Would Your Technician Recommend Replacing a 7 Year Old System on a Mild Day in April?

Justin said, “Roger, if you had not been with me, I would have replaced that blower motor.”

Justin is beginning to think differently and listen to what the customer says. Are your technicians missing these opportunities? Listen, your HVAC Technicians are missing these opportunities simply because they think and believe in a certain way that limits there behavior. It’s not an issue with skill.  Don’t send them to another seminar that teaches skills and “how to.” The behavior doesn’t change because deeper issues have to be addressed and technicians have to grow personally before they can change their behavior.

Pain motivates behavior and people who have money are willing to spend a lot of it to eliminate ongoing issues that cause them pain. An HVAC technician has to be on the lookout for what pain sounds and looks like.  This is what we heard the customer say as she was standing watching Justin diagnose the problem with her furnace:

“I am sick of this.” (sick is pain)

“I am so tired of these problems.” (tired of is pain)

“I am so tired of dealing with this when my husband is out of town often.” (so tired of is pain)

“I need someone to take care of all these problems.” (need can be pain)

“I can’t stand it when it changes speeds.  It always gets louder before it shuts off.” (can’t stand is pain)

“I hate that humidifier. I just want to get rid of that.” (hate is pain)

The technician’s mindset is to fix it. He’s not listening for pain. After all it’s only 7 years old. It’s a very nice two speed furnace with a high efficiency air conditioner and it’s an easy repair. And that’s what technicians go to school to do. Repair things. This is how HVAC technicians see themselves conceptually. In other words, the technician has an identity and belief that limits him to do a certain behavior. You can teach a technician until you’re blue in the face, but if you don’t change his mindset about himself he can’t make the behavioral shift. Which in this case is to set an appointment to come back at 3:00pm so we can meet with her and her husband and discuss a new and different system that addresses their pain. Go back and read it again. Sick, tired and hate are negative emotions or pain.

So I asked. “Mrs. Jones, would you like to set a time for us to comeback this afternoon and discuss a new system that would get rid of all your head aches? And she said, “That would be great, my husband will be home around three.”

Then something amazing happened. She started envisioning her new system. She said, “This is going to be great! I’m going to have a new system and I’ll be rid of all this crap that I have to put up with when he’s gone!”

I said, “Great but how is he going to feel about it?” She said, “He’ll do whatever I want… It won’t be a problem.”

That afternoon there was no selling involved they just simply made a purchase on a mild day in April.  Why would a person spend $10,900 when $1,000 would have fixed it? A person is willing to spend the money to rid them of the pain. Her pain was caused by noise, reliability and being home alone because her husband traveled.  What was her husbands’ pain? His pain was her emotional state. He wanted her to feel better emotionally and I have a feeling that he had heard many times how she was unhappy with his frequent business travel.

Hint: Help the husband discover how he feels about his wife’s emotional discomfort. When he feels that, he will pay a lot to get rid of his pain. He also sees himself conceptually as The Rescuer. We all do this, gentlemen.

This sell had nothing to do with HVAC or product knowledge. Stop talking about all that stuff and learn to listen for pain. When your technicians make this behavioral shift your revenue will level out in mild weather.

What’s the bottom line? Pain motivates behavior.