QSC members learn visible branding and energy conservation marketing

Quality Service Contractors’ Power Meeting XXXVI, held March 22-24 in Charlotte, N.C., gave attendees a lot to think about.

QSC members talk about successfully expanding their businesses. Photo credit: Kelly Faloon/PM

TheQuality Service Contractors’ Power Meeting XXXVI, held March 22-24 in Charlotte, N.C., gave attendees a lot to think about - and a few things to laugh about.

Dave Yatesof F.W. Behler gave QSC members techniques to effectively market and sell water and energy conservation to their customers with what he calls the Energy Conservation Value. This is the reduction in fuel usage compared to the existing appliance based upon heat loss/gain calculations, fuel costs and operating hours in a contractor’s area of the country. Contractors can use ECV and return on investment figures to avoid customer sticker-shock and neutralize the pay-back issue.

“You’ve got 90 seconds to impress a customer,” he noted. “If you don’t, you become a commodity - selling on price.”

Dave Avrin, author of “It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You!,” discussed visible brand identities - standing out from competitors by being exceptional. To do this, be specific in marketing, advertising and sales pitches about how your company is different and put those claims in context. What have your company or your employees achieved that no one else has?

“Price is always an issue,” he said. “Give someone a reason to select you. What makes you great? Your quality is an entry fee, it’s not a competitive advantage.”

Avrin also moderated a panel discussion of QSC members who have successfully expanded their businesses with services in water filtration, radiant floor heating, whole-house energy audits, customer financing and aging-in-place/universal design.

The conference ended with comedianJeanne Robertson, whose unique brand of humor helps audiences develop their own sense of humor while challenging them to find humor in themselves and in the world around them. She had the entire ballroom of QSC members laughing until they cried for a full hour. You can find videos of her act on YouTube.

Pictured here: QSC members talk about successfully expanding their businesses (left to right): Mark Grosvenor, Milton Frank Plumbing; Ron Newman, Lakes Plumbing, Heating and Cooling; Roger Fouche, Schaal Heating and Cooling; Jessica Frank-Burden, Milton Frank Plumbing; and Doug Santoro, General Plumbing.

The next Power Meeting will be held July 26-28 in Indianapolis.

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Kelly Faloon was a former editor of Plumbing & Mechanical as well as the BNP Media Plumbing Group’s Integrated Content Development Specialist. She also was a former editor of the Radiant Comfort Guide the Radiant & Hydronics Report — both official publications of the Radiant Professionals Alliance — and twice-monthly Radiant & Hydronics eNews, an enewsletter for anyone interested in the world of heating with hot water.

Her editorial specialties included women in plumbing, recruiting for the trades, green construction techniques, water conservation, water treatment, hydronic heating, radiant heating and cooling, snow melt, solar thermal and geothermal.

After a 3½-year stint at sister publication Supply House Times, Faloon joined the PM staff in December 2001 as senior editor. She was named PM’s managing editor in 2006 and editor in 2013.

Previously, she spent nearly 10 years at CCH, a publishing firm specializing in business and tax law, where she wore many hats — proofreader, writer/editor for a daily tax publication, and Internal Revenue Code editor.

A native of Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula, Faloon is a 1986 journalism graduate of Michigan State University.

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