Intro
You left the company you worked for as an HVAC tech to start the exciting journey of owning your own HVAC business. At first, getting business was easy. Friends and family referred you customers, and those customers referred you even more customers.
At some point you decided it was time to grow!
You spent money on one lead source. No results.
Then another lead source. Still, not the results you need in order to justify the cost.
After your third lead lead source or marketing agency - you’re still not getting the results you need. What’s happening?
If that sounds like you - you are the exact person I wrote this article for!
I want to help you de-mistify what’s happening behind the scenes, and help you understand pay-per-lead companies and marketing in a way that allows you to finally get the results you need in order to grow.
We’ll look at 5 common issues, why they’re happening, and how to solve them!
But first, we need to take a few steps back and understand what’s happening with referrals, and what’s happening with paid leads, from the customer’s perspective.
What’s Really Happening with Referrals and Paid Leads
Referrals
When a homeowner is referred to you for HVAC services - what did that conversation look like?
Maybe a homeowner named Sally has a friend, who mentions to her that her AC unit isn’t working very well these days. Sally immediately brings up her great experience with you; you were knowledgeable, affordable, didn’t try to sell her something she didn’t need. Sally’s friend listens and decides to save your number to give you a call later.
Sally’s friend forgets about it for a few days. Then on a particularly hot day, the AC is barely doing anything, and her home feels like an oven. She remembers you and gives you a call.
When you go out to her home, she is ready to spend money, that day, to alleviate her pain. She was also already sold on you by your best salesperson - a previous customer that was thrilled with your service!
She’s ready to buy before you even show up.
You get to her home, show her the issue, give her an estimate, and she hires you for the work.
Paid Leads
Let’s look at another homeowner - Susie.
Susie is having issues with her AC, but hasn’t talked to anyone about it. She knows that she will need to have it repaired, but it’s not urgent yet.
She does a Google search for “how much does it cost to repair my air conditioning.”
She sees an ad from a lead company (similar to Angi Leads) and decides to click on it. The landing page asks her several questions about her issue, and promises that she can “get a quote from local contractors.”
Susie goes through the process, fills out her information, and submits the form.
A few minutes later she starts getting inundated with calls from contractors who want to schedule an appointment.
She schedules with a few to get comparable quotes. But she is still being inundated with calls and eventually stops answering.
One of the contractors that arrives to give her a quote is you. She doesn’t know a single thing about you; just that you were one of the many, many people who started calling after she filled out the form. There’s no reason for her to trust you.
You’re telling her she needs a repair, another contractor said she needed to replace her system, another contractor is charging way more than you are. She doesn’t understand how AC systems work and doesn’t know who’s telling her the truth.
You leave her with an estimate and you never hear back.
Later, when her AC issue does become urgent, she decides to find someone on Google based on their ratings. She doesn’t want a repeat of the experience you had.
Issue #1: You Have a Lead Source Problem
The Problem
Every lead company has their own way to get leads.
Some advertise on TV, some use Google ads and SEO, some use Meta ads. Some even cold call to get leads. But most have a combination of channels they use.
The goal is to either A) get the contact information of a homeowner interested in HVAC services or B) get an interested homeowner on the phone that they can transfer to you.
What I’ve seen after working with over 200 contractors, is that different things work better in different parts of the country.
Meaning that the specific way in which one lead company gets their leads might generate high quality leads in Florida, and horrible leads in Pennsylvania.
So when you watch a YouTube video, or are in a networking group, with another contractor who swears by a specific lead source; you have to keep in mind that that’s just what’s working for him specifically. It may not work for you.
The same works in reverse; some contractors will completely swear off a lead source! “Oh don’t use Home Advisor,” they’ll say. “It’s a scam.” Meanwhile, I talked to an HVAC company based in Phoenix who was selling $300,000 worth of HVAC work per month from - you’ll never guess - Home Advisor!
The difficulty you are having with making lead generation work might just be that you haven’t found a lead company that works well in your locale yet.
The Solution
If the lead source is the issue, rather than dumping all of your budget into one lead source at a time, try spreading out your budget over 5 different ones. Some ones you can try are:
If some are bad and some are good, your results should average out. Over time, you can track which ones work best, and remove the ones that don’t.
Issue #2: You Have a Scheduling Problem
A big reason contractors tend to struggle with lead sources is:
- Not calling the lead fast enough
- Not following up with the lead for long enough
In Susie’s case, you saw how she scheduled an appointment with the first few callers. Even though Susie didn’t buy right away, plenty of customers will.
Also in Susie’s case, you saw how she waited for a while longer, then finally made a decision when her AC issue became urgent.
Once the initial flurry of phone calls died down, if you gave Susie a well timed email, text, or phone call, she might have agreed to schedule with you and get it taken care of.
For most lead sources, you’ll want to:
- Call within 5 minutes
- Follow up at least 4 times
- Text the lead
- Put no-response leads on a list and then follow-up with that list every few months
Issue #3: You Have a Sales Problem
The Problem
So you’re getting leads, and getting them on the schedule. But you’re still not making money. In that case, you may have a sales problem.
It’s probably hard to imagine that you have a sales problem. Most of the referrals you’ve been getting are serious customers with an urgent need, and you close 70% to 90% of those sales.
But remember our example customers in the beginning? Sally’s friend was pre-sold about you before she ever even talked to you. And she only called you when her need was urgent. Meanwhile Susie, the marketed lead, didn’t have an urgent need and also didn’t know you at all.
The Solution
Being good at sales means you have a process to take leads like Susie, and demonstrate how she can trust you, while making it very easy for her to buy.
To build trust:
- Ask lots of questions: When did the problem start? How is it affecting you? “I’m sorry to hear that, that sounds like a pain!”
- Take time with the customer to break down exactly what’s going on with the unit. Be patient; if they can actually understand the problem and what you’re going to do to fix it, chances are they’ll give you their business.
- Mention neighbors of theirs you recently helped, if applicable.
- Tell the homeowner a little about who you are, show her reviews you’ve gotten for your business, mention that your reputation is very important to you.
Issue #4: You Have a Gross Profit Problem
You’re getting leads, setting appointments with 20% to 40% of them, and closing 30% - but you’re still not making money from your lead sources.
Typically, a contractor’s first instinct is to look for a better lead source. But in this case, you probably actually have a gross profit problem.
If 15 HVAC replacement leads cost you $1000, and you’re able to set appointments with 3 to 6, and you’re able to close 1 to 3 out of those, that means your cost per acquisition is somewhere between $333 and $1000.
Most contractors only have enough gross profit worked into their HVAC system pricing to cover a bare-bones overhead expense. But when you’re paying for leads, you need to work that cost into the equation as well.
If it costs you $1000 to acquire an HVAC replacement job, you’ll need to increase your pricing by $1000 to be able to cover the cost of marketing AND pay for the rest of your overhead.
Issue #5: You Have an Operations Problem
The Problem
Okay, so you’ve got all that - but something still isn’t working. You’re priced correctly, making sales, but you’re still running around in your business with no time to actually focus on growth.
If that’s the case, you likely have an operations problem.
If you’re doing too many jobs at once, or trying to offer too many different types of services, you can get really bogged down and barely make any progress.
A big mistake that lots of HVAC contractors make is quickly expanding to other services like electrical and plumbing.
The problem is that while you may have the general knowledge to manage these different types of projects, you’ll find it nearly impossible to hire someone with the same general knowledge.
The Solution
It’s much easier to scale a business when it has repeatable parts. You can create processes for those repeatable parts, and give them to new employees.
This means you no longer need to focus on hiring employees with tons of experience; you can focus on hiring employees with good work ethic and culture.
Then, once you have a machine that’s almost running itself and making profit - then you can focus on adding new services one at a time.
The Next Steps
We’ve looked into the common problems with lead sources and their solutions. Can you identify what the problem is in your business, and why your lead sources aren’t working?
If so - it’s time to take action! Get your next steps schedule, or better yet, done today, and see if it makes a difference in your HVAC business.
