With all the HVAC businesses in the world, it can be difficult to make your company stand out among the sea of competitors. While competition can be fierce, there are a variety of lead generation practices your company can follow to generate new commercial HVAC leads.
Here are some ways to get started on lead generation for your HVAC company:
- Identify Your Ideal Commercial HVAC Lead
- Integrate B2B Appointment Setting Into Your HVAC Sales Strategy
- Follow Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Best Practices To Generate HVAC Leads
- Promote Targeted Ads on Search Engines and Social Media Platforms
- Streamline Everyday B2B Marketing and Sales Processes
Identify Your Ideal Commercial HVAC Lead
Whether you practice inbound or outbound lead generation, identifying your target audience is essential for delivering the best pitch and content to the right leads. Once you know the wants, needs, and interests of your target market, you have the opportunity to build a buyer persona around your industry’s key decision-makers (KDM). After you discover your ideal commercial HVAC lead, your content creators can write pieces tailored to your audience and create messaging for your sales team that helps them sell more.
Before you implement an HVAC sales strategy, you must have a clear idea of the following:
- Target industries
- Most common KDMs (small business owners, facility managers, etc.)
- Demographics of potential buyers
- Wants, needs, and interests of prospective companies
If you know what your ideal customer looks like, you’ll ultimately be able to sell more because you can pitch them products and services that align with their interests and buyer personas.
Integrate B2B Appointment Setting Into Your HVAC Sales Strategy
While many B2B companies like to prioritize their digital marketing efforts today, they forget about the significant impact outbound sales development practices, like B2B appointment setting, have on their business growth. With a B2B appointment setting program, companies can find high-quality leads and pitch their company’s products and services.
For an HVAC appointment setting program to be sustainable, it must follow these stages:
- Prospecting: During the prospecting stage, sales and data analysts find prospective businesses that meet your company’s sales qualifications. However, it’s up to your sales reps to discover who the decision-maker is for your HVAC company’s product or service. As a rule of thumb for the HVAC industry, a common KDM is Facility Managers, so asking for this individual may be the best place to start.
- Lead qualification: Once a sales rep discovers who the KDM is, it’s important for them to gather other crucial contact information, such as their job title, email address, and direct phone number, if applicable. Additionally, SDRs must identify qualifiers for your HVAC company’s services, such as the building’s square footage of conditioned space. For a more significant ROI, an HVAC lead’s square footage of conditioned space must be over 10,000 sq/ft.
- Lead nurturing: Many leads don’t convert to sales appointments after the first dial, which is why sales reps need to nurture leads in the sales pipeline to guide them further toward the end of the sales funnel.
- Appointment setting: After weeks or months of nurturing a qualified lead in the sales pipeline, it’s time for a sales development representative (SDR) to set the sales appointment. Once a lead is at the end of the sales funnel, the SDR will arrange the meeting so a member of your sales team can give a personalized sales pitch.
An outbound appointment setting program allows HVAC contractors to develop and maintain a predictable sales pipeline. A common issue that HVAC companies run into when it comes to building a B2B appointment setting program is that they don’t know how to sustain it for the long haul. Many HVAC business owners choose to outsource their B2B appointment setting services because it enables them to put their lead generation efforts in the hands of a trusted third party and focus more on day-to-day operations.
Follow Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Best Practices To Generate HVAC Leads
While a good-looking website is great for attracting the eyes of potential buyers, it’s not practical if there’s no way for them to find it on search results. By following SEO best practices, your HVAC company can maximize your online presence and find interested buyers that aren’t already in your outbound sales pipeline.
Practicing SEO is an essential part of your online marketing efforts because it allows your company to be more easily found online. For instance, if a user types in the phrases “HVAC services near me” or “quick air conditioning repair,” your company has the opportunity to show up at the top of their search results. This will position you as the best option and encourage them to do business with your HVAC company.
It’s important to remember that, like an outbound appointment setting program, SEO services are not a one-and-done solution for generating high-quality leads. For an SEO strategy to be successful, your content marketing team must consistently write relevant, user-focused content.
Here are some SEO best practices to help you optimize your HVAC website:
- Build your website for mobile users (this is ideal for users looking for an immediate solution because they’re most likely searching for emergency HVAC repairs from their mobile devices)
- Optimize page speed so your website has quick load times
- Focus on adding internal and external links to enhance navigation
- Prioritize local SEO so you’re targeting intended users in your market
Promote Targeted Ads on Search Engines and Social Media Platforms
As an HVAC company, pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns can help you boost your revenue and increase website traffic. When potential customers have a specific need, they might search for a particular target keyword, like emergency HVAC repair. When they enter this keyword into the search bar, your targeted ad will pop up at the top of the search results for easy access.
When promoting ads for social, they show up based on a user’s frequent search results. For instance, if they search for “emergency HVAC repairs” but aren’t directed to your Google ads, these ads can pop up on their social media profiles for greater visibility and brand awareness.
The HVAC industry is also an incredibly seasonal business, so finding leads consistently throughout the year can be challenging. By implementing targeted ads into your lead generation strategy, you have the opportunity to find new business opportunities and remind existing clients of the HVAC solutions you provide.
Streamline Everyday B2B Marketing and Sales Processes
Your HVAC lead generation idea may be great, but lead generation strategies are always more effective when used in tandem. When you streamline everyday B2B marketing and sales processes, you have the opportunity to generate more leads than if you were to only practice outbound or inbound lead generation on its own. Integrating marketing and sales processes enables more leads to enter the sales pipeline, which advances your lead generation efforts and results in a more significant return on investment.
For instance, let’s suggest that an SDR cold calls a lead that says they’re not in a position to reevaluate their HVAC contract yet. Until they’re ready to open up the conversation, the SDR can integrate them into a lead nurturing email marketing campaign to build the relationship over time. When the time comes for your SDR to follow up, the lead will be able to remember your brand and the valuable content you’ve provided for them.
Key Takeaways
Competition in the HVAC industry is fierce, so you must have a lead generation strategy to keep new customers on the line. As you think about lead generation for your HVAC company, it’s vital that you:
- Identify your ideal commercial HVAC lead
- Integrate B2B appointment setting
- Follow SEO best practices
- Promote targeted advertisements online
- Streamline marketing and sales processes
If you need a hand developing and implementing a lead generation strategy for your HVAC business that yields sustainable results, contact the sales and marketing experts at Abstrakt Marketing Group!
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