Marketing?

don_110

would you want to do that to a piece of equipment that should be change in the first place?

I'm sorry Steve...but I see going that route not only do you
talk yourself right out of a sell,you also are not giving the customer the opportunity to take advantage of all the
new technology that comes with today boiler and furnaces.

I mean come on people we gets new cars every 10 years, well
why not spring for the new technology thats out there in the
hvac marketplace.

I would say you would be better all doing some mass mailing
and explaining how far we come with new technology and how
those big old passage ways still lets the heat travel to fast out the boiler and up the chimney robbing you of any
chance of transferring those btu even with that new burner.

S Ebels

How to??

In my travels on service calls and tune ups, I come across many old oil furnaces that are in good shape but have poor efficiency due to the pre-historic burners on them. On a few occasions I have replaced some of these old burners with an F-3 or F-5 and every one of them has shown astounding increases in efficiency. Most will go from the high 60% low 70% range into the neighborhood of 82-85%. The customers love them because of no smell, no smoke, less fuel use.

I feel that if it helps them get another 10 or so years out of their equipment and saves them 10-15% on their fuel bill it's a "good thing". (As Martha Stewart would say)

I've been pondering how to market this idea to people with these older furnaces. Do you think it would be best to do it through the fuel oil delivery companies. IE: have them enclose a letter/brochure from my company, in their monthly statements, explaining the benefits of a new burner. What other sources would be available to find out who has an older furnace?

Saturday morning looking for ideas.

Firedragon_4

There was a ton

of information available for this back in the heydays of oilburner retrofits.

Most of it can still be found here, although the burner choice is different.

http://www.beckettcorp.com/protect/marketing/salesandserviceguide/SandSguide.pdf

There's also some stuff here, but the oil industry has sadly lost sight of the goals and benefits of retrofitting older equipment, JMO!

http://www.norastore.org/

Stay with it, there's money to be made and accounts to be saved, FACT!

www.firedragonent.com

Mad Dog_2

That's all well and good Don, but

alot of folks either don't have the $$$$ at the time or have it and won't spend it. I think Steve's idea is has merit. Marketing it is another story. I have found that some oil companies have no interest in the customer saving any oil, if you know what I mean. However, if you have a foward-thinking oil company, they would be the place to start. Do a mailing with them - maybe go half. For Ex:
You get the retrofit job for X amount, and the customer has to lock in for a period of time. I LOVE walking in to a job and watching the look of bewilderment and then pleasant surprise when you tell a HO , NO! you really don't need a new boiler, right now. Depending on the condition of the boiler, I always like to offer the option. Mad Dog

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David_5

I agree

If you put a new burner in a 25 year old boiler or furnace then the customer will say in 10 years they just replaced the burner, why replace the whole thing. I would rather sell a new furnace or boiler. If the customer won't replace the boiler or furnace chances aren't great they'll go for the burner.

David

Firedragon_4

They spend some of it

to upgrade and from our viewpoint that means staying with oil. A new boiler may mean conversion, FACT!

Retrofit on oilburners works!

Without it from about 1974 on we (oilheat) may have lost it all instead of just 60% of the pre-1974 market.

I would never convince anyone with gas already to do anything but upgrade the whole thing.

jeff_51

marketing is all about getting in the door

selling is what you do once you get in the door. SELL them that new furnace or boiler after they have invited you in to look at that old burner. Do what is best for the cust, if they choose to reject it and are latter disatisfied, you can alway point out what you had recommended for their long term benefit. We take sometimes three hrs or more to go over the system and recommend to the cust what is the best fit for them. You have to sit down and talk to the cust to know that and to build up their confidence in you. Thats what sells jobs

don_107

Yea they spend

it on a new inground pool and big screen tv.Because they know you'll just keep nursing it along year after year.

Dave Mayer -3 Sons Heating

?efficiency?

I think that it is great to recognize the need for higher efficiency. But, you are only improving combustion efficiency. The savings in the combustion efficiency that you are selling is minimal compared to system efficiency. Even with a new American (pin type) boiler you can use outdoor temp reset, pipe it correctly, use a high eficiency burner and save the customers very large summs of money. Explain the options to them, educate them and help them to make the correct "informed" decision. JMHO. Dave

S Ebels

Dave, that's true with boilers..........

Not so true with furnaces. There are a lot of old Bards, Armstrongs and Thermoprides around here. The furnace itself rarely "dies", the burner just gets so ratted out that the people get sick of the smoke, soot and constant maintenance from the old burner. The HX itself is in good shape and as heavily built as these old dogs are, will probably last another 10-20 years. Much better than a lot of the new light weight rubbish being foisted off on homeowners today. Those old girls had some METAL in them. They are worth another burner and with some tweaking of the blower and a thorough check of the duct system they will give great efficiency.

In addition, there are a lot of folks who would have stayed with the better fuel (oil) if they had known they could get rid of the afore mentioned problems with a new burner. Instead, most heating guys around here recommend a new furnace and it is invariably an LP gas model because oil service is a lost art in these parts. They wouldn't know how to set up an oil burner if they sold one. So they just recommend gas and the customer puts up with noise, poor heat rise, reduced comfort and added fuel costs for the life of the equipment.

That being said, I agree with you 100% in regard to boilers. The new designs are so vastly superior that they make it worth the customers $$.$$ to upgrade. Three pass chambers, swing out doors, reset, indirect DHW, they all make to much sense to pass up.

Mad Dog_2

I Know Don ...I didn't say their thinking or decisions

were rational. Don't get me wrong, we love to sell a complete swap out, but when we can make big improvements on a boiler AND save them the cost of total replacement, we do. Mad Dog

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Firedragon_4

On that you're dead right

on don! If contracts disappeared attitudes would change, JMO!

joel_19

Lp????

WOW!!! Why anyone ever switch from LP to oil ?? LP is sooooo much more exspensive man are the oil salesman in your area so bad they can't sell against LP? must be easy to eat their lunch!

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Keith_8

Reliability

Oil companies are in business to sell oil. They lose their shirts with service contracts on old pieces of junk.

The majority of oil companies would gladly welcome their customers to willingly spend money to upgrade the system in anyway possible.

Why not contact a couple of the larger oil companies in your area. Sit down with the service manager, identify the problem accounts that would benefit the most from a burner swap out, figure out a per unit sell price and go after it. Now is the perfect time of year. If you wait much longer last years winter blues will faid from memory.

As someone who has sat in the office confused as to why any one would operate there household in such a sad state. For most people their home is their largest investment and when it comes to heat and hot water some treat it as if it is someone elses problem.

Pay for the new equipment, realize the increased efficiencies and comfort and when you do sell your home the increase in it's value.

Keith

Unknown

right on mad dog; cost-benefit decisions are not as simple as "yeah, drop $6k on a boiler now" for every job. Keep up the good work, I'm sure your clients are happy!

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Mad Dog_2

The only \"complaint\" we sometimes hear is:

"they're expensive, but you won't get a better job from anyone else." I can live with that. We just try to give 'em a fair shake and a heads up. Thanks NRT, Mad Dog

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S Ebels

Easy answer

Most people will go with what their furnace guy recommends because he's the "expert". The second part of the equation is that in this part of the country oil service or any service for that matter, is a dying art.

The gas furnaces on the market today are mostly throw away type units. There's nothing on them to fix or tune, just change out the dead part or the whole unit and head on over to the next one. 90% of the service techs around here are just parts changers, gas is simpler, or so they think. Therefore they recommend gas.

B. Tice

Burners

Sounds like around here. People think Lp is good. Ugh. Well, anyway, marketing burners is tough. I know because I've tried it.The Beckett Corp. does have alot of material available for free.As far as I'm concerned, a boiler can always use a new burner.Furnaces- Thermpride yes, but alot of the others are not worth it. Most older Bards I see are cracked. Armstrong can be either way.