When Is The Right Time To Suggest A System Replacement, And The 2 Keys To Every Buying Decision

When talking about an HVAC system replacement, we always think of factors like the number of years the system has been in use or the cost of replacement versus repair. Today, Sam Wakefield shares the underlying principle that you should consider – and it has nothing to do with costs or the age of equipment! Find out what it is, as well as what drives every client’s buying decision.

We are going to be talking about when is the right time to suggest a system replacement. I know we’ve got a lot of listeners who are technicians or they do installers basic or even one-man shop. You do the sales, you do the service, you do the installation, you do it all, all different sizes of organizations that listen. The question has come up several times to me recently. When is the right time to suggest a system replacement? I want to hear from you. You can connect, email me at Sam@SamWakefield.com, or also connect with us in the Close It Now Facebook group. Close It Now HVAC Sales Training Facebook group, join the community. Let’s keep this conversation going. Several answers came up in fact in that Facebook group that were interesting. There are some crazy formulas that I came across of if the cost of the repair is a third of the price of the total system or if the system is over x amount of years and multiply that by the cost of the repair and all these crazy things.

Years ago, Bryant had come out with a really cool repair versus replace questionnaire that you could actually take the homeowner through. For the first part of my career, I was a Bryant dealer and I was familiar with that. At the end of the day, all of that doesn’t necessarily matter because there’s an underlying principle that we’re missing. If we only go off of the age of the system or the condition of the system, or what’s the cost of the repair, how many repairs are needed, and multiply that by the age, all these things, we’re missing the biggest element because is the system going to write you a check to replace itself? Is the system the one that’s going to fill out the financing paperwork? Are they the ones that’s going to say, “Why don’t you go ahead and replace me with a nice variable speed unit?” No, that has nothing to do with it. At the end of the day, it all depends on the homeowner. It depends on the consumer because we know people write checks for what they want, not what they need. I’m going to say that again because it’s very crucial that you get this concept because with this concept will unlock the whole world of sales for you, especially in the in-home HVAC sales industry.

People will write checks for what they want, not what they need. People buy what they want, not what they need. With that being said, there’s lots, and I did a video about this in the Facebook group as well, but I’ve been in houses that certain situations, maybe the system was ten, twelve, thirteen, fifteen, eighteen years old and it needed a couple of repairs. If you calculate it with the age of the system, all this other stuff, that may have been time to suggest a replacement. Listening to the homeowner and knowing the situation, the circumstance, erased it said, maybe want to consider it. The situation did not call for a system replacement. The system was running really well, just needed a couple of repairs. Because of the homeowner’s situation, it was not the right time for them to do a system replacement.

Residential HVAC System Replacement: Having specific set of questions ready will give your client more opportunities to speak about their concerns and what they want from you.

At the same time, I’ve been in houses that were literally brand new, a year old, two years old and we went out there because the way the lead came in was it’s this multi-story house and these rooms aren’t called, this rooms aren’t keeping up. There are all kinds of temperature imbalances. What can you do for us? Through listening to what the client wants, listening to their needs, and going through the questionnaire. If you don’t have a specific set of questions that are directed to uncover the concerns of the consumer, the concern to the homeowner, then you’ve really need to develop one. In fact, I’m working on one right now. That’s going to be my free download for you guys. As soon as I have that finished, I’ll make it available to you because it’s going to be my gift to you because you’ve got to have a questionnaire of specific questions going through the common concerns in the house. Not only that, use it, use it every time, and ask the right questions, the unpeel-the-onion, so to speak, questions. When you do that, the homeowner’s going to tell you all of their big concerns and what they really want from you.

By asking the right questions, asking about, you’ve lived in this house for several months, you’ve experienced the summertime or you’ve experienced the wintertime, but in this situation it was the summertime, I said, “What would you like the house to feel like? How would you like to be able to control the temperatures in the house? What areas are warmer than others when some of the house is cool?” Through that conversation, even though they had bought the house a year as a brand new system and all practical purposes, if I was strictly a technician out there, diagnosed the equipment, it was perfectly fine. It was running as designed. It wasn’t performing the way the homeowner wanted it to. That’s the crucial key here because we all know say a brand new house is going to have the very basic builder grade system, it’s also going to be put in by, unfortunately, as we all know that a lot of times the subcontractors that work for a home builder aren’t necessarily the sharpest knives in the drawer. Raise your hand if you can feel me on that one.

There were a handful of things that while I’m not technically wrong, could it be a lot better. The homeowner, basically they said, “We don’t like the way this system operates. We understand that when we bought this house, there were going to be a handful of things that were basic level but we’re not the type of people who stay with that basic level. When we buy cars, we don’t buy the cheapest one. When we take vacations, we don’t take the cheapest trip.” Same thing here because through this conversation, they began to understand that the largest energy consumer that they own in their entire life is their heating and air system and also, that’s the one thing that directly determines their comfort in the most hours of their day and night. They said, “Our sleep is important to us. We want to be comfortable.” What we did is we pulled that system out and it was of course, single-stage builder grade with conventional zoning, which is I‘m very passionate about this, that is a horrible design that was never intended to happen but I digress. What we did is we pulled that out and installed it, I think the total was 18,500 or something for this house. Something like that for a variable speed zone system. It might be a little more of a variable speed zone system that they are in the top five maybe of the most excited clients I’ve ever had.

In fact, anytime I ever see them, they tell me years later, “That’s still so comfortable, thank you so much.” They love it. The end of the day though, they were happy to write that check and happy for us to accomplish what they wanted to accomplish because it wasn’t about, is the system running right. It wasn’t about is it broken? It wasn’t about is the cost of the repair versus it, it wasn’t about any of that. It was about people writing checks for what they want, not what they need. That is such a crucial thing to understand. With any of your home visits, when you’re out on a call, or when you’re out on a lead, have questions prepared. That way you don’t have to ask the same questions every time. That way you don’t have to think about the questions. You don’t have to think about what you’re going to say or the system or the steps you’re going to take to go through it. What you’re focusing on is their response. You’re focusing on their concerns and their hot buttons and how to get them to share more of what their concerns are. We’re going to take a super quick break and change gears here.

With uncovering those needs, this is the way to get to the deeper level of what their concerns are is to start asking the second and third-layer questions. Instead of asking a question like, “In the summer when some rooms are cool, are there others that are warmer?” They say, “It’s this corner bedroom, that kid’s bedroom, or our master bedroom, or wherever it is.” Stopping there, moving on, and making that move on and saying, “Okay.” Here’s the deeper level question is, “Tell me more about that. How so? What do you mean? Can you describe it?” This is even better especially if they start to get really excited about something that is, the husband, the spouse, the wife, whoever, they get excited about telling you, you start to see that energy rise with, “Our master bedroom is always hot.”

“When is it hot?” “It’s hot at night. It’s hot during this season.” “Can you take me there?” Go to that room, put them in the situation because situational awareness will start to though, by putting them back in that space, back in that environment, get away from the kitchen table. Get away from the living room. Go there, say, “Show me. What are the vents like? What is the condition of the room? Do you sleep with the door open or closed?” Start asking these questions. With that, you’re going to see the second that you put them in that environment is the minute that now their memories are going to start to trigger into remembering what it’s like when they’re experiencing it being uncomfortable. That’s going to drive their emotions to solve that problem higher and higher and their energy and their motivation to solve that problem higher and higher because we know that people make decisions on two things, logic and emotion. If you don’t believe this, read some Psychology of sales because this is 100% true.

Residential HVAC System Replacement: Ask your client to be in the space. Let them walk you through each room of their house and tell you the problem at a specific time of the year or day.

If a buying decision is the car, logic is the steering wheel that pointed in the right direction but emotion is the gas pedal. Emotion is what the foot on the gas pedal is to actually make it drive forward. It’s actually going to get them to take action and take action now, to Close It Now, to solve their problems because you can explain all the details of how and why this is the greatest system since sliced bread and all these a thousand duct runs we’re going to put in this room and returns and all the indoor air quality, seeing you explain all the details, all of the facts in the figures. That’s the logic. They’re going to sit and say, “I understand it. Sure, I get it.” Until you get some emotion behind it, they’re not going to take action with the energy that it takes to say, “Yes, let’s go ahead and fix it, and let’s fix it now because I’m tired of sleeping in this hot room. I’m tired of experiencing what I’m currently experiencing and I can see how your solution is going to take me to the place that I want to be.”

In the next podcast, we’re going to talk about building the gap. That’s a little sneak peek that’s recognizing where someone is, showing them where they can go, and widening that gap. We’re going to talk about that a lot deeper, but that’s it. You’ve got to get the emotions involved and that’s done by asking the right questions and then describing what life can be like if you make the changes. That’s the podcast. We’re getting in the summertime here. Let me know where you’re listening to from around the world. This podcast has gone global. We’re in six countries in the world now, thank you for listening. I am truly grateful. Again, you can email me at Sam@SamWakefield.com and if you go to SamWakefield.Com and get connected with me and join the Close It Now Facebook group and join the community, we’re building a community of sales professionals for the HVAC industry that dominates your market place.

My idea of competition is the competition’s doors are closed. There is no such thing as competition because we know winners look at the finish line and losers look at winners. We are winners. That is our goal is to close every sale that is closable because we know we don’t want every sale either. You show me someone with a hundred percent close rate, I will show you someone who is not getting in front of enough people because we don’t want every single sale. We want the best sales and we want most of them of course but we are here to provide solutions, to solve people’s problems, and get paid dramatically for it.

Thanks for listening. I’d love to hear some of your comments and feedback. What are some topics that you want me to cover? What are some questions that you have about in-home sales? Is it the process? Is it closing? Is it psychology? Is it personal growth? Also, drop me a line, let me know what books you’re reading, and what podcast you’re listening to. What are you doing to grow yourself every single day because remember you have to be someone worth buying from. Are you that person that people will buy from? Improve yourself and increase your level of person and you will find that the level of people who buy from you also increases at the same time. Sam Wakefield signing off. This is the Close It Now podcast. I will talk to you again soon.