Rodney Koop
Contributing Writer
The New Flat Rate
I was a scout leader for years. At one of the first meetings while introducing the boys to the wonders of camping, one of the boys carefully made his way to my side of the room. He signaled for me to bend down so he could ask me a question. I put my head closer to his and heard him carefully and deliberately ask in a scratchy little voice, “Hey Mister, when do we get the weapons?” I decided, we were in for a long summer. It’s one thing to teach young boys who are filled with wonder and ambition how to use tools to benefit them out in the wilderness but, how do you bring that kind of enthusiasm and excitement to a struggling, frustrated service contractor? Maybe we need to “bring out the weapons.”
I remember the first time I saw the Honeywell Prestige Thermostat. I was at the Comfortech trade show a few years back and remember noticing it from a distance. Prestige was bright, clear and quite an attractive piece of equipment. Slowing down for a closer look, I didn’t consider how important this new product would eventually be to my company.
How exactly could a small piece of equipment become a “weapon” in my arsenal? Shortly after the tradeshow I met an outside territory salesman for Ferguson Supply Co. located about 50 miles from my shop. I had ordered a gas powered, 16 horsepower industrial vacuum cleaner with 100′ of 6-inch vacuum hose. That will pull the nylons out of your dryer vent. But, my service company intended to use it to suck out old insulation from attics so we could seal the plumbing and electrical penetrations, cracks and crevices to increase the IAQ in the home. That process stopped the infiltration of dusty dirty hot humid air into the home. It was a big market for us at the time.
The Ferguson dealer decided to bring it up himself. The rep showed up right on time and we helped unload the heavy vacuum off the back of his truck. He then gave the standard pitch, “If you need anything, I’m a phone call away.” Two weeks went by and the rep called to find out how our new vacuum was working. He then asked, “Rodney, have you seen the new Honeywell Prestige Thermostat?” Of course, I had and I told him about my trip to Comfortech. He insisted that he bring some my way. Again, he showed up on time like he said he would and had in tow the entire new Honeywell Prestige line up including, the outdoor sensors and remotes. He also brought prewired transformers and powered up the whole bunch while he explained the features.
Let’s face it, contractors have had more thermostats move off van shelves due to damage than to add-on sales. We too had tried the “programmable saves 10{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f} on your bill approach” to mostly disappointing results. There was still an add-on market but, what sells thermostats faster than anything is the same thing that sells shampoo, a pretty face. Except, I’m not talking about the pretty face using shampoo under sparkling clear water, I’m talking about the pretty face of the thermostat. And wow the Honeywell Prestige was beautiful. It also helped that the thermostat had just enough bells and whistles to be useful without being complicated. And, at the time it was the easiest high-end thermostat to program and use that I had ever personally been in contact with.
Keep in mind that we had a very good relationship with our local distributers and they visited and delivered products to my company weekly. They could probably match prices but the new guy was adamant about being our Honeywell supplier. He had certainly earned our business. Why? Because he opened our eyes to a product that we had failed to utilize. Our local based reps had mentioned it but had not demonstrated it. Be assured I understand that distributers and their salesmen can’t carry every product around but, presentation without demonstration is just conversation. And we were given a demonstration that made us spend money.
We knew that our new potential supplier would not be able to make a profit driving the 100-mile round trip to do business with us every time we needed a few stats. He solved that problem quickly by emailing us the order form allowing us to do online transactions and actually covered the shipping costs for us. The process was so incredibly easy it allowed us to give him the business he had earned. I immediately bought one for my office, one for my house and one for my son’s (our lead tech) house. I knew if we all fell in love with the product it would fly off our service trucks and into our customer’s homes. We stocked our trucks and then printed a book with five thermostats including pictures. Anytime a customer suggested that his thermostat might be a problem, we showed the book and we sold thermostats almost every day. Most of them being the most expensive, the Prestige.
Thermostat sales became the new add-on and once again we obtained ownership of the most valuable piece of advertising real-estate in our customer’s home. Our name on the thermostat on their wall. I say “hats off” to one excellent territory rep who used his “weapons” of presentation and demonstration to get our business. For us, the Honeywell Prestige and the book we developed to clinch the sale with the homeowner is a weapon that we will always value. And is one we’ll fire off any chance we get.