You run two businesses, not one

Emergency repair and planned replacement share a van and nothing else. Same seven questions, answered twice, because the customer is a different person in each.

Module 2 of the Castells Media academy for contractors: Go to market.

The two customers

What each is actually buying

What you must not be mistaken for

How you sound, to two audiences

Where each one finds you

Which half of the business is which. Put your own numbers in. In most HVAC businesses the calls come overwhelmingly from one half and the revenue from the other, and the marketing is built for the half that produces calls.

Do this next: Answer the seven questions twice, once for emergency and once for replacement. If the two answers look the same, one of them is wrong.

Written by Castells Media, a marketing agency at 1298 Antelope Creek Drive, Roseville, California, working with home service businesses across the US.

Castells Media Inc, 1298 Antelope Creek Drive, Roseville, California