New government, but the same problem – how do we sell more white boxes?

Whatever your specialism, increasing sales for new and existing customers is the only way you will grow your HVAC business.

I recently attended an industry show and left excited by how many software companies are entering the market to help installers improve sales of low-temperature heating solutions. Just a few weeks before this show, we presented a short session on business systems at one of our Built to Last events. Here, we predicted that ‘sales software’ would be the next big technology development in the HVAC industry.

Only a few years ago, most small businesses didn’t have accounting software. The accountant had the software, and we supplied an Excel doc and a bag full of receipts, hoping for the best. Technology moved on, and a couple of years later, not only would it be the norm that we had accounting software but also to have a customer relationship manager (CRM) system to help manage day-to-day jobs, even though CRM systems had existed in other industries for many years, previously the trade industries were slow to adopt.

I continued to explain that sales software has existed in other industries for many years and will become more mainstream in the HVAC industry as our sales process becomes more technical. If your competition has access to new technology that makes their business more efficient and profitable, they will use it. So, if you don’t want to fall behind, you must integrate more software into your sales processes.

“Yes, but my job management CRM already allows me to quote”, I hear you say.

ServiceM8, Simpro, Commusoft, Powered Now, and most of the existing CRMs for the trade industries do allow you to send quotations to your customers. However, most popular CRMs built for trades focus on job management rather than multi-stage sales communication, which, when quoting on higher-value works, may look a little basic compared to the quotes received from more established companies.

When Boxt arrived on the scene many years ago, its online quoting tool turned the heating industry upside down. A couple of years later, TrueQuote software offered a similar online estimator for all heating engineers’ websites at a very affordable cost. Both companies used technology to improve sales by providing online quotes when most other businesses did not think it was possible.

And then heat pumps came along. The same questions were asked, and the same worries that we couldn’t quote or provide an estimate for a heat pump installation online. It was too complex, had too many variables, and was too risky.

This was the case until some companies with an in-depth understanding of heat pump installations and technology developed software that not only allows for online heat pump estimates but also speeds up the survey stage via heat loss survey reports and system design.

Two companies that provide specialist software for heat pump installers have recently caught my eye. Spruce Energy and Carno both add features to improve your sales above and beyond what your job management-based CRM will provide. Please note that both platforms will not replace your job management software. They will add specialist HVAC sales features to your sales process, so you will still need job management!

So far, what I’ve seen from Spruce is similar to a Boxt-style online quotation tool that asks the homeowner relevant questions to provide an estimate for a heat pump installation. From there, you can book a heat loss survey, use the software to build a floor plan quickly, get accurate heat loss calculations, quickly create a system design, and send through to your customer your own branded heat loss reports and a final quotation for the works required. 

However, Spruce also seamlessly integrates with Payaca, a sales and job management CRM system for UK renewable energy installation companies. Payaca is also adaptable for the sales and job management of any other service you want, such as heating, AC, service plans, or safety certificates. Payaca with the Spruce energy integration is the best front to back combination of software I have seen (so far) for heat pump estimates, heat loss surveys, sales communication, and job management.

Finally, I want to mention Carno, which aims to be the first ‘whole home’ platform for the HVAC and solar industries. The quick demo I witnessed looked like something from the future, so I’m excited to see how it integrates with other job management software.