Reviving Old-School Marketing: The Power of Direct Response Radio in HVAC

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Victor, how are you? It's so great to have you here on the program again.
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What's going on, Jim? Thanks for having me on. Yep. Hey, thanks so much for
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bringing me into the fold with what you do in HVAC. I appreciate it.
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It's been a few months now that we've been working together on radio.
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What kind of feedback do you have?
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You know, obviously, Jim, we and you have been going back and forth for years
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on, you know, finally pulling the trigger on this and a couple of different
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brands and, and finally I said, Hey, let's do it.
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And, uh, we think we rolled out a fifth score, you know, beginning of the year,
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something along those lines, maybe February.
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And, um, to be honest, I've done a lot of radio in the past on Southern California.
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I did a lot of branding radio, different go country radio stations,
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30 seconds, 60 second spots.
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And it was always really hard to track and really see the ROI on it.
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And of course we know we are getting it, but you know, it was hard to track.
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Uh, I think that's been the biggest difference noticing working with
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checker pro is that how the radio station and how
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the radio station you choose how you structure the actual
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interview on the radio and have that that
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uh thor data figure on there and you get the direct response
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where people are calling in right away uh it's been a breath of fresh air so
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i mean it's been awesome we've generated i don't know hundreds of leads at this
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point i believe and you know hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue and
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it's been it's been one of our more successful things and we don't do much i
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think we we we you kind of lend lead on the side of like more old school marketing.
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We do, we're doing radio, we're doing mail and we're doing things where people
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are kind of neglecting and putting off and we're trying to go where people aren't.
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Right. And I think that the radio has allowed us to do is that a lot of people
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have pulled out of radio or are doing it the right way.
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And you've allowed us to do it the right way. And it's been very successful
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and we're, you know, we're getting ready to open up more markets.
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So I know we're at Caswell, we're looking at Colorado, we're looking at other
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brands that we're looking to put this in.
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So I think it's going to be huge. But yeah, man, thanks for,
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thanks for, you know, obviously introducing me to this and obviously giving
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us an opportunity to work with you.
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Thank you, Victor. You know, what is old is new.
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So many people have been rushing into digital, digital saturated. It's important.
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You've got to be there. But a lot of home service companies have forgotten,
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or if they're relatively new to the space, they never did radio, TV, direct mail.
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And that is not dead yet And you know this All of the largest home service companies
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In any market The biggest ones Are on TV They're on radio They're doing direct
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mail They're doing print.
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Yeah. And I think, you know, a lot of guys, they just, they just depend so much
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on digital and digital so much. There's so many people out there on digital.
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There's so much, you know, clutter and don't know who to trust or all these
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things. And reviews don't really matter that much because everybody's got five-star reviews.
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So you've got to find a way to kind of stand out and also put people on the
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market that were not on the market, right?
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How do I get them that, or, you know, maybe they thought about,
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you know, the new system, but they haven't really, really thought about it.
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And now we're getting in front of them before our competitors ever get a chance
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to, we're able to put them on the market and take them off the market.
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Well, our competitors are sitting at home hoping for a Google lead to come in,
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hoping for a unit to break.
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I mean, we were running leads with you during the springtime when there was
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no weather, and we were crushing it on those leads.
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And now those people are never even going to see the other companies that could
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have came out there and won those bids.
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Well, it's a very proactive way. People are driving around in their trucks, in their cars.
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Maybe they're doing some work in their garage, 50-plus-year-old people.
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And they are not in the market at that point. They don't have a problem.
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So when there's a problem, the HVAC companies all get a call.
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Four or five companies come out. I have a problem.
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When you talk to them in a direct response fashion, they know they may have
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an old system. It may not be great.
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They don't know who to call, but they're like, okay, I heard this guy, Victor, on the radio.
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Sounds trustworthy. He's on the Checker Pro Radio Show.
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Jim, the host, has checked him out. I'm going to call now. So when you guys
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go out there, Victor, there aren't two other HVAC companies in the street waiting
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for you to leave to bid. They're only using you.
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Yeah, I think that's where we really try to lead most of our marketing, right?
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And we lead with tune-ups and service and while everybody else is waiting for
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the unit to break down. By the time the unit breaks down, they've hit Google,
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they've seen 15 different companies.
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And, you know, sometimes they've already called five different companies before
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they finally got to you to answer the phone.
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You know, and I know like right now, it's summertime just hit.
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It's 100 degrees outside.
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You know, yesterday, our phones are going crazy on repair calls.
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Well, we go knock on the door, there's already another company there.
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Or we're in the house and another company shows up and knocks on the door behind
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us. So this really allows us to have control of that customer,
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control the narrative from beginning to end, and not really let them hit the market.
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And we've seen higher closing percentages, also higher average tickets on maintenance
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come radio or mail or things along those lines, rather than,
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you know, trying to wait for those repair calls to come in where they've already
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started price shopping you and Google and everything.
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I suggest to all home service companies, regardless of category,
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whether it's HVAC, electric, plumbing, it doesn't really matter.
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If you can afford to get into the traditional mass media, radio and television,
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dip your toe in. Radio is the least expensive.
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But if you want to be a big guy, and we hear about this all the time at conferences,
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if you want to be a $20, $50 million company, you will eventually be in radio and television.
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Oh, 100%. It's just a natural progression. It's like one of those things is,
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you know, some of you guys might not be big enough, but at the end of the day,
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you know, we started, you know, Fisk School and my partner, well,
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they weren't big enough. They were a $2 million business this time last year,
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right? A $2.5 million business.
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And now we're going to be an $18 million business this year.
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But we also started investing in things that are going to grow our business.
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Direct response radio, obviously direct mail, everything along those lines.
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Yeah, I got a text from you last night, as a matter of fact,
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and you said you got like a $30,000 radio lead. What's that all about?
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Yeah, I think we had one. I think we went to the house, they had two systems
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and my guy ended up going in there on a maintenance call, come in for,
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I think we ran like a $19 tune-up special, right? Get us in the door.
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Got the guy in the doors, he spent some time. Obviously, you've got to have a dial-in process.
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One thing, the difference between a successful company and unsuccessful company
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is really what you do in the house, right? I don't care how many leads or what kind of leads you get.
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If you're not properly trained to convert them, like my guys are.
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Uh but yeah my guys are properly trained they run a proper tune-up process they
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educate the customers they ask you know they go through a presentation they
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ask for the sale and you know my guy last night walked away with a thirty thousand
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dollar deal uh on a maintenance call.
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Yeah um victor when it comes to spending money on radio direct response radio
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you have to answer your phone and that sounds silly but some companies don't
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and you have to have trained technicians to close the deal.
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Someone's got to be able to close the deal, the salesperson,
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technician, whoever that is, they need to be able to do that.
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So I tell home service companies all the time when they are thinking about investing
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in radio, which is not inexpensive, it's not out of the galaxy pricing,
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but you don't pay like $5 for a little ad on Facebook.
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I mean, this is this is more expensive. I tell them, you have to answer your
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phone and you have to be able to close the deal.
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You will get calls.
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You will be invited into their home and then you need to convert.
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Yeah. It's, it's like anything else though. I mean, if you invest in the training
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with your guys, you invest in the radio, it just, over time,
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it's just going to continue to, continue to grow and scale.
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And, you know, and I'm already looking, you know, I'm talking to Jim looking
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at possibly adding more radio stations and more growth, especially with Fiscor
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and Caswell and things along those lines.
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So yeah, I think if you're not investing in it, you should be.
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And if you aren't investing in it, I would get that and take that radio spot
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before your competitors fan in your market, right?
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Close out the market, get rid of those guys. And I know Jim's going to obviously
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try to make it to where you can work with those companies in that market and you take it over.
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And I would get on it before someone else takes it from you.
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Yeah, that's some good advice. Victor, thank you for joining me today.
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Really appreciate it, my friend. No problem, brother. Thanks again.