Breaking Up with Best, Better, Good: A Smarter Pricing Strategy

Why do 85-90% of HVAC contractors use the same "best, better, good" pricing strategy? And more importantly—how can you beat them at their own game? In this episode, Mary and Stephen break down the psychology behind pricing choices, reveal why traditional approaches leave money on the table, and share a smarter strategy that increases closing ratios and average tickets. Learn how to talk about budget early, present options that actually fit your customer's comfort zone, and stop accidentally disparaging your most popular systems. Whether you're selling high-end variable speed systems or reliable single-stage units, this episode will transform how you think about proposals.

Interested in becoming a Trane dealer? Visit us at partners.trane.com to learn more about how you can partner with a leader in HVAC innovation. Explore opportunities to elevate your business and stay ahead in the market with Trane!

Creators and Guests

Host

Mary Carter

Mary Carter is a seasoned sales and marketing leader with over six years at Trane Technologies, currently serving as Regional Sales Manager. With a strong foundation in RHVAC, consumer finance, and strategic account management, Mary brings valuable insights and real-world experience to every conversation.

Host

Stephen Ross

Stephen Ross is a dynamic sales trainer and leadership coach with over nine years at Sandler Training. A former HVAC business owner, Stephen combines his technical knowledge with proven sales expertise, offering a unique perspective on what it takes to succeed in the RHVAC industry.

Producer

Jessica Blair

Jessica Blair is a Senior Learning Manager at Trane Technologies' Residential HVAC unit. With 20+ years of experience in learning and development, she designs and markets blended learning programs to enhance customer learning and align with business goals.

Editor

Kerianne O'Donnell

Kerianne O'Donnell is the Digital Learning Manager at Trane Technologies and serves as the editor of the HVAC Full Blast podcast. With a background in graphic design and a strong passion for developing digital learning experiences, Kerianne brings her creative expertise to the podcast, delivering engaging and impactful content to listeners.

What is HVAC Full Blast?

HVAC Full Blast is your bi-weekly dose of HVAC business growth, powered by Trane. Hosted by Mary Carter (Trane Technologies) and Stephen Ross (Sandler), this podcast is built for residential HVAC dealers who want to scale their business, sharpen their sales, and lead with confidence.

Tune in for expert interviews, dealer success stories, and practical tips on pricing, service agreements, workforce development, and more. Whether you're in the field or in the office, HVAC Full Blast helps you stay ahead in a competitive market.

Interested in becoming a Trane Dealer? Visit our website at https://partners.trane.com/

We'd love your feedback and suggestions on future episodes. Please email us at [e-mail].

This podcast channel is for general informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed in these episodes are those of the panelists and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Trane Technologies. Trane Technologies makes no warranty or guarantee concerning accuracy or completeness of the content presented in this webinar.

Trane does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. This material is for informational purposes only and it should not be relied on for tax, legal, or accounting advice. Tax law is subject to continual change. All decisions are your responsibility and you should consult your own tax, legal, and accounting advisors. Trane disclaims any responsibility for actions taken on the material presented.

All trademarks referenced are the trademarks of their respective owners. ©2025 Trane. All Rights Reserved.

Join hosts Mary Carter and
Stephen Ross for our first in

person conversation about
beating the competition's

pricing strategy.

Discover why eighty five
percent of HVAC contractors use

best, better, good,

and exactly how to outsell
them by talking budget early,

presenting the right
number of options,

and making every price point
sound like the best choice.

Whether you're struggling with
closing or just want to sell

more confidently,

this episode shows you how
small changes in your sales

process can lead to
massive revenue growth.

Let's get started.

Welcome back to HVAC Full Blast.

I'm Mary Carter.

I'm Steven Ross.

And we're in the same room.

We are.

And we don't know what
to do with our hands.

We don't know what
do with our hands.

We don't even know whether to look
at each other or look at the camera.

So we're we're
figuring out Yeah.

Podcasting with
video live right now.

It's an experience. Yes.

Also, there's no teleprompter,
but I really do wanna say,

like, you stay
classy, San Diego.

Like, this is just bringing
out all the Ron Burgundy in me.

If I Absolutely.

Go there, that's
what that means.

Hey. We'll just roll with
it. We'll roll with it.

Well, it's good to
see you in person.

Too. I know we're
never in person.

So this is No.

We're between the two of us,

we're always somewhere doing
something, training somebody,

having a conversation,

and even today we've been
making some connections down

here in Tyler, Texas,
so it's been fun.

It has been fun.

Some might say
it's been the best.

Can I share my all time
because you have a fan club?

I don't know if you know
that you have a fan club.

But every time I talk to
somebody, they're like,

you know who's awesome?

It's Mary.

And so, I wanna share
with your fan club via the

podcast my all time favorite
text message from Mary.

Do you know what it is?

I am thinking of a few.

I think I know one.

Alright.

So you were a minute or two
late when we were logging on to

talk about some stuff,
but I was like, hey.

Are you coming?

And you responded
with, I'm making money.

Yeah.

That sounds like I love it.

I love it. Well, we're in
sales. This is a sales podcast.

And Yeah.

Although, I like to keep
myself to my calendar,

and when meetings
start and be on time,

sometimes you're out
there making money,

and you just can't go
from one to the next.

Absolutely.

I had a sales team that I was

managing, there were
about fifteen of us,

and we just had to come up with
a rule that if we're on the

phone with each other,

but a customer calls and you
have the chance to make money,

you don't explain, you
don't say, Hey, I gotta go,

this is a customer,
this is you go, stop,

buy and just hang up
and go make money.

Because we're in sales,

so like other sales people
at the very least should

understand, gotta go, buy.

And that's it. We'll pick
up the conversation later.

Yeah, I love that.

Well, today's episode is pro
tips on how to go make money.

Making money.

I love that, that's the voice
because that's totally the voice.

That was advice, that's what
like as I'm reading the text,

I could just hear you kinda

Nice.

Guess perfect segue because we're
talking today about making money.

It's all about
making money today.

Right, and the choices,

They come with selling and
especially in our industry,

we always hear about the
choices that you can offer,

and usually it's the
same three choices,

and they're usually
called the same thing.

And I'm referring to, of
course, best, better, good.

Yeah. Yeah. Which
is interesting.

So we were at a conference
a couple weeks ago,

and and to fill everybody
in the audience in,

we just did a quick
question at the beginning.

How many people in the room have
heard of best, better, good?

And so it's a room
full of contractors.

Every hand goes up.

We said, how many people
in the room use a version?

Maybe you've customized
it, maybe it's your own,

but you're using a version
of best, better, good.

And I would say eighty five to
ninety percent of the hands went up.

And then the third question was,

if we were to poll all
of your competitors,

what do you think
the statistics are?

Are your competitors also
all using best, better, good?

And I think everybody had to
stop and think about that for a

second and go, yeah, probably.

So that was that's kind of the I
think when we tackle this challenge,

what we're gonna do today,
I think, is dissect it,

break it down, look
at the psychology.

And the reason I had to do
this early on in my career is that's

who I was competing against.

So my sales coach was framing it
kind of like college football.

If you know what the defense
is playing, then on offense,

you know what plays to call.

Right?

And so if your competitors are all
doing best, better, good, well,

let's come up with a pricing
strategy to go kick their butts.

So that that got me excited about
kicking the butt of best, better, good.

Yeah. Well, they say
defense wins championships.

There you go. There you go.

Big fan of the strategy.

And I can tell you even
just from my own secret shopping,

everyone is doing
best, better, good.

So if you don't know what
your competitors are doing,

I would lean pretty favorably
towards the fact that they're

probably doing that.

I have seen now maybe the
fourth option come out

and it depends on

whether that gets a
polished name or maybe a not

so favorable name depending on
what the strategy of the rep is.

Actually one time put a rep on
the spot in my house and said,

Why four options?

And he said, because the human brain
sees everything in two halves and

I'm trying to get you
to see two halves.

I was like, Wow,
that is really dense.

Wasn't gonna go there,
that's where he So,

so that just brings
us to what's right

or how did we get here?

Are we doing Well,

if you think about evolution of
the heating and air industry,

a long time just everybody
made single stage units.

And so there was very little differentiation
between how the units worked.

And so, really, the only
differentiator was price.

And so if you were a
manufacturer and you wanted to

make a little bit better unit,

it still essentially
worked the same.

But now your unit's
more expensive.

And you can say, Well, look,

we're using higher quality
materials and higher quality

components and so on,

but it's hard for the homeowner
to see that difference.

And so, I think that's really
what drove the innovation in our

industry to come out
with two stage variable.

Mean, even back in the day,

the XL19i had two compressors
in it because we were

looking for an innovative
way to deliver more comfort,

but also we're trying to
differentiate our product

lineup from our competitors'
product lineups.

And so that's really where,
if you think about where best,

better, good came from, I mean,

it's solidly rooted
in the eighties,

much like my sweater today.

No.

People, that's in.

You're in. I think it's back.

I think it's It's the haps,
is that right? I don't know.

I'm not part of this vocabulary.

I

think the initial challenge,
if we were to break down best,

better, good, and let's
look at the psychology,

one challenge is, and
I've had questions where

contractors will ask me,
Well, what do you do?

Do you go best, better, good?

Meaning you start with
your most expensive.

Or do you go good, better, best,

and you kind of
work your way up?

And statistically, when you're
polling consumers in terms of

There's lots of research
that goes into this.

Does it make a difference
in consumer buying behavior?

Not really.

Now the people who say, No,
no, you start with your best first,

is because you're throwing out
your most expensive option,

you're price conditioning that consumer
so that when they see

the lesser expense options,
they're like, Thank goodness,

I don't have to spend
that top dollar.

But there's some flaws in that.

And so let's talk about
that for a second,

because I think the first
issue is the terminology,

best, better, good.

And I've seen all sorts of
variations of this where you

have platinum, gold,
silver, bronze,

if you were trying to add
a fourth option in there,

or blue, green, yellow, orange,

or maybe they even call it
value tier at the bottom for

that fourth option.

The problem, a lot of times,
is just the presentation.

So if I'm in your living
room and I'm sitting there talking

to you about all the
different options,

when I start with the best,
I make it sound amazing.

I mean, this thing
cooks and it cleans.

Mary, would you like this to put
your kids to bed for you at night?

And you're like,
Yeah, that'd be great.

So when we go to the
next one down, we're like, Well, look,

it cooks and it cleans.

It'll do the dishes,

but it is not putting
the kids to bed for you.

And then, by the time we get
to our value tier, we're like,

Well, look, it doesn't suck.

And the challenge for that is,

if you look at what
most people can afford,

what percentages of
homeowners buy the best,

what percentages
buy the middle tier,

by the time we get
down to the good,

we're almost disparaging it.

Well, it's kind of
like what you got,

except your old one was
thirteen SEER and this one's

fourteen SEER.

And it's not very exciting or
motivating or thrilling for

that customer to go, Yes, I
want a brand new fourteen SEER.

Even though the
quality might be great,

we're kinda disparaging it.

Yeah. Feels like the
Charlie Brown option. Yeah.

I guess I get to buy this.

Yeah. Yeah.

And sometimes the way it comes
across too is, well, Mary,

for broke people like you
who can't afford the twenty

thousand dollar system, we
have something over here.

Right.

So that's not a great
sales pitch if you started

out that way.

So what you see is for
contractors that sell that way,

they say, Well we sell
a lot of high end units.

And that's true, But the reason they
sell so many high end units as a

percentage is that they're
losing all of the low end units

because we're not
presenting them well.

So that's one issue.

I think the other issue is,

while the idea of price
conditioning is a good one,

you're doing it so close,
you're saying, Hey,

here's our twenty five
thousand dollars option.

And by the time you work your
way down to the ten thousand

dollars option, the sticker
shock hasn't worn off.

So five minutes later,
there's still sticker shock.

And so the concept of price
conditioning is great,

the timing with best,
better, good, not so great.

Right, right.

And every scenario I can
work through in my head,

I end up going with good
because that's probably what I

can afford and I
feel bad about it.

Like, I lost out on features or,

in my case, my
husband probably said,

we don't need all
those features,

and then we'll go see one out
in the wild and be like, wow,

wish we could have that one.

You don't feel good about it.

And I think that's
a shame because

when you look at other
statistics that correlate with

this, where do your
referrals come from?

Well, your referrals come from people
who are excited about what they bought.

And so, if you get down to the
good, and they're like, Well,

I'm not that excited about it,

your likelihood of getting
a referral from that customer,

even though maybe the
salesperson did a great job,

and the installers
did a great job,

and the customer service
team did a great job,

they're not excited about
the unit they bought,

and you're not
getting a referral.

Right, right. Yeah.

It's just sort of sliding one
in there for the sake of doing

it, and then maybe
they go with you,

or maybe then they
really start shopping,

because now you've kind of
opened up their world to what

is best, but you shocked
them so much with sticker and

that conversation.

So to your point
earlier of, know, hey,

I sell a lot of
high end systems,

but maybe I'm losing a
lot of good customers.

There could be some
of that too. Right?

Just all of a sudden
a floodgate opens for,

what else am I missing?

Yeah.

And I would say, you know,

if you think about the dealers
that are listening to our

podcast, tend to sell
higher end equipment,

they tend to sell
better equipment,

and so one of our frequent
thorn in our sides is the Chuck

in a Truck who is underpricing
his equipment and doing a poor

job, but what does he do well?

Well, he comes in
and he's like, Man,

I got a fourteen SEER
unit and it's great.

Because that's all he
just had to put in.

Right.

He doesn't know how to do
variable and communicating

zoning and all
that kind of stuff.

So he is super excited
about the fourteen SEER because he

can't screw that up.

Right.

So if I'm not that
excited about the 14SIR, I'm like,

well, it doesn't suck.

And then the next guy comes in,
he goes, I got a 14SIR unit.

It's awesome.

The homeowner's like,
wow, I can afford this,

and it's awesome.

So I think that's we're
vulnerable to the chuck in a

truck, not just
because he's cheaper,

but because he talks up
the fourteen SEER where we talk

down the fourteen
SEER sometimes.

Yeah, really interesting.

Alright, so that's sort of the
perspective of leading with

best, what about the other end of the
spectrum where now I lead with good?

Yeah.

And I think, again, I don't know
that it necessarily matters.

We'll talk about this
maybe in a couple minutes.

But

the price conditioning
good idea.

We just need to separate
out sticker shock from proposal.

Because when they
happen simultaneously,

it doesn't matter whether
you're going best, better,

good, or good, better, best.

That sticker shock
is right there. Yeah.

So that's the that's the
challenge more there.

I think the other thing
then with terminology,

if I could say,

if there's one thing we could
change is let's change the

terminology because best,
better, good, value.

I mean, how excited is
somebody to buy value?

Not excited at all.

I think we changed our
terminology to more reflect

maybe what car manufacturers do.

That would be that change
alone would be good.

So if all we did
was say, you know,

if I am a car manufacturer
and I got my big SUV,

is this the best?

Well, yeah, it's the best.

But my midsize SUV, what am
I going to say about that?

Well, I'm going
say it's the best.

You know what the car
manufacturers say?

I have a feeling that
it's best in class.

Best in class.

Best in class.

Right. So that
terminology, right?

So my big SUV best in class,

my midsize SUV best in class,

my basic hybrid
crossover best in class.

So I think for a dealer, if
we're selling heating and air,

one of the things we
want to say is, Hey,

in this price range,
here's your best option.

In this price range,
here's your best option.

But if we could do
essentially the same thing,

which is instead of best,
better, good, best, best, best,

it's just best in this price
range or best in this category.

If you wanted to say single
stage, multistage, variable,

here's the best option
in this category.

Just the change in
terminology, I think,

will make homeowners feel
a little bit better about

whatever they pick.

No, that makes a lot of
sense to me. Definitely.

So how do homeowners pick?

Mean, how do people
Yeah, great question.

Well, again, that question
of is it best, better, good,

or good, better, best?

I mean, I think if you think about
the last time you walked into a big

box store to buy a TV.

Yeah.

There's usually
this wall of TVs,

and you got the little nineteen
inches TVs on the far left side,

and you got the ten thousand
dollars home theater systems on

the right side.

If we just look at consumer
behavior, where do people go?

Do they go best, better, good?

Meaning they start at the
ten thousand dollars TVs and work

their way all the way down
to the nineteen inches TVs or do

they go and look at the
nineteen inches TVs and work

their way up to the ten
thousand dollars TVs.

When was the last time you
bought a TV, Mary Beth?

I think we bought our last TV
maybe three years ago. Okay.

Not that long, we redid
a space in the house,

it warranted a new TV.

Alright, and so
how did you shop?

Well, we knew we wanted

a seventy inches, I think
that's what we went with,

so we knew we wanted seventy
inches and it was funny because

I remember walking in,

and I think the biggest TV they
had at the time was one hundred

inches, I just thought like,

what wall in America
is supporting this?

But they're there, but so we
knew the size TV that we wanted,

but that was really
our starting point.

Was like, this is
the space it'll fit,

this is what it'll
look good on the wall.

Yep.

So, we walked in
and went from there,

and there were certainly,

even knowing that that's
the size that we wanted,

there were plenty of
options and ranges

for just a seventy inches TV.

And I think the way most people
shop is that they're going to

do research, and research could
mean a couple different things.

It could mean I got online,
I looked up some things.

Maybe these days I'm using
artificial intelligence,

like I'm plugging it
into my LLM to say, Hey,

what should I look at
when I'm buying a TV?

Maybe it's, I just
ask my friends.

I'm like, Hey Mary,
I came to your house.

We watched the
Masters at your house.

On that seventy inches TV, I
could see the blades of grass.

Do you mind me asking,
What did you spend on that?

So, if you say,

I spent two thousand five
hundred dollars and then I

asked my buddy Joe, What
did you spend on your TV?

We watched the Super
Bowl at your house.

And Joe's like, Yes, spent
about fifteen hundred dollars

Well, now I've got
a budget in mind,

dollars fifteen hundred to two
thousand five hundred dollars

Or I looked online and
came up with a budget.

So back to the big box store,
what do most people do?

Well, people don't go to the cheapest and
most people don't go to the most expensive.

They already have a
budget where they're comfortable,

and they just walk to the
wall to find their budget.

Once they find their budget,
then they start shopping.

But they don't look at all the TVs
out there and then start shopping.

They've already got
that budget in mind.

Yeah, and the big boxes
definitely figure it out, right?

Because they make the
price really easy to see.

It's TV and then big
bold letters price.

You're right, we were totally conditioned
go to the section that we knew was

gonna be solving the need,

and now the want was
keep it in the budget.

Yeah.

So I think that's crucial,

is just understanding how people
make decisions and how people buy.

People are gonna have
a budget in mind first,

then they're gonna
start shopping.

So we need to adjust our
sales process a lot of times

to incorporate that.

I think the old school way of
selling was you walk up to the

door, you knock, you
step back two feet,

and the homeowner
opens the door,

and you turn and look at
your truck, and you say,

Am I parked okay?

And you parked somewhere where they
could see the logo on the

truck, and you got your
name badge right here.

So the whole time we're
doing this process,

the homeowner's thinking,
What's it gonna cost?

What's it gonna cost?

What's gonna cost?

We make them wait an hour
because we're walking through

the house, we're measuring,

and we're showing them
pictures of like, Hey,

here's what your
ductwork looks like.

And the whole time
they're thinking,

What's this going to cost?
What's this going to cost?

And then we get to the
end for proposals and so their anxiety

spikes and they go, Oh my gosh,

this is way more than I thought.

So then as the sales
rep, I'm like, Well,

which one do you want to buy?

And their anxiety is
all the way up here,

and so you're figuring the
defense mechanism, which is,

I don't know, I need
to think about it,

or I need to go
talk to my spouse,

if it's a first time
homeowner, I gotta call my dad.

If it's a senior
citizen, they're like,

I gotta talk to my kids.

But there's this instant
defense mechanism that pops up

because we waited till
the end of given pricing,

their anxiety spikes,
and now they push back.

And that's where we'd say, Well,

let's overcome the objection.

But the objection is just
their emotional state.

I don't know that we emphasize

that enough, right?

They're not necessarily objecting
even you and your services.

Just didn't even
know what to expect.

And now, we're at the
end of a long process.

And I'll be honest,

the first time I ever had a
problem with my system and

called someone to look at it,

I had no idea that that
process took an hour.

Like I was even
like, Oh my gosh,

I planned ten minutes and holy
cow, this is taking me long.

So you're right, yeah,

we go through the whole hour
and then I'm getting thrown

these proposals, I'm like, What in
the world is happening to my

expenses right now?

This was unplanned.

Absolutely.

So I think when we're
teaching a sales process,

one of the things
we say is, hey,

you wanna talk pricing early.

And I think the timing of this is
key for a couple different reasons.

One is we need a gap,

but I buy into the idea
of price conditioning.

We want to let people get that
sticker shock out of the way,

but we probably need twenty
or thirty minutes to get the

sticker shock out of the way
to where they calm back down

emotionally to then give them actual
choices where they make the decision.

So what you have to do,

and this is hard because
we're like, Well,

I don't know what the
price is gonna be.

I haven't looked at
the equipment yet.

I haven't looked at the house.

I have no idea. Do they need
new ductwork? I don't know.

How am I supposed to
give them pricing?

But I think we wanna give
I like the idea of giving

multiple options,

but you should give multiple
options in a budget range.

So I might walk into
your house and say, Hey,

in a house like this,
three or four bedrooms,

do you have a bonus
from over the garage?

Yeah. Here's what
we typically see.

Some customers are gonna spend
somewhere between fifteen

thousand and twenty thousand
dollars And then I don't

describe the equipment,
I describe the customer.

Those customers are going to
stay in the house a while,

they're interested
in energy efficiency,

they want to sleep
better at night,

sometimes they entertain
and have people over,

and so there's some
other considerations,

maybe there's health
considerations as well,

or there's some allergens
they're trying to control.

So those systems are great,
super energy efficient,

you're going to spend
fifteen to twenty grand.

We have other customers
that say, Hey,

we're going live here for two
years and sell the house and go.

We don't want spend
a lot of money.

Those customers
might spend, gosh,

nine to twelve thousand dollars.

And then you got the
middle group, right?

And so they're gonna
be here for a while,

maybe they don't want the
twenty thousand dollars system.

So if I can bracket pricing,

get the sticker
shock out of the way,

then I can ask that customer,
which category are you?

Are you in that fifteen thousand
to twenty thousand dollars range?

Are you in the nine thousand to
twelve thousand dollars range?

Are you in the middle?

Help me, help you in
terms of a proposal.

What kind of
proposal do you want?

Yeah.

Now, I like that approach
because you now are kind of

planting the seed that, hey,

there is an expense
associated with this.

Oh, yeah. Here's some ranges.

I, as a homeowner, am not committed
to anything at this point.

I'm just really kind of
identifying what kind of people

group I fit within those ranges.

Right.

And then when we get to
what the proposal might be,

now I don't have to come
in totally unknowledgeable.

Can say, you know, like,
oh, hey, actually, you know,

I am in this, or, you know,

I know I said earlier that
we might not stay here a long

time, but we might,
like, you know,

you've given me now some things
to work on and have a little

bit of leverage, which is kind
of an interesting tactic, right?

You know, we don't often think about
who has leverage in the decision

making process or
the sales process,

but I like empowering the
homeowner in that way.

And it just increases
trust, right?

You're not here to hustle
me into a system I don't

need, you're just really
here to solve what I need.

Absolutely. Yeah.

I think to your point,

you're given some
visibility into the process,

here's what we're going
to be deciding today,

which end of the spectrum are
you on, you get to choose,

and you're providing
context to that decision.

If you just said to
a homeowner, Hey,

this air conditioner is
fifteen and this one's ten,

which one do you want?

Everybody's gonna pick the ten
because they don't understand

why would I pick the fifteen.

And even when you get specific
on the technical side, Well,

this compressor's different and the
airflow varies and it's got

a variable speed fan and
their eyes glaze over.

So we've gotta do
a better job of

asking questions,

but if they don't know what the
question leads to, if I say,

Hey, do you guys
have bad allergies?

Sometimes the answer is no,

even if they have bad allergies,

because what they feel like
is I might jack up the price.

But if I say, Hey,

here's some filter options,

they could add anywhere from
five hundred dollars to fifteen

hundred dollars If
you want them, great.

If not, fine.

You're adding that visibility
and that transparency,

you're more likely to
get an honest answer.

Right, right. That
makes a lot of sense.

So do you recommend giving
out those three brackets,

and then therefore, do you
recommend three choices?

Like, many choices?

Great question.

Well, the three brackets,

the other thing that's
important on the timing,

one is you wanna bracket
pricing with at least twenty to

thirty minutes between when
you're bracketing pricing and

then giving a proposal.

Okay.

The other thing about
bracketing pricing is you wanna

do it before you go
look at the equipment.

Yeah.

Because once I look
at the equipment,

if I sound wishy washy on price,

then the homeowner's like,

this guy's just sizing me up
and trying to figure out what

he can take me for.

Hustle mode.

If I haven't looked at
the equipment, I'm like, gosh,

I don't know, it could
be fifteen or twenty,

that would be typical
for this size house.

It sounds a little bit more
credible that I don't know the

exact number because I haven't
looked at anything yet.

So that part's crucial.

Then your question was
the number of choices.

And there's some research out
there that shows how many choices.

And this is where adding
that fourth option,

I would say the last ten years,

almost anybody that
practices best, better, good,

they're adding that
fourth option in.

Here's what happens.

If you give somebody
one or two choices,

they don't really
feel in control.

And so in order to
feel in control,

I need more choices.

It's my house, I want
to make the decision,

so how do I get more choices?

Do I go get more bids?

So a lot of times,

if you're giving too few
choices or you haven't talked

through things with
homeowners well enough,

that's where they say, Hey,

you're the first
guy we've talked to.

We need to go shop around.
We're going get more choices.

And so statistically, in
that one or two option range,

you're going to have a
much lower closing ratio.

If you're only giving the
homeowner one or two options,

you're going to have a
closing ratio of maybe twenty,

twenty five percent at The

other side of that spectrum
is if you're giving homeowners

five or six options or more,

you also have a very low
closing ratio because now it's

information overload.

And those objections
tend to sound like, wow.

This is a lot to think about.

I gotta think about it
and get back to you.

I need to go talk to
some other people.

And so it it really is that middle
ground of three to four choices.

And to the point of I
don't know about people

having two halves of their
brains, but if you think about,

like, telephone numbers,

we break them up into
three and four digits.

Oh, yeah.

Because it is easier to process
information in three or fours.

Right?

So three digit area
code, three digit prefix,

four digits at the end.

City, state, zip, right?

There you go.

Oh, man. Wow.

I'm gonna start seeing
everything in threes now.

But I think that's true.

Maybe even thinking
about the TV example,

you know, some of
the big discount,

big box retailers who sell TVs but
don't have a big selection, right?

Or like maybe they have like a
TV up in the front and then a

few in the back.

We've walked into those stores
and just said like, alright,

well they got one that was
in the seventy inches range,

but now I wanna go find some
let's go look at some other

versus like maybe a
more traditional tech

retailer.

You walk in and you see seven
TVs in the seventy inches range.

Now I'm also equally
as overwhelmed. Yes.

And now I'm standing in the
store reading every single

review just to
see, like you said,

I need to do more research.

So, I even the TV
buying world have

seen where that
has also backfired.

Then that's when
you say, Alright,

narrow it down to
that three to four,

and now that's a tolerable And

websites work the same way.

Those big box retailers are
very familiar with how people

make buying decisions,

And the purpose of that website is
not to give you information on TVs.

The purpose of that website
is to sell you a TV.

So one of the things I like
is even on the big ones where

there's thousands
of options on TVs,

they're going to have a
little button that says,

Would you like to
compare options?

And the most they're gonna
let you compare is four.

Because if you start
comparing five or six,

they're gonna lose you, so
they want you to compare,

pick three or four, put them
side by side, compare them.

That's the best way to get
you to actually buy one.

Yeah,

that's a great point.

I'm really kind of stuck
mentally on the fact that we

group them in threes.

I'm really kind of
fascinated by that.

All right, so we still like
the idea of three to four

as our choices.

We've talked about how we're
going to do a little bit of

price conditioning,

but then maybe give some time in between
actually getting to those choices.

So now, how do I put
this all together?

How do I do it all well and
ultimately close more deals?

Yeah.

Again, just looking at it
from the buyer's perspective.

Let's say I shopped
around online,

I talked to some friends, I got
some idea, and I said, Okay,

I don't know what this
thing is gonna cost me,

but it's probably gonna cost
me somewhere between thirteen

thousand and seventeen thousand
dollars As a heating and air

professional, you would say,
That's a pretty good budget.

This is a homeowner with
realistic expectations.

So now the sales rep shows up
and he does best, better, good.

So his best is twenty,
his better is fifteen,

and his good is eleven.

Right? Well, a
couple things happen.

One is mentally, I was
prepared to spend thirteen to seventeen.

And so in that budget
range that I mentally have,

you only gave me one option.

So even if I'm your
boss, and I'm like, Hey,

did you give the customer
three or four options?

The sales rep says, Yes, I did.

But if we didn't have the
budget conversation with the

homeowner first,

then the homeowner may discount
several of our options because

they didn't fit into the
budget that they had in mind.

So that's one problem
with best, better,

good is that you
see big price jumps.

So the price between our
seventeen SEER multi stage is

this, and our twenty
SEER variable is this.

That could be a five
thousand dollars jump.

So the kind of customer that
spends twenty grand is not the

kind of customer
that spends eleven.

And so when I see a sales rep's
proposal and he has both a

twenty thousand dollar option and an
eleven thousand dollar option on that,

what I know is that that
sales rep has no idea what the

customer's budget is.

And so he's just spraying
and praying as we'd say,

throwing out options
and hoping one sticks.

Yeah, I have gotten those proposals
before in my secret shopping

journey, and it's so true.

The funny thing about those
proposals to me is if you're

looking at the twenty thousand
dollars system and on this

proposal it was an eight thousand
dollars was the lowest line.

So you do your pitch,
you sell, you're great,

you leave that
with the homeowner,

I'm a goldfish.

Five seconds later,

I don't remember twenty
thousand dollars is

different than eight thousand
dollars All I see is that

there's a twelve thousand
dollars difference.

This one's got some numbers
and letters next to it.

This one has some
numbers and letters.

And now I got to
reiterate this, know,

in my case to my spouse
and say, you know,

they're good, I liked the guy
and he's looking at me like,

why am I spending twelve
thousand dollars between the two?

So, I digress, But no
consideration of budget.

Yeah.

So, I think step one is we gotta
have that budget conversation

first because we're
doing two things there.

We're mentally
preparing the customers,

there's your price conditioning.

You're also figuring out how
to narrow down your proposals.

So if I had a conversation
twenty minutes ago with a

homeowner, and they
were like, Yeah,

I'm probably somewhere between
thirteen thousand and seventeen

thousand dollars I
may have even had my

financing conversation
with the customer ahead of

time where I would say, Hey,

systems in this range run two
fifty dollars a month to say

maybe four hundred
dollars a month,

depending on the exact system.

So that homeowner's
now mentally prepared.

Now when I come back to
do my proposal at the end,

if my budget range is
thirteen to seventeen,

I need to have four options
in the thirteen to seventeen

thousand dollar budget range.

Because that, then all four
of those count mentally when

the homeowner's seriously
considering them.

So in some cases, you're
not even changing the equipment.

You may say, hey, here's our
seventeen SEER MultiStage.

Here's it with just the one inch
filters and a basic thermostat.

Here's our seventeen SEER
MultiStage with a five inch

filter and a WiFi
enabled thermostat.

Here's our seventeen
SEER with an air cleaner,

full nine yards, and a three
year maintenance program,

and a ten year labor warranty.

So it's the same piece of
equipment, which is, again,

back to what cars do.

They would say, hey.

Here's our sedan.
Here's the base model.

Here's the platinum. But
it's all the same car.

Car dealers don't say, well,

here's our twelve
thousand dollar car.

Here's our fifty thousand, and
then here's one in the middle.

Which one do you want? You
would go, that's ridiculous.

Yeah.

And it's just as ridiculous
in the heating and air world.

Yeah.

You're once again putting
someone between that decision

point of want versus
afford, and Yeah.

That's not a good place.

We've already said that's
not where we wanna be.

Yeah, and I love the idea of actually
showing that multi speed system

in a varying array
of configurations,

but no matter what, you know,
you've solved budget, need,

and then comfortability
concerns, you know,

whatever else you've
discussed in the call.

So that's a really, really
interesting way to think about it.

Doesn't necessarily even have
to be different equipment.

Here's maybe a curveball.

What about the homeowner that doesn't
have realistic budget expectations?

Yeah.

How about someone who
just says, I don't know,

my realtor friend told me that these
things cost five thousand dollars Yeah.

And again, I think the best time then
to have that conversation is right

at the beginning,
where you can say, Hey,

if you're just
replacing the furnace,

here's a reasonable price range.

If you're doing the furnace
and the air conditioner,

here's what some reasonable
price ranges might be.

If you're going do the furnace
and the air conditioner and you

want your utility
rebate to kick in, well,

that's going to be this
budget range up here.

I think you want to have again,

if that customer has
an unrealistic budget,

let's break that
at the beginning.

Get over the sticker shock.

Now we've got thirty minutes to
walk through the house and talk

about the ductwork and airflow
and how well they sleep and

humidity control, whatnot.

So we may be able to
bring them back around,

but I also have had sales calls
end at that point where we just

go, Yeah,

you're not gonna get a complete
system for five thousand dollars.

Right.

So should we keep going?

Again, though, I mean, saying
that upfront in the beginning

kind of removes that hustle
element from you, right?

Because otherwise, if you wait
until the end to say, well,

you know, I could do
just your furnace,

but here's what I can do
if I do the whole thing,

now I'm confused,
what do I need?

What's broken?

Like, I'm none the wiser to that

when I'm speaking
to you, the expert.

Really important to get that
up front in the beginning.

Seems like there's a lot of
important steps that happen at

the beginning of
that sales call.

There are.

I get phone calls from business
owners or sometimes it's the

VP of sales, and they'll
say something like this,

We've got a great sales
team. They do a great job.

We just struggle with closing.

Can you come in and
teach a class on closing?

And you can, but the best way to up
your closing ratio is to get really,

really good at the
beginning of the sales call.

Because if you start
off on the right foot,

if you can talk about money,

if you can talk about the
indoor air quality issues,

potential pain points,

if you can talk about how the
decision's gonna get made,

and get all of that out of the
way at the beginning of the

sales call, then at the end,
it's a lot easier to close.

Right. That makes a
world of sense to me.

As someone who kind of goes
through these buying decisions,

it makes a ton of sense.

What else would you wanna
leave someone who's curious

about learning this?

Well, our topic today really is
kind of about the proposal step,

and to your point, it
really does come at the end.

So if you want

that closing ratio to go up,

it really is the end result
of a thorough process.

So we would say, Stephen Covey
says in seven Habits of Highly

Effective People, begin
with the end in mind.

So what we're doing here
is we're saying, Well,

what do we want the end to be?

Well, I wanna know
the customer's budget.

I've gotta line up four options
within their budget range.

I gotta help them
make a decision.

Okay, well now we can
begin with the end in mind.

If I know where I'm going,

then what sort of sales process
do I have to have so that the

customer and I are both ready
to make a decision at the end?

So it's helpful to just talk
about the proposal step,

but then you gotta build your
sales process to get there.

Makes sense, makes
a lot of sense.

Well, I don't know.

Maybe keeping the end
in mind here, I mean,

I thought we were just gonna crack
brown burgundy jokes all day.

But this was much more
insightful than that.

Yeah.

I I think you left us with a
lot to kinda think about in in

terms of we can approach the
conversation maybe with a

little bit more strength
and bring in some better

ideas to discuss budget in
a bracketed way upfront,

kind of remove
that sticker shock.

It's very interesting kind of
vocabulary to say like remove

sticker shock, but apply
price conditioning.

Yeah.

Maybe just because
I'm curious now,

when you think of
price conditioning,

how would you define it,

and then the example of
it within this discussion?

Well, really is Again, if
we kind of mapped it out,

if we said, Okay,
here's a customer.

When the sales guy
walks in the door,

when I'm walking in the door,
where's their anxiety level?

And then, if I wait till
the end to say, Okay,

I've done my proposal,
let's go over pricing,

their anxiety shoots
through the roof.

So, the way I would define
price conditioning in

sticker shock is, Let's get
the anxiety out of the way.

It's gonna cost whatever
it's gonna cost.

When do we wanna see
that spike in anxiety?

Well, I want that spike in anxiety
as close to the beginning of the

sales call as I can,
so that by the end,

they've had a chance to kinda
let the anxiety slow down.

And we've talked about things

I would say the same thing's
true about financing is you

don't wait till the end to
go, Mary, if you're broke as crap,

we could maybe
finance this for you.

That doesn't come
across well, right?

So, I mean, people
get pre approved

when they buy houses,
so they're doing that.

When a car dealer, when
I show up at the car lot,

he's asking me, Are
you gonna finance?

Are you gonna pay cash?

Do you have a trade in?

We're talking about all those
things at the beginning so that

he can not waste my time or
his showing me cars I can't afford,

or I can't afford
the monthly payment.

So the same thing holds
true with financing.

One of the things I challenged
a group of guys a few years ago

was to offer financing
at the very beginning.

Just walk in the
door and say, Hey,

we've got some great
financing promos going on.

Would you like to
go ahead and apply?

And everybody's like, Well,
that's not gonna work.

I'm like, Well,
sure. You're right.

It's not gonna work
most of the time.

How often do you
think it'll work?

And we kind of kicked around.

So if you go on one hundred
sales calls and you said to all

one hundred people
first five minutes in,

Would you like to go ahead and get
pre approved for the financing?

And then we can tell you what
the monthly payment will be.

If five of people, five people
out of a hundred said yes,

what just happened to
your closing ratio?

Well, it just went
up five points.

Because you've already
got them pre approved,

the chance they're gonna buy is
gonna be ninety something percent.

Now you know what
they're pre approved for,

they know what the monthly
payments are gonna be.

You can find a system that's
gonna fit that monthly payment

ninety five percent of the time.

Right.

So just ask on the front end,
you wanna get pre approved.

And this is the same concept.

We think, well,

nobody's gonna get pre approved
for financing until they know

what the price is gonna be.

But yet we shop for cars
and we get pre approved.

We shop for houses and
we get pre approved.

So just ask.

And I think the hang up's
us, it's not the homeowner.

That's the price
conditioning and the

sticker shock is like,

let's take the money shock out
of the way at the beginning,

let people calm down, then they
can make a rational decision.

That makes sense. That
makes a lot of sense.

I think, you know,
I'm a financing So

I think that that's
a great strategy.

I think mentioning it early is
great and nowadays there's so

many easy ways to go about
offering it, so why not, right?

It's another chance to
show off your website,

it's another chance to show
off maybe, I don't know,

some sort of tool that
you're using in front of the

homeowner, maybe it's
your iPad, maybe it's not,

it's another chance
to just keep that,

we always say keep
that stickiness, right?

Like, they're talking to you,
they're working with you,

they're interacting with you,
so big fan of that strategy.

Well, I'm enlightened and
I'm still thinking in threes,

like you would believe, right?

I like the meme where the
numbers and algorithms are

going to be right now.

I think it was
interesting, again,

back to that conference
a couple weeks ago,

we've got a room full
of HVAC contractors and we're saying,

Hey, what are your
competitors doing?

Are they doing best,
better, good, value?

Or some version of that.

And if so, can we go beat them?

And I think by the end, people
left with an idea of like,

Yeah, if I had a better
pricing strategy,

that's worth a few percentage
points on the closing ratio.

It's probably also worth a couple
hundred bucks on the average ticket.

And when you extrapolate that
out across the year, I mean,

could be a twenty, thirty
percent growth in sales.

Right. Just getting better
at beating your competitors.

Right. Yeah.

And it's not necessarily
discounting and just doing The

pricing strategy is really
looking at your area, saying,

all right, what is the
budget looking like?

What equipment fits there?

Make those bundles, give
that to the sales team,

go rinse repeat, right?

Absolutely. Make ton of sense.

Well, thank you always for
just the insights and being

able to put together
so eloquently.

Oh, it's fun and being
on camera next to you,

you know, it seemed
to work out okay.

You wanna bring out
the sign language.

Maybe we'll we'll try
to fight this one.

That would be so crazy.

Well, we are always excited to kinda
get together and talk to each other.

Maybe we'll have to talk
to you more in person.

Still accepting emails at

hvacfullblasttraintechnologies
dot com.

And what else? What's
the way that people live?

It's fun.

I think if you think
through overall,

if you're doing in home sales,
what is your closing ratio?

What is your average ticket?

If you got better at
the proposal step,

that's gonna make
you more money.

And then there's probably five
or six other steps that each

step, if you said, Hey, if
I got one percent better here,

one percent better here,
one percent better here,

you would see a pretty big jump.

And then it stacks.

And so I've seen guys go from
selling a million a year to a

million six to two
and a half million,

and then the following year,
they sell four million.

You go, wow.

How does a guy go from selling a
million a year to four million?

Well, it's when it all starts
to come together. Yeah.

And so this is one little
piece of the pie, but sales,

this is what we do.

This is what makes it fun.

I love it.

Well, my phone's
probably ringing,

so it's time to go
back to making Awesome.

Thanks, Steven.

Bye.

See you soon.