First Responder, Military, and Senior Discounts.
First Responder, Military, and Senior Discounts.
The purpose of a Klein Cooling sales appointment is to help a customer make a good decision.
That’s it.
The customer may decide to:
All of these are decisions adults are permitted to make.
Our job is to provide enough accurate information for them to make one.
Help them buy. Don’t make them buy.
We do not want the best salesman in the HVAC industry.
We want an excellent HVAC professional who knows how to help people buy HVAC equipment.
There is a difference.
One arrives with a white button-down, aviators, Bluetooth headset, an iPad, three closing techniques, and a 4-ton “free upgrade.”
The other arrives in a work truck, looks at the equipment, measures the ductwork, asks questions, explains what makes sense, gives the customer a price, and answers their questions.
Be the second guy.
Klein Cooling sales personnel shall make reasonable efforts not to look like they sell air conditioners for a living.
The following are prohibited:
If you arrive wearing a white button-down, aviators, and a Bluetooth headset:
Return to the vehicle.
Something has gone terribly wrong.
No.
We fix air conditioners.
We’re not here to sell you a Lexus.
Remove it.
The customer deserves reasonable confidence that you are speaking to them.
If at any point the customer has to ask:
“Are you talking to me?”
the Bluetooth has already won.
Hair may be styled.
Hair shall not be styled in a manner suggesting the employee is about to explain an exciting opportunity in timeshare ownership.
Sunglasses are permitted outside.
They should generally be removed when entering the customer’s home.
Aviators accompanied by slicked-back hair and a white button-down constitute an aggravating circumstance.
Klein Cooling sales personnel shall arrive in a:
That’s the list.
Not approved:
This is an HVAC company.
There should be at least a reasonable possibility that the vehicle contains:
There is no sales car.
Sales personnel are HVAC professionals first.
If you are going to recommend a $12,000 HVAC system, you should be capable of walking outside, opening the equipment, looking at the ductwork, taking measurements, and understanding what you’re selling.
Arriving in a spotless crossover containing nothing but an iPad and bottled water sends the wrong message.
No.
This is not an environmental statement.
This is a Klein Cooling aesthetic decision.
Correspondence regarding this policy will not be answered.
The truck or van should be reasonably clean and professional.
It does not need to be immaculate.
In fact, an HVAC vehicle that has never contained:
will be regarded with some suspicion.
You are an HVAC professional who sells HVAC equipment.
Not a salesperson who happens to sell HVAC equipment.
Klein Cooling does not require a separate vocabulary for the word salesperson.
If your job is helping a customer select and purchase a new HVAC system:
You are selling something.
That’s okay.
Selling something is not dishonest.
Selling something dishonestly is dishonest.
Changing the employee’s title does not materially affect this distinction.
A replacement consultation should involve more than:
Sales personnel shall have access to the tools reasonably necessary to evaluate the job.
At minimum, the employee should be capable of measuring things.
HVAC equipment is surprisingly sensitive to dimensions.
This is another reason Klein Cooling sales personnel arrive in pickup trucks or work vans.
There should be a reasonable possibility that the person selling the HVAC system could also diagnose one.
An iPad is a tool.
It is not a diagnostic instrument.
Sales personnel should spend more time looking at the customer’s actual HVAC system than looking at animations of the HVAC system they would like the customer to purchase.
If the battery dies and the employee is suddenly unable to discuss air conditioning:
Additional training is required.
Replacement sales begin with understanding the existing system and the home.
Employees should evaluate applicable factors including:
The goal is not:
“What’s the biggest thing we can fit here?”
The goal is:
“What does this house actually need?”
These are different questions.
Increasing equipment tonnage is not an upgrade.
A 4-ton system is not inherently better than a 3-ton system.
It is larger.
Those are different words because they mean different things.
Employees shall not recommend increasing system capacity without appropriate technical justification, including appropriate evaluation of:
The statement:
“It’s Florida. Bigger is better.”
is not a load calculation.
Neither is:
“The old one never kept up.”
That’s useful information.
It is not 48,000 BTUs of engineering.
Technicians shall not remove a 3-ton system, install a 4-ton system on the same ductwork without measuring anything, and describe the additional ton as:
“A free upgrade.”
The additional capacity is not free.
The duct system has been notified of none of this.
If the ductwork cannot move the required airflow, the technician has not upgraded the system.
The technician has created:
A larger air conditioner with smaller-air-conditioner ductwork.
Management declines to classify this as a feature.
Bigger is a measurement. Not a benefit.
The fact that Bob across the street purchased a 4-ton variable-speed system does not establish that this house needs one.
Bob may have:
Design this house.
If you’re recommending replacement of the duct system:
Look at the duct system.
Employees shall not determine from the living room that:
“All your ducts need to go.”
Inspect them.
Measure what needs measuring.
Identify the problem.
Explain the problem.
Apparently this must be stated.
Do not begin a replacement consultation by explaining why everything the customer currently owns is terrible.
If there are legitimate deficiencies:
Explain them.
If the ductwork needs modification:
Explain why.
If the system is incorrectly sized:
Show how that conclusion was reached.
If something is simply old:
It is old.
Age is not a mechanical failure.
Employees shall not perform last rites over functioning HVAC equipment.
Rust is not death.
Age is not death.
An out-of-range capacitor is not death.
A dirty coil is not death.
An expired manufacturer warranty is definitely not death.
If the system is operating while the salesperson explains that it can no longer reasonably be expected to operate:
The equipment may present conflicting evidence.
Photographs shall provide context.
Employees shall not photograph the ugliest two square inches of a twelve-year-old air handler from three inches away and present the resulting image as though the Titanic has been located in the customer’s attic.
Back up.
Show the equipment.
Explain whether the corrosion actually matters.
Drawing a red circle around something in a photograph does not establish that it has failed.
Neither does a red arrow.
Multiple arrows do not increase diagnostic certainty.
Customers may be presented with multiple equipment options.
Those options should represent actual differences.
Examples include:
The purpose of options is to help the customer choose.
It is not to place one reasonable option between:
Barely Acceptable
and:
NASA Climate Control Package
so the customer predictably selects the middle one.
The most expensive system is not automatically the best system for the customer.
The best system is the one that appropriately fits:
Sometimes that’s the expensive one.
Sometimes it isn’t.
We are expected to survive either outcome.
Do not simply present three prices and stare at the customer.
If Option A costs $8,000 and Option B costs $12,000, the customer is entitled to understand what the additional $4,000 buys.
If the explanation is:
“This one’s better.”
continue explaining.
High-efficiency equipment may reduce operating costs.
It may also provide benefits involving:
Employees shall not promise specific utility savings without a reasonable basis.
A high-efficiency system does not include a small employee from the electric company who arrives each month to hand the customer cash.
Explain reasonable benefits.
Do not sell mathematical fan fiction.
The customer’s kitchen table is not a battlefield.
It is not a negotiation chamber.
It is not a location from which the salesperson must emerge victorious.
It is frequently just where the customer keeps the mail.
If invited to sit:
Sit.
Explain the options.
Answer questions.
Do not mentally lock the doors until somebody signs something.
Sales appointments do not have a minimum duration.
There is no company prize for remaining inside the customer’s home the longest.
Employees shall not remain until the customer purchases something because a sales trainer once explained:
“Every no gets you closer to a yes.”
Sometimes every no gets you closer to:
“Get out of my house.”
Recognize the progression.
If the customer has opened the front door while you are still presenting:
The appointment has concluded.
Proceed through the opening.
Employees shall not manufacture urgency to force a decision.
Do not invent:
If something actually expires:
Tell the customer.
If availability is genuinely limited:
Tell the customer.
The customer already has an air-conditioning problem.
We don’t need to add a fictional administrative emergency.
If the salesperson must call a manager to obtain a discount:
An actual manager should exist.
Walking to the truck, checking Facebook for three minutes, and returning with:
“Good news. He approved it.”
does not constitute management authorization.
This policy is particularly important when the salesperson owns the company.
If there is actually something you can do:
Do it.
If there isn’t:
Don’t perform a small play.
There are no Tony Awards for HVAC sales.
Discounts shall be legitimate.
Prices shall not begin artificially high merely to create room for dramatic reductions.
The customer should not experience:
Original Price: $18,000
Today’s Price: $15,000
Manager Price: $13,500
If You Sign Right Now: $11,800
Technician Suddenly Remembers Coupon: $10,900
At some point the customer is reasonably entitled to wonder what the air conditioner actually costs.
Employees shall not create an imaginary price solely for the purpose of crossing it out.
$21,995
TODAY: $14,995
If nobody has ever paid $21,995:
It wasn’t $21,995.
A red line through a number does not create savings.
If the coupon exists:
Fine.
If the coupon was created verbally 14 seconds ago:
That is not a coupon.
Use carefully.
If the customer must purchase a $14,000 HVAC system to receive something:
It may be included.
It may be promotional.
It may be provided at no additional charge.
But somewhere in this transaction, money is changing hands.
Remain grounded.
FREE UV LIGHT!
FREE THERMOSTAT!
FREE AIR CLEANER!
FREE TEN-YEAR SOMETHING!
At a certain point the customer may reasonably wonder why the air conditioner itself costs $17,000.
Customers may ask:
“What can you do if I sign today?”
Answer honestly.
If a legitimate promotion or discount applies:
Explain it.
If the price is already the price:
Say so.
Do not suddenly discover $3,000 hiding behind the condenser.
The customer shall be permitted to think about it.
Thinking is not considered a sales objection.
If the customer needs time:
Give them time.
Do not respond by suddenly discovering:
Thinking is permitted at Klein Cooling.
In some circumstances it is encouraged.
The customer shall be permitted to talk to their spouse.
The spouse may:
This is normal.
Do not initiate objection-handling DEFCON 2.
Employees may ask whether everyone involved in the purchase would like to participate.
Employees shall not refuse to provide pricing because:
“We really need both decision makers present.”
This is an air conditioner estimate.
Not the Yalta Conference.
Give them the price.
Financing is a payment option.
It is not a method for making price disappear.
Employees should clearly explain applicable:
Do not reduce a $12,000 purchase to:
“It’s only $189 a month.”
It is still $12,000.
The monthly payment is another useful piece of information.
“What monthly payment are you comfortable with?”
is not the first question of an HVAC system design.
Determine what the house needs first.
Then discuss how the customer wants to pay for it.
We do not size equipment in dollars per month.
Customers may obtain other estimates.
This is reasonable.
If another estimate is lower:
Explain legitimate differences if they exist.
If another company is offering comparable work for less:
That may simply be their price.
Do not immediately conclude:
“They’re cutting corners.”
We don’t know that.
Klein Cooling shall sell Klein Cooling.
Employees shall not arrive with a binder explaining why every HVAC contractor within 40 miles is incompetent.
If the only way to make us look good is to make everybody else look terrible:
We have not adequately explained why we’re good.
Do not declare another brand garbage simply because we are not selling it today.
HVAC manufacturers have collectively produced enough broken equipment to keep everyone humble.
If the customer wants another opinion:
Let them get one.
If our recommendation is sound, it should survive another competent technician looking at it.
If it doesn’t:
We may learn something.
This is allowed.
Customers may:
Do not respond:
“You can’t believe what you read online.”
We have a website.
This argument has obvious structural weaknesses.
Explain what applies to their home.
Customers occasionally become quiet while considering a significant purchase.
This is called:
Thinking.
Do not become frightened by it.
You do not need to fill every second of silence.
In particular, do not respond to ten seconds of quiet by lowering the price.
The customer may simply be doing math.
It is acceptable to ask whether the customer would like to move forward.
We are selling something.
Acceptable:
“Would you like to move forward with this option?”
Not necessary:
“What do I have to do to earn your business today?”
We already explained what we do.
Hopefully that helped.
If the customer says no:
The answer is no.
If they are not ready:
They are not ready.
If they want another estimate:
They want another estimate.
Employees may answer questions.
They shall not begin an endurance competition.
Reasonable follow-up is professional.
Harassment is not.
One useful follow-up asking whether the customer has questions is different from:
“Hey! Just circling back!”
every 11 hours for the next week.
The customer knows we sell air conditioners.
They have our number.
A salesperson’s compensation shall never determine what equipment the customer is told they need.
The house does not know which system pays the largest commission.
Coincidentally:
The load calculation doesn’t know either.
Recommendations shall be based on what makes sense for the customer and the home.
Do not sell something the installation team cannot reasonably deliver.
Before promising:
make sure the promise is realistic.
No.
Figure it out before selling it.
The installers have enough surprises.
New HVAC equipment can improve:
It cannot automatically correct every problem involving:
Set reasonable expectations.
Once the customer understands the options:
Let them choose.
Do not visibly react if they select the least expensive option.
Do not suddenly lose enthusiasm.
Do not make them feel cheap.
They are spending their money.
Our job was to give them good options.
They picked one.
Success.
Before making a recommendation, ask:
Is it technically appropriate?
Did I actually evaluate the house and equipment?
Can I explain why I’m recommending it?
Have I shown the customer meaningful alternatives?
Is the price clear?
Have I avoided manufacturing urgency?
Would I recommend this if it were my house?
Would I be comfortable with another competent HVAC contractor reviewing this recommendation?
If yes:
Present it.
If no:
Fix the recommendation.
Before entering the customer’s home:
White button-down? No.
Slicked-back hair? Fix it.
Aviators? Remove them.
Bluetooth? Absolutely not.
Excessive cologne? Too late. Open the windows in the truck.
Sedan?
How did you get here?
Proceed when corrected.
We do not need:
We need to:
Look at the house.
Look at the equipment.
Measure what needs measuring.
Understand what the customer wants.
Recommend equipment that makes sense.
Explain the options.
Give the price.
Answer the questions.
Let the grown adults who own the house decide what they want to do.
If they buy from us:
Excellent.
Take care of them.
If they don’t:
Thank them for the opportunity.
And leave.
Be an HVAC professional who knows how to sell.
Not a salesman who happens to sell HVAC.
And take the Bluetooth out of your ear.
END OF SECTION 18