Process Chiller Sales Opportunities for HVACR Contractors
If you are a HVACR contractor looking to increase your sales, maintenance and gross margins … keep reading.
Legacy Chillers, Inc. currently processes over 30 millon dollars in quote requests annually to new potential customers. As the US economy continues its slow recovery, US businesses are expected to begin investing real capitol to replace mechanical equipment. Since process chillers tend to be closely linked to revenue generation for many end users, significant opportunities exist for forward thinking HVACR contractors.
HVACR contractors facing some important choices: As replacements, retrofits and design build opportunities grow, expected to peek by 2018, HVACR contractors have decisions to make about what products they will invest their time and marketing resources into. Many will choose highly commoditized products such as roof top gas packs, box car AC and exhaust systems competing with every other contractor in town and margins that are getting lower each year.
Below, are some of the most common questions Legacy Chiller’s staff receives from HVACR contractors interesting in offering process chillers to their customer base.
According to industry data, a process chiller receiving manufacturer recommended maintenance, on both the chiller and process fluid, will last 15-18 years.
Also according to industry data, as of 2015 the average process chillers age in most USA markets (capacities from 1-20 tons) is currently 11.5 years. These figures indicated that process chillers currently in operation will require major repairs or replacement in the near future.
The overall size of the process chiller business in the USA’s lower 48 states is expected to exceed 50 million dollars annually. Most importantly, sales margins for the typical HVACR contractor, in business for five years or more actively engaged in selling process chillers, will generate on average 12% more gross margin per sale as compared to commoditized products listed above. Additionally, these same contractors can potentially generate up to TWO TIMES more maintenance revenue as compared to performing services on air side products.
As with most worthwhile endeavors, opportunities are in direct proportion to effort and preparation. For best result, time should be dedicated each week to exploring process chillers sales and services into the normal rhythm of your business.
As many of our HVACR contractors have found, there is a very good chance for process chiller sales and service in their current market. Since chillers tend to be a specialty item, our HVACR contractors have found inroads and expansion of sales opportunities by way of be connected to a leading chiller manufacturer such as Legacy Chillers. In many cases, existing customers use process chillers and its simply a matter of getting the word out.
Since the process chiller market tends to be a specialty niche, sales tend to be based on strong relationships between the HVACR contractors and their end user customers. It is our view that end users who have strong relationship with their service providers tend not to shop provided the HVACR contractor understands how to be competitive in their market. For these reasons Legacy Chillers does not assign territories to our HVACR contractor resellers. That being said, Legacy goes provide several features in our automated quote system to offer some basic protections against end user shopping. For more information on this, please contact Legacy Chillers.
In addition to online training programs, Legacy Chillers offers a variety of sales and technical training programs. For more information on this, please contact Legacy Chillers.
Getting started selling Legacy process chiller equipment in your market is simple. Here are the steps we recommend:
- Make contact with Legacy Chillers by calling 877-988-5464. Our staff can get you set up with your own quote system login and the one on one training to use the system.
- Request copies of our color brochures. Once received, we encourage our contractors to place a business card or company sticker in the “Your Legacy Product Specialist” area of the brochure.
- Network with your existing customers. As touched on above, a great place to start is with your existing customer base.
- Network with your local facility or building manager associations. Getting the word out that your firm sells and service process chiller is a great way develop opportunities.