Tankless gas water heaters

bob eck

I will post this on the gas section. Just wanted to know if anyone is having success selling tankless gas water heaters for residential jobs? I am a salesman for a P&H wholesaler and when I quote TGWH to my customers I call them back to get the order and they tell me they could not sell it because the home owner said the price is to high. If you want please email me with what these jobs in your area are selling for. Most jobs they are quoting are for replacing tank type water heater and the gas line is not large enough so that has to be repiped adding existing cost to the job. For those of you who are closing these jobs what brand TGWH are you suing? What are the key selling points that you are giving to the home owner that is closing the sale? Just trying to help my customers sell these jobs. Thanks

Paul48

Reality

The next time that happens, take a drive by the address. You'll probably find a 15 year old pick-up in the driveway of an 1100 sq ft cape with aluminum storm windows, cupped shingles on the roof , and a chimney that half the mortar is missing.They wasted their time and yours.

Our best friends live in a home, that the square footage of my house would fit in their basement. When our wives go shopping, she never looks at price tags(my wife does). They'd buy 2 tankless units and never blink an eye.

Mark Eatherton

How to avoid wasting each others time...

Bob, Your plumbing customers need to learn how to screen their calls. There are a series of questions that will help prequalify potential customers, and automatically kick others out.



Simple questions like, "Are you prepared to spend $X,XXX.00 for your new virtually limitless hot water source?" If they were thinking $XXX.00 and you are talking $X,XXX.00, then you know not to waste each others time. And when quoting prices, always give a worst case scenario price, because if you give a range, the only number they will hear is the lowest number, so that when reality sets in, it's already out of their range.



The other thing that comes to mind, is selling based on the return on the investment. If you can justify the expenditure, the chances of closing the deal are much better. Don't speak in percentages, instead, speak in time terms. It will take XX months to recoup the difference in the investment versus replacing like with like. If they are hooked on percentages, let them figure out that part for themselves.



With tankless heaters, in addition to eliminating the continual standby losses, you are creating a virtually endless supply of hot water, and that, in and of itself, may be enough to convince the MAN of the house (surrounded by beautiful women with long hair, that can kill a 50 gallon tank of hot water in a heart beat, leaving the man with NO hot water), may not need any economic justification. All he wants is a hot shower....



As far as undersized gas lines are concerned, if ONLY the tank less could be powered by the existing gas line, maybe a DHW priority system (pressure switch on the tankless burner to interrupt the space heating appliances operation) would cost less than a new gas line. You will still have to deal with the venting issues tho...





HTH



ME

furnacefigher15

Also

The new heater does not need to be located in the same place as the old heater.



A plumber that I know sells these all the time, and I am not sure of his sales procedures, but I do know that he is fairly creative with where he locates these units. For him, he finds it less expensive to reroute the water lines, then it is to re-engineer the gas lines.



He uses any brand that will bring in it's own outside air, so that way he does not have to worry about combustion air, and he locates the unit as close as possible to the point where the gas pipe comes into the house so, he only has to re-work a few feet of gas line.



But without question, a tank less gas hot water heater will all ways be more then swapping a tank for a tank.



But, when your selling a Tank less, you are not selling a water heater, you are selling a hot shower anytime of the day for as long as you want it to last, no matter how many kids you have.



I know that's why I bought mine, the operational cost savings were just icing on the cake.