With the stand-alone TRUST PRO™ product offered by C5 Services now being unavailable many of you have contacted me about an alternative. I am very, very pleased to announce the development of TRUST PRO™ Online, a web-based service that will replace the most important sales features used in the stand-alone product.
Web-based means that the software will reside on a remote server and all you will need is Internet access to connect to the program. Any wifi or 3G connection will be fast and effective. Web-based also means there will be no laptop compatibility issues that plague embedded software products.
We will be ready shortly to replace this functionality that TRUST PRO™ included:
- Customer data input and management
- Customer Concerns Survey input
- BEST BETTER GOOD Choices® Proposal generation
- System pricing
- Financing
- Savings estimation and return-on-investment calculation
- Repair vs. Replace Analysis for sales lead generation
- Much, much, much more.
If you are comfortable using the internet for this kind of sales support and would be interested in being part of our upcoming beta-test please contact me.
May 18, 2010
Dear C5 Customer,
I am writing today to notify you that as the owners of C5 Services, we have determined that we are no longer able to keep our dream alive and are ceasing operations on May 27th.
The C5 software user license(s) you purchased from us (in many cases through your local distributor) requires you to pay annual renewal fees. Technically, by ceasing operations, your rights to use our software would end when your license term expires. However, before we shut our doors and sell our assets, we have decided to grant you permanent user license status which means that you can continue using our software forever without any renewal fee requirements. If you want to take advantage of this permanent status, you will need to contact me before May 27th so I can dial into your computer and modify your program to prevent the software from shutting down when the current expiration date comes around.
Here are some answers to questions we expect will be at the top of your list when you receive this news:
1) Will you still be able to get technical support if you keep using the C5 software?
I will personally attempt to provide no-charge basic technical support as I am available and able for the next six (6) months or until I am able to sell the rights to our software. Then availability and cost for support will be solely up to the new owners. Since I will be providing this support personally, I can be reached on my cell phone at 813-470-0568 between 8am and 5pm eastern time. Support services for pre-C5 versions of our software (Nitek) will end forever when we close our doors at the end of the month.
2) Will I be able to install C5 software on any other computers?
For now, you may install the software on other computers you own, and will be provided free permanent activation for those computers.
3) What about the brand library and setup services?
We will no longer be able to offer or provide product/brand setup services (which we called our “Brand Library”). That means that adding or modifying the product data in the software will now be your responsibility.
Will there be any future upgrades or improvements offered for the C5 software?
No. If any critical operation issues are brought to my attention for the existing C5 programs, those issues will be addressed as promptly as possible. However, each issue will be individually evaluated and I cannot promise if or how quickly any issue will be resolved.
) What can I do about this? Who can I call?
Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done. We have exhausted every available option to keep it going. Our best advice is to make a back up copy of your software and store it somewhere safe in case you ever need it. If you have questions that are not answered in this letter, you can call me on my cell phone at 813-470-0568 and I will do my best to provide answers. However, the decision to shut down has been made and the process is in motion to close our office and seek new career opportunities.
From a personal perspective, Tom Wittman and I want to thank you for being part of our journey. We are saddened to see this 15+ year adventure come to such a disappointing end. But, we are counting on that famous saying “when one door closes another will open”. Our industry is going through some dramatic and often difficult changes and we are confident that progressive and forward-thinking contractors like you, who understand and embrace these changes, will do very well.
As pioneers and leaders in the in-home selling technology field, Tom and I are just as hopeful that we will find new opportunities to re-apply our vision and our desire to help our industry navigate through the next technical frontier. Until then, we want you to know we deeply regret that this action is necessary. We sincerely appreciate your business and hope in the future that we might be able to share new and even more revolutionary paths to business and personal success with you.
Sincerely,
C5 Services, L.L.C.
John Heilbrunn Tom Wittman
President Vice President of Sales and Marketing
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Black Friday. People line up hours ahead of early-morning store openings to buy heavily discounted products advertised as the lowest prices of the year. Price promotion.
Saturday morning. An in-home sales person sits at the kitchen table with his proposal and the interested homeowner challenges his price. The sales person negotiates on the price and gets the sale. Price reduction.
Is there a difference?
There is a big difference.
Offering a price and later negotiating a lower amount may get you the sale but it also delivers a powerful message to your new customer that you can’t be trusted. Some sales persons aren’t concerned about future sales with a customer so price-dropping is commonly used. Take your pick: time shares, cars, roofing, windows, doors…and all-too-often, HVAC.
Our industry has learned that the long-term value of each customer he far exceeds any one-time sale. “Clients” more accurately describe what we wish to create…with the sale beginning the relationship. If you believe this then negotiating price of off the table.
There is a place for price promotion. Black Friday is an excellent example. If you wish to sell anything that day you had better join others in offering something special. And by making your special offer to everyone you are not creating suspicion about your integrity. In addition, you draw attention to you and your company, you are likely to sell other, full-priced products or services and you may attract new customers who become future clients.
Resist the temptation to use price-promotions too often; doing so takes away from the special nature of it and you’ll train all of your customer-clients to wait to buy anything until the next offer is announced.
It’s Black Friday…Good Buying to you!
All pricing methods have one goal in common: that you produce your target net profit. We’ll look at several approaches beginning with using a single divisor (or a single multiplier…they provide the same result).
What you need to know:
1. Your product and material costs
2. Your hourly labor costs
3. The hourly labor burden costs (this includes the company benefits provided for each labor-hour)
4. Your overhead as a percentage of sales
5. Your desired net profit as a percentage of sales
6. Your sales commission as a percentage of sales
Step 1: Add Up Your Costs
For each job add your costs for equipment, materials and burdened labor. If you aren’t sure what your burden per labor hour is you can start by assuming it’s 30% of the hourly wage.
Example:
Equipment = $2,000
Labor 16 hours @ $20 per hour = $320
Burden @ 30% of labor = $96
Total Costs = $2,416
Step 2: Calculate Your Divisor
Add your overhead as a percentage of sales and your desired net profit as a percentage of sales. Subtract that number from 1.0. The remainder is your divisor.
Example:
Overhead = 45%
Desired Net Profit = 15%
Total = 60%
1-.60 = .40 = Divisor
Step 3: Calculate Your Selling Price Before Sales Commission
Divide your Total Costs by your Divisor.
Example:
Total Costs = $2,416
Divisor = .40
$2,416 / .40 = $6,040 Selling Price Before Sales Commission
Step 4: Calculate Your Selling Price Including Sales Commission
Add the percentage of the sale that will be the sales commission to the selling price and the total is your Total Selling Price Including Sales Commission.
Example:
Selling Price Before Sales Commission = $6,040
Sales Commission = 8% of $6,040 = $483
Total Selling Price Including Sales Commission = $6,523
How to Calculate a Multiplier
The multiplier will produce exactly the same selling price. Divide 1.0 by the divisor and the result is the multiplier.
Example:
1.0 / .40 = 2.5 Multiplier
Try this out on the example above and you’ll see the same selling price as a result.
What’s good about using a single divisor or multiplier?
It’s simple and easy to use. It helps contractors just starting out how to think about their costs in relation to overhead and the difference between gross profit and net profit. This method works well if the contractor consistently does the same kind of work, such as high-efficiency furnace and air conditioner replacements that have similar material costs and labor time to complete.
What’s not so good about a single divisor or multiplier?
When jobs vary widely in equipment, material and labor costs this method will produce too wide of a pricing range, tending to “over-price” high-end equipment and “under-price” lower end equipment sales making you less price competitive. If this is the case then another method, which we’ll cover next week, is more desirable.
Email me for a How to Price For a Profit worksheet.
As many of you know I’m involved in helping establish a distribution and contractor network for Owens Corning’s AttiCat® residential attic “re-insulation” products. Nearly every home in America, every home you go in to every day, has less attic insulation than the DOE recommends. The benefits of upgrading attic insulation are exactly the same benefits that your customers get from our best HVAC products: Save Money, More Comfort, Peace of Mind, Equipment Lasts Longer, and it’s Green!
The investment is amazingly low, especially compared to the rate of return. Your techs can sell this service, your crews can provide this service, all with minimal training, all with the vehicles you already have, and all to the customers you already serve. It’s WIN-WIN-WIN!
By adding insulation before replacing equipment you ensure the customer will get the comfort and savings benefits they expect and you have a competitive advantage by offering something others won’t/can’t, Plus very often you’ll be able to reduce the replacement equipment size providing another cost-saving benefit to your customers. Read more
I talked with a comfort advisor today who finished October at $140,000. Nice. It gets better. September was $150,000 and August was $120,000. Fluke? Anomaly? Freak occurrence?
Not likely. So I asked.
This guy’s not the “hard closer” type although he does ask, and ask again. And he’s pretty good at objection handling. His overall closing rate just under 40% which is a solid but not off-the-charts number. And his first-call close rate, which means out of the jobs he does get, the percentage that are on the first call, is only 20%. That means that he sells 4-out-of-10 leads and that just less than one of those four buys on the first call. So his success can’t be because he’s using high-pressure tactics.
So what’s he doing?
Read more
Sales Coach Mission
To train and support motivated sales professionals to achieve extraordinary sales success.
Sales Coach Objectives
To be determined by each client but will include:
- Create a personalized in-home sales process
- Create appropriate selling tools and materials
- Learn how to effectively use the sales process, tools and materials to address the most common sales situations
- To reach a targeted goals in sales revenue, gross profit margin, close rate, referral lead generation and income
- To provide owners and managers with a sales process they can manage and support
Few have put thought into what to leave behind after a call and fewer still see it as a significant part of the sales process. It is.
So that we’re all thinking about the same thing, I’ll define “leave behind” as whatever you leave with the customers at the end of the call, whether you make the sale or not.
Do this: in the margin on this page write down what you always leave behind after you make a sale. Then write down what you always leave behind when you do not make the sale. I emphasized “always” because I’m interested in helping you create a standard practice…not an occasional and random one.
I’ll wager that many of you were stumped on the “always” requirement. Your list may include only product literature and a copy of your “bid”. For some of you the margin is blank. Whether you make the sale or not it’s vital that you leave behind appropriate information to either reinforce that the customer made the right decision in buying from you or, if they didn’t buy yet, that they should buy from you.
by Tom Piscitelli
During a recent interview on HVACTV.com, three of us were asked, “How can our industry reach the millions of existing homeowners with the breaking news about the new products and services we have to offer?” Most of us would readily arrive at the opinion that we need to get contractors and manufacturers to advertise more. Sure that works, but to really have impact, to really create consumer demand, we’d have to spend millions of dollars — money our slim-margin industry just doesn’t have.
Read more
by Tom Piscitelli
How many times have you bought something that was “cheap?” Or bought something from someone you weren’t completely comfortable with? We all have. And what was the result?
Perhaps the product didn’t live up to your expectations, and you had to buy it again. Only this time you bought the better one, or even the best one. And if you purchased it from a salesperson you weren’t quite comfortable with, did you refer friends or relatives to him or her? Probably not.
Read more
