By 2030, the HVAC market is expected to hit 367.5 billion US dollars.
With new businesses budding everywhere, it is essential to stand out from the competitors and grab customers to level up your business. One of the essential ways to do it is by following these sales tips to increase your sales and revenue.
Everyone in business knows that sales and marketing go hand-in-hand. So, your HVAC business needs a solid marketing strategy and a simplified sales process.
The process of selling the heating, air conditioning, and ventilation products and services to new prospects or existing customers through relationship building and marketing is HVAC sales.
Read on to start implementing them and scale your business.
9 Proven HVAC Sales Tips & Tricks to Boost Your HVAC Business Sales
1. Communication is the key
Marketing and communication go hand-in-hand. Basically, you try to sell your products or services, right? What happens if you don’t explain the customer clearly about it? The lead won’t convert. Simple!
So it is crucial to practice your sales pitch. And, also train your team members on how to effectively communicate with them in a simple way that the customer understands.
The more you communicate better, the more sales happen.
Often, your customers don’t express their needs or don’t know how to articulate them. So ask more questions to learn their pain points or potential needs. This paves a way to show the value of your services.
Be it a sales call or while you meet with your potential client directly to sell your services,
- Understand their needs,
- Maintain a positive tone,
- Use plain English while explaining your services.
- Be clear with what you provide,
- Answer all their questions patiently.
Following these sales process tips gains trust with positively affecting your business.
2. Bundling your HVAC services
This sales tactic is widely used in many industries. Why not try it for HVAC? Instead of getting calls from your customers only for standalone services like installation or repair, you can bundle up services like furnace repair, A/C maintenance, vent cleaning, etc., and offer them to your customers.
HVAC services are always in demand these days. So you can take advantage of this and sign-up for maintenance services. How does asking your existing customers about regular or seasonal check-ups or tuneups services sound? Promising, isn’t it?
There are high chances of generating income via these funnels. So next time when you complete a standalone HVAC service, explain your bundle services tailored to their specific system.
3. Upselling and cross-selling
Upselling simply means convincing your customers to upsize or upgrade their purchases. If you sell a more expensive service they are already interested in, then voila, upselling is done.
For instance, it’s upselling if you managed to get a customer sign-up for the HVAC services package instead of a standalone service.
So what does cross-selling mean?
Cross-selling is again another sales tactic where you make the customer buy additional items related to their original purchase.
For example, you can tell your customer, “Did you know you can save 20% on today’s service by signing up for our preventative maintenance plan?”
This way, you can quickly convince them to cross-sell your maintenance service by spilling these words.
Now comes the question, which one to use – upselling or cross-selling? Well, the answer is simple. Use both. Give proper sales training to your HVAC service technicians to upsell the service because customers trust the HVAC professional more than the salesperson.
Pro Tip: Don’t upsell to the wrong customers. If you find any customer is hard to communicate with or someone who negotiates your price even after your discount, upselling them holds no value.
4. Create a sales list
Creating a sales list for a particular target audience is essential. Your target audience here is HVAC home users, and only a few of the population will be interested in HVAC services. So instead of wasting your time pitching the wrong people, create a potential sales list for your HVAC sales process.
How to create an effective targeted sales list?
Social media: People interested in your HVAC service will follow your social media pages. So you can pull names, numbers, and contact info from your social media outlets.
Past customers: There are chances for your old customers to have due for some HVAC services. Why not check your old invoice and send a sales pitch?
Online contact forms: The contact form page on your website can collect contact information if the customers are willing to give their information for inquiry.
Trade shows: Trade shows get you leads and help build a solid sales list. HVAC trades are potential if you want a lot of B2B HVAC work.
5. Reaching out
Now that you have collected the contact details of potential HVAC customers, you must start reaching out to them for HVAC sales.
You might get tempted to get on a sales call to your customers rather than emailing. But you’re mistaken. First, email them, and introduce yourself and your services; if not, reply follow-up. Then get into a call, especially if you are dealing with younger, first-time house owners.
While reaching out for your services, be mindful. A wrong way of reaching out is better than not reaching out at all because we have narrowed down potential customers. So every customer is important as they can increase your sales number.
Sales call
If you face issues in communicating or are scared if you screw up during the sales call, here are a few tips:
Know your customer: This is tiresome, but the effort is worth it. Learn about your customer and gather personal details to make your pitch more realistic.
Write a script: Have a flexible HVAC sales script to talk to your customers.
Talk about their pain points: This helps them keep thinking about the problem and may end up signing up for your services.
Email marketing
One of the oldest and the most effective marketing strategies guaranteed to grow HVAC business is email marketing. According to Statista, there are 4 billion daily email users. 90% of the emails sent are delivered to the recipient’s inbox. Meanwhile, only 2% of Facebook users see your posts in their feed. So this is a huge difference.
This highlights high chances for emails to generate leads and sales from your existing customer base.
But just sending emails alone won’t fetch you anything. It is crucial to learn the basics of HVAC email marketing. And even if you send a few emails to your contact list, the open rate will be low.
So invest in your subject line, find the best time to send, and customize each email. Also, plan an email campaign with special discounts and problem-solving methods that trigger the customer to convert into a lead. These things will get you a high ROI. You can ease the work by using a software program like Mailchimp or Sendinblue.
Paid Ads
Attract high-quality leads using paid ads. The biggest advantage of paid ads is you need to pay for the ads which customers click. So only the people who are interested in your service will click the ads. Thus, you pay only for potential new customers.
However, it is essential to plan your PPC advertising strategy correctly and execute it on platforms such as Google, Meta, and LinkedIn, among other social platforms.
Online listings
Another way to increase sales is listings your HVAC company on platforms like Google My Business and Thumbtack to help increase reach and online visibility. Thus helping in the sales conversion process.
6. Follow-up leads
While focusing more on converting the leads into customers, you miss out on one big thing, sending follow-ups to the people who didn’t respond.
If you aren’t following up with customers, it minimizes the chances of sales conversion because you didn’t try to attract the lead to their clientele.
To avoid such situations, follow up on your leads and try to connect with them. For this, you must have the right retargeting approach. Your sales team must have the skills trained to make sales calls.
Connecting with potential clients and asking them why didn’t they opt for their services can make them feel special and increase the chances of conversion.
7. Offer discounts
Attract your existing and new customers with offers, discounts, and freebies. Promoting your HVAC services using this sales strategy can get people interested in what you are selling. Connect with potential leads and tell them about the offers. This will increase your clientele.
Most common HVAC promos include waived HVAC equipment fees, free maintenance or installation, or some percentage discount of the total service price.
It is essential to advertise your discounts and offers clearly.
8. Simplify the pricing and invoicing structure
A complex pricing or invoicing structure will create havoc. If you give an elaborated cost structure, it will overwhelm them, resulting in fewer conversions. So it is essential to streamline your pricing and to quote processes on smartphone for simple quotes and easy access.
It is equally important to train your HVAC team members to deliver value in a way your customers understand and easier to grasp. If the HVAC technicians practice the simplified sales pitches to communicate to customers, you will have a high conversion rate.
9. Provide more value
One of the best HVAC sales tips is providing more value. When you prioritize providing more value via your HVAC services, then you get more clients. You also highlight the benefits they get by taking up your services. Tell them how much money they will save or how this service will make their home extra comfortable. It helps improve your HVAC sales.
Another marketing tactic here is to showcase your results to your existing customers. It helps customers see the value of your services. When you gain your new prospect’s trust, you can convince them to make the purchase decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why learning the best tips for HVAC sales is important?
By familiarising yourself with the best HVAC sales tips, you can quickly scale your company in the HVAC industry. Even if your HVAC technicians are the best at their job, it becomes hard to earn new customers if they don’t promote your HVAC company and its services.
Also, technicians must act as top salespeople because people trust the professionals and are likely to get convinced when they approach them. The more you excel in selling your services, the steeper your company and business grow.
What makes a great HVAC salesman?
When an HVAC salesman focuses on promoting the benefits of their services rather than the features, it makes them a great HVAC salesman. While highlighting the importance of indoor air quality while installing the air conditioner focus more on the benefit rather than the process. So when the salesmen interact with the HVAC leads, they must fulfill the high expectations of the customer, which helps close the deal.
What’s the commission in HVAC sales?
The HVAC business sales profits account for 25 to 30%, and the salesman can get up to 5% of sales. Though the commissions can vary from company to company, the average rate is similar in this HVAC industry.
Conclusion
Starting an HVAC business isn’t a piece of cake. It takes effort, time, and planning to launch a business. At the same time, if you don’t promote your services using the best HVAC sales strategy, then all your effort goes in vain.
After reading this HVAC sales tips article, we hope you have an idea of how to promote your services to win customers.
Remember, once you manage to convert a lead into a client using HVAC sales tips, you must deliver an excellent customer experience. When you do your work perfectly, there are high chances of getting referrals from customers and retaining them quickly. You can manage your HVAC business operations by using the best HVAC software.