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Borrow a little Bill Clinton accent to your speech of any content and the sales will go threw the roof.

Other than service agreements or a humidifier replacements etc. its not cost effective for most companies to have a service tech stay in a house for an hour explaining tax credits, rebates and finance options(not their field of expertise any way)then lose the job. If they can plant some seeds of thought in the mind of the home owner and start the nail, get your salesman there in a hurry to drive that nail home. If techs have enough spare time to kill an hour and have a sales contest with the other techs.......makes you wonder.
If your professional sales rep takes over, the numbers are almost always way higher. If the techs make some strong recommendations before they leave, and the sales rep is on the same page it works for us.

I always tell people of possible problems with their systems, along with a little education as to why this or that could be a problem. Most people appreciate it and I believe that is the "professional" way to handle your customers. I Do Not recommend unnecessary work, but i'll tell them about potential problems, and make them sign off on things such as a leak in a system, no secondary drain or float switch etc.etc. This covers your butt not just the company you work for.

Its question of right and wrong when selling people things they don't really need. The service we provide is a need and not a want in most cases. Its not like we're selling high end patio furniture that people want to buy. Thats why morally i cannot sell a customer something that is not needed. Now if i mention upgrading or taking advantage of the current tax credits and they like they idea, thats a decision they can make. I just provide them the info to do this, but i'm not going to become a car salesman in their home!

Ah man, I don't miss working residential yet! Bless your hearts, y'all have to put up with explaining over and over to different customers essentially very similar things, eh? Gets to be challenge to motivate yourself somedays?

The last place I worked residential, I burned out. About six weeks into the hot season, I was on call, been working all day in the heat, T/S a two system house, found a leak in a coil, quoted a replacement. Change out tech called me and I gave him iinfo on the wrong system!! Didn't find out until hours later! That last night-day I worked till 2am, got home about 3am and then had to be at the monthly service meeting at 7am. Found that I was responsible for about 10% of new equipment sales for that period, got a nice bonus. The the service manager called me into his office and I was invited to leave the company!

I was ready to leave the profession at that point!!

Found a position with a manufacturer of commercial equipment and had pretty good run with them. Now I am a commissioning tech for an aggressive new construction contractor.

Still have nightmares about my residential days!

........

Originally Posted by Baja500

... if you the tech do not make the monthly quota,we fire you. we have over 100 other techs ready to take your position...

This is something i am more than familiar with. I worked for an outfit that encouraged direct sales to the customer at tech level, and we would gain bonuses based on dollar value sold, but not only was it a significant bonus, but also you were selling top-quality stuff and ONLY if it was very much necessary as related to the original service call.

I know a couple guys working for a different company, one of the biggest shops in the area - These techs have a monthly quota that will make your head spin, and they use low-end products and the labor markup is out of this world. Scary thing is the guys i know are so good and have been in the business for so long that they have literally brain-washed themselves into thinking they work for a great company. What me or others would see as a hard-sell of unnecessary work to unsuspecting potential customers(.ie a ripoff), they see as a necessary thing, that they are doing these people a "favor."

I have seen estimates done by them that included as much as 700% more work that desperately needed doing, than actually really needed to be done - and of course the most of it was labor, followed by gross markup of inferior products.

There is a constant turnover because once it slows down, the techs sell to everyone they know until they run out of ways to boost their quota, then they are out the door and it's onto the newspapers with another "we are growing again and need more techs" advertisement. Meanwhile, their tech dept never actually grows, just changing faces.

It's like those $3,000 vacuum salesmen that still knock on your door so they can get inside. Try getting rid of them. It's disgusting.

Originally Posted by truck12

Personally I tell them about A,B,C to cover my ass so to speak. Yes I tell them if the pan is leaking water on the ceiling and that it has nothing to do with the contactor I just replaced (other than giving it the ability to create water). This way when the ceiling falls down it's not my fault, sometimes we write this on invoices and have them sign it.

And you're not about to tell me I have the kind of customers I have because of how I handle this. Thats pure bull**** and you know it, I've worked everywhere from the ghetto to jupiter island, one of the richest towns in the US. I've seen the poor spend the money and vise versa and I've seen the rich tightwads that insist their equipment run until the case is rotted to dust.

Anyway this thread was about the con artists that can trade a bum a bag of magical dog**** for a blowjob. I'm ****ing proud to be called an a/c tech just like these brainless ****s are.

Sorry, dude. Up to this point, you've been implying that you're not going to do any of the things that you say here that you already do, because it won't do any good. I can only make a comment about the info that you give - just because you know what you're thinkin' doesn't mean that I do. Glad to hear that you communicate so well with your customers.

Originally Posted by klove

Didn't ever say that I sold them anything, but if I'm not honest with them about their problems and things that might come back to haunt them, then primarily I haven't done them justice as my customer that trusts me to do them a good job at a fair price. Secondarily, I haven't covered myself by making them aware of the issues at hand. It don't have to be some long diatribe, just a short "Wanted you to know, A,B,C...". As the subject matter expert, you owe it to those that have entrusted their work to you to do that. If they don't care or can't afford, that's not the issue. It's about making an honest attempt to do the right thing by your customer. If you disagree with the way I handle it, go do it however you want, but remember that the way you handle it may be the reason that you have the type customers you have.

Personally I tell them about A,B,C to cover my ass so to speak. Yes I tell them if the pan is leaking water on the ceiling and that it has nothing to do with the contactor I just replaced (other than giving it the ability to create water). This way when the ceiling falls down it's not my fault, sometimes we write this on invoices and have them sign it.

And you're not about to tell me I have the kind of customers I have because of how I handle this. Thats pure bull**** and you know it, I've worked everywhere from the ghetto to jupiter island, one of the richest towns in the US. I've seen the poor spend the money and vise versa and I've seen the rich tightwads that insist their equipment run until the case is rotted to dust.

Anyway this thread was about the con artists that can trade a bum a bag of magical dog**** for a blowjob. I'm ****ing proud to be called an a/c tech just like these brainless ****s are.

Originally Posted by truck12

yea, exactly. explain to me how you sell (exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent) something to someone who has no money....

And the ones with money take advantge of this crazy economy by buying smart! what really bugs me is license contractors selling Heatpumps for 2k fully installed and to make up for the lost revenue they force techs into a contest to sell, sell, if you the tech do not make the monthly quota,we fire you. we have over 100 other techs ready to take your position, Yeap I'm refering to my own shop and the direction is heading, just cant stand the weasel Benny Hinn running the shop, thats correct our manager looks and acts just like Benny Hinn.

Originally Posted by truck12

yea, exactly. explain to me how you sell (exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent) something to someone who has no money....

Didn't ever say that I sold them anything, but if I'm not honest with them about their problems and things that might come back to haunt them, then primarily I haven't done them justice as my customer that trusts me to do them a good job at a fair price. Secondarily, I haven't covered myself by making them aware of the issues at hand. It don't have to be some long diatribe, just a short "Wanted you to know, A,B,C...". As the subject matter expert, you owe it to those that have entrusted their work to you to do that. If they don't care or can't afford, that's not the issue. It's about making an honest attempt to do the right thing by your customer. If you disagree with the way I handle it, go do it however you want, but remember that the way you handle it may be the reason that you have the type customers you have.

Originally Posted by klove

CYA

yea, exactly. explain to me how you sell (exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent) something to someone who has no money....

Originally Posted by klove

Ain't the businesses fault, it's the industry's, and your old idiot is allowing your new idiot to perpetuate the problem. Like everywhere and everything else, our industry is run by salesmen, lawyers, accountants, idiots, cheats, and liars. I'm an expert - I worked for jci after they kidnapped and murdered York International.

Couldn't agree more, next month my partnership ends with weasel sr, he can find another qualifying party, I'm out of here see ya!!! Does anyone here knows how thing are in Dallas? is Airtron still in business? my foam house in AZ is now worth 129k, I paid 290k for a styrofoam box ,out of AZ too!!

Originally Posted by truck12

No, it didn't really get by me. I always have people piss and moan about the price just to make it blow cold air. I can tell them about the problems.
But like the mcdonalds scenario, why tell them about the pie when they just told me they have no money?

CYA

Originally Posted by Baja500

Well, this morning my beloved and weasel office manage had the monthly sales meeting, it's a contest, a game among service techs and weasel office manager, the guy with the most call backs but more sales generated won the $100 home depot card, again I asked weasel how is this working out, with me and weasel SR dealing with all the call backs, again he gave me the weasel look, but hell he looks so handsome driving his Scalade, Im starting to hate this business

Ain't the businesses fault, it's the industry's, and your old idiot is allowing your new idiot to perpetuate the problem. Like everywhere and everything else, our industry is run by salesmen, lawyers, accountants, idiots, cheats, and liars. I'm an expert - I worked for jci after they kidnapped and murdered York International.

Originally Posted by truck12

No, it didn't really get by me. I always have people piss and moan about the price just to make it blow cold air. I can tell them about the problems.
But like the mcdonalds scenario, why tell them about the pie when they just told me they have no money?

Well, this morning my beloved and weasel office manage had the monthly sales meeting, it's a contest, a game among service techs and weasel office manager, the guy with the most call backs but more sales generated won the $100 home depot card, again I asked weasel how is this working out, with me and weasel SR dealing with all the call backs, again he gave me the weasel look, but hell he looks so handsome driving his Scalade, Im starting to hate this business

Originally Posted by klove

Because it's the right thing to do. Up to them to make a decision to fix it or not. It's that part clint mentioned about offering a solution that I think got by you....

No, it didn't really get by me. I always have people piss and moan about the price just to make it blow cold air. I can tell them about the problems.
But like the mcdonalds scenario, why tell them about the pie when they just told me they have no money?

Originally Posted by truck12

So...how (and why) would you have the nerve to even bother explaining all this other crap to a customer?

Because it's the right thing to do. Up to them to make a decision to fix it or not. It's that part clint mentioned about offering a solution that I think got by you....

Originally Posted by clintkennon

A service tech is a salesman. I sell my services to every customer I meet. The problem most techs have is being able to sell things other than the broken part that needs replaced. Most techs feel that if they replace the contactor on a 30 year old condenser, charge them for the service call and the contactor, their doing a favor for the customer even though the coils completely clogged, the ductwork is leaking air, the ah leaking refrigerant and the drain pan leaks into the crawl space. To me that’s not helping the customer, helping the customer would be explaining all the problems with the system and offering a solution.
And techs also have to remember that this is a business. What’s the difference between McDonalds asking you if you would like to try an apple pie and me asking a customer to buy a humidifier?

Ok, first step is to get that cold air blowing out of the leaks in the ductwork, and get some condensate leaking into the attic. So you inform the customer she needs a $180 repair to replace the contactor, she falls on the floor, starts crying, etc. (I have had women cry when they hear the price just to make it work)

So...how (and why) would you have the nerve to even bother explaining all this other crap to a customer?

It's like walking into mcdonalds, realizing you left your wallet at home, telling the cashier to cancel the order. Do they still offer the pie?

Originally Posted by Doesn'tPhaseMe

Yeah, but your customers can.

So customers love sleasy sales people, but hate good mechanics and techinicians, good techinicians do not BS customers on their needs like I do,sales people BS everybody for commisssion,,Correct?

Originally Posted by Baja500

luckily for me he can't fire me

Yeah, but your customers can.

[QUOTE=Doesn'tPhaseMe;5745932]As far as diagnostic and troubleshooting skills, guys that can do and those who can't change parts.

Those who honed their skills in this field have worked hard over years to do so and I believe they are an invalueable asset to their employer. Get in and get out, fix it right the first time, no call backs or customer complaints. There is nothing like walking into a customer's business when the crap is hitting the fan and seeing the reilef on their face as they see you walk in the door. They trust and respect your abilities from you being honest with them and providing them with good quality service throughout the years. Thats better than them thinking your gonna screw them over and try to sell them something they don't need any day.

But then again what do I know, I have prided myself in this thinking for 30 years now but find myself out of work now. Previous employer was all about sales, even the service manager was a salesman and completely clueless about the field. Been there 7 years had an established customer base, new service manager hires a parts changer from the place he use to work in the fall. Customers complain about him but it falls on deaf ears and he lays me off. I am still going to stick to my guns until this all turns around and hopefully soon.[/QUOTE


I suck at sales, must admit,I'm a mechanic at heart since my Army days, our service manager went to a HVAC technical school, but is completely clueless about the field, the way I see it, he wants all new techs to be the image of him expert sales people lacking field skills, luckily for me he can't fire me