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 Stop for a moment and consider what’s really on the average person’s mind when they’re deciding whether to replace their old boiler, or to just ignore the old beast for yet another year. And just so that we’re both on the same page, let’s assume the average person thinks like your spouse. Okay? Let’s set the scene.You’re in a building with the average person. You’re both standing in front of a boiler that’s as old as ragtime music. You can see the flames lapping at the metal inside the boiler because there are spaces between the cast iron sections. The jacket, of course, is coming apart at the seams. You turn to the average person and say, "Gee, you know what? A new boiler would be a lot more efficient than this old one." Here’s the first question: Does the average person really care about efficiency? Take your time thinking about that. And spend a moment considering what you think of when you consider efficiency. Is your concept of efficiency the same as your customer’s?
And this is when it gets serious. Are you willing to put in writing that the average person is going to save a specific amount of money by taking your advice? Or is this the time when you start to talk a lot, saying less and less with each word? "Well ma’am, I’ll bet you’ll save a lot." And she says, "How much, buster?" And you reply, "Well, it really depends." Sound familiar? The average person (your spouse, right?) will sense this nagging uncertainty in a New York minute. Hey, if we don’t believe in ourselves, why the heck should they believe in us? From what I've seen, the average person cares about efficiency only when there is an upward trend in the price of fuel. Once the price stabilizes – wherever that might be – the average person begins to consider this "normal" and fits it into the family’s budget. Are you old enough to remember back to the OPEC oil embargoes of the 1970s? Try to recall the relief we all felt when the price of gasoline went from 30 cents a gallon to $1.30 a gallon - and stopped there. We were so happy to see the escalation end and the lines at the gas station shorten that we just accepted it as normal. And then we ran out and bought SUVs. In America, it does not take long for the abnormal to become normal. We embrace stability in pricing. The average person could care less about efficiency - unless it begins to impact the family’s budget.
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To me, efficiency means that something costs less to operate – relative to something else. The problem with the concept of efficiency, however, is that the customer immediately starts to do some math in her head. How much does it cost to change the boiler? How much will I save every month if I do change the boiler? What’s the payback period? And then she turns to you and asks, "If I decide to change the boiler, will you guarantee that I’ll save as much as you’re claiming I’ll save?"| Dan Holohan - [Intro] | [Email] | [Website] |
| The views expressed in this article are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of MasterPlumbers.com |
