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AHR 2022: Interactive Sales—Hands-On Customer Education
Whether or not you like Amazon, its successful business model has something to teach anyone involved in sales.
“Amazon has a closing rate of more than 90 percent,” noted Rob Falke, president of the National Comfort Institute. “It’s a classic example of no-pressure sales.”
He told 2022 AHR Expo attendees in a Feb. 1 session that the key is to focus on customer needs and wants. Talk about the system, not the equipment — let customers know how the system will perform better with recommended repairs or replacement.
Then invite customers to help you.
“We call this a ‘teach-omercial,’” Falke said. “Get customers involved in diagnosing their HVAC systems with you and let them talk through the problem.”
Falke and the National Comfort Institute developed 15-minute measurement/diagnostic scenarios that HVAC techs can take their customers through.
“Engage your customer on a learning experience of discovery,” he explained. “Changing out equipment is easier; consumers are more receptive to this approach because they believe what they discover. The lower the pressure, the higher the closing rate.”
He added that is it very high-profit work, offering a homeowner a custom product, not a commodity.
Kelly L. Faloon | Freelance Writer/Editor
Kelly L. Faloon is a contributing editor and writer to Contractor, Contracting Business magazine and HPAC Engineering and principal of Faloon Editorial Services. The former editor of Plumbing & Mechanical magazine, Faloon has more than 26 years of experience in the plumbing and heating industry and more than 35 years in B2B publishing. She started a freelance writing and editing business in 2017, where she has a varied clientele.
Faloon spent 3 1/2 years at Supply House Times before joining the Plumbing & Mechanical staff in 2001. Previously, she spent nearly 10 years at CCH/Wolters Kluwer, a publishing firm specializing in business and tax law, where she wore many hats — proofreader, writer/editor for a daily tax publication, and Internal Revenue Code editor.
A native of Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula, Faloon is a journalism graduate of Michigan State University. You can reach her at [email protected].