ACCAWPA Newsletter
Here's a preview of what's inside this month's newsletter:
Marketing
Planning is the Path to Profit
A simple marketing “attack” plan gives you a strategy that considers the needs of your market and provides a year-round plan to meet those needs. It gives you a calm, rational approach to anticipate the slow times and gives you ways to keep promoting yourself when business is booming.
To get your “strategic thinking” in gear, look to these ways to get on the right course:
- Quit thinking your “old” marketing will suddenly have “new” results. Amazingly, contractors crumble up thousands of dollars in “dead” ads a year. If it’s not helping your image or your lead count, chunk it.
- Quit depending on the Yellow Pages as your salvation. Over 70% of contractors spend half their entire marketing budgets here. If it’s not pulling an equivalent lead count, that’s a big mistake. Trim your YP down to 21% of your marketing budget. If you can get away with less, do it.
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Simple Sales Strategies
“Unlearn” the Teachings of Youth and Inexperience
Through your school days and beyond, I’m sure you heard sayings along these lines: “If you’re good at what you do, you will be rewarded.” That’s a comforting thought, right? It keeps you trying to be the best at what you do. So when you are sure your level of competence is far higher than the average Joe’s, you’ve got it made.
Well, that may be the prevailing theory, but let me alert you to one small detail. That theory isn’t based on fact or actual experience. Nope. The voice of experience tells you the sad truth: you can be good at what you do – and not be rewarded.
The Art of Management
The “Must Do” List For Placing “Help Wanted” Ads
When you place an ad for salespeople, you’re sometimes limited by budgets and word count. Here are the things you must express as soon as possible to get the best applicants:
- Your company name should be in the ad. If not, your interviewer needs to “sell” the company as one looking for the highest quality salesperson right up front.
- Product knowledge can be overstressed sometimes, but it helps to tell your applicants that they’ll be expected to be able to understand the product’s benefits from the customer’s perspective. Too often, technically minded applicants dazzle interviewers, when it’s the customer who needs to be impressed.
ACCA-WPA ACCAdemics is published monthly by the Western Pennsylvania Chapter, a duly authorized and recognized chapter affiliate of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA). Permission to reprint any article is granted to ALL ACCA affiliates and publications in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) industry. Notation of source is requested.
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