Marketing HVAC

I recently met with an HVAC guy myself. In fact, he installed our system a couple of years ago, and he knew that I did some marketing, so he called me. We sat down, worked out some things to help him (his site is bad, he's disorganized, his list isn't utilized whatsoever, etc.), but that was the end of that. It takes money to make money, and they weren't willing to spend any apparently. I walked out with one partner telling me we would get started, but I think the other partner (who thinks Facebook is the end all-be all of marketing despite getting zero results) nixed it all.

Anyway, there are some ways that some services can make money and don't. My guys were supposed to give me my first annual checkup free and then sign me to a maintenance agreement. They've never even contacted me. I mentioned that to them in our meeting, to which I was told that they were sending out something in the next couple of weeks, which has never happened. They are leaving money on the table.

Ironically, they go out and sell these $50 "clean and check" services. They put them up on Living Social and/or Groupon and use them to get in the door. Basically they get in and do the check of the units, and then upsell if parts are needed for repair or something else is needed. It makes them some money, and positions them as the go-to HVAC guy for those homeowners. They also sign them up for an ongoing maintenance contract. Now if only they'd maintain the ones for the people that spent thousands with them like myself.

Geothermal has high margins from what I was told, and my guys were drooling at the prospects of going after some business, but they never followed through. I do think that demand is fairly low in certain areas, but according to them they could make quite a bit on just one system.

These guys were also selling other things like air purifiers, the Nest thermostat which is pretty cool, they really had a number of other profit centers to use when they weren't doing full installs. Of course, had they focused on getting full installs instead of diverting attention with all of the small cash items, they might be making more money, but then again they never followed through despite my repeated attempts which is unfortunately par for the course with some small business owners.

Hope that helps. I wish I could give you some real numbers and experience, but I never got the chance. Still, here's a little knowledge gained while trying to work with someone in the industry.

Does he do residential or commercial HVAC, or both?

Commercial -- register with local city, county and state government as a vendor. The process is a pain in the tushey, but can help increase business a bit.

Direct Mail to commercial property managers.

Email to commercial property managers.

He can also do a client re-activation campaign, reaching out to previous commercial clients(mail, email, telephone), letting them know he is still around and offer a maintenance special of some sort(summer is coming and air conditioners need to be readied for the warmer temps).

Residential -- Direct mail postcards, craigslist ads, door hangers(should be delivered to every house within a few block of any service call he or his employees go on), local classified papers, offer a referral program to current clients - a small thank you gift for each referral or $$ off of their next service call.

These are just quick thoughts off of the top of my head.

Ha, yeah, some people need the "done for you" services, but at some point they have to stand up and do something. I offered a variety of done for you services, and a greater value service than what they were already paying for to get a horrible site through the Yellow Pages, and they just kept telling me that they were having trouble coming to a decision. I really probably should have spoken with both owners at the same time, but they are two nice guys that are frankly a mess in business. Their interaction with me was similar to the way they do business, and it costs them money. I was going to built them a primary website and some satellite sites aimed at specific keywords, help them set up a reputation funnel, work with them on some specific calls to action on their site that could be then repeated on mailings, and I did a full consultation with them and gave them a ton of ideas. I would say that perhaps I gave them too many ideas and that they ran with them, but some of the ideas were regarding using their list, and since I'm on it and have never heard from them, I doubt that they followed through. I'm sitting here willing to pay for a maintenance agreement and they won't even follow through on their offer of one. In the end, it is their business. I can't make them do anything, nor do I want to. If they are as flaky as they seem to be, it would just be a disaster anyway. I asked them for some simple information in drawing up a proposal for them and they never got back to me. They do good work at a really fair price, but they need some direction, and that would mean listening and paying attention, which weren't their strengths. Oh well, onward and upward. It only took them over a year to call me the first time, after my repeated attempts at contacting them, lol. Who knows, maybe in a few more years, we can get a basic website done, and a few years after that, they might pay me. :/

I deal with this niche a lot.
I was in it for several years, got certified myself.
As well as helped my brother start his HVAC company went he was let go from a large manufacturing company.

What kind of specific questions do you have?

Oh, and about Geo-Thermal, there's a few things you should now...
One, the systems are costly up-front.
My brother installs a new gas furnace for $2,500.
For a geo-thermal setup it's $2,000 per hole drilled, usually 4-5 holes are needed.
Then, you have the equipment cost which is up there a little bit.

Then, you have a few options.
You can run horizontal loops or vertical loops.
Horizontal loops stretch for about half a football field.
Vertical loops go down a ways as well.

So, my point is....
If I was you, I would focus on service.
Clean and checks, especially with A/C Season around the corner.
From those clean and checks, they can get installs.

Yes, everyone loves installs.
They are way more money, but you have to sift through the clean and checks to get them.
Plus they fill the slow times.

Then there are add-ons.
Like special air filters, humidifiers, thermostats, uv-lights, additional air runs, additional fans for certain heat runs, etc. Not to mention air duct cleaning, depending on where in the country you are.

Honestly, I don't do a whole lot with online.

Website, SEO, Social Media....Sometimes SMS, depending on the niche.

But then, 7 different avenues of offline. I make way more offline.