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Table Of ContentsStrategies For Your “Before” The Sale Unit…

Create a Marketing Plan…………………………………………………………………………………………… Pgs. 4-6Clients, Not Customers…………………………………………………………………………………………….. Pg. 7Learn Direct Response Marketing…………………………………………………………………………….. Pgs. 8-10A Wealth Of Knowledge In Your Mailbox………………………………………………………………….. Pg. 11Model Marketing Ideas…………………………………………………………………………………………….. Pg. 12Unique Selling Point (USP) ……………………………………………………………………………………….. Pgs. 13-15A Cash Flow Surge…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Pg. 16Direct Mail Is Still Alive & Well…In Fact, It’s Better Than Ever………….………………………… Pgs. 17-19Never Use “Bait and Switch” Advertising…………………………………………………………………… Pg. 20Raise Your Prices …………………………………………………………….………………………………………… Pgs. 21-22Live By Price, Die By Price……………………………………..…………………………………………………… Pgs. 23-24Have A Big, Bold, Solid Guarantee…………….………………………………………...........................Pgs. 25-26Get In The Newspaper……………………………………………………………………………………………….. Pgs. 27-28Use Letters, Not Brochures………………………………………………………………………………………… Pgs. 29-303-Step Letter……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Pgs. 32-33The Longer The Better……………………………………………………………………………………………….. Pgs. 34-35Don’t Be Boring………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Pg. 36Lifetime Value of a Client …………………………………………………………………………………………… Pg. 37Networking………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg. 38Target Farming…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Pgs. 39-41Front End……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Pg. 42Marketing To Businesses …………………………………………………………………………………………… Pgs. 43-45A Flood Of Clients W/Yellow Pages (Even In Today’s “Online” World) ..…..………………… Pgs. 46-49Your Website From A “Billboard” To A Selling “Tool”…………………………………………………. Pgs. 50-51YOU Are Not Your Own Client……………………………………………………………………………………. Pg. 52How To At Least Double Your Response In Val-Pak……………………………………………………. Pgs. 53-54How To Write Copy That Sells……………………………………………………………………………………. Pg. 55Record Yourself…………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Pg. 56Write A Book Or Report……………………………………………………………………………………………. Pgs. 57-58Create Your Own Sales Letters…………………………………………………………………………….…….. Pg. 59Advertise……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Pg. 60

© Piranha Marketing, Inc., Used Under License by the Blue Collar Success Group

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Stop Being An Advertising Victim…………………………………………………………………………. Pgs. 61-62Learn Everything For Yourself………………………………………………………………………………. Pgs. 63-64Test, Test, Test……………………………………………………………………………………………………...Pg. 65How To Get Tons Of Jobs From Realtors..................................................................Pgs. 66-67How To Make Even More Money From Realtor Referrals........................................Pgs. 68-69Host & Beneficiary....................................................................................................Pg. 70TV Advertising..........................................................................................................Pgs. 71-71Business Cards..........................................................................................................Pgs. 73-74Newspaper Advertising............................................................................................Pgs. 75-77Newspaper Column Or Online Magazine.................................................................Pgs. 78-79Celebrity Endorsement.............................................................................................Pgs. 80-82Know Your Numbers................................................................................................Pg. 83Ethics…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Pgs. 84-85Five Biggest Reasons People Fail…They Don’t Do Anything.....................................Pg. 86Five Biggest Reasons People Fail…They Do Everything Half-Way.............................Pg. 87Five Biggest Reasons People Fail…They Aren’t Consistent.......................................Pg. 88Five Biggest Reasons People Fail…They Don’t Have a Strategic Plan.......................Pg. 89Five Biggest Reasons People Fail…They Procrastinate.............................................Pg. 90How To Remove Mental Garbage............................................................................Pgs. 91-92Do Something Productive……………………………………………………………………………………. Pg. 93


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Create A Marketing Plan

The very first marketing secret is first because it is the most important. It may seem obvious but less than 1% of all HVAC contractors actually do it. Even though it’s very simple, don’t underestimate its power!

Most HVAC Contractors fail because they don’t have a plan or goals. You should have a detailed marketing plan of what you want to accomplish and how you are going to accomplish it.

Don’t be vague, either. Things like ‘I want to make more money than I can ever spend’ and ‘I want to be rich’ and ‘I want to make $20,000.00 a month’ - these are not plans. They’re too vague and they won’t help you get there.

Be specific. As you go through this manual, pick at least 5 ideas to start with. Write them down. Write how much you are going to make from each idea this week and this month. Then do a 3-month plan and a 6-month plan.

Once you start using the first 5 ideas then add another 5. Then another. Soon you should be using almost all of the money making marketing strategies in this manual. (I say most because there might be one or two that just aren’t you. That’s OK. Use the ones that you are most excited about to begin with then branch out.)

Your plan should include money goals. Try to put your money goals in NET to you, not GROSS. I know gross is what you are used to thinking in but net is obviously more important. I know one client who does $500,000.00 in gross. It sounds impressive and that’s why he does it. But he only nets $35,000.00 - yeah that’s right, not very impressive at all.

First examine your current numbers. More than 80% of all HVAC Contractors don’t know how many clients they get per month. That’s a deadly sin. You must know how you are currently doing.

You should know how many new clients you get each month, how much you make from each client, and how much it costs you to acquire a new client.


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Here’s an example:

John is a fictitious HVAC Contractor. John owns a business. He’s been in business for two years. He gets his clients from low price, coupon advertising and a few here and there from his yellow pages ad.

He grosses $2,916.67 a month. His average job is $65.00.

Therefore he does 11 jobs a week.

His net is 50% of gross or $357.50 a week.

John wants to double his net income in 2 months, triple in 4 months. (I don’t blame him.)

Considering that John doesn’t know any of my marketing secrets, he will have to get twice as many jobs to double his business.

Goal: 22 jobs a week.

He currently gets 8-9 jobs from his coupon advertising and 2-3 from his yellow pages ads. But he gets 18 calls a week from his coupon advertising and 5 from his yellow pages. So he currently ‘closes’ 50% of his prospects.

If he doesn’t learn any of my methods to improve his 50% close ratio, then he’ll have to get 44 prospects to do 22 jobs.

His plan to get 44 prospects:* (Indicates you’ll learn more about these strategies later in this manual)15 Consumer Line * 5 Online Advertising5 Seminar *19…3-Step Letter *3 Review and Referral Program *=47 Prospects

Wow, that’s three more than his goal!


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You should have a weekly plan. Schedule 15 min. out of one day to make up your weekly plan and to see how you did the last week. Schedule this time and keep to it. Don’t do any appointments during this time; keep it strictly for planning. If you do this and not one other of my secrets, you will easily double your income in 12 months.

Of course, John didn’t know any of my secrets to double the profit from all his jobs. If he did both - double his profits from each job and double the amount of jobs, he’d quadruple his business in less than 2 months.

Your weekly plan should include the following:

1. Goal for total net income.2. Goal for number of new clients.3. Goal for number of repeat clients.4. Goal for number of reviews and referrals.5. Average net income from each client.6. The number of prospects you’ll have to generate to reach your goal.7. A detailed plan to generate the number of prospects you need.

Your plan doesn’t need to be typed or put into a computer. It can be handwritten on paper. The important part is that you do a plan every single week and keep on top of things.

Remember as we get started that measurement improves everything.


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Clients, Not Customers

This is a subtle point that can make a big difference. Stop using the word ‘customer’ and start using ‘client’.

Why?

Because the word customer implies that they buy things from you. But the word ‘client’ implies a close relationship in which you help the ‘client’.

It changes the way you see your clients. You will respect them more. After all, your clients are your most valuable assets in business. Without them, you’d be up a creek.

Start referring to those you serve as clients to your team members, to them, and in all your letters. Make your team members start using the word client. Clients are people you care about, that you help. Customers are just people who buy from you, who may or may not ever buy from you again.

Why Did I Put This Strategy At The Beginning?

I put it at the beginning so you would understand why I always use the term clients throughout this manual. Knowing this strategy at the beginning will help you through the whole manual.

I’ve noticed that some business people tend to think of ‘customers’ as nuisances. But ‘clients’ are important and treated that way.

Start using the term ‘clients’. You’ll see that your ‘clients’ will like this, too.


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Learn Direct Response Marketing

What is a direct response ad?

It’s an ad that contains all of the following:

1. A headline2. Creates interest in the service or product3. Creates desire in the prospect4. Has a specific offer5. Has a deadline or cutoff date

Most advertising in magazines, newspapers, on radio and TV are not direct response. They are institutional advertising (also called “image” advertising). There is no way of accurately tracking the response since there is no specific offer.

Why Do Advertising Agencies Like “Image” Advertising?

They can’t be held responsible for zero results. If an ad campaign doesn’t increase sales they blame it on one of the following:

A. The economy

B. They tell you that you need to run these ads that didn’t work over again and suddenly they will work.

Out of the two, the second is by far the worst. Advertising agencies are notorious for saying ‘well, the public just needs to see your ads more often and then you’ll start to get more sales’. Many people then waste a lot more money and still don’t get results.

This theory is flawed. If an ad doesn’t work at all once, it’s not suddenly going to bring in lots of money. It doesn’t work that way. There is a tiny bit of truth to it. A very, very small percentage of your response will come from people who have seen the ad before. This is the frosting on the cake. There certainly isn’t enough of it to substantiate wasting more money.


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Advertising agencies are interested in being creative and ‘cutesy’. That’s what wins advertising awards. I think this is absolutely ridiculous. The advertising field gives awards based on creativity, not results. Many ads that have won top awards didn’t produce any substantial increase in sales. They have forgotten that advertising is meant to do one thing (and one thing only):

To Get More Clients

That’s the only reason I advertise. I don’t care about name recognition - I just want more clients.

Building name recognition is only possible with a huge, huge advertising budget. There is a lot of waste in that type of advertising but some really big businesses can survive with that waste. Businesses like McDonalds, Domino’s, and Budweiser - they can afford this massive waste. Of course if they used savvy direct response techniques they’d cut the waste out of their advertising and their sales and profits would dramatically improve.

Small, local businesses do not have that option. We can’t afford to waste marketing dollars on ads that don’t pull in immediate cash.

Direct response is results-oriented. You know exactly how much money you made from jobs that come from each direct response method.

Emotional direct response marketing gives your prospects something they want and tells them exactly what to do to get it. It gives them compelling reasons to use you. It gets response.

And response means $$$.

Here are some rules when marketing:

•Never do anything that you can’t directly track the results of.

•Never run an ad a second time that didn’t work the first time.

•Never fall in love with your ad.


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This is a common mistake for people first starting out with direct marketing. An ad is only good if it gets results. Period. Don’t fall in love with any ad until you have tested it and know that it pulls.

Become a student of direct marketing. Learn everything you can about it. The more you learn about marketing, the more money you’ll make. If you’d like to know about direct marketing, check out my favorite weekly podcast with my friends Joe Polish and Dean Jackson by visiting www.ilovemarketing.com . You will get a great education on direct response marketing by listening to these entertaining and informative podcasts.


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http://www.ilovemarketing.com/

A Wealth Of Knowledge In Your Mailbox

To learn how to write direct response ads that get lots of new clients, you need to see a lot of examples that are successful.

Just like anything else you learn from good examples.

You have a wealth of information that you probably throw away every day. You think of it as ‘junk mail’. But this junk mail can give you a wealth of knowledge. Don’t underestimate it.

Tens of billions of dollars are still spent on direct mail advertising every year. Why?

Because it works.

And you don’t have to spend a fortune to find out if your piece works or not. In other media, you have to spend a lot of money just to find out if it works. That’s another reason why direct mail is so great.

Stop throwing away that junk mail and start reading it. Separate your junk mail into two piles. Ones that you think are good and ones that you think are bad.

Try rewriting the bad ones to get some practice. Think of things that can improve the good ones. Pretty soon you’ll be a marketing maniac.

If you are not currently a subscriber to the I Love Marketing Podcasts, go to www.ilovemarketing.com and enter your information. All of the marketing advice is FREE and it’s sent to you every WEEK!


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http://www.ilovemarketing.com/

Model Marketing Ideas

I don’t mean literally steal or even plagiarize. (Only losers do that).

What I do mean is learn from others. Take their good ideas and put them to use in your own business.

This doesn’t necessarily mean from different HVAC Contractors. It can, though. Especially when you attend industry meetings (Strategy #96). Use the ideas that are working for others. There isn’t any reason they won’t work for you, too. (Unless they are lying, but testing something out inexpensively doesn’t hurt anything.)

But don’t limit yourself to only modeling ideas from HVAC Contractors.

Model good ideas from other successful businesses; most ideas can be applied in some way to your business.

For example, do you think the fast food industry invented the drive-thru window?

Nope. They stole the idea from banks.

You can imagine how this happened:

One day a guy from McDonald’s was sitting at the bank drive-thru and it occurred to him. He said ‘I’m not sure how the drinks will fit but otherwise it’s perfect!’ And the course of fast food was changed forever!

So you see you can get great ideas from any kind of business. Keep your eyes peeled and always think ‘How can I apply this to my business?’


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Unique Selling Point (USP)

Your unique selling point is a precise statement of why your company is special.It should answer the question:

‘Why should I do business with you versus any or all of your competitors?’

Don’t worry if you can’t answer that question now. We’ll go over how to formulate your Unique Selling Point.

First I want to tell you how powerful a USP can be.

In 1960, there was a college student named Tom. He and his brother Jim had to pay their way through college somehow. So they decided to borrow $900 to buy a pizzeria named Dominick’s in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Brother 1 would run the place during the day and go to school at night. Brother 2 would go to school during the day and run the place at night.

After a year, they were losing more money than they were making and Brother 2, Jim, wanted to get out. In exchange for an old beat-up Volkswagen Beetle, Brother 1, Tom, owned the entire business.

Not long after that, Tom developed a USP that turned his company into a multi-billion dollar company in a very short time.

This was his USP:

Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less. Guaranteed.

Of course, that’s the story of the Domino’s and that’s how Tom Monaghan’s fortune was made. And now they don’t even guarantee the 30 minutes, but that’s irrelevant. They’re so huge now and everyone knows them that it’s not hurting them. But the USP made them BIG!

The important point is that this USP is not complicated; it’s simple.


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It doesn’t promise all things to all people. It never mentions a homemade sauce from the ‘old country’ or even good taste!

What it did was hit an opportunity gap in the pizza delivery business. No one was quick. It used to take at least an hour or longer.

If you see an opportunity gap in your area, go for it.

One of the biggest opportunity gaps is giving a small time window.

Most people hate to wait around all day or even 4 hours. They are annoyed but no one is offering them a different alternative.

You can dominate your market if you hit an opportunity gap.

How To Decide On Your USP?

You should think this over for a while. Don’t rush it.

Your USP is very important. You should mention it in all your marketing materials, even your business card. My business card is my expanded USP (Strategy #39).

Talk to your clients. See what they really like about you. Why they chose you. What else they want from you? What they hate most about doing business with you?

Analyze all these answers from many different clients.

Out of all that, decide which points are most important.

Then narrow your USP down to 1 - 3 sentences.

Start using it. Use it in all your marketing materials but also in your everyday life.

When you meet someone new, they almost always ask ‘What do you do?’


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Stop saying ‘I’m a HVAC Contractor.’ The conversation usually ends there. They never ask ‘Oh, how do you do that?’ This is what you want them to ask so then you can start ‘selling’.

Your USP should convey one or two major benefits and create interest.

For example, Dan Kennedy’s USP is:

“I cut all the fat and waste out of businesses’ advertising and marketing and make them 10 times more profitable without spending another dollar!”

He’s told people this at all sorts of places - at conferences, at dinner parties, even on the street. Everyone always asks more questions after that. He’s gotten so much business from this; it’s hard to believe.

A great USP for HVAC Contractors can be...

“You Get The Most Thorough Service Ever, Or It’s Free!”™ (FYI: This USP also incorporates Strategy #12 about using a big, bold guarantee.)

So, use this successful USP or

create your own and start using it!


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A Cash Flow Surge

This strategy can be used for an immediate cash flow surge.

It targets existing clients. You should mail this letter to all your clients who you haven’t done any work for in the past 12 months.

Since the mailing is to your current clients, you don’t need to stick to the direct mail rules for prospects. (You’ll learn the rules later in this manual).

You can use labels, your letterhead and your envelopes.

This is a real moneymaker. It’s not unreasonable to expect at least a 20% response from this letter - that’s 20 out of every 100 mailed. This is incredible and people who do it always get more work than they can handle!

Versions of this letter alone have generated tens of thousands of dollars in repeat business for many service businesses. As long as you have good rapport with the client and they were happy with the quality of your work, then this letter will work like a charm.

Don’t question what I say. Put it to the test and just mail this letter. If you do, I’m sure you’ll make many times more then what you invested in my marketing materials.

A copy of this letter can be found on page 16 of the Quick Start Marketing Guide found in the Marketing Kick-Starter Kit – it’s called the “I Miss You”.


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Direct Mail Is Still Alive & Well… In Fact, It’s Better Than ever!

Direct mail is one of the most powerful ways to market your company that there is. Even though the digital age has given birth to a whole new world of marketing online and through social media, good old fashioned and “proven” direct mail is NOT dead. In fact, because of the digital age people are changing how they advertise and it opens up more opportunities than EVER for direct mail success.

According to Winterberry Group, a marketing consultant agency, direct mail expenditures showed a 3.6% decline in 2010…in fact, it was the only direct marketing segment to see a decrease in spending. But in spite of this decrease, direct mail spending is set to grow 5.8% to $47.8 billion this year. (Article found on dmnews.com)

What does this decrease in direct mail mean for you? It means you have less competition in the mailbox then you did a decade ago. In fact, if you take note of who is using direct mail you will see that even Google uses direct mail.

And even in this digital age, direct mail is still a $47.8 billion dollar a year expenditure…People would not still be spending that much money on direct mail if it didn’t still work.

So why do most small businesses, especially HVAC Contractors, think of direct mail as a waste?

1. They don’t know how to use it. They’ve never had any instruction on how to use it.

2. They send a flier. As you know by now, fliers don’t cut it. (I’ll cover more on this later in this manual).

3. They send it to a ‘bad’ list. The list, the people who you send your letter to, is just as important as the letter itself.

Many people overlook this.

One HVAC Contractor had written a sales letter. It was pretty good, not great but pretty good.

He was getting zero response, not low, not one but zero. Zilch. Nada.


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Who was he sending his letters to?

He didn’t know. He had bought a zip code zone.

Finally he went to look at the houses in the zip code he purchased.

Let me describe it for you:

A good two-word description would be: “Run-down”. They were tiny houses with broken porches-at least one plank of wood was missing. Junk strewn across the front yard… In the driveway there was a car on cement blocks with half the engine removed. Both the husband and the wife were in the front yard yelling wearing stained t-shirts.

Are these the types of people most likely to buy your services?

If they ever need your services, they’ll try to do it themselves or leave it undone.

These people are not good prospects for you.

The list is very important.

To recap, here is why most HVAC Contractors fail at direct mail:

1. No direct mail expertise.2. Bad sales letter.3. Bad list.

How To Do Successful Direct Mail

1. Have an irresistible offer. The more enticing your offer the better you will sell.2. Attention-getting headline. Your headline is really an ad for your sales letters.3. Create interest. The first paragraph should emphasize the benefit to the reader, this gets your

prospect interested enough to read the rest of the letter.


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4. Desire- make your prospect really want what you’re offering. 5. Action - must have an irresistible offer. 6. Must have a deadline. If you don’t have an expiration date you don’t have direct response.

I’ve provided you with some ready-to-use direct mail letters. Use them as-is or modify them. Learn from them and start writing your own!

And remember to never underestimate the power of a well-written sales letter. For many HVAC Contractors, the difference between being rich and being broke could be one good sales letter. And I’ve provided you with proven sales letters that have made many a lot of money.


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Never Use “Bait and Switch” Advertising

The same old stuff that everyone is using, which is advertising price, just doesn’t work.

“Bait And Switch” Doesn’t Cut It

The old bait and switch method of advertising a low, low price is ridiculous. It does get people to call sometimes, but it backfires. When you try to ‘up-sell’ these Clients they get mad. You can’t blame them, they were told one price and now if they want a good job they’ll have to pay more. As you probably know, a high percentage of these people decide against anything at all. The ones that do go ahead and have the service performed feel cheated. Rarely do they ever have you service them again. And they NEVER refer any business to you.

You CAN’T build up a highly success business (that you can someday sell ethically) with this type of advertising. You burn too many bridges. In the long run this is the worst type of advertising you can do!

Bait and switch advertising is unethical. It’s not down to earth (Strategy #60). It’s not building a good relationship with clients. You can’t successfully implement a referral program (Strategy #80) if you use it. You certainly can’t have the WOW effect (Strategy #55).

It’s simply not worth it.

It costs you in the long run. No building up your business. No thrilled clients. No long-term success. If you use it, you’ll most likely be at the same place in five years as you are now. Stop and join us in the top 1%.


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Raise Your Prices

Don’t be afraid. Everyone wants to raise their prices but is afraid to.

Your clients only use price when making a buying decision when they think all other aspects are equal or nearly equal.

What I mean by this is that no one would ever buy a Mercedes if they thought the only difference between a Ford Focus and a Mercedes was the price.

To overcome price shopping, you have to educate your prospect so that they realize what they are getting.

To most people, your service is just a service. They think HVAC Contractors are the same. They think every method and every company does the same thing. That’s why they price shop.

Why would anyone want to pay more for the same thing?

Your job is to convince them that all HVAC Contractors are not the same. You know this; you just have to convince them.

Once you do this, your worries are over.

Let me explain the difference between price and value.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

Everyone wants a good value. They don’t want a low price if they get crummy service. They want value.

Give them value. And charge them for it.


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Don’t wait for your client to say that you are expensive or out of their budget. It’s almost always too late at this point.

You should educate them right from the beginning. Your clients are not accustomed to buying the cheapest products. They live in nice houses. They have nice cars. They wear nice clothes. Why?

It’s because they know the difference between price and value. You just have to make them look at your service the same way that they look at other things. This is easy when you have middle class and above clients.

Raise your prices. Get paid for what you do. You deserve it.

Think about how much more you do than your competitors:

1. You offer a solid guarantee (Strategy #12)2. You live up to your promises (Strategy #44)3. You do great work (Strategy #56)4. You strive for quality (Strategy #62)5. You educate your clients (Strategy #75)

You are superior, so you should get paid for it.

If you are convinced you are worth it, your clients will be too.


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Live By Price, Die By Price

Everyone is so caught up with price. This is ridiculous.

People aren’t price shoppers if you educate them (Strategy #75).

You can charge anything you want as long as you can convince people you are worth it. That’s not that hard to do.

But if you live by price, you’ll die by price.

What I mean by this is that if you are the cheapest in town, you will probably go out of business.

Being the cheapest is terrifying to me. I would never want to be the cheapest.

I’d much rather explain price once than apologize for inferior service forever.

I’d much rather do three jobs and make $1,000.00 than 10 jobs and make the same amount! It’s the same work.

Quality. Not quantity.

There are a few big national stores that live on low prices by having a huge turnover.

You are not huge. You can’t make up in quantity - it’s just too much work and there are only so many hours in a day!

Cheap prices lead to inferior work.

Inferior work leads to unhappy clients.


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Unhappy clients lead to no repeat business, no positive reviews, and no referrals.

It’s only a matter of time before the cheapest company goes out of business.

Of course, there will always be another company to replace the one that went out of business. Just don’t let it be you!

Do you want to know what the formula is for how much you charge for your services? Ok…here it is…this is something that 99% of all business owners do not understand.

The formula for how much to charge is simply your ability to sell it!

This is why marketing is the most important focus and study you can ever invest your time in. And the exact reason you are reading my marketing course at the moment.


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Have A Big, Bold, Solid Guarantee

You should guarantee every job you do. Your first reaction might be: I can’t afford to do that. I’ll get people calling me all the time to do work over or they’ll want their money back and rip me off.

This is a natural reaction but it’s completely untrue.

Competence in business starts with guaranteeing your work. If you cannot guarantee your work then you shouldn’t be in this business. This will make more sense to you as you learn more of my philosophies on business.

This is my guarantee:

100% No-Risk Guarantee

As the owner, I want you to be super-pleased — in fact, absolutely delighted — with every job we do. So every job comes with our ironclad, risk-free guarantee. What does that mean? Simply this: If you aren’t happy with our work, we’ll redo the work for free. Or you can have your money back. It’s your choice. Many companies don’t guarantee their work. But I do, nothing is more important than your complete and total satisfaction. We stand behind every job 100%. If you ever have any questions or concerns about our work, please call me right away.

Is this bold? Yes. Is this strong? Yes. Is this risky? Not at all. Think about it this way:

Let’s say I only get a few calls per year that want me to come back and redo the work. That’s not very many. BUT do you know how many people who were hesitant went ahead with me because of it? Tons.


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Because I have such a strong guarantee, people think I am completely confident in my work (which I am) and they develop trust.

I don’t think anyone should be in business if they don’t guarantee their work. If you aren’t confident in what you do, do something you can be confident about.

The numbers work in your favor to offer a guarantee. It’s very rare that anyone will take you up on it BUT lots of people will be convinced to use you if you have one.

Your Guarantee Can Make Or Break You!

This is a pretty simple idea but far too underused. You have to eliminate the risk to the prospect if you want to sell more.

Frankly, if you can’t offer some type of guarantee on your product or service you probably ought to rethink your role as a businessperson.

How important is the guarantee?

When all else is equal, he who has the strongest guarantee wins!

How do you write your guarantee?

To begin with you must decide what you are willing to do for the client if they are not happy. You could replace the product, substitute another product or service, give their money back etc.

Whatever you decide to do, the most crucial element is to reverse the risk. Once you take the fear out of doing business with you, you’ve eliminated a major stumbling block from a person’s ability to buy from you.

Once you develop a guarantee, use it. Use it in all your marketing and advertising. Tell all your clients.


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If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

Get In The Newspaper

Whenever you make a change in your business or do a charity function (Strategy #90) or have a Client Dinner (Strategy #93), you should try to get an article in one of the local papers about it.

The purpose of this is not to create a flood of prospects. This won’t happen, believe me.

But what it does do is build your credibility. Then when you send out any sales information to a prospect, you include reprints of these articles in the paper.

When a prospect sees an article about you that was printed in the paper, they automatically think you are for real; that your company is a good company and trustworthy. This is very important.

Once a prospect thinks that you are ‘legitimate’, they will be much more likely to obtain your services.

Remember people are skeptical these days. They are afraid of getting ripped off or getting poor service. Anything that you do to prove to them that you are trustworthy will definitely pay off.

How Do I Get Anything In The Newspaper?

Most newspaper editors call them ‘press releases’. Press releases rarely get in the newspaper. You can send them in but the newspaper gets tons and tons of press releases. If you want to get something in the newspaper you need to do more than send a press release.

Here’s how you do that:


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1. Call the newspaper and find out who is in charge of press releases.

2. Call back and ask for that person. You may have to call back several times before you get to talk to the right person.

3. Tell that person that you are sending them some very exciting information. Tell them who you are and what you do. Tell them why they’ll benefit and/or how their readers will benefit. (Here is a great way to offer your Free Heating & Cooling Equipment Audit™.)

4. Send the information. Make sure you spell out that you talked to him/her on the phone and told them you were sending this. Also make it crystal clear what they’ll get out of this. (That probably will be something valuable to give to their readers like a Free Home Comfort Equipment Audit™.)

5. Follow up. Call them back and see if he/she received your information. Ask them when they are going to put it in the paper. If they won’t give you a direct answer, ask them when they’ll know for sure. Then call them back then.

6. Be persistent.This strategy takes quite a bit of effort but it’s worth it. If you really want to get in the paper you’ll have to do this.

Be very enthusiastic on the phone. Be friendly and cheerful. This will help you out a lot. Always expect that the newspaper will run your information. If you expect it, they will!

Here are a few tips for writing an attention-getting press release:

1. Have an intriguing title and subtitle at the very top of your press release. It should entice the reader to look at the body of the story. If you don’t have a powerful title/headline, you will be easily overlooked.

2. Tie your press release to something current that is already being talked about, if applicable.3. Write the release as a ready-to-go story. The less the media has to think about how to

approach the story, the more likely your press release will be noticed.4. Include a quote or two from the owner, a technician, a client, etc. Make it sound like they are

being interviewed on the subject.5. Include statistics or “evidence,” if applicable. Include a reputable study that was done on the


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subject.6. Look at some online press release examples. It will help you understand the flow, format, and

wording that the media is looking for.

Use Letters, Not Brochures

Fancy, four-color brochures are very expensive. You have to get at least 1,000 printed at once. Then you have your money tied up in inventory.

Why Brochures Don’t Work Very Well:

1. They immediately yell out: ‘This is a sales message’. Once someone thinks you are trying to sell them something, they are much less receptive.

Have you seen the cartoon with General Patton?

Patton is in the middle of a huge battle and a man comes up to him with a box full of guns. Patton says ‘I don’t have time for a salesman right now, I’m in the middle of a war.’

You see, even if you have exactly what a prospect needs, if they think you are a salesman it will be difficult to get through to them.

It’s the same thing with your sales message. A brochure is immediately recognized as a sales message. It’s fancy but boring.

2. With brochures, you can’t cheaply and easily change your message. Things can change quickly. Maybe you decide to offer (or worse, discontinue) a particular service. You can’t change your brochure so you either have inaccurate information or you have to spend a ton of money all over again to get it redone.


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3. You can’t cheaply test it. You should always test, test, test (Strategy #34). With brochures you have to get a lot printed at once then if it doesn’t work, you have wasted a lot of money.

Why Letters Always Get Better Response:

1. Letters look and feel personal. People think of letters as personal and brochures as sales.

2. Letters are very inexpensive. You can get as few done at a time, as you need. Your money won’t be tied up in ‘inventory’. All of your marketing dollars will be out there working for you.

3. Letters are easily changed. If something about your business changes, you can quickly, easily, and inexpensively change your sales message.

4. If your letter didn’t work as well as you’d like, you can easily improve it. Letters have no waste.


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3-Step Letter

Most HVAC Contractors that even attempt direct mail make a huge mistake (among others). They get a list and then mail them information once. If you aren’t sending out your message at least three times you are “leaving money on the table”.

Sending your message out three times will generally double the response. For example, if you get a 5% response on your first mailing, you’ll get a 10% combined response from all three letters. If you don’t mail your second and third letters, you are leaving half of your profits behind - just walking away from them.

Sometimes it can even be worse. I know of one business owner who gets 80% of his response from his third mailing. If he didn’t mail three times, he’d barely be making any money at all. Since he does, he makes well over $100,000 every year.

Start off with at least a three-letter sequence. Later you should test to see if it’s profitable to do a four, five or six letter sequence. To see if it’s profitable:

1. Calculate the cost of the mailing including printing, postage, etc.2. Calculate how much you profited from the mailing.

When you profit less than it costs to mail, that’s when you stop mailing.

Here’s a graph that explains this:


Profit From Mailing

Cost Of Mailing31

1 2 3 4 5 Letter #

In this example, you would mail four times. The fifth letter is losing money. Some people think that you should stop at three not four but that’s incorrect. The fourth letter breaks even - the cost of the mailing equals the profit you make from the mailing. Anytime you have a marketing method that breaks even, keep doing it.

The reason is because it isn’t costing you anything to acquire that client. It’s like it’s free. That is on the front-end. The front end is any sales that immediately result from a marketing method. The back end is subsequent sales, like a client getting service again in 11 months - that’s back end.

If you break even on the front end then every time that client has you do work for them again, or uses your other services or refers someone to you - this is all pure profit. Use the lifetime value of a client (Strategy #18) to see just how much you are making.

The ready-to-go proven and MEGA-successful “3-Step Letter” is located in the ‘Quick Start Guide To Fast Cash.’ You can use this letter as-is or use some of our other client’s examples or modify it. (If you modify it…stick to the proven rules of successful direct marketing.)

The 3-letter sequence was designed to be distributed to nice neighborhoods in your target client demographic. Put the first letter in a white envelope with nothing on the cover. Seal the envelope and place them on the doorstep or wedged in the door. This will ensure that your letter gets opened because people will think that this is from a friend or neighbor.

Then the headline will catch their attention and force them to read it. Deliver at least 100 at a time and keep track of which houses you delivered them to. My colleagues in other industries have been using this method since 1994, and their average response is four calls from the first 100. From these four calls you should make three appointments for Free Home Comfort Equipment Audit™. Out of those three, you should get at least one job. The jobs should provide a significant return (if you use my Strategy #27 and Strategy #30) on a $30.00 investment and about an hour’s worth of someone’s time to deliver the letters.

But don’t stop there. You’d be leaving 50% of your profits behind.


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15 days after you delivered the first letter, deliver the second letter to everyone who did NOT respond to the first letter. Then 15 days later deliver the third letter to everyone who did not respond to the first and second letters.

From the two letters (the second and third) you may receive another four calls, which could lead to another three appointments, which could lead to another job. That’s another impressive return from a $60.00 investment (the investment is doubled because you have to get twice as much printing done) and 2 hours worth of work!

That’s a big return on a $90.00 investment and three hours! Not bad at all.

You should have a current client in that neighborhood. Ask her if she wouldn’t mind helping you out.

Then tell her about the letters. Let her read them and make sure she’s ‘OK’ with it.

Tell her it’s just your silly personality coming through.

When she says ‘OK’ plug in her name and you’re ready to go!

And before you question the validity of what I say and talk yourself out of using this proven strategy (or worse, you let someone else talk you out of it), just know that these three letters alone have built some of the most successful service companies throughout the world.


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The Longer The Better

Initially almost everyone thinks the opposite is true. You may think ‘but that’s too long, who will read all that?’

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Think of it this way:

If someone is truly interested in something, they want as much information as they can get so they can make a good decision. If someone isn’t interested, it doesn’t matter how short or long your letter, voice mail, etc. is - they still won’t be interested.

For example, if Jane Brown just had you service her home last Thursday and she receives a letter from you on Monday - she probably won’t be interested. It wouldn’t matter if your sales message were two words; she still wouldn’t be interested.

Don’t worry about the ones that aren’t interested. Worry about the ones who are!

The ones who are interested aren’t going to be convinced in two words or two paragraphs. You need to give them tons of reasons how they’ll benefit from using you. You should answer every objection that they might have. If you do all this, you’ll get lots of response.

The more you tell ‘em, the more you sell ‘em!

Would you send one of your techs (or you) out to give a quote and say ‘We really need this job, but


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whatever you do DON’T say more than 250 words.’ That would be ridiculous and wouldn’t work. It’s the same thing with letters.

Long Letters Always Out Pull Short Ones

Every time I’ve conducted a test of two different letters, the longer letter has had more response than the shorter one. I’ve made more profit from the longer letters to easily cover the extra postage and printing.

I’ve talked to many other direct response experts around the country and they all say the same thing. The longer, the better.

The only thing you can do to make this untrue is:

To be boring.


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Don’t Be Boring

Boring. This is the cardinal sin in marketing. Longer copy most often out-pulls shorter copy as long as it is not boring.

How to find out if your copy is boring or not?

Of course, you could mail out a couple hundred letters and see what kind of response you get, but that can be expensive, especially if it is boring.

When you’re done with your letter or ad or whatever, let 10 people you know (who aren’t your clients) read your letter.

If they say ‘Yeah, that was good.’ It’s back to the drawing board.

When it’s really good they’ll start asking you more questions about how they can get what you are offering.

If five people out of 10 ask you more questions, then it’s good enough to mail. If more do…great. If less do - back to the drawing board.

For more strategies on how to write good copy see Strategy #27.


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Lifetime Value of a Client

The name gives the concept away, and it’s so simple that I remain dumbfounded that so many people in business never consider it.

Here’s what its all about. By definition, the Lifetime Value of a Client (LVC) is the total profit produced by an average client over his or her lifetime association with you.

Once you know your average client’s lifetime value, you are then in a position to make a judgment on how much you can afford to spend to convert a prospect into a client.

For example, let’s say that the first time your average new client does business with you she spends $250.00. She has you return every 12 months and is going to be your client for four years. In four years, she will have spent a minimum of $1,000.00 with you.

Now you have to figure out how much of that is profit to you. Let’s say it’s 50%. So you (theoretically) will make $500.00 profit on your average client over the next 4 years.

How much are you willing to pay to get a client? You could spend up to $500.00 and still break even in four years. I don’t suggest that. But up to $50.00 seems reasonable. Wouldn’t you invest $50.00 to get $500.00 back in four years? But you don’t even have to wait the full four years to start getting it back. On the first sale you make money, more than enough to recover the $50.00.


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Let’s say that your average client refers at least one other client to you. Now your profit from that client is $1,000.00. $500.00 from the client, and $500.00 from the referral. Referrals are even more profitable than clients gotten through advertising (Strategy #80).

Start calculating the lifetime value of your average client. One of your goals should be to increase this value by getting your clients to refer more often, increasing the average sale; making repeat service more often, and selling them more products (Strategy #54).

Networking

Do it right or don’t do it.

What I mean by this is:

Some people are better at networking than others. When they go to meetings, parties, etc. they interact. They talk to strangers and get to know them. They make contacts and many of the contacts become clients.

Others go to these same things and only talk to people they already know. They don’t interact with strangers. They’re shy. Timid. Whatever you want to call it.

If you are in group one, then network all you can.

If you are in group two, then don’t. Don’t feel bad about it. That’s just the way you are. Don’t fight it and don’t waste your time trying to network.

Can Someone Learn To Network?


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Of course they can. But it takes work. And frankly with all these great strategies you now have, you don’t need to network.

Learning how to network takes time and effort. The rewards are great. You can get a lot of business by networking, but it takes time and effort.

Target Farming

Target farming is niche marketing.

Niche marketing is targeting a specific group, like certain neighborhoods or doctors. The group has to have something in common with each other.

It’s much easier to target certain niches than it is to target everyone. You’ll get more response.

People feel important if you specialize in them. This is very true. Think about it. Which would you be more likely to use: a regular printer or a printer who specializes in servicing HVAC Contractors? Would you have bought this program if it were just a generic marketing program for any business? Probably not.

Specializing is good.

Pick two to three niche markets that you’d like to get into. These could be any of the following:

* A wealthy neighborhood* Lawyers* Doctors


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* Country Club members* Golfers* Mercedes owners

The options are limitless.

Pick 2 to 3 and start really targeting them. For instance, if it’s a particular neighborhood, do a 3-letter sequence to them (Strategy #15). Then do a Val-Pak type ad (Strategy #26) that goes to that neighborhood.

Contacting them lots of times over 4 to 6 months is very important for success. Once you get a few of them, start using testimonials from them in all your promotions. You can dominate this niche in a very short time.

Then, pick another niche market and do the same thing.

You can specialize in a million different niches. Being the HVAC Contractor for doctors doesn’t mean you can’t be the company for printers, too!

A Good Way To Get In To A Profession Niche

If you want to target a professional, any profession, an easy way to do that is with a champion letter.

Say you want to target doctors and you have one doctor as a client. This doctor really likes you. She thinks you are the greatest HVAC Contractors on earth.

You ask her if she would be willing to endorse you. She will.

Here’s how you do this:

You write a letter from her to all the other doctors in your area. This letter should tell how wonderful she thinks you are and that since “we doctors are so busy - we don’t have any spare time to waste” and that’s why she’s telling them about you - so they don’t waste their time with any of those terrible HVAC Contractors.


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Also enclose a sales letter of yours, offering a free Home Comfort Equipment Audit (Strategy #57).

Send this letter from the doctor on her letterhead and her envelopes. Also staple to her letter her business card. Pay for all of the letterhead, envelopes and business cards (and, of course, the postage.)

Then give the doctor an extra box of her business cards or letterhead as a thank-you.

What this will do is insure that your letter gets opened and read. All doctors read mail from other doctors. Just like if you got a letter from another HVAC Contractors, you’d read it. You’d be curious as to why another was writing to you.

Don’t forget to follow up with a second and third letter from just you, not the doctor.

This type of niche marketing is very powerful.

It’s also a lot easier to get referrals when you niche market because all your clients will know others in their same niche. And they think you specialize in their niche, so they know others will want to use you, too.


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Front End

The front end is what most of us think about. It’s making the first sale with a client. The subsequent sales are the back end.

Why are we so engrossed in the front end?

We all think we need more clients and that’s what we concentrate on. Obviously, getting new clients is very important, but there is another very important profit center - the back-end (Strategy #84).

The front-end has to carry all of our advertising costs. For example, if you run a “Val-Pak” type mailer that costs $300.00 and you get three new clients from it, it cost you $100.00 to get each of those clients.

If your average job for those three clients was $300.00 then you probably made out OK. But if your average job was $90.00, you lost money.

Some companies lose money on the first sale. This may sound ridiculous, but it’s not. They know they can afford to ‘buy’ a client. That means they are willing to lose money on the first sale just to get that person as a client. They know that most of their new clients go on to buy more products from them.


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It’s not until the second or third sale that a client is profitable. They know this and market this way. That’s fine and it works.

We don’t have to go that far. We can make money on the front-end and make even more money on the back end.

The whole point of spending advertising dollars is to obtain a new client. You aren’t looking for a one-time only client; you want a client who is going to use your services over and over again. That’s the purpose of the front end.

Marketing To Businesses

Business contracts.

You may have some contracts for businesses already. If you do, I’ll teach you how to make more money from them.

What Are The Advantages Of Business Contracts?

1. They are mainly at night. So your truck isn’t making any money during this time anyway.2. They are steady cash flow.

What Are The Disadvantages?

1. They are mainly at night. Some people hate to work after hours.2. You don’t make as much money for the work.


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Unless you really hate the idea of having someone work after hours in your business, you should consider getting business contracts.

You don’t need to buy any more equipment. You have it sitting around doing nothing all night long so you might as well make some money from it. Sometimes you can also structure agreements to do this work during slower times of day for your business client.

Although you don’t make as much money from businesses as you do from consumers, it is a steady cash flow. You can depend on it. When you get business contracts, you know exactly how much you’ll make for the next year. There are some major benefits of stability.

How To Get Business Contracts

These are a little bit harder to get than homeowners. But if you work at it, you can make a steady cash flow.

Getting to the right person is half the battle. With secretaries and receptionists screening calls, it’s harder to get to the decision maker.

There are many ways to overcome this:

First, pick five businesses that you would really like to have as clients. Call them and find out who would be in charge of this decision. Make sure that the building owner doesn’t have the service done for the tenants. If the service is done for the tenant (which is the business you were thinking of), go after the building owner. Find out their exact address.

Then have a courier hand deliver a package from you to the decision maker. The courier must give the package to the decision maker not the secretary.

The package includes:


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1. A shoe.

2. A letter from you explaining that you just wanted to get your foot in the door. Then go on to explain who you are. Offer to provide your service for free the first time. Then if the decision maker is happy, you can put together a contract. You should have many, many testimonials (especially ones from business owners).

3. An exact day and time when you are going to call. Let the decision maker have the choice of having the secretary reschedule the call.

Make sure you call the decision maker at the exact time and date you specified. Nine times out of 10 you will get an immediate appointment to see the decision maker. The appointment should only take 10 minutes. Then schedule a time to do the free trial service.

For the few who don’t respond to your package and don’t set up a meeting, send letter #2.

This letter should refer to the package. The headline ‘I Want My Shoe Back’ works very well. This system will get you business contracts. Once you have a business contract you have a whole new list of prospects: the team members.

Many of the team members will own homes. They are perfect prospects.

The day you provide service for the first time is the day you want your sales letter to arrive at all the team member’s homes.

Tell the business owner that you will offer a discount to all your services for the team members. You should get a list of names and addresses then.

Your letter should explain that you were the amazing company that provided service to the company, and that you worked a deal with the business owner to give all the team members a discount.

Tell them the exact discount if they use your services. Tell them how they’ll benefit - i.e. super service, reduced allergies, cleaner air, etc. Then offer a free Home Comfort Equipment Audit.

This works very well. Everyone will be shocked to get a letter at home that mentions that the office had your service done. They’ll read your letter and respond. You’ll make sure of that by sending a 3-


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letter sequence, of course!

How To Get A Flood Of Clients With Yellow Pages Even In Today’s “Online” World…

People tell me all the time that yellow pages don’t work. This is absurd.

Yellow pages work….

If they aren’t working for you now, I’ll teach you how to make yellow pages very, very profitable.

As a side note…the fact that so many HVAC Contractors are pulling out of the yellow pages these days…means there is LESS competition for you in the book…and usually you can negotiate a better price.

So…

Why Do So Many HVAC Contractors

Fail With Yellow Pages?


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Have you ever taken a good look at the yellow page ads in your city? Do it now. Pull out your yellow pages and look at all the HVAC Contractor ads.

Try to be objective. Don’t fall in love with your ad unless it is pulling in tons of new clients!

Do you notice something?

They all look pretty much alike and say the same things. You could easily change the business names on all of them. None of them stand out.

They all look like blown up business cards.

None of them give any compelling reasons why you should use a certain company.

Yellow pages reps don’t know anything about getting new clients. Stop listening to your yellow pages rep. He sells everyone else their yellow pages and gives them the same advice. That’s why all the ads look the same.

After I teach you how to get a yellow pages ad that really works, the last thing you want to do is tell your yellow pages rep. If you do, he’ll tell all of your competitors.

Tell him that they are doing ‘OK’. Don’t sound excited at all! Then hopefully none of your competitors will do the same thing you are doing.

Yellow pages advertising isn’t any different than any other type of advertising. You need all the same things:

1. Attention-getting headline2. Interest the prospect3. Make the prospect want what you are offering4. Tell them the offer and exactly what to do

The number one mistake that all HVAC Contractors make is using their company name as a headline.

Six out of 10 people who look up HVAC Contractors in the phone book have no company in mind. And out of the remaining four, half of them are willing to be swayed to a different company. That’s 8 out


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of 10!

Practically no one is looking for your name! It is a huge waste of space to make your name the biggest thing!

Instead, create an attention getting headline. Anything would be better than your company name that no one is looking for or will recognize.

Here are other mistakes everyone makes:

A. Certified Technicians - only we HVAC Contractors know what this is. If you want to use this you must explain what kind of certification and how this benefits the client.

B. Free Estimates - everyone does this. People expect it. It isn’t anything special.C. Other services and methods. Only those in the business have any idea what various things

you do mean. You must explain it and tell them why it’s the best method (which should be how the client benefits from it).

Remember to ask yourself, “Why should anyone do business with you versus any or all of your competitors?” Answer this question in your yellow pages ad and you will get calls!

How Powerful Are Yellow Pages?

Extremely.

And not just for me.

One Carpet Cleaner (my friend Joe Polish) told me about how he uses this approach and gets 242 calls per month! No exaggeration. Some months are a little higher; some a little lower. That’s the average!

How do you think he’s doing?

Extraordinary!

From this alone, he has made an extra $62,537.00 a year!


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He uses the ad at the end of this strategy. You can use it to create one of your own. It’s the “Warning” ad. (This ad can easily be adapted to the HVAC industry as well as other home service industries.)

His ad drives people to his voice mail message, which is the ‘Consumer Awareness Line’. You received a script with this kit. It’s in the Consumer Awareness Manual. I’ve also included an ad, which was re-done. The first one is a typical ad. The second version is how it was re-vamped. I’ll let you guess which one out pulls the other!


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How To Turn Your Website From A “Billboard” To A Direct Response Style Selling “Tool”…

Websites can be POWERFUL selling tools but so many people are wasting their money on slick “billboard” style websites that just kind of hang out there in cyberspace and, quite frankly, don’t do anything to bring in cash.

Take an honest look at your current website and ask ...

Is Your Website Sending You Highly Profitable Jobs Everyday?

If not…then here are some “tweaks” you can do to ensure your website is a direct response marketing tool and not just an “image” building money waster.

And just like with any of your current ads, don’t be so in love with your own website that you can’t take an objective look at it.

First of all, just like any successful direct response ad, your website should have a “headline” at the top of the first page. (Even your “USP” will do the job.)


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Next…your homepage is the perfect place to drive prospects to your Free Recorded Message, or you can offer a downloadable or “instant access” Consumer Awareness Guide. But do NOT forget to require a name and email for access to your free consumer information – collecting the names and emails of your prospects is CRUCIAL to your marketing plan.

When you collect your prospective client’s name and email you have now established a virtual “rapport” with them. You are giving them something of value and they are no longer a “cold” lead the next time you make contact.

Another key element in a direct response style website is your “irresistible offer”. Many have successfully used the Free Service offer via their website with the qualification that it’s an offer for first time clients only…or you can run your current specials on your website. You can even create urgency with a line like “offer only available to the first 10 people who contact me”.

Don’t forget to include a section of “glowing” reviews. (There are strict laws regarding putting “testimonials” online, so please consult your lawyer before you do.) You can also include links to your client reviews on Google™, Yahoo™, Yelp! ™, Angie’s List™ and more.

And a having a “blog” on your website is a real relationship builder…especially if your blog is interesting and informative.

Make sure your website is easy to navigate and contains all your pertinent business information. Be sure to engage your prospects with a nice story-like description about you and your business in the “about us” section. Make sure your phone number is easy to find. And be sure to include a big, BOLD, guarantee.

In the “contact us” section, give your clients the option to call/text or email you. Many people would just prefer to shoot you an email at that point.

And since 80% of people are now surfing the web on hand held devices like iPhones, smart phones, iPads and other digital “notebooks,” be sure your website is current, mobile-optimized, and easy to navigate on a hand held device. (Really, how many people are actually sitting at home on their PC when they “Google” HVAC Contractors these days? Not many.)


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Of course your website is a reflection of you and your company and the quality of what you have to offer, so a “cheap looking” website will be a major turn off to your high-end clientele. Be sure to create a “high-end” looking website and not a “cheesy” homemade version. Now…

How Much Money Can A Direct Response Website Be Worth To Your Business This Year?

A service business client in a very limited, highly competitive market (town population 80,000/competition over 100 competitors) reported making $30,000.00 per year off his website ALONE. Just because he made these simple “tweaks” and turned a billboard style website into a direct response style moneymaking tool.

YOU Are Not Your Own Client

This is a mistake that many, many business owners make, especially those in HVAC Contracting. What this means is that you do not know what your clients will want or how they will react.

I’ve heard lots of people tell me that ‘Well, my clients won’t like that or respond to it’. This is a huge mistake. You are not your own client. You don’t know what your client will or won’t do until you try it.

Please don’t call us and say, “This will never work with my clients”. First of all, that’s very foolish. You don’t know what will or won’t work with your clients. Second of all, these marketing strategies have been tested all over the country. They work. Period.

If you can’t get something to work, call us and we’ll help you get it to work.

I had one person tell me, ‘I tried this and it doesn’t work.’ This would be like questioning the laws of aerodynamics every time a plane crashed. No one does that. They ask what was wrong with the plane or what mistake the pilot made, but they don’t question whether flight works or not.


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What he should have said was, ‘I tried this and I couldn’t get it to work.’ Or even better yet, ‘I tried this, I couldn’t get it to work, do you know how I can get it to work?’ Then I would have explained what he was doing wrong so he could correct it. He ended up missing out on thousands and thousands of dollars of profit because he was so sure this didn’t work!

If you are trying a new product, ask your clients if they would be interested in buying one. See what features they want and see what type, then give them what they want. If you don’t do that, then you need to test small.

For example, if you find an item you think is fantastic and you think your clients will buy two each - don’t buy 1,000 of these things and then find out that your clients hate them. Buy one or two and see if you can sell them. If you do, then buy five. Start small and work your way up. Always remember that you aren’t your own client!

How To At Least Double Your Response In “Val-Pak” Or

Other Direct Mail and Online Offers.…

There are so many ways to reach consumers today, but what some HVAC Contractors use to get new business is still the age old, tired and ineffective (and unethical) ‘bait and switch’ tactic of advertising.

They advertise low, low prices and then try to switch the prospect to a more expensive service. The problem with this is that even though many consumers haven’t called the ‘bait and switch’ ads, they believe that they can get the service for cheap. This is a problem, but you can overcome it.

First of all, only advertise in nice neighborhoods that house your target demographic. Know where these ads are being delivered, or if you are buying online advertising make sure the traffic is your target market. For example, one HVAC Contractor wasn’t getting any response and wondered why. Come to find out he was advertising in the ghetto. The people in those neighborhoods didn’t even think about his service. The few who did think about it rented equipment and did it themselves.

Know WHOM you are advertising to, whether it is a zip code or a virtual community.


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Advertising price isn’t enough. It may work for huge companies where everyone in America has heard of them, but not for you. These companies have had 10 years of multi-million dollar TV campaigns behind them. So, for example, they can advertise two cheese pizzas for $9.99 and get a response.

You don’t have that behind you, so your ad has to be better.

The same rules apply for creating a good Val-Pak, direct mail or online ad as does for any direct response ad.

On the following page is an example of a good ad. You’ll notice how this drastically differs from the typical HVAC ad. You’ll also notice how this type of ad will make you money while a typical one won’t.

Example Of A Good Val-Pak Ad


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WILL YOUR HEAT OR AIR CONDITIONER FAIL AT THE WORST TIME?

With your hectic life, you don’t have time to take care of your furnace or air conditioner. You are too busy doing things that are more important. Just remember, a system that’s not properly maintained will fail earlier. And that usually is on the hottest or coldest day of the year or when you have company from out of town. That’s also the hardest time to get someone to make a repair. Don’t let it happen to you. Plan ahead. Let us help.

We offer a free equipment audit, which pinpoints potential problems. Why not take advantage of this incredible offer before it expires. Don’t be left without heat or air conditioning at the worst possible time. Give us a call. It’s absolutely Free!

Call 555-5555 today to schedule an appointment!!

OFFER EXPIRES [DATE]

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How To Write Copy That Sells

Writing good ads and sales letters isn’t really that complicated. First of all, forget everything that your high school English teacher taught you. If you are like most people, you were taught to write boring, complete sentences. Maybe they are grammatically correct but they sure don’t sell anything.

-Write like you talk.-Don’t worry about grammar.-Don’t worry about making complete sentences. Don’t.-One-word sentences are great. They really get the point across.

What you want to concentrate on is connecting with the reader of your letter or ad. Make them feel like you know them.

-Write about what they are interested in.-Write about what they want.

If you don’t know what they want, ask your current clients. They’ll tell you. After all, you just want more clients like the ones you already have (the good ones that is). See Strategy #25 - You’re Not Your Own Client.

-Write short sentences. Short paragraphs.-Use a headline and lots of subheads.

These things make your copy easier to read. And the easier it is to read, the more people will read it.Do you ever remember when you had to read something for a class? You opened the book and there were just pages and pages of solid text. Long paragraphs. Boring copy. Discouraging, wasn’t it?

You don’t want your reader to be discouraged or she/he won’t read it. (Just like you didn’t in school!)

-Don’t make it more difficult than it is.-Just write.-If you are really having problems see Strategy #28, Record Yourself.


Record Yourself

If you think you can’t write emotional direct response copy, begin by recording yourself.

When most people start writing emotional direct response copy, they feel a little overwhelmed. This is natural.

You have to ‘unlearn’ years and years of learning. What I mean by this is all through school we were taught to write in this terribly boring, grammatically correct method. Although it may have worked to please your teachers, it doesn’t work here.

What I’ve found is most people do a pretty good job of selling their service face-to-face. You’ve closed many, many sales in homes when you go out for a quote. You know what to say to make people want your service.

Instead of trying to painstakingly write a letter from scratch, record yourself in action. (Remember to get the permission of the person(s) you are recording.) Do this several times so you get used to it and forget that it’s even there.

Then write exactly what you have recorded. Leave in all the one-word sentences. That’s fine for writing. Don’t worry about grammar or all those other rules. They don’t make one bit of difference when you’re selling.

That’s what a sales letter is - selling in print.

By recording yourself then putting it on paper, you will make the whole process of writing much, much easier.


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Write A Book Or Report

Sound difficult? It’s really not.

You already know all the information; you just have to put it into words. That’s easy. See Strategy #27, How To Write Copy That Sells.

Why Write A Book Or Report?

When someone writes a book or report on a subject, it puts them in a different light.

And that light is ‘expertise’.

No longer will you be just a HVAC Contractor, you’ll be an ‘expert’.

An HVAC Contractor is looked at as a sales person.

An HVAC Contractor ‘expert’ is looked at as the person with the solution to a client’s problem.

This makes all the difference in the world.

If you are thought of as a sales person, clients will back away from you. They will take what you say with a ‘grain of salt’. Even if you have the perfect solution to their needs, it’ll be difficult to convince them of that.

But if you’re seen as an ‘expert’, you’re trusted. A client is coming to you with a problem and thinks you are the person that can help her. She will take your advice seriously and will do what you tell her to do.

Do you see why this is so powerful?


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Are you wondering what to write a book or Report About?

Write about what you know. Here are some possibilities:

* How to avoid HVAC Contractor rip-offs* How to choose an honest HVAC Contractor* How to reduce or eliminate allergies in the home* The 7 Things To Do To Make Your HVAC System Last Twice As Long* The 3 Things To Do To Make Your HVAC System Act Like Brand-new

These should be what your title is like. Indoor Air Quality doesn’t cut it. The title has to create interest on the part of your prospect. The title is really the headline for the book or report.

Of course at the end of the book or report, you make an offer like a Free Home Comfort Equipment Audit (Strategy #57). Tell them exactly what you want them to do.

You can offer this report or book for free in all sorts of places. For example:

1. In your yellow pages ad2. In your “Val-Pak” type ads3. In your newspaper column4. Through retailers5. On your website6. Online in various places (i.e. Facebook)

There are many, many places to offer this information.

Become an ‘expert’, write a book or report.


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Create Your Own Sales Letters

I’ve given you tons of sales letters that you can use ‘as is’. They work. They are moneymakers.

That’s fine to use them to start.

But once you ‘get the hang’ of it, develop your own sales letters.

After all, you and your company are special and unique. My company is different than yours. Maybe your USP (Strategy #6) is aimed at speedy service. Whatever it is, you should create sales letters and copy that reflect you.

It may seem a little hard to start. Start off by ‘modeling’ my letters. Change certain parts that aren’t quite compatible with your company.

I’ll guide you. Tell you how you can improve. In no time writing copy will be a ‘cinch’. Remember to keep learning marketing (Strategy #104). If you do, you’ll keep seeing your profits soar!

Experiment. Be creative. And track the results.

(And like I said, I’ve provided you examples of sales letters in your Successful Contractor Marketing Kit.)

You’ll notice that you start paying attention to sales copy everywhere, looking at wording and how other companies approach their marketing. Always keep your eyes open for good offers and ideas that are being implemented in other industries.

Trust me, you will get the hang of writing your own letters more quickly than you think. Then, once you have some letters that are working well, you only have to make minor changes to adapt them to a specific offer or season.


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Advertise

What is the purpose of advertising?

To get new clients?

NO. The purpose of advertising is to get new clients who will then give you great reviews and referrals. Then those referrals will give you referrals.

That’s where the real profits are.

But you need to get clients and to get new clients you need to advertise.

The simple reality is, businesses should be focused on two things:1. Gaining new clients2. Keeping existing clients

You should advertise consistently so that you are always bringing in new clients that refer others to you. But you have to keep new ones coming in. It’s not about making one sale, to one client, one time. The real goal is to have clients referring you to their friends and writing wonderful reviews for your company.

The more that happens, the better off you are.

In theory you could eventually just live off referrals. But this is a dreamland. Few ever get to the point of working only from referrals.

So you have to keep those new clients coming in. If you stop or take a break, you’ll get fewer new clients, you’ll get fewer review and referrals, and pretty soon you won’t have any work!

Trust me; don’t try that strategy. Keep advertising.


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Stop Being An Advertising Victim

An advertising victim is someone who has no plan and makes advertising decisions based upon whichever advertising rep catches him that day.

Even if you have good direct response ads, not those boring old ‘image’ building or price-driven ads, you still need a plan. Even if you have effective ads that get response, you need to have a plan (Strategy #1).

You can’t just wait for the next advertising rep to come sell you advertising. You have to plan and budget.

The other part of being an advertising victim is listening to the advertising reps about how to advertise.

They’ll tell you that you should do what everybody else is doing. That stuff doesn’t work. I’ve done it over and over and it never worked.

Then they get really nervous if you want to use a good direct response ad. It’s different and it makes them nervous. They will try to convince you not to do it. They’ll tell you it won’t work. They’ll tell you it’s too ‘non-traditional’. They’ll tell you anything so you won’t use it.

Don’t listen to them. This stuff works.

One time I ran an ad in a Val-Pak type mailer. It was full of copy, no white space. You almost had to squint to read it. But it did fantastic. I did this ad for a client. His previous ads were like everyone else’s and it was losing money.

This ad made money, lots of it. But this advertising rep didn’t want me to run it. When he saw my ad he offered to write the ad over for me. He told me time after time that it wouldn’t work in his mailer. And that he knew the types of people it went out to and that they just wouldn’t respond. He went on and on. I didn’t listen to him - Thank Goodness! And don’t you listen either.

This stuff really works but don’t try to convince the advertising rep of that.


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If you succeed, then they’ll tell all of your competitors your secrets. You don’t want this. Plus, some places will even raise your advertising price if they know you are doing well. So, never act like you just made $2,000.00 (or more) from the $200.00 ad. If they ask, tell them “it did OK.”

If you keep running the ad because it’s doing great, they still won’t figure it out. They’ll assume that you’re crazy and wasting your money. Let them think that!

Let them think you’re crazy, but don’t be an advertising victim.


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Learn Everything For Yourself

What I mean by this is learn marketing for you. Getting this system was the best thing you ever did for your HVAC business.

Unfortunately, you have to learn it all for yourself. You can’t trust advertising reps.

You can’t even trust advertising agencies.

I listened to all of them at one time. I tried everything. The only thing I learned was:

None of them have a clue about how to get new clients.

I Hired An Ad Agency To Take Care of My Marketing -

This Was a Big Mistake

I even decided to hire an advertising agency. I thought that was going to be the end of my troubles. I couldn’t really afford it but I thought I ‘d get a ton of business.

The advertising agency was great - Great at making pretty looking ads and building my ‘image’. After 3 months I was losing so much money I thought about getting out of this business. I realized advertising agencies don’t have any idea about how to actually get new clients. I learned one very important lesson:

If An Ad Doesn’t Work Once,

It Won’t Work The Second

Or Third Time Either!


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I fell for the old ‘if you just run it again, this time people will respond’. The theory behind it is that people need to see ads more than once before they’ll respond. There is some minor truth in this. However, if an ad loses money the first time, it’s not suddenly going to make a ton of money the second or third time.

Finally, I started using emotional direct response marketing. What an exciting thing in my life and business. Soon business was booming.

So, you have to do it yourself. You’ve made a great start with this manual, but keep on learning for yourself. Don’t trust any of those ‘image’-building building types.

Now, I’m not saying that every ad agency is “bad.” Most of them just focus on the wrong things. They can be good at branding, can help with media buys, etc., but most aren’t great at generating clients through powerful copy writing. Also, many of them don’t understand the home services industry.

This is why it’s so important to learn marketing and understand how to talk to prospective clients in a way that makes them want to do business with your company.

Remember, when you do try something new, track your numbers carefully so you know whether it’s working or not (Strategy #83).


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Test, Test, Test

Always, always test your marketing methods small. Then if they work (and only if they work), test a little bigger. Keep getting bigger and bigger if it works.

I’ve known many people to lose their shirts by not following this rule.

No matter how wonderful you think your idea or plan is, test small. Let the response tell you if it’s good or not.

One guy I know bought 500 names from a mailing list broker. He mailed the 500 names and got a tremendous response. It was unbelievable.

Then he did it. He made a huge mistake.

He decided to mail to the rest of the list - which was 125,000 names. He spent $12,500.00 to buy the list (10¢ a name) and spent $36,250.00 on postage. That was when stamps were only 29¢ each (remember those days?). Guess what his results were? $2,158.00 in sales.

Mailing brokers always give you the best part of the list first. The most responsive buyers.

This guy lost $46,592.00. This is a common mistake. Many, many people have made it.

Remember to test, test, test. Test small, and then get bigger slowly. Of course there are a million and one applications and programs for “tracking” things…just use the one that makes the most sense for you and your company.


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How To Get Tons Of Jobs From Realtors

Realtors can be the key to many jobs from one client, the Realtor. Realtors work with both the buyers and the sellers. Sometimes at some point in the transaction, there is a need for HVAC services.

Often the Realtor suggests to the seller that he should service the heating and cooling equipment. This puts the Realtor in a perfect position to recommend a good HVAC Contractor. If the seller doesn’t get the service, then usually the buyer will. The Realtor is in a great position to recommend a HVAC Contractor (you) to the buyer.

The best thing about Realtors is that once you get one to recommend you, they’ll give you many, many jobs. You won’t have to wait three to 12 months to get a repeat job. A good Realtor should give you two jobs a month. If you get 10 or 20 Realtors recommending you - that’s 20 to 40 extra jobs.

How To Get Realtors To Recommend You

Getting your first Realtor is the hardest. Once you get one, getting others is much easier. Realtors hang out with other Realtors. So once you get one who is happy with you, you can get her to help you get other Realtors.

If you know a Realtor, start with them. If you don’t, you can still get into this niche.

Most Realtors work for a broker, like Century 21 or Re/Max. All of these brokers have weekly meetings. Usually they have someone come in and give a talk for 10-15 minutes. The Realtor that is in charge of these meetings has a very, very difficult time getting enough speakers. It is very easy to get to speak at one of these meetings.

Contact a company; ask for the person in charge of the weekly sales meeting for the Realtors. Call this person and tell them who you are, what you want to do and ask when he can fit you in. These people are usually desperate. You will be an angel to them. They should schedule within 3 or 4 weeks.


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At your speech to Realtors, you need to do several things:

1. Explain that Realtors are in the perfect position to recommend an HVAC Contractors since usually either the seller or the buyer needs service anyway.

2. Explain that you are a very good HVAC Contractor. Use your USP (Strategy #6).

3. Give the Realtors a reason to use you. You can give them $10.00 for every job, or a certain percentage, or you can say after they’ve given you so many jobs, you’ll service their house for free. Whatever you choose, make it crystal clear what they get.

For example, if you use 3% of every job, then tell them how much your average job is and tell them how much they’d make from referring you for an average job.

You should have at least twenty Realtors at this meeting. If you follow up by sending them a letter re-explaining your offer then you can expect to get one or two Realtors who continually recommend your services. These one or two gems will refer a lot of business to you.


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How To Make Even More Money

From Realtor Referrals

After a Realtor has given you a referral and you service a home, this puts you in a perfect position to get another client.

Whether the buyers of the house hired you or not, you should get them as new clients. They’ve seen your work and know you are good.

If the buyer was the one who hired you then it’s easy. Convert him to a repeat client. Set up the next appointment. This is just the same as any first-time client.

But if the seller hired you, you still can get a new client or two. First of all, lots of times the sellers are moving, but not very far away. If this is the case, you can get the seller to get your service in his new house. And turn him into a regular client.

If the seller is moving out of town, you can’t do this. Don’t worry about it; you still can get the buyer.

Even though the buyer didn’t actually hire you, you can send him a letter (of course) telling him that you were the one who serviced his home. At the end of this section there is a sample letter that I started for you. See if you can finish it. Be creative!

You’ve already serviced their home. They know your work. This puts you in a great position to get them as a client. (Also don’t forget that the Realtor has a home too!)

Here is an example of a promotion you can use on the next page…


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New Home Owner [Or Their Name If You Have It] I Have A Free Gift For You!

Dear Homeowner [or their name],

Congratulations on buying your new home! As you probably noticed…

Your Home’s Air is Fabulously Clean!

I hope you are thrilled with how well things are working….since I was the one who serviced it. Hi, I’m [your name] and I own [company]. As a house-warming gift I’d like to give you a [some small gift]. This [gift] is great for [write what it’s for].

I have one more Free Gift for you….

A Free Home Comfort Equipment Audit To Be Used 6 Months From Now!

So six months from now when you’ve spent time in your home and know what’s working well and not…then just give me a call and I will happily come and do a Home Comfort Equipment Audit in your home for free. This is an opportunity for me to inspect and see that everything is working properly, and to ensure your home is as healthy and safe as possible (and to protect the big investment you made to purchase the home).

Maybe at that time we can meet. I just want you to be able to “sample” my service from finish to start.

Just call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX or check me out of the web at www.ZZZZZZZHVAC.com

I look forward to meeting you!

Best,

Your NameP.S. If you lose this letter in the next 6 months just get call and “mention” this letter to get your Free Audit.


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http://www.ZZZZZZZHVAC.com/

Host & Beneficiary

(A.K.A. “The Joint Venture”)

The host and beneficiary is an excellent marketing strategy. You are the beneficiary and you get a new client through the host.

Here’s an example of how this works:

One of my hosts is a plumbing supply store. Whenever they sell a water heater or water softener, etc., they give their clients a free gift.

This free gift is coupon for a free Home Comfort Equipment Audit from my company. I don’t charge the plumbing supply company anything. They are basically giving me a new client.

The client calls and asks for their free audit. We explain that the technician will give him a quote for work that may need to be done, but he is under no obligation to get anything done.

What are the chances of me getting this person as a client?

1. First of all, the company that gave him the free gift is a company he knows and trusts. He has already done business with them. They are recommending me.

2. I’ve given the client something for free. He now feels obligated to reciprocate. This is the law of reciprocity. It says that whenever you give someone something, he feels obligated to give something back.

An example of this can be viewed in the your Successful Contractor Marketing Tool Kit. You will find 2 letters in this promotion…the first is what you write for the “host.” The second is a letter that is used to get hosts.


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TV Advertising

For most of us, TV advertising is not an efficient way to get clients.

But the possibility does exist. It can be worthwhile to some.

You must have the following things:

1. A celebrity who is willing to endorse you.

This can be a local celebrity, but it should be someone who is pretty well known in your area. It’s better if the celebrity has used your services and really likes you. You can pay the celebrity for endorsing you but it’s better if she or he is willing to do it. You can pay them in trade - give them a certain amount of free services.

2. You should be netting at least $175,000.00 a year.

If you aren’t, there are many more cost effective ways to get new clients.

3. You don’t mind being ‘recognized’

Anyone who is on TV becomes a mini-celebrity. People will recognize you. Especially if your TV advertisement is effective, it will run often. For many people they don’t want this. For others they live for it.

If you hit all 3 of these categories then you may be ready to put an ad on TV.

There are different lengths of commercials. The most common ones are 30-second spots, 60-second spots and 1/2 hour ‘infomercials’.

All the same rules of a good ad apply.


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Obviously the longer the commercial, the more expensive it is to produce. But you can (and should) do it inexpensively.

You should be able to produce either spot for around $1,000.00 (or less) in most markets. ‘Infomercials’ are more expensive, like $15,000.00 to $30,000.00 or more.

To run the commercials on TV, you can pay anywhere from $20.00 to $500.00. You probably don’t want to buy time that is more expensive than that.

You should have an offer and a way for people to respond. A number to call is best for response.

TV can be a good economical way to get new clients if you have all the elements of good marketing involved.


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Business Cards

Most business cards don’t say anything of value. They don’t do anything to cause someone to call you.

The only reason to spend money is so that you can make more money. Most business cards don’t fall into this category.

Make yours pay its’ own way.

Look at my friend Joe Polish’s on the next page. Then compare it to a ‘typical’ business card.

There’s a big difference between the two. Joe’s says something important. It tells why his company is different. How it’s better than the competition. It gives someone a reason to call. Yours should do the same.

Your business card represents you and your company, so tell people something that matters. Include an offer, even if it’s just for more information. A free recorded message is a great giveaway. You can also include a discount offer to entice them to call you.

Design Elements:

- Make it eye-catching but brand-consistent. Include your logo.- Including a photo of yourself can be a great idea. Even if people don’t remember your name,

they will likely remember your face.- Use both sides of the card. The back is a great place for an offer (like the free recorded

message).- Include all pertinent information and ways to get ahold of you.

Hand out your cards whenever possible in your community. Make sure they are always clean and crisp; you don’t want to give someone a business card with bent edges and a coffee stain on it!

Also, refresh the design of your cards every couple of years to keep it looking current.


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Business Card Example…

Typical Business Card Example…


Company NamePROFESSIONAL HVAC CONTRACTOR

“For Those Who Insist On The Best”HVAC Contractor’s Name

PO Box 1234 Call 24 hours

Any town USA 90024-1256 999-999-9999

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Newspaper Advertising

Newspaper advertising is one of the hardest mediums to figure out how to ensure that it will work for you. It won’t make you a fortune, but it will do this:

Get you new clients.

These new clients will at least cover the cost of the ad. But the real key is to get referrals from these new clients.

Referrals are the whole reason you advertise.

Referrals are much cheaper and where the real profits are (Strategy #80).

So if you don’t have a system for getting referrals from clients, than don’t advertise. Take the time to create a referral system, and then advertise.

Here are a few rules about newspaper advertising:

1. Make your ad look as close to a real article as possible.

Editorial content is read 500% more than ads are. So it only makes sense that if your ad looks like a genuine article, it will get read more.

2. Tell something newsworthy.

Your content should have a very strong headline or you won’t get any response. The article should address something that people will be interested in.

3. Make a free offer.


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Don’t try to ‘sell’ anything in the newspaper. Offer a free report, a free-recorded message or a free Home Comfort Equipment Audit, but don’t try to sell anything.

Bigger ads pull much better than smaller ads even if they are more expensive.

Alternatives to paying for newspaper advertising are Getting Your Own Column (Strategy #41) and Getting an Article in the Newspaper (Strategy #13).

Here is a newspaper ad on the following page as an example.


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How To Avoid Being Ripped OffBy an HVAC Contractor

By Your Name CityUnfortunately many people

these days are being ripped off by their carpet cleaners.

Don’t faIl for bait and

SwitchThese folks are responding to

coupons saying “Cheap Heating & Cooling Equipment Service.” They are baited by the low price and make an appointment.

They think everything is fine, then when the company gets there, they go for the switch.

These folks find out that this low price is only for comprehensive service. What that means is that it’s just a cheap little service that doesn’t make much difference to your system.

So they’re pressured in to getting this and that. All these things are needed to do a good job ….that’s what they hear.

Where was all this in their ad? Nowhere! In other words, they advertise low, low quality service.

Then they pressure people to buy add-on after add-on. In the end it costs a fortune! These people have been had.How to Avoid Being Ripped Off.1. No ethical HVAC Contractorcan give you a quote on the phone.

The price is based on:-type of equipment-what needs to be done to itIf an HVAC contractor gives you

a price on the phone, Beware!

2.All honest HVAC contractors have a 100% Money-Back Guarantee. If you aren’t happy, you don’t pay. If a contractor doesn’t offer a guarantee, Be Careful.

2 Reasons Heating & Cooling System service is a must for your equipment:1. It makes your equipment last twice as long. Dirt lodged in your equipment acts like a knife to cut it up. This causes your equipment to wear out fast.2. A thorough service gets out dirt and other pollutants. Just like you track in dirt, you also track in car exhaust, pollution, tobacco smoke, -

etc. These get into your equipment and your air, and you breathe them over and over. This is indoor air pollution. Servicing your equipment drastically reduces what kind of shape your equipment is in.

The condition your equipment can easily be calculated. I use a process called an Equipment Audit™.

Free Home Comfort Equipment Audit.

This is exactly what I’ll do:1. First I’ll cover all theproblems your equipment has. I’ll check for the strengths and weaknesses of the equipment. I’ll tell you whether or not they can be fixed and how.2. I’ll calculate the wear age of your equipment. I’ll explain how long it will be before you will need to get new equipment and I’ll give you a ‘prescription’ to make your equipment last as long as possible.3. I’ll determine if your equipment is in good health. Yes, your equipment’s health can affect you and your family’s health. So I’ll let you know how to get rid of the ‘unhealthy’ pollutants that rest in your home.4. After analyzing your equipment, I’ll give you a ‘prescription’ of how to get the most out of your

equipment.This is absolutely free and there

is no obligation.Call 234-5678 and schedule

your Free Home Comfort Equipment Audit today.

Help me beat these unethical bait and switch contractors and get valuable free information.


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Newspaper Column Or Online Magazine

You could have a newspaper column of your own. And these days with so much online media available there dozens of online magazines and virtual newspapers you could write for. After all…you’ve seen doctors and mechanics have them, why not an HVAC Contractor?

In your column you could answer questions that have been written in. Of course, you have tons of time to write a brilliant answer.

How do you benefit from a newspaper column or online advice column?

First of all when you have your own column, you are considered the ‘expert’ in your area.

For years I’ve seen a mechanic have his own column. He answers ‘tricky’ problems. But everyone thinks he is the brightest and best mechanic there is. He gets tons of business from this.

Whenever someone has a difficult car problem, they immediately think of him.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you were thought of when anyone in your area wanted to get the service you offer?

You bet it would, and you’d have tons of business.

Plus, you could use this in all your marketing materials. Do you think this would help you establish credibility? Absolutely.

What about the people who write in for answers? Who do you think they are going to look to for the service you offer? You, of course.

How Do You Get Your Own “Advice” Column?

It’s not easy, but it’s not all that hard either. First you have to really want one - that’s the important part. Don’t do this if you aren’t completely sure.

You must get in touch with the editor of the newspaper, website, magazine, etc. Call him/her and tell him your idea. Tell him specifically how his magazine/newspaper would benefit; explain how his readers would benefit from your service.

Then send him a powerful sales letter explaining all that. Remember to really establish your credibility. If you’ve done anything with charities or other organizations, include that.

Follow up.

Be persistent.

If you’re persistent and don’t give up, you’ll get a column. Let me know when you do!

Here is an idea: with everyone going “green” you could write on the subject of “green” and keeping a healthy home. Then try every local news station, newspaper, and magazine (online and offline) that you can think of.

Celebrity Endorsement

If you have celebrities as clients, even local celebrities, you can really use this to your advantage.

If you don’t have any, I’ll teach you how to get some. But first, I’ll tell you why they are important:

Fame seems to rub off by association. I don’t know why, but it does. If you tell someone that Harrison Ford is your best friend, you are seen in a different light.

Fame rubs off.

If you say you provide your service for a celebrity, people will be drawn to you. They’ll think that you must be great if you work for so-and-so.

People want to be close to celebrities and using the same service provider is a way to do that.

Do you have any current celebrities as clients, such as:

• Local TV Newsperson• Sports players• Movie Stars• TV Stars• Music Stars• Olympic Athletes

Any of these people can be very powerful.

A local celebrity that everyone in your area knows can be more powerful than a national celebrity that everyone may or may not know.

If a celebrity is using your services, this is an endorsement. Get a testimonial from the celebrity and make sure it is ‘OK’ to use it in any or all of your promotional material.

Make sure that you use this. You should use it in everything that you do - sales letters, newsletters, testimonial book, etc. Everything.

How Do You Get A Celebrity Endorsement?

Celebrities are not that difficult to get.

First of all, they need your services. Second of all, they have enough money to easily afford your services.

You have to target them. You have to let them know who you are. A great way to accomplish this is to send them a series of sales letters. I suggest doing more than three in this sequence.

Give them an irresistible offer.

Some think it’s worth providing the service for free. And if the celebrity is well known, I agree. This gives you a way in. Even if you always provide service for free, it’d definitely be worth it just so you could say you are the ones who provide it.

Many companies do similar things. Ever seen a Tylenol commercial?

They always say ‘Tylenol, what hospitals use most.’

True, hospitals use Tylenol most. But why?

Because they give it to hospitals for free!

It’s worth that huge expense just to say that. Because so many people choose Tylenol because they think that’s what hospitals choose!

This works.

But you don’t have to give away your services for free. If you entice the celebrity to use you by presenting them with an irresistible offer, you’ll be able to get them to use your services and pay.

Remember, most companies don’t do anything special for their clients. Make all your clients feel special, especially celebrities.

Know Your Numbers

This is crucial to making you tons of money.

If you don’t know your numbers, you have no idea what’s working and what’s not.

If you don’t know what’s working, you can’t possibly do more of what is working.

You can’t just have ‘a good idea’. You need to know for sure.

Lots of HVAC Contractors have been wrong about what is working and what isn’t working. They think something is working and it turns out it’s barely breaking even. Or they think its doing awful and stop doing it, when in reality it was actually very profitable. “Thinking” a marketing tactic is working is not a good strategy; you need to know that it’s working!

You need to understand the following to calculate your numbers:

1. The cost of the ad or mailing2. The number of leads generated from it3. How many of the leads turned into clients4. The average job of clients - dollar amount5. The average number of referrals per client

Once you calculate these numbers you compare it to your average numbers. That way you can see which methods are working better for you.

This is the only way to get ahead. Know your numbers or it’s not worth doing.

Ethics

You can’t possibly build a big, strong company if you are not ethical.

It’s that simple.

It’s business suicide to be unethical.

Most businesses that are unethical are so because they think it saves them money. This is absolutely ridiculous! Insane.

Maybe in the short run it saves them money but in the long run, it’s a big mistake. Fatal.

Why?

First of all, an unhappy client will tell the world how you were unfair and unethical. They will gripe to everyone they know, even to people they don’t know. A few clients who are unhappy can easily destroy a business.

So, make them happy.

If they are truly a ‘jerk’ and you don’t want to do business with them, give them their money back. I don’t care if you’ve already done the work.

Believe me, it’s much cheaper to give them their money back than to let them tell the world how you ripped them off.

Live Up To Your Promises

So many businesses just don’t live up to their promises; it’s sad and very bad business.

Don’t make promises you can’t keep.

For the most part a client isn’t going to decide if she is going to do business with you based on one promise.

For instance, if you promise a client you’ll be able to do something challenging in the home but you’re not able to do it, she’ll be mad. She has a right to be mad.

On the other hand if you tell her that there is a very good chance that it won’t work how she’d like and it doesn’t, she won’t be angry with you.

But if you do get it done, you’ll be a hero.

Never promise things you can’t do.

If you can’t arrive at a client’s house within a half hour window then don’t promise that. Or promise and if you don’t, she’ll get $50.00 off her bill. But don’t flat out promise something you can’t deliver or something you are not positive you can deliver.

Explain why you can’t deliver something a client would like. Educating your client is much better than breaking a promise.

Being ethical won’t just help you sleep better at night; it just makes good business sense.

The 5 Biggest Reasons People Fail…

They Don’t Do Anything

This is the number one reason why people fail -

They Don’t Do Anything!

This is a killer. How can anyone possibly succeed if they don’t do anything?

They can’t.

So why do so many people do nothing?

It’s because they are afraid to fail. They think if they try something, they’re going to fail. Most people are afraid of failure.

Everyone fails. There is nothing to be afraid of.

I failed many, many times before I learned these marketing strategies.

Even now sometimes when I try something new, it fails. It doesn’t bother me. Most of what I do succeeds. I definitely make a lot of money from the successes. But I learn more from the failures.

If I had never failed, I would have never succeeded. It’s that simple.

Don’t be a victim of ‘not doing anything’. Take Action and do something productive!


They Do Everything Halfway

This is another big reason people fail.

They get all excited about all the different marketing strategies and start a whole bunch of them at once. They never give enough time to each one. They do all of them halfway.

Then they wonder why nothing works!

If you have your hand in too many things, none of them will be profitable.

Pick 5 strategies to start with. Concentrate on one marketing strategy at a time. Get that one working and then start another. Once you have all 5 of those going, then you can pick another 5.

Don’t try to do too much at once.

This is what we call “Marketing ADD.” When you are trying to do too much, you can’t focus on anything. This leads to a lot of unfinished projects or things that aren’t done well.

Isn’t it better to have one marketing piece that really works than three that aren’t very profitable? The one that really works usually does well because there was time spent thinking about the strategy, wording, and overall quality of the message.

The good thing about “Marketing ADD” is that it’s treatable: by focusing on one thing at a time.


They Aren’t Consistent

One of the reasons these marketing strategies work so well is that you apply them consistently. They are systems. You need to do every part of the system to get it to run correctly.

People are shocked when they just do the first step and it doesn’t work as well as they wanted.

Would you be surprised if you put a DVD in your DVD player and nothing happened? Of course not. You know you have to plug it in, hook it up to the TV, put the TV on the correct setting then press play. Then (usually) it plays. Not before.

Well, it’s the same way with any system, including a marketing system. There are several parts to make the systems work.

They work; you just have to work them.

Consistency can be the difference between success and failure because it allows for measurement. If something is inconsistent, it isn’t easily tracked or measured. As we know, this is one of the keys to marketing and systemization in business.

Consistency also allows for you to build your brand and trust in your community. If you are delivering a consistent message based around a solid marketing system, people will notice your presence and start to gain trust in your brand and company.

Just as your marketing messages need to be consistent, so does your tracking method, your client follow-up strategies, and so forth. Consistency equals measurability, which, when executed correctly, leads to profitability.


They Don’t Have A Strategic Plan

Success never happens by accident. Not once. You have to have a strategic plan.

If you don’t have a plan, any road will get you there. But you’ll never achieve success, that’s for sure.

You must plan for success. Not just a basic plan, either. You need to include specifics. Decide how much you want to make and what strategies you are going to use to make that happen. Planning isn’t a big secret; it just takes time, commitment, focus, and clarity.

I’ve heard people say they didn’t want to plan because they might change their minds. This is absurd.

You can always alter your plan. Make your goals higher or lower. Pick a completely different goal, but if you don’t have a strategic plan, you’ll never get anywhere.

If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the results that you’ve always gotten.

What you might not realize is that even though you don’t think you’re planning, you always are. Your daily life is full of planning…what you’re having for dinner, what you’re doing this weekend, and so forth. Believe it or not, there is even some strategy involved in those things. So why not apply that planning ability to your business and create strategies and goals that will help you build the life and company you desire?

If you don’t have a strategic plan, you are planning to fail…which is still a plan. It’s interesting how that works.


They Procrastinate

Procrastination is a common reason that people fail. ‘I’ll get around to it tomorrow’ has destroyed more businesses than you can imagine.

One of the main reasons that people tend to procrastinate is the desire for perfection. This leads to what we call “Perfection Paralysis,” where fear of failing to do something perfectly results in doing nothing.

You can avoid Perfection Paralysis by simply taking action and seeking excellence rather than perfection. (Perfection is a relative term in most cases, anyway.) When you strive for excellence, you accomplish things with the goal of doing the best you can, which typically produces a positive outcome.

Whatever you do, don’t make excuses like these:

•I don’t have the Home Comfort Equipment Audit forms made up, so I can’t send out a letter.•I don’t know which neighborhoods are best, so I’ll just wait.•I don’t know exactly how to do this.

So what if everything isn’t perfect? It’s much more important to do something than to wait for everything to be perfect. It won’t happen.

Strive for excellence. Do your best. Give it a shot. Then learn and improve.

Procrastination is deadly. It also leads to unnecessary mental clutter, which keeps you from being as productive as possible. Make a list of all the things you’ve been putting off in your business (and also your personal life). Start taking action on those things and you will be amazed by your increased clarity and efficiency.

How To Remove Mental Garbage

Most of us have lots and lots of mental garbage.

Mental garbage is erroneous ideas and thoughts that we have been fed since we were born. These thoughts and ideas are wrong. Dead wrong. But we’ve heard them over and over and we believe them.

We’ve heard things like:

1. If you work hard you will succeed.

This is often wrong.

Do you ever remember that ‘smart’ kid in school who never studied but always got A’s? He didn’t work hard. Then there was that kid who studied all the time and only got B’s. Now, he worked hard. Working hard does not ensure success.

Before I started using direct response strategies - when I was broke - I worked hard! I worked much, much harder than I do now. I didn’t know what to do so I worked on a lot of things that didn’t get me any clients.

Now that I know these powerful strategies, I don’t have to work hard.

I work smarter, not harder.

2. If you’re good at what you do, you’ll have plenty of clients.

Yeah, right! This is bogus. I used to do just as good as I do now, but I had very little business. I didn’t know what to do to get repeat business or referrals or new clients. I was good but nobody beat a path to my door!

3. Your sales letters have to be ‘professional.’

This is ridiculous. I don’t care what other HVAC Contractors think; I care about what my clients think. When I use ‘professional’ letters, I don’t get any new clients. It’s boring.

But when I use creative, down to earth, easy to understand language in my letters, I get tons of response.

Uneducated HVAC Contractors laugh at my marketing. I don’t care. I’m the one with the big fat bank account, not any of them!

To be successful, you have to get rid of this mental garbage. All it is doing is keeping you from success!

Once you unload the garbage, you’ll be free to make as much money as you want!

Do Something Productive

The number one reason people fail in direct response marketing is because they never do a darn thing. They learn all these moneymaking marketing strategies and then they don’t use them.

It is better to do something, which isn’t quite perfect, than to not do anything at all.

Don’t worry if you don’t have every little thing you need. For instance, if you do a letter giving away a free gift, don’t worry if you only have two in stock. Test the method, if you get a huge response just tell your clients that you were overwhelmed with the response and are currently out of the item. As soon as you get them in, you’ll get it to them. This is much, much better than not doing anything at all.

Once you try something, you have a place to go from. Even if your method didn’t work as well as you’d like, you’ll be able to improve it and get more response.

An important thing to remember is that there is no such thing as failure. Even if a marketing piece doesn’t pull as well as you planned, for instance, you didn’t fail because you learned what doesn’t work so well and you won’t repeat it in the future. You need to have these pieces that don’t pull as well so that you will have a reference point for the success of the others. Regardless of outcome, you never fail if you learned from the experience so that you can have better results in the future.

The only reason that an owner of an HVAC Contractor company will not dramatically improve their business with my marketing strategies is because they don’t do something!

Stop worrying about all the little details and just do something!

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