Are all major residential HVAC companies sales companies?

[comoutsid322]

I finished school a few years ago, and it seems like all my schooling was pointless. I want to be hired based on my past experience and my technical knowledge. Not how well I can sell.

It seems like when i work 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, and i get "coached" on not selling enough like I am someone that doesn't take the job seriously. Even though, I worked a ton of hours.

Its frustrating to be working my butt off all day, and not to get appreciated, but get coached.

In my opinion, working a 16 hour day, 6 days a week is the job, and selling should be SECONDARY. We shouldn't be required to sell, but be praised and commissioned if we do happen to sell a unit/units.


I dont want to work for a small company just because there wouldn't be the job security and I want to be with a company for a long time. I dont want to work for a small company were the longest someone has been in the company is the owner, at 4 or 5 years.

So have all major companies gone to the selling approach?

[Damien]

Nope.

I started a new job last Oct. with a large commercial company on my area. I haven't been asked to sell a thing.

I understand though that I and the other techs are, in a sense, THE company. We're out on the front lines everyday interacting with the customer. If my company is doing well, I'm doing well. I look at it as any other "fix it" type service. I make strong suggestions on parts or services needed, usually these repairs happen but in the event they don't, a written quote is left with the customer and the carbon copy filed away at the office.

But selling crap should not be a priority!

[beenthere]

Moved to General discussion forum.

[BaldLoonie]

Define small? We have 10 guys in the field. Turnover is very low. One guy pushing 30 years, one pushing 20, many well over 10... Sure we'd like to see service plans sold, air cleaners, humidifiers, leads on old furnaces. But all legitimate. No unnecessary repairs, no leads just because the unit is 10 years old. Hourly pay. But most of the biggies here are sales based so if you don't like that, probably will need a locally owned family biz.

[toocoolforschool]

The problem may come down to the owner not wanting any callbacks. He thinks a callback will cost him money or that you are not a good tech. He would rather you sell replacement equipment on older 10 plus yrs equipment cause that's where their is the most profit. If you get two or three callbacks in a short time period you will be kicking rocks so the sales tech can step in and sell sell sell. This is just my humble opinion some owners have not even touched an air conditioner in their life not saying this is the case though. This could be totally off base let me know please. thanks.

[jtrammel]

Define small? We have 10 guys in the field. Turnover is very low. One guy pushing 30 years, one pushing 20, many well over 10... Sure we'd like to see service plans sold, air cleaners, humidifiers, leads on old furnaces. But all legitimate. No unnecessary repairs, no leads just because the unit is 10 years old. Hourly pay. But most of the biggies here are sales based so if you don't like that, probably will need a locally owned family biz.

X2, except 4 guys, 30 years, 25years, 18 years and 7 years. If you are a service tech you are bound to sell units, all you have to do is find a bad compressor or hx and it sells itself.

[newoldtech]

If you dont like it you're probably better off working for a commercial company where its usually not as bad.

Most residential companies expect you to sell extras to customers. The goal like in all sales is to make them seem like something the customer really needs. I recently brought my car in for tires to a big, well known service center. They wanted to sell me an alignment. They said it should be done every seven thousand miles. Whats "needed" is open to, too much biased interpretation. I have ninety thousand miles and all I've done is oil changes, tires, rear brakes and a battery. I'll keep my money in my pocket if you dont mind. I'm not saying all preventive maintenance is bad but what I am saying is that if you do whats "recommended" by most companies you will likely end up paying thousands more than you would of if you didn't do it.

[toocoolforschool]

I went to a quick lube place on saturday and the customer service was great checked air pressure changed oil and put in a new air filter that I had bought. I felt like I was treated very well and was satisfied when I left. I think they might prey on the less mechanical types when it comes to upsells in most fast lube joints.

[timebuilder]

I finished school a few years ago, and it seems like all my schooling was pointless. I want to be hired based on my past experience and my technical knowledge. Not how well I can sell.

It seems like when i work 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, and i get "coached" on not selling enough like I am someone that doesn't take the job seriously. Even though, I worked a ton of hours.

Its frustrating to be working my butt off all day, and not to get appreciated, but get coached.

In my opinion, working a 16 hour day, 6 days a week is the job, and selling should be SECONDARY. We shouldn't be required to sell, but be praised and commissioned if we do happen to sell a unit/units.


I dont want to work for a small company just because there wouldn't be the job security and I want to be with a company for a long time. I dont want to work for a small company were the longest someone has been in the company is the owner, at 4 or 5 years.

So have all major companies gone to the selling approach?

Yes. They are HVAC Sales companies.

If you want to sell on YOUR terms, go commercial.

[whiteair]

yes, if you are going to work for a large residential company it is mostly sales driven. not ripping people off sales driven, but supplying customers with things that could use, especially service contracts.

if you are working 16 hours a day 6 days a week right now, there may be more to your story that we would need to know. I imagine with that many calls per day you are doing mostly tune ups, and probably not doing them as quickly as they would like to see you doing them. Also, yeah, they can't pay you to drive around all day, and just change filters. if you are doing 4+ maintenances a day, you have to be seeing things that need work or replacing. Any unit over ten years old is probably leaking, and if a unit is leaking and the price that R-22 has continued to rise and rise you should be turning that in as a lead for a replacement.

if your company is not giving you commision, that is entirely a different story. you should look for another company. i am sure you will find another company that will reward your sales with commisions.

however, if you really dont want to sell anything at all and just want to do repairs, your best bets are working for a commercial company, or working as an in-house maintenance/repair tech.

[comoutsid322]

Thank you for all your input. But, the thing is... I want to work for a residential hvac service company. I just don't want to be sent to modern unit calls, and then get in trouble for not selling a new unit.

I haven't seen anyone work past 3 years at this company.

I like job security, it sucks that even working my ass off all day, if i dont make a sale my job could be gone.

[hurtinhvac]

I can't imagine doing sixteen hours of service a day and not coming upon older equipment and parts that need replacing. We often include maintenance agreements with new installs and it's a pet peeve when half my calls are all really new equipment...it happens and you cannot be faulted if everything is new. A large portion of my calls at the start of the AC season will be start ups for complete systems we put in over the winter - not a dime to be made for the company for these visits.

But this will quickly change when the temps hit mid 80s and stay there. Plenty of older equipment and opportunity and it's all part of being able to offer the very best solution to that particular customer.

Sounds like you have unwritten quotas and high turnover. Bad and worse.

As long as you are there it might be useful for you to document your findings. It would make it more difficult for them to fault you if you recorded the age of the equipment, 9.6 out of 10 uF on the blower cap, 4.9/5 & 34.7/35 condenser cap, .08 voltage drop across contactor, 13* SH, 9* SC OA 85* etc...You might just find some things wrong while you are gathering the data.