Results for HVAC Companies

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BGS Strategies coaches independent heating and cooling owners doing $3 million to $20 million a year, across the United States and Canada. Four air conditioning owners have put their names to what changed inside their own companies, and their letters are below. Kerry Webb has spoken to HVAC contractor associations since 2011.

An older man going over a sheet of notes with a younger worker in a workshop

Where the Money Goes in a Heating and Cooling Company

Kerry's first question in an air conditioning company is not what the revenue did. It is where the revenue went. Revenue growth does not create profit growth on its own, and in this trade the extra money gets absorbed in a short list of places nearly every time. What follows is the list he works through when he opens a company's books.

Labor inefficiency comes first, because it is the largest and the least visible. Billable hours against hours paid, across a year that runs the crew ragged in July and leaves half of them looking for work to do in October.

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Pricing and discounting sit together. A heating and cooling company sells a flat rate diagnostic and a five figure changeout out of the same truck, and the two are rarely priced with the same discipline. He looks at what gets discounted, who is allowed to discount it without asking, and what that standing permission costs across a season.

Material costs and job costing come next. Equipment, refrigerant, sheet metal, line set and crane time on an installation, set against what that job actually invoiced. Plenty of companies in this size band have never closed the loop on a single completed changeout, which means nobody in the building knows which jobs make money.

Callbacks are the quiet one. How often a unit has to be visited twice, what the second visit costs in parts, labor and another drive, and what it does to the review a customer was about to leave.

Drive time is the other quiet one. In a market with any spread to it, the dispatch board decides the day before the technicians do. Two unbilled hours a day on a truck is a technician's wage you are paying for nothing.

Conversion and average ticket are where most owners think the problem is, and they matter. Calls booked out of calls received, replacements sold out of replacements quoted, and what a service call averages when a technician presents the whole picture properly rather than fixing the one thing they were sent for.

Technician performance is last on the list and first in the difference it makes. The spread between your strongest technician and your weakest on the same call in the same week is not a personality problem. It is trainable, it is measurable, and until somebody measures it nobody manages it.

Two structural pressures make an air conditioning business harder to run than the profit and loss suggests. The first is seasonality, which lets a good July hide a bad year until the year is over. The second is labor, and it is not getting easier: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps the national picture on heating and air conditioning technicians if you want the numbers behind what you already feel every hiring season. Every technician who opens a sealed system also has to hold EPA Section 608 certification, which is a genuine training and scheduling cost rather than a formality, and the Air Conditioning Contractors of America is where much of the trade's own standards work lives. For the full set of measures, read the numbers an HVAC owner should be reading weekly.

How Ninety Days Runs in an HVAC Company

Every client starts in the same place, with the 90-Day Plan.

It opens with six checks: a Profit Leak Analysis, a Labor Efficiency Review, a Service Health Check, a Sales Analysis, a Customer Experience Journey and an Enterprise Value Score. That is the before, and it is written down so nobody can remember it differently in week twelve.

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Out of those six checks comes a short list, not a report. Three things worth attacking first in this company, in order, with the reason for the order. In an air conditioning business that order usually depends on where you are in the season, because installing a new dispatch discipline in the second week of July is a good way to lose both.

Then the ninety days. Coaching for the owner and the leadership team, live training for technicians, comfort advisors and the front desk, and the playbooks and scorecards that hold the standard once the training day is over. Alongside it sit dispatch, pricing discipline and the dashboards behind them.

Then the scoreboard, weekly, in front of the people actually responsible for the numbers on it. Then the after picture: the same six checks, ninety days on, against the same starting figures.

Client stories

What Four HVAC Owners Say Changed

David Boer, Boer Brothers Heating & Cooling, Plumbing

Grown. This is the only letter of the four that carries figures.

Kerry worked with us for many years as a business coach, technician coach, manager coach, and owner coach. Kerry understood that growing Boer Brothers was never just about revenue. It was about our employees, our customers, our families, the communities we serve, and the three brothers trying to build something meaningful together.

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Kerry helped us weather some very difficult storms. Just as importantly, Kerry helped us see and avoid many more before they ever reached us. There were plenty of times when we were too close to a situation to see it clearly. Kerry had a way of slowing us down, asking the right questions, and helping us find the best path forward even when it was not the easiest one.

Over the years we worked together, we more than doubled our revenue and grew into a $20-million-plus company. [...] But the numbers are only part of the story.

Kerry helped us become a better company. We became more organized, more accountable, and much more intentional about how we lead and serve. We adopted the Entrepreneurial Operating System through EOS and Traction, strengthened our management team, and built systems that allow the company to grow without losing its heart. We became a truly service-oriented business, not only in how we care for customers, but also in how we support our employees and one another.

Kerry also helped us expand beyond heating and cooling. We added plumbing [...] We opened another branch. That kind of growth can create enormous opportunities, but it can also create problems if the foundation is not strong. Kerry helped us build that foundation and think through growth in a disciplined, sustainable way.

When I look at Boer Brothers today, I can see Kerry's influence throughout the company: in how we lead, how our managers communicate, how our technicians serve customers, how we hold one another accountable, and how we make decisions about the future.

[...] If you are a business owner who truly wants to grow, not only in revenue, but also in leadership, culture, service, and lasting value, I cannot recommend Kerry highly enough. Kerry made a tremendous difference for Boer Brothers, for my family, and for me personally. We would not be the company we are today without that guidance.

David Boer, Co-Owner of Boer Brothers Heating & Cooling, Plumbing David Boer, Co-Owner, Boer Brothers Heating & Cooling, Plumbing

Darryl Robinson, Robinson Air

Built and sold. He met Kerry at a conference, became a client, and later got the exit he had been working towards.

We met Kerry at a conference several years ago and started training with him soon after. He helped us reach our long term goal of building and selling a great business, and with his help we reached that goal sooner than expected. He understood our culture and trained our staff within that framework. No one accomplished anything in a vacuum and we have had a lot of great folks support us, but Dr. Kerry Webb (yes, he's a doctor but I wouldn't ask for medical advice) is one of those that really put us over the top. I consider him a great friend as well.

Darryl Robinson, Founder of Robinson Air Darryl Robinson, Founder, Robinson Air, Lawton, Oklahoma

Steven Tibball, Exceptional Comfort Home Services

Carried into a company of his own. He was trained by Kerry inside somebody else's business, then left and started his own, and says he is still using it.

When I worked at Carolina Heating Service, you had a huge impact on me, especially in the way I learned to communicate with customers. A lot of what you taught me went far beyond simply knowing what to say, you helped me understand how to listen, ask better questions, communicate value, and most importantly, build trust with people. Those lessons stuck with me long after my time at Carolina Heating Service and have played a real part in my growth in the home service industry.

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I've since taken the leap and started my own home service company, and even though we're only eight months into the journey, I've already utilized so much of the communication training and principles you taught me. They've influenced not only how I communicate with customers, but also how I train my team and the kind of culture and customer experience we're building as a company. It says a lot that years later, now that I'm sitting in the owner's seat and building a company of my own, I still find myself going back to things you taught me.

Steven Tibball, Owner of Exceptional Comfort Home Services Steven Tibball, Owner, Exceptional Comfort Home Services, South Carolina

That is the test most training fails. It stops working the day the trainer leaves the building.

Ryan Snow, Western Heating & Air Conditioning

Trained, then coached. His company came to a business boot camp first and hired Kerry afterwards.

I've known Kerry for almost 20 years. He made a big impact on my business as we attended his business boot camp training. He has a great way to present the materials and keep everyone focused and engaged.

We also retained him as our business coach. Kerry understands what it takes to help companies become financially successful.

Ryan Snow, GM, Western Heating & Air Conditioning, Orem, Utah

A seated man talking through papers on a workbench with a colleague leaning in beside him

The purpose of BGS is to create a better life for the owner and their employees.

Kerry Webb

What the Numbers Show

Kerry Webb keeps revenue, service ticket and replacement figures for the heating and cooling companies he has coached, and the list below is his own reported results for nineteen of them, company by company. They are what each company reported, not a promise of what yours will do.

"Service average" is the average service ticket. "Average changeout" is the average value of a replacement system sold. "Calls per changeout" is how many service calls it took to produce one replacement sale, so a lower number is the better one.

  • HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical in Ohio. Revenue increased $6.66M (+120%). Service average rose $295 to $325 (+$30 / 10%); average changeout rose $5,868 to $9,989 (+$4,121 / 70%).
  • Plumbing and Heating in Indiana. Revenue increased $5.64M (+163%). Service average rose $178 to $335 (+$157 / 88%); average changeout rose $5,907 to $9,442 (+$3,535 / 60%).
  • HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical in North Carolina. Revenue increased $4.73M (+45%). Service average rose $281 to $427 (+$146 / 52%); calls per changeout fell 10 to 6; average changeout rose $10,425 to $13,808 (+$3,383 / 32%).
  • HVAC in South Carolina. Revenue increased $4.44M (+46%). Service average rose $230 to $419 (+$189 / 82%); calls per changeout fell 10 to 6; average changeout rose $8,405 to $10,248 (+$1,843 / 22%).
  • HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical in North Carolina. Revenue increased $4.26M (+60%). Service average rose $165 to $401 (+$236 / 143%); calls per changeout fell 11 to 6.5; average changeout rose $7,818 to $11,395 (+$3,577 / 46%).
  • HVAC in Florida. Revenue increased $2.94M (+128%). Service average rose $156 to $475 (+$319 / 204%); calls per changeout fell 11 to 5; average changeout rose $7,842 to $11,099 (+$3,257 / 42%).
  • HVAC in Texas. Revenue growth is $2.70M with total growth reported at 161%. Service average rose $221 to $290 (+$69 / 31%); calls per changeout improved from 12 to 4.
  • HVAC in Chicago. Revenue increased $2.67M (+25%). Service average rose from $372 to $550 (+$178 / 48%). Service calls per changeout improved from 19 to 6.
  • HVAC in Texas. Revenue rose $2.02M (+55%) from the prior total to $5.68M. Average changeout value increased $2,078, from $10,620 to $12,698.
  • HVAC in South Carolina. Revenue increased $1.92M (+51%). Service average rose $241 to $409 (+$168 / 70%); calls per changeout fell 8 to 6; average changeout rose $10,268 to $13,528 (+$3,260 / 32%).
  • HVAC in Texas. Revenue increased $1.90M (+619%). Service average rose $403 to $457 (+$54 / 13%); average changeout increased $10,314 to $12,267 (+$1,953 / 19%).
  • HVAC in Texas. Revenue increased $1.38M (+44%). Service average rose $289 to $678 (+$389 / 135%); average changeout rose $7,503 to $11,394 (+$3,891 / 52%).
  • HVAC and Plumbing in Texas. Service average rose $311 to $497 (+$186 / 60%); calls per changeout fell 11 to 6; average changeout rose $8,466 to $11,205 (+$2,739 / 32%).
  • HVAC in New Jersey. Revenue increased $1.16M (+39%). Service average moved from $266 to $346 (+$80 / 30%) after a first-year dip; average changeout rose $7,445 to $11,006 (+$3,561 / 48%).
  • HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical in Atlanta, Georgia. Revenue increased $948,336 (+32%). Average changeout rose $4,891 to $12,371 (+$7,480 / 153%).
  • HVAC in South Carolina. Revenue increased $859,064 (+82%). Service average rose $274 to $484 (+$210 / 77%).
  • HVAC in South Carolina. Revenue increased $700,445 (+24%). Service average rose $186 to $235 (+$49 / 26%); average changeout rose $9,575 to $11,164 (+$1,589 / 17%).
  • HVAC in Oklahoma. Revenue increased $584,853 (+34%), from $1.72M to $2.31M.
  • HVAC in North Carolina. Revenue increased $556,708 (+54%). Service average rose $404 to $582 (+$178 / 44%); calls per changeout improved 9 to 7; average changeout rose $9,065 to $16,067 (+$7,002 / 77%).

Kerry on the HVAC Side

Kerry has spoken to air conditioning contractors and the associations they belong to since 2011:

  • South Carolina HVAC Contractors Association, 2020. "12 Keys to Double Digit Net Profits".
  • Southern Nevada Air Conditioning Refrigeration Service Contractors Association, Las Vegas, 2018. Keynote, "Growing Your Business the Easy Way".
  • Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors' National Association, Maui, Hawaii, 2017. Keynote, "Profit Strategies for Success".
  • South Carolina HVAC Contractors Association, January 2017. "Rewarding Your Team Without Breaking the Bank".
  • ComforTech National HVACR, Hydronics and Plumbing Conference, 2016. "Creating Customers for Life".
  • South Carolina Heating and Air Conditioning Association, March 2016. "Operational Systems for Success".
  • Trane International, Columbia, South Carolina, March and October 2015. "Profit Strategies for HVAC Owners".
  • ComforTech National HVACR, Hydronics and Plumbing Conference, September 2015. "Recruiting Tips and Tools for Contractors".

Darryl Robinson's company found Kerry this way: "We met Kerry at a conference several years ago and started training with him soon after." Kerry Webb's full speaking record runs longer than this list.

What Applies to an HVAC Company

Coaching for the owner and the leadership team is where an owner who is still the bottleneck starts, because nothing downstream holds while every decision still routes through one desk.

Live training for technicians, comfort advisors and the front desk is the part that reaches the people your customers actually meet, with weekly reinforcement rather than a single motivating day.

Dispatch, pricing discipline and the dashboards behind them is the operational half: service call conversion, daily capacity planning and a scoreboard that shows the season while it is happening instead of after it.

The playbooks and scorecards are what your own people can pick up and use this week if you would rather start there than start with a coach.

If plumbing is the bigger half of your business, read the plumbing side of the trade instead, and read all five letters if you want the whole set.

Questions

Frequently Asked Questions: HVAC Companies

Which HVAC companies are quoted on this page?

Boer Brothers Heating & Cooling, Plumbing, Robinson Air of Lawton, Oklahoma, Exceptional Comfort Home Services in South Carolina, and Western Heating & Air Conditioning of Orem, Utah. Each letter was written by the owner or general manager named, with cuts for length marked by a bracketed ellipsis.

Where does profit usually leak in an HVAC company?

Labor inefficiency, pricing and discounting, material costs, callbacks, drive time, conversion, average ticket and job costing that nobody ever finished. Those are the places Kerry Webb looks first when he opens a heating and cooling company's books. Which one is costing you most is a question the first six checks answer.

What HVAC experience does Kerry Webb have?

He has been presenting to air conditioning contractors and their associations since 2011, including keynotes for the sheet metal and air conditioning contractors' national association and for the Southern Nevada contractors association. He has coached and consulted home service owners since 2008. He brings business management to the trade rather than trade knowledge.

Will my technicians be trained, or only me?

Both. Coaching covers the owner and the leadership team, and live training reaches technicians, comfort advisors and the people answering the phone. The scorecards then keep the standard in place after the training day, which is the part that decides whether any of it survives the next busy week.

Does BGS Strategies help with maintenance agreements?

Yes. Agreements presented on the call, signed, and still on the books a year later is one of the places the counting starts. In a seasonal trade it is also what keeps trucks moving in the shoulder months, so it gets measured monthly rather than looked at once a year.

What happens in the first ninety days?

Six checks give a written starting picture. Three priorities come out of them, in order, with the reason for the order. Coaching, live training and the scorecards run against those three for ninety days. Then the same six checks are run again and set beside the first set.

Does this work in a seasonal business?

Seasonality is the reason the order of work matters. A change that helps in March can cost you in July, so the sequence is built around your season rather than around a template. The scoreboard is read weekly for the same reason, because a quarter is too long to wait in this trade.

What does coaching cost?

The business assessment is free, and Level 1 of the Skool community is free. It contains the 7 Step Method, and the community on Skool is free to join. There is no trial period and no card required.

To get the full set of the 7 Step Tools, serious clients move to Level 2 membership on Skool at $295 a month. If you want to fast-track your growth and success, sign up for the 90-Day Plan at $7,500. To learn more, register for the $100,000 Conversation webinar.

Book the $100K Conversation

Or call 940-441-3231 or email support@bgsstrategies.com, Monday to Friday, 7 AM to 4 PM Central, and note that calls before 10 AM usually reach voicemail because Kerry is coaching. You can also send a message and he will call you back.

Or send us a note

Tell us what is going on in the business, and Kerry will call you back.

Book the $100K ConversationBusiness Assessment