< Previous30 DECEMBER 2018HIGH PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAYtaught that six or 12 months "same as cash" is a good deal for customers, and helps close more sales. The truth is these deals are only good for customers who don’t need financing. True financing with three to five-year terms (longer if needed), is a better choice for custom-ers who need affordable payment plans. Coupled with your High-Performance solutions, good fi-nancing with reasonable interest rates will help many more customers decide to buy from you.5. Our company will charge what we’re worth. Many companies don't charge enough to cover the true costs of doing things right. As a Performance-Based Contractor, you invest in training and tools to deliver a higher level of per-formance than most of your competitors. Are you charging accordingly? Start by increasing service rates 10%. Good cus-tomers will barely notice. If you lose a few custom-ers, they're probably the ones you’d prefer to get rid of anyway! Be sure to charge enough for your improvements to make 60% or more Gross Profit on your labor and materials – you’re worth it!6. Our team will attend Summit Week 2019. This year a record 300+ like-minded in-dustry professionals will meet in Orlando, FL April 15-18 to improve and share knowledge on how to market, sell, and deliver High-Perfor-mance HVAC systems. Summit Week is the largest gathering of Per-formance-Based Contractors in North Ameri-ca. Learn more about all the great events, work-shops, general sessions, training, and more at www.GoToSummit.com. As I started thinking about the New Year over Thanksgiving weekend, it occurred to me that most of us wait until January to make our resolutions. Why not get a jump on it and think about what you might do differently before the year begins? Here are some resolutions to consider for 2019 that can help you on your path to becoming a Per-formance-Based Contractor™ :1. Our field people will test every system they touch. Are your service techs and installers required to test static pressures on every system they maintain, service, or install? How do you choose which customers deserve to have their system’s “blood pressure” checked and which don’t? Imagine if your doctor only checked vital signs when they felt like it. If it’s not already part of your culture, make static pressure testing on every system required in 2019.2. We will add Air-Upgrades to at least 25% of our installations. The typical HVAC system delivers less than 60% of its capacity. This means almost every system could benefit greatly from a $2,000 to $3, 000 Air Upgrade. Once you make them part of your offerings, your customers will choose these options more than half the time. 3. Our Comfort Advisors will stop selling and start helping customers get what they need and deserve. Are your salespeople still using outdated “hard close” sales techniques? To-day’s customers don’t respond well to high-pres-sure selling tactics. Thanks to the internet, they are more information savvy than ever. Most cus-tomers respond to companies that take the time to educate them and guide them through the buy-ing process, while helping them feel in control ev-ery step of the way.4. We will offer financing that makes sense for our customers. Too often we’re Dominick Guarino is publisher of High-Performance HVAC Today magazine and CEO of National Comfort Institute, Inc. He can be reached at domg@ncihvac.com ONE MORE THING...By Dominick GuarinoTwelve High-PerformanceNew Year Resolutions for 2019To access the next six resolutions be sure to read the full article at ncilink.com/2019ResolutionsNext >