As a small business owner, you need to take advantage of all of the different methods which are available to you in your efforts to grow your business. One of these tools which business owners can use to pave a path to prosperity is blogging for business owners.

Blogging can do wonders in terms of exposing your company to a wider audience and can even improve employee morale. Blogging offers business owners a great opportunity to take their business to the next level.

Blogging for business owners is much like any other kind of blogging, but does have its own set of challenges. It is especially important for a business owner to stay on message in their blog and speak clearly to their readers about their business.

Come up with a plan for maintaining and promoting your blog - decide exactly what sort of content you plan to offer to your readers, decide how often you will add content to your blog and so on. Having come up with this plan, be sure to stick to it with the same determination you have already demonstrated in building your company into what it is today.

If you want to get more visitors to your website (and who doesn’t?) you should look at starting a blog. Blogs are an excellent way to get visitors engaged at your site, and open communications with them. These tips will help you use your blog to generate traffic.

Post on your blog regularly; at least 3 times a week. By updating your blog on a regular basis, you are giving your readers a reason to keep referring back to your blog. If you are providing timely and informative posts, your readers will see you as an expert in your field.

Your visitors will come to your blog looking for answers to their questions. A regular posting schedule also help to develop your relationship with your customers. They’ll get to “know you” and trust you.

By installing a feed burner onto your blog, you will make it easier to keep in contact with your customers. Your readers will be able to subscribe to your blog and choose to have new posts delivered right to their email or computer’s homepage. There are several services to choose from, and you can get a basic service for free. Setting up the service is easy; you simply install a small piece of HTML code onto your blog.

It’s also a good idea to have a “blogroll” on your blog site. This is basically a list of related blogs that you feel will help your readers. When you link to other blogs this way, they will see it and often will link back to your blog. This can help to widen your audience by reaching readers on other blogs. Just make sure the blogs you link to are related to the subject of yours.

One of the easiest ways to drive traffic to your website through your blog is by linking back to the site every time you write a new blog post. Whenever you add a new article to your main website, post a teaser excerpt on your blog along with a link to the full article on your website.

It’s also a good idea to link to existing articles from your blog, particularly if they are suddenly timely again. For example, if your website has an article about Halloween costumes for kids, post a new link to it on your blog every year around Halloween.

When you start using these tips on a regular basis, you’ll see an increase in visitors to both your blog and your website. Track your stats so you can see which methods work the best, and continue to do more of those.

If your business is one started on next to nothing or maybe you are experiencing a cash flow problem, you will need to implement a low cost lead generation program. Because you are on a limited budget you may not wish to pay the cost of having a lead generation service do the work for you, so you will have to find a way your business can do it on its own without much outside assistance.

Here are some ideas for some low cost lead generation. If these don’t work for you, put your thinking cap on and get creative. You should be able to come up with some ideas of your own.

There are trade shows for just about everything. You could rent the space and set up with a demonstration of your product or service at a trade show and have everyone you can stop fill out a registration for a drawing of something small like $100. This will give you something to work with.

You can have someone call with a survey to illicit more leads. Have them ask questions, which are related to your product or service. This will help you narrow down the playing field to those who might be interested in the use of your product or service. Make sure to ask about their likes or dislikes of the product or service they are currently using.

If they have a supplier of your product or service already, they may be unhappy with what they have and will listen to competition. Make sure to offer something better. After listening to their likes or dislikes regarding what they are currently using, you will be able to adjust your service or product to better suit their needs.

Offer current customers a reward of some kind for every referral you get from them who becomes a customer. For years word of mouth has been a business’s best source of advertisement, so why not put it to good use. Your current customers will thank you for the extra $ 25.00 you give them for sending you a referral.

When looking for a low cost lead generation program, just get creative. Find something, which will help you get your business on the road to success.

In order for a business to success and remain in business, they must determine the best method for sale lead generation. Each business has it’s own unique features, which must be taken into consideration before deciding on a method to create new potential customers. Because this can be difficult to figure out, sometimes the process of trial and error must be used.

One of the first steps a business needs to take is to determine their target market. A business could target their efforts of attracting potential clients who are in a particular type of business. For some types of businesses the target market might still be too broad. They will need to determine even more factors about the businesses in need of their products or services..

Once a business has determined their target market, they will need to look for creative methods of creating new potential clients. It is up to the business to work at developing a relationship with the decision maker as a way to get their business. A business without a method of sale lead generation will not remain in business for very long.

There are a number of methods, which can be used to generate new customers. Probably two of the most commonly known are television and newspaper ad. While these methods of generating new customers may work for some businesses, but if you need business clients, newspaper and television ads will not work for you. The chances of a decision maker of a large corporation watching a television ad and calling you about your product or service are somewhere between slim and none, so you are forced into look for other options.

If you are selling a product or service, which only certain types of businesses are likely to buy, then you will have to get creative in order to find a method where you will be able to reach that particular group of businesses. Depending on the type of product or service you are selling, there may be a trade show where someone in your company can set up a booth or a kiosk. You will get the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the audience you are targeting. Your company will then have the information it needs to contact your target audience with letters, phone calls, or catalogs in an effort to establish a relationship with that company.

Sale lead generation is not an easy task to accomplish. However once you have decided on several methods of sale lead generations, which work best for your company and type of product, your business will be headed in the right direction on the road to success

Most of my professional experience has been in conducting direct mail campaigns, many of which were of the multi-million-piece variety. Here is my take on how the file has evolved and how new, more useful and effective methods have evolved, paralleling the development of surprising new resources.

In contrast with previous huge-quantity mailing, today’s marketing strategy calls for smaller “micro-mailings” as the most effective approach. Presented here are details about steps you might want to take following the current methods for creating, segmenting, profiling and producing test lists. This approach is vastly different from the procedures that training used to prescribe - but field experience always differs from static classroom rules to some degree, doesn’t it?

Methods are constantly changing and a classroom presentation is always at least a little behind the latest developments based on real-world conditions.

For example, in the past, professionals who ran large direct marketing campaigns for Fortune 100 companies added millions of names every quarter to an in-house database. They applied the newest profiling methods. They sliced and diced their already “high-responder” segments to achieve THE PERFECT LIST!

Targeted Networking Comes of Age

What smart marketers do now - and what you probably should do, dealing with the same kind of campaign - has little similarity to this older, more systematic, routine approach. Often the challenge is to run a boutique-type consulting firm, using telemarketing methods to generate B2B meetings for very small clients. If your business presents this kind of marketing challenge, you can use a similar approach effectively. A good name for this approach might be “Targeted Networking”.

In this kind of business, the goal is to link professional service clients in cooperative groups with others who serve the same market. Campaign respondents meet with clients in related businesses, and together they create relationships. These associations then blossom into lifelong referral partnerships, thereby creating new revenue streams for clients.

Using this method of list creation results in lists comprising as few as 25 to 100 records, unlike the huge lists created in the older marketing milieu. However, when you create these “small” lists, you will be mail-targeting industries carefully for their relatedness, giving THE PERFECT LIST a new meaning. Compact dynamic enterprises can not afford to waste money on non-responsive mailings.

Using this approach, you still must produce great copy and produce extremely professional packages. But, don’t test creative presentations or special offers - rely on THE PERFECT LIST. Use the Internet to research each mailing file to make sure each list entry passes the criteria making it a legitimate choice. Manually research each mailing file before proceeding, assuring that all relevant, special criteria is kept in mind. Analyze candidate entries by mining data from on-line directories, Web sites, physical or online phone books, local library resources (right on company computers,) or hardbound lawyers’ guides, to name a few. When no public data is available, do a little creative detective wok to find ways to obtain industry-specific data from friends who are willing to lend lists that are allowed to be mailed. Compare and combine your research across multiple sources, and then contact organizations directly by phoning to learn an individual’s name for addressing purposes. No two lists will look the same.

It is necessary for you to go through all this trouble because no ready-made resources are as suitable or useful as the specifically targeted and accurate ones you will create. When you stumble across a great list online, it’s usually outdated — which, of course, can happen the day after the list is posted. So, in using available material like this, confirming mailing names by phone is a necessity.

Micromarketing List Generation Micromarketing list generation is data mining at its purest. Although it may seem an unusual method to build micro-lists, the largest list vendors and direct mail ships build their own lists this way. They purchase parts of lists from various sources and combine them - not manually, of course - to result in a composite record that contains all the relevant data ready for profiling and segmentation.

Your profiling must be a bit more hands-on. Base it on your client’s historical success. Consider relevant questions. What size firm, industry and geographic area typically wants to meet with him or her? What is the title of the individual who is generally the best referral partner? With these questions answered, replicate this profile, and use it to create a list of other professionals.

Technology: Helping the Little Guy, Too

This type of small-scale targeting is the example of how technology - especially in-house computing, the Internet and telephone communications - has made it possible to alter the way businesses can mine data and compile lists. It has made data mining more effective for specialized applications. Since creating even small lists manually is time-consuming and expensive, we could not economically perform these kinds of services twenty years ago. Using this approach you, and even the smallest of clients, can use direct marketing successfully.

The list in this new, carefully crafted form - formerly just one element in the entire direct marketing mix - is now the core of modern success.

As a business owner you need a lead generation company plus telemarketing to work for you. This may be the only method you have of creating new customers, which is essential to a business’s survival.

If the methods you are using for lead generation are not bringing your business new customers, you might want to try a lead generation company using telemarketing to provide you with qualified leads.

The lead generation service will use the phone to talk to the prospective clients on your behalf. The phone conversation will ensure the prospective client has a use for the type of product or service you sell. They will find out the prospective client’s current situation. They will even find out if the prospective client has any problems with the product or service they are using, or a problem with the provider of that product or service.

The service will provide you with the name of the decision maker and tell you how the decision making process works, how long it takes and who is involved in the decision making process. They will provide you with the name of your competition and if any other options are being considered.

With a lead generation company using telemarketing, you will have insights to the prospective client. You will feel like you know the prospective client before you even talk to him or her. The lead generation company using telemarketing can even set up an appointment for you to meet with the prospective client in order to close the deal.

A lead generation company plus telemarketing will give you the edge you need to create new customers. You will be able to see the quality of these leads when your sales increase dramatically. Then you will wonder how you ever did it without them. Lead generation is a vital part of a business survival. It as necessary to business as air is to the human body. Without it the business will close it’s doors.

What really is the difference between B2B Cold Calling and Traditional Telemarketing, anyway?

In truth, the basic fundamentals are identical. But, there are certainly differences.

Clients who hire VSA or create their own internal VSA-type B2B cold calling teams want a prospecting arm - a group who finds potential gems in a pile of names and gives these potential gems to someone who will close the sale.

Typically, clients who hire a traditional telemarketing firm are looking for a sales arm - a group who finds new clients and sells them directly over the phone, eliminating the extra step of using a sales person.

There is a need for both kinds of calling, but the two categories do not have identical skills, processes or technology.

I am intent on defining the difference between the two categories because l want to help our readers find the calling team that best fits their companies’ needs.

Similarities: There are tremendous similarities between VSA-type Cold Calling programs and the kind of telemarketing calls you receive at work (from a long distance company) or at dinner (from your local newspaper). Ability to get on the phone with complete strangers and talk! Hours and hours of telephone calls to find individuals who are interested in your product or service. Belief that your product or service can truly help your prospect. Thick skin and ability to take rejection. Telephone sales skills to keep someone on the phone long enough. Ability to overcome specific objections. Endurance. Knowing when someone is interested and moving them into the next phase of the sales process Tracking results of each call. Make modificatiions during the program, as needed to ensure success.

Differences: The differences are subtle, but they are critical. (Many firms who perform traditional telemarketing work also perform VSA-type B2B Cold Calling programs.) Represent complex products or services, which require sophistication to explain quickly over the phone, and a sales person to truly close the sale. Typically call for high-margin or repeat-purchase products or services. Never read from a script, even when answering objections. Ask open ended questions. Become knowledgeable about the product or service to answer simple questions and sound as though you’re sitting right in your client’s office. “Navigate” a prospective company’s calling system to find the right decision maker - normally this means not using an automatic dialer because callers might make 3 dials for every record to find your decision maker. Update your record with the correct decision maker. Excellent notes so the next time you (or a colleague) call(s) the company you can reference previous conversations. Lead an interested prospect to a sales appointment - at some future date - and keep the sales momentum! Get off the phone as soon as you sense there is no need or no interest. This might be after one objection. Do not call a prospect again (by you or a colleague) - EVER - if he or she asks to be removed from future calls. Never jeopardize your client’s reputation by being perceived as a pest. Don’t sell over the phone, only identify potential sales/leads. Your job is to know enough not to be dangerous, since products or services are typically quite complex and require a sales person to close the sale. The program’s overall success depends delivering qualified leads AND on the sales person’s ability to close your appointments. Making a lot of appointments is NOT ENOUGH!!

This list can help any company identify the technical capabilities, caller-skills, and process requirements to make a phone campaign successful. VSA is happy to answer questions, regardless of whether you make calls in-house, are looking for traditional telemarketing, or want to outsource a B2B cold calling campaign.

If you are using generated leads and your sales have not increased by a significant amount, you might want to check into telephone lead generation. By using the telephone to generate leads, the telemarketer can ask questions, which will narrow down the market to those who are most likely to be interested in utilizing your product or service.

You will be able to determine whether or not the business is a good prospect by the way they respond to the questions asked. This is considered a targeted lead because it has sifted through a large number of businesses, the majority being those with little or no interest in your product or service. This will avoid wasting the time of your sales personnel.

If you have not done so, you will need to determine the type of business who is in need of your product or service. Pay attention to the type of business, their current situation, the number of employees, and other useful information. All these qualities will help you determine your target audience and in able you to find them through their responses to specific questions. Be aware you don’t narrow your search so much you miss out on sales you could have had. You could inadvertently rule out some businesses in need of your product in an effort to narrow down your target audience.

As you are finding the qualified prospects you need, you can also include questions, which will give you some feedback. You would be able to find out the likes and dislikes of those using your type of product or service, even if it is not your product or service. This will inform you of the dos and don’ts. You will have the opportunity to correct a mistake before it is made.

Setting up a telemarketing department in your business can be costly. It may however increase your bottom line enough to offset the cost. This may ultimately depend on the cost of your product or service. If your company has no desire at this time to start a telemarketing department, there are companies you will do the telemarketing lead generation for you. This is a decision your company will have to make based on the numbers.

By using telephone lead generation, your sales personnel will have a better chance at making a sale. Your sales personnel will be working with target generated leads, which should increase your sales by a significant amount. Since so many things must be worked out through trial and error, you may find yourself changing the questions until you find the right questions to ask.

If you are weighting the benefits of outsourcing your teleprospecting for sales leads against setting up your own teleprospecting program in house, you are trying to decide which will be most cost effective way to go for the leads you need to increase your sales.

So we are going to look at both sides of the coin for you to determine which one is best for your business. Starting with an In House Program you will first need to advertise for applicants. Then there will be the screening, interviewing, and hiring the applicants.

Next step will be to train the new hires along with supervising, monitoring and motivating the new employees. Cold calling is tough, so there will be a lot of monitoring to keep them on the phone and motivating to keep up their attitudes.

Script writing is a must. You will need to have some basic plan of actions for them to take in order to get the information you need from the businesses. You will need to provide them with answers to unexpected questions which may arise during the course of the phone conversation.

You will need to keep track of the results of the phone calls in order to determine whether you are acquiring the information you need. You will also want to know the progress being made by the telemarketers. This will enable you to weed out the ones who are not performing to the standard you have set.

Finding and making space for the telemarketers along with setting up the phones and making out schedules. Then there are the payroll taxes, the insurances, the actual phones, chairs, desk, etc need by each telemarketer. There are other expenses not yet mentioned here, but this will give you an idea of what to expect if you choose to set up an in house teleprospecting program.

If you choose to outsource your teleprospecting needs, you will be required to pay a price for the service they will provide, however the cost should be less than what it would cost you to start an in house teleprospecting program. They already have the quality people needed to get the job done in a shorter amount of time than it could take you to get it yourself. Their people will implement your project immediately, while you will have none of the headaches and all the rewards.

The HVAC industry grew up on personal relationships between wholesalers and contractors. Now, converting these familiar relationships into real business partnerships is a goal of many wholesalers, Why? Because wholesalers want secure revenue stream that result from contractors’ business loyalty. Wholesalers know contractors are increasingly willing to work with those who make business easier and walk from those who don’t.

Today, times are hard for HVAC contractors. New companies are entering the market and taking business from existing players. The labor pool for qualified staff has tightened. As parts and equipment become increasingly sophisticated, purchasing and training have become more complicated. Not least of all, contractor margins are dropping. Contractors know that the wholesalers who help them will be able to give these contractors a competitive advantage.

So how can wholesalers create a business partnership? Ironically, it’s through SERVICE, from telephone etiquette to honoring a delivery commitment. Excellent service translates into trust. Trust leads to an ongoing business partnership and revenues. Service - it’s the new name of the game.

Here are 10 ways wholesaler organizations can use service to become better business partners with contractors. Some are common-sense ideas, while others point to the wave of the future.

#10 Offer an online warranty program Several manufacturers and some wholesalers do this already. Wholesalers, with the right planning and foresight, could adopt expanded programs. Wholesalers would allow contractors (even if availability were limited to the best contractors) to identify and record faulty items online and automatically receive a credit on their wholesaler accounts up to a certain limit. The wholesaler would pass this amount back directly to the manufacturer. The contractor would take responsibility for discarding the items immediately. No questions asked. No need to mail the parts to the manufacturer. This program would save time and money, and create goodwill.

One large commercial and residential contractor, Hutchinson Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, Inc. of New Jersey, is working directly with a manufacturer on a warrantee program, piling the malfunctioning parts in a high heap before disposal. This contractor would seriously consider sending business to a wholesaler who offered a similar program.

#9 Handle customer phone calls with respect. Phone interactions between a wholesaler and a contractor are critical and are indicative of how the two organizations will work together down the road. Some key guidelines for the wholesaler include: a.) show enthusiasm and interest in the contractor’s concerns - even to the little guy; b.) answer the phone call quickly, within six rings; c.) transfer callers no more than twice, and ask permission before doing so; d.) if you absolutely must put contractors on hold, do so no more than once, again asking permission; e.) return calls within 2 hours. One Philadelphia-area mechanical contractor, Industrial Valley Service, Inc. returns calls immediately upon receipt of the message. This contractor attributes their business success in part to this practice. Wholesalers may want to adopt this approach and evaluate it themselves.

Once a contractor begins the sales process with the wholesaler, try to keep the same representative working with the contractor throughout the estimating and purchasing process. This is not always possible. However, it makes for a stronger relationship that will affect future business. An obvious mistake that some wholesalers make is they don’t live up to their time commitments. If the wholesaler promises to get estimates by 4:30 p.m., he or she must do so.

Contractors like to start the estimating and purchasing process via phone, but they need to have something in writing, so fax is the preferred method of receiving the prices. Wholesalers must send the fax within the promised time frame. One small residential contractor complained that many wholesalers do not deliver estimates as promised. This has promoted him to change companies.

Sometimes a contractor may need a price immediately via phone for an urgent job. If the wholesaler has committed immediate turnaround, it’s incumbent upon him or her to deliver estimates immediately.

Large contractors prefer to be connected directly with the sales staff, from whom they feel they receive better treatment. They don’t mind automatic answering devises; believe their messages are more accurately captured on an answering machine than when transcribed by an assistant. Smaller contractors prefer a direct connection to the counter. They view the counter staff as more knowledgeable about products and prices, and more concerned about them. Smaller contactors vehemently dislike the automatic answering devises and may take their business elsewhere.

#8 Take advantage of the Internet The web is an excellent way to present information on products and prices, as well as on upcoming products and new services.

One contractor called the internet “perfect for replacing those huge catalogs.” It allows for quick updates of new pricing and product lines. Contractors can review the information off-hours. Once the Web site is up and running, it frees wholesaler staff from providing the same information via phone or fax. One caveat: The Internet site must be easy to use, especially for smaller contractor who may not be computer-savvy. Wholesalers who are installing a Web site for the first time should ask some of their customers to try it our first. Jerry McGinnis, the owner of Southampton, NJ based McGinnis HVAC, said if a wholesaler’s Web site was confusing, he wouldn’t use it and would consider leaving the wholesaler if he was forced to go there for pricing and product information.

Hutchinson sees other benefits in addition to product and pricing information in Web sites. This contractor has downloaded engineering guidelines, technical guides, and has used the Web site for troubleshooting. Another contractor downloaded a complete service manual from a Web site, after registering the model and serial number of the equipment he was researching.

A serious consideration before launching a Web site, however, is how frequently the wholesaler will maintain it. You minimize the benefits of the site if the information is outdated. Industrial Valley Service uses Web sites to learn ballpark prices but always confirms with a phone call. They have seen situations where no one bothered to update prices.

Great as Web sites might be, some less computer-savvy contractors may still need help. Wholesaler staff should be knowledgeable about their manufacturers’ and their own sites to direct contractors who call them via phone to the right Web site location.

#7 Introduce new products and product upgrades. A great way for the wholesaler to gain more business is to introduce the contractor to new products and product upgrades that serve his market. Contractors want to know about new developments and welcome this kind of input from wholesalers.

However, this requires the wholesaler to know something about the contractors they service to ensure genuine and relevant advice. This kind of communications is truly a win-win. Wholesalers may gain more business and longer business relationships. Contractors are aware of products they previously had not known of.

Industrial Valley Service says they often receive sample parts, perhaps costing the wholesaler $50. Because the wholesaler knows Industrial Valley Service business, he knows which parts fit Industrial Valley Service’s business needs. In fact, the contractor has responded to such free distributing by buying multiple new products.

There are many ways wholesalers can introduce new services and upgrades to their contractors: communication on the phone, free samples, coupons for redemption, etc.

Those wholesalers that don’t try to upgrade their contractors will be missing out on potential business.

# 6 Offer appropriate credit lines and recognize contractors who pay on time. Contractors spread their purchasing power among several (sometimes many) wholesalers, even if they favor one or two, in order to establish and maintain the credit lines, ensure the best prices, and retain purchasing power.

Of course, wholesalers provide credit lines. Certain contractors are fastidious about paying off their depts. McGinnis said he saw a direct correlation in the service and attention he received, and the regularity with which he paid his outstanding balance. He then sold a large piece of business and needed a much larger credit limit. He talked directly to the accounts receivable folks at his wholesaler, who within 20 minutes offered him a credit limit three times his own limit for this specific new job. He therefore had two credit lines with the wholesaler. The contractor was delighted at his new purchasing power. Likewise, the wholesaler had established a critical link between the contractor and himself by offering the credit line. Once again, it was a win-win situation.

# 5 Avoid hidden costs, such as freight and shipping- especially for small contractors. If respect and trust are keys to keeping long-term customers, make it a point to tell contractors upfront about costs they will incur but are not necessarily the cost of the product. One contractor made a special order without knowing there was a $75 dollar special order charge. The wholesaler failed to quote this charge when he estimated total expenses. Therefore he did not include it in the price to the customer. In the end, this contractor had to pay the $75 and absorb it from his own profit margin.

# 4 Provide training. Contractors say a wholesaler who provides training world be difficult not to do business with. Most say with the increasing sophistication of HVAC products, training on the electronic parts is an essential ingredient of staying in business.

Hutchinson Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling in fact said today’s workforce expect to be trained especially given the equipment sophistication and growth in electronic parts. Hutchinson invites manufacturers to its site for workforce training. But they’d send staff to wholesaler-sponsored training in an instant. Providing training demonstrates a wholesaler’s willingness to be a business partner and shows expertise in the industry.

One hint: Manufacturers would like a printed training calendar in advance. Wholesalers might want to schedule training during nonpeak periods when contractors are least reluctant to let staff attend the session.

# 3 Don’t commit to what you can’t deliver. If a wholesaler doesn’t carry a part, doesn’t have one in stock, or can’t get one overnight, the wholesaler should not commit to delivering the order. Industrial Valley Service says one of its most loyal wholesalers will occasionally suggest another wholesaler who stocks an item when it isn’t able to deliver. For Industrial Valley Service, that means getting the part on time, without the hassle of trying to find another distributor themselves. Instead of losing Industrial Valley Service as a customer, the loyal wholesaler has earned Industrial Valley Service’s respect. Being confident in the materials he does carry and in the service he offers, the loyal wholesaler is happy to help his contractors find other sources on the occasions he cannot help them.

# 2 Deliver accurately and on time. Without exception, this is the single biggest reason a contractor will stay with a wholesaler. Contractors count on receiving a delivery as ordered. They coordinate the people, machinery, temporaries, etc. to do a job at a designated time. Since labor is the biggest variable in a job, if the parts aren’t there, the contractor’s money is wasted.

And partial shipments aren’t enough. Contractors expect to receive the full shipment on time. Wholesalers who know there will not be a full shipment should call the contractor, even late the night before, to advise them of the problem. Most contractors would rather receive this late-night phone notice than find out the next morning.

For incomplete deliveries, wholesalers should provide corrective action. One contractor said that his wholesaler purchased parts at higher prices from other wholesalers or distributors to make the delivery complete. Hutchinson’s residential division uses a distributor whose motto is “we’ll never cause a missed real estate closing” because of parts not being there. This wholesaler will deliver upgraded materials before causing the cancellation of a new home closing.

Hutchinson, who is a bigger than some of the distributors and wholesalers they use, has a warehouse that for certain parts serves as the delivery point. A staff member checks the deliveries received and assembles the parts for the next several days’ jobs. This way, there is less likelihood of a shortage of parts.

One contractor said when the wholesaler doesn’t deliver; it’s the contractor who wears the black eye, the one staying up until midnight trying to rectify the situation. The same contractor said accurate, on-time delivery is more important now. In the past, contractors could get replacement parts and temporarily override the unavailable parts. Now, with the self-testing and self diagnosing aspects of HVAC equipment, this is not longer possible. Having the right parts is crucial.

Hutchinson says that to partially circumvent these situations, they ask for the relevant numbers of the responsible parties they deal with at wholesalers: cell phone, backup, after hours, and home phone numbers.

# 1 Know your contractor. To implement a truly effective service approach, the wholesaler needs to know his contractors. This means keeping notes on the contractor’s size, business focus, geography, and payment history, among other things. It might also mean keeping notes about hobbies. It’s not relevant whether you keep these notes on the computer, on note cards, or in a look-leaf binder. Just having knowledge of the contractor is critical to building that trust and business partnership that will keep the contractor returning. A tip: Use the notes carefully without ever letting the contractor, or any other customer, know your method of remembering details about your contractors’ business.

What about price? So does all this talk about service mean that contractors don’t care about pricing anymore? On the contrary, they do. Underlying this discussion about service is the assumption that one wholesaler’s price is as competitive as another’s. Contractors will drive half a mile down the street to get the best price if they have to. Service is now the differentiator, all other things being equal, and is the key to building and maintaining business by business-savvy wholesaler.