr. Russ Horrocks. Russ spends tons of time training and coaching Hvac professionals all across North America.
00:00:48:07 – 00:01:14:23
In this episode, we’re going to pick up some lessons from the road with Russ. Welcome back to Cracking the Code Russ. Hey good to be her e. Thank you David. You bet. Man I know you’ve been on the road a lot doing things like ride alongs with technicians and comfort advisors and all that kind of stuff. So can you share what you like most about those opportunities and why they’re so important to people’s professional growth?
00:01:15:01 – 00:01:38:06
Yeah. It’s, you know, as much as I love speaking to groups of people and large groups of people, I think the funnest thing for me is to be in the trenches, to be out there where it’s, learning in context, learning in real time, learning with real, response from people, showing technicians and salespeople, the technique I’ve taught them, showing them in the home, how we get the response.
00:01:38:07 – 00:02:01:08
I think that’s just fun, because the growth becomes exponential when we’re able to train like that, able to apply it, we gain confidence in it. And it’s just fun to see people grow really, really rapidly when they have that type of attention. And that type of opportunity. Yeah. For me, I had to learn most of what I’ve learned through just sheer experience and, and obsession with my craft and study.
00:02:01:10 – 00:02:25:10
And I love seeing people get somewhere quicker than I get there faster than I did. So that’s a lot of fun for me. Yeah. You know, and it’s, it’s so true. We sometimes we forget that we were once them, right? That we were at a point in our career where we didn’t know what we didn’t know. And when you when you bring those decades.
00:02:25:12 – 00:02:46:08
I hate to think about it that way, but decades of experience for both of us. I mean, when you when you bring that to the seat next to them and standing in the, you know, at the job site with them and, and, and really kind of demonstrating what it’s what it could be and they see immediate results. It’s just it is encouraging.
00:02:46:08 – 00:03:10:18
I mean, I absolutely love doing that type of stuff, my work myself. And it’s, it’s always it’s just, I don’t know, there’s there’s financial income, but then there’s emotional income, right? And when we see that smile, we see that moment with, with contractor employees that are just getting it. You see that moment and they get back in the truck and they just say, I never saw that coming, right?
00:03:10:18 – 00:03:45:16
I mean, so give us give us some nuggets man. Where some of the what are some of the moments that you’re seeing out there with folks that you’re, that you’re right along with. You know, I think what I noticed in general and recently is just our technicians out there, and our salespeople are just very underdeveloped, you know, they have a very base level in which they interact with customers, and they don’t realize there’s a whole world of opportunity if they spend a little bit more time developing their ability to build safe environments, to connect with the customer in a more meaningful way to, make the customer feel safe enough where they start
00:03:45:16 – 00:04:09:09
to open up. You know, there’s the old adage, buyers are liars. It’s not true. They tell us as much as they trust us, why would they lie to the person they’re seeking to partner with and help them? Well, the reason is, there’s a there’s a concept called asymmetry of information. And what that means is when you have someone with lots of knowledge and some with very little knowledge, the person with very little knowledge wonders, how are they going to use that knowledge?
00:04:09:11 – 00:04:24:23
Is it going to be the manipulate me? Is it going to be to make me do things I don’t want to do or spend money I don’t want to spend? So when we knock on the front door, that customer really senses that asymmetry of information. And they’re they’re defensive. And a lot of this technicians don’t know how to break that down.
00:04:25:04 – 00:04:43:04
They don’t know how to create a safe environment without a homeowner will just open up and really tell them what’s important to them and how we can best serve and help them. So I think it’s just an underdevelopment of some of these really critical skills. And that’s why, you know, as much as AI is coming and I love it, I use it.
00:04:43:06 – 00:05:03:20
AI is about making our lives more convenient, but it’s not about human interconnection. That’ll never, ever get in the way of that. We need the the warmth of a human being, the nuance of understanding language and language. And so these technicians, these salespeople have just got to really work hard at trying to develop that, those nuance skills.
00:05:03:22 – 00:05:19:23
I’ve had real time where a technician said to the customer, you’re capacitors out of tolerance. And the guy’s like, no, no, thank you. I let them all ride till they die. And he was done. That was the extent of the skill. And I turned around and said, hey, sir, do you mind if I share a little bit more about that?
00:05:19:23 – 00:05:45:04
And he’s like, sure. Do you know what he means by it’s out of tolerance? And the guy’s like, no. I said, well, it has a purpose. A capacitor has a purpose. It’s they’re protective, very expensive components. So the right and concept. Sure. You can do that if you’re functional focus but performance focused. That’s going to, you know, end up costing you a lot now expose you to that real expensive component wearing out quicker than it should.
00:05:45:04 – 00:06:06:04
So as long as you’re comfortable with what it means to not do anything, that’s perfectly fine. So once it’s out of tolerance, it’s now considered a failed component. And the guy looks at me and goes, so you’re saying I should replace it? And I said, no, I have not seen that, sir. But the engineers absolutely are. And he sat there and thought on it for a second and goes, all right, go ahead and replace it.
00:06:06:06 – 00:06:29:02
So I just every day I see where technicians just don’t know how to take that opportunity and compel people. They’re just used to I see it, I observe it, I quote it, and I hope this is not good enough. We’re not serving customers if that’s the extent of our skill. So that’s something I’ve noticed in recent months. Writing with technicians is we just got to get better.
00:06:29:04 – 00:06:49:00
You know, it’s interesting, as you were talking about that, I was just had this visualization of, a person standing in the batter’s box and pitchers up there just pitching away, and the guy’s just standing there afraid to swing. You know, he’s he’s just hoping that he’s going to throw four bad balls so that he could go to first base.
00:06:49:00 – 00:07:11:21
Right? It’s like, dude, that is not the way to win the game, right? You got to get some skills. You got to know how to how to how to do your part. And you know, one of the most important parts for technician, comfort advisor, when we’re when we’re communicating with the homeowner is to communicate in ways that they actually understand, because you just gave a perfect example for your capacitors at a tolerance.
00:07:12:02 – 00:07:48:16
That’s two things they don’t understand, right? They don’t understand capacitor. They don’t understand its function. They don’t know what tolerance means. It’s like you you might as well have just said, my, my, my aunt like Charlie Brown’s teacher. Right. It’s like there’s nothing understandable there. So making things clear and understandable. And what’s in it for me thing. And you know, it’s all kind of focus is on looking through the eyes of the customer, understand where they are, make sure that you know and that they know that you’re properly communicating together, that you know what’s important to them, and they know what you’re saying in a way that they can understand it.
00:07:48:16 – 00:08:09:23
And I see so many people just completely blowing it on communication. We were at a steakhouse recently with a bunch of contractors and, and, I said, guys, I want to do an experiment real quick. What’s that? I want to ask the wait staff here to spell the word sear.
00:08:10:01 – 00:08:29:18
And I don’t want you guys to tell them what the spelling is. I want them to tell they said ACR, of course. Right. We’re at a steakhouse where we got grill marks on a steak. Right. That’s searing a steak. I said, now notice they didn’t spell it ACR and all that. Wait, staff’s looking at me like, what the what is he talking about exactly?
00:08:29:18 – 00:08:51:19
That’s the point. They had no earthly idea. But when we communicate using technical terminology that we understand, we again, we forget where we came from. We didn’t know what that meant until we got into this industry. And most people outside of us, outside of our industry have no clue. I mean, when you talk about a ton, they’re thinking 2,000 pounds.
00:08:51:19 – 00:09:21:18
They’re not thinking 12,000 BTUs. Right. And so how important is, that just skill alone, understanding, asking the right questions, figure out what’s wrong with through the eyes of the customer and then communicating that in a way that they can clearly understand. It’s a it’s a critical, in fact, that’s the value building process. So the fact that I observe something to recommend something skips the entire value building process.
00:09:21:20 – 00:09:41:22
People can’t value it if they don’t understand it. They don’t know its purpose. They don’t understand its importance in their quality of life or their comfort. So that’s the problem I see is so many techs quote in hopes pray and pray. They don’t make it relatable. They don’t make it understandable. And for that example I gave you earlier, I mentioned to the guy, do you know what an anode right is?
00:09:41:22 – 00:10:03:03
And he said, yeah, I go, so, you know, its purpose goes, yeah, it’s a self-sacrificing component to protect the more expensive component to make sure your tank isn’t attacked by those ions in the water, and you have a failure from inside out and flood your home. I go, a capacitor is this little buddy of these expensive components to keep them safe, help them start, help them run.
00:10:03:09 – 00:10:20:17
And every seconds you have tolerance, you now take on more and more financial exposure. As long as you’re okay with that, you can do whatever you want. Interesting part of that story was he said, do you think I should replace it? And I’m experienced enough to know what he was trying to do. He was trying to find conflict of interest.
00:10:20:19 – 00:10:38:06
He was trying to get me to say yes. So he could then say, no, thank you. I’ll think about it. He did not want to give me the satisfaction, and that’s a nuance a lot of young technicians don’t understand the psychology of decision making. So the second he said, do you think I should do it? I knew to say, absolutely not.
00:10:38:08 – 00:10:54:08
I will never take that role, how to spend your money and win. But I want you to know the engineers think you should have done it yesterday, and then now you had no way to blame me for that inactivity. And he had just the information and he was able to process the information and make a decision he could defend.
00:10:54:10 – 00:11:15:07
And that’s the key. If they don’t value it, they can’t make a decision and defend the decision because they have no information to do so. And that’s such a deficiency, in how we’re training our technicians, you know, we we focus so much on making them skilled technically, but we do not spend enough time on making them skilled.
00:11:15:08 – 00:11:33:22
You know, communicate actively. I I’ve always said this. The technicians, I’ve never met a condenser yet that’s told me to go ahead and work on it and cut me a check at the end of the visit. You know, we need the humans, and we’ve got to be better with those humans. When I communicate something, I don’t just assume they understand.
00:11:33:22 – 00:11:57:07
I go back and verify. I ask them, you know, I’m sure you have additional questions. What are they? Give them a chance to say to you. I have no idea what you’re talking about or. Yeah, that makes sense. So I said, okay, so now you understand what an inducer motor is. So when the system goes to start up and goes through its safety protocol, if it has a problem, your system won’t come on.
00:11:57:09 – 00:12:23:07
Can you see why a inducer motor that’s wearing is so important? You let them slowly absorb the information, understand it, and then they go, wow, I know what it is. I know what it does. And that thing’s pretty freaking important. I better do something about it. And now they’re compelled to act and seeking a solution instead of you just quoting and hoping and so I just think that’s such a disconnect in our training of young people.
00:12:23:09 – 00:12:48:14
They’re everywhere. I go see technicians told I’m supposed to quote, I’m supposed to quote, I’m supposed to quote, I have to quote we we don’t get our jobs not to quote, work our jobs to get work. And if you just simply quote, work with no point to it, then we’re not serving the customers. In fact, you’re harming yourself because they might go tell a friend about the quoted work that you’ve given them, and the friend goes, well, that’s way too expensive.
00:12:48:16 – 00:13:09:09
And now those quotes are out there destroying your reputation because you’re not there to defend its value. So I don’t want to just quote work. I want to work with customers, educate, inform, connect, collaborate and compel them to act. And that’s what all the best technicians do. It’s all the best salespeople do.
00:13:09:11 – 00:13:42:11
So without a doubt, that is the most powerful way to get homeowners to make a decision on their own, where it’s not you as a professional technician or sales guy who’s out there talking and trying to quote and hope rather than quote and hope, help them understand what’s available to them as options. Help them to understand why the option is, is, is a recommendation to consider and let them make their own decision.
00:13:42:11 – 00:14:02:20
Because customers can’t argue with the answers they provide themselves, can they? Yep, it’s called self persuasion. It’s one of the most powerful parts of decision making psychology. You’ve got to give us information so they can self persuade. And if they’re not asking you what to do, if they’re not asking you for the solution, quoting it is not a good thing to do.
00:14:02:22 – 00:14:29:17
It actually can be very harmful to your brand and your market position. And this has been super, super powerful. I really appreciate you being here and sharing this with our audience. Hey, if you got value from today’s episode, make sure you like, subscribe and share this with someone in your organization who’s responsible for training your team. Skills development impacts everything your culture, your profitability, and your long term growth.
00:14:29:22 – 00:14:49:22
And if you want more practical, real world training like this, head on over to my contractor, university.com. Because you can find not only recorded information by Russ and others, but you can also find our events calendar where you’ll find Russ on the road teaching classrooms. But you can also get in touch with Russell if you want to talk to him about other things as well.
00:14:50:04 – 00:14:59:00
So head on over to my contractor university.com and check it out. Until next time I’m David Holt and we’ll see you on the next episode of Cracking the Code.
