Playing the percentages

Feature Story

Though most don’t like to do it, marketing your business is a key to its success

By Bob Blagg

I have client companies of all sizes. From one-man operations to companies that have as many as 15 service technicians. All my clients as well as almost everyone else in the HVAC industry have two things in common. First, they are extremely good at what they do. I always thought I was pretty good at repairing HVAC equipment, but they can run circles around me. Secondly, when it comes to attracting new clients, they are not very successful.

Because of this, the majority of people in the HVAC industry don’t make very much money doing what they love to do. In fact, many are starving. It’s pretty sad. Why is that?

Before you can help people solve their problems, you need to be able to reach potential clients with your message. This is called ‘marketing.” Do you want to see most HVAC business owners cringe? Just mention the words ‘marketing” and ‘promotion.” Whenever I bring up the subject of marketing, all I hear is, ‘I just want to run my business, but I hate marketing and having to promote myself and my business.”

But understand this: Everyone markets himself or herself all the time. So the question is this: Do you do it very well or very poorly?

If you are in business, you are also a marketing company, whether you like to think of yourself as such or not. That’s because every business is in the business of getting new clients or customers and offering its products or services to them.

Marketing and promoting are nothing more or less than the means of finding people who need what we offer and letting them know how we can help them solve their problems. Begin to change your opinion of marketing and promotion, and see it as a focus of your energies on how you can offer solutions to people’s problems.

I know you have put a lot of time and effort into being very good at what you do, but you have not put as much time or effort into being as good at getting new clients and building your HVAC business. Remember, whether you are already successful or are just getting by in your HVAC business, you are still need to spend some time and effort attracting NEW clients. So why not be the best at it that you can possibly be?

The bottom line is that you can be the best in the world at what you do, but if no one knows about it, you’re going to go broke doing it. (Reread that line!)

Your marketing skills are the key that will allow you to reach your potential as an HVAC contractor and allow you to live the life you desire doing what you love to do. The HVAC Profit Secrets Toolbox will show you how to accomplish this in a very short time.

Hopefully, you have a better understanding concerning the concept of ‘HVAC marketing.” The bottom line is that you can market and promote any business and still remain ‘honest” and ethical because they are not mutually exclusive. So if you want more clients, more business and more money doing the work you love, read on.

The key to success in any HVAC business is attracting a steady stream of NEW clients. If you have tried to get new clients and have failed, don’t feel bad. Let’s face it; if it were so easy to attract new clients, every HVAC business would be successful (and prosperous). But you and I both know that simply isn’t the case.

No matter how good you are at what you do to keep growing and increasing your income (or even just staying in business), you must continually keep bringing in a steady stream of new clients. Therefore, you must face this very important fact: 25 percent of the success in ANY HVAC business is determined by the service or product being offered, while 75 percent of the success in ANY HVAC business is determined by the MARKETING of that service or product.

Australian marketing consultant Winston Marsh advises, ‘Be a better marketer of what you do than a doer of what you do and you’ll get rich.”

Think about it. When you need a doctor, who do you call? Most likely it will either be: someone you used before, or someone who was recommended by a friend, or someone you found by looking in an ad, probably in the Yellow Pages.

The same thing happens in your field. When people decide they need help they either go to who they used before, or ask for a recommendation or look for an ad.

The thing is, you must face the fact that you have competition. How are you going to stand out from the crowd so you get the clients you want to help?

Today, when it comes to furnace cleaning, duct cleaning, air-conditioner replacement, etc., people have the option of choosing from hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals, services and products. And even though many of them may not be as effective as your product or service is, it still leaves you faced with the following challenge: keep bringing in a steady stream of NEW clients, or never get your business to a profitable and prosperous level, or worse, risk going out of business and doing something you really don’t want to do.

This means that the most important business skill you can learn is ‘How to Produce a Continuous Stream of Clients Who Easily Come to YOU!”

Bob Blagg’s HVAC Profit Secrets Institute has helped more than 963 HVAC contractors skyrocket their profits. He has been in the HVAC Industry for 30-plus years. If you would like to contact him, you can either visit his Web site at www.hvacprofitsecrets.com or e-mail him at bob@hvacprofitsecrets.com.