As I write this, temperatures are in the high 80s with humidity checking in around 73%. So, I must be a little nuts wondering if you’re ready for the upcoming fall heating season, right?

From where I sit, however, it’s never too early to begin thinking about what you will do to stay busy once summer wanes and the solar engine that drives the air conditioning business begins to cool down.

When that happens, it’s time to regroup and start thinking about the future. What changes do you want to make to advance the success and growth of your company at the beginning of the upcoming fall season?

Recruiting

The first thing to consider is your team. Do you have enough people to not only handle the tail end of the summer “crazy” season but to move forward with your growth plans for the upcoming year?

Many experts say recruiting is something you should always be doing, but September is when schools return to session. his fall season, maybe it’s time to reach out to local high schools to see if they have any career days planned and if you can participate. It’s never too early to start planting seeds.

Other ideas: With so many people out of work, you can reach out to special groups, like military veterans, minorities and women, and so on. What better time to do this than in the fall season?

Maintenance Agreements

Ron Smith, an HVAC Industry business guru and, perhaps, the father of the modern HVAC residential maintenance agreement program, once wrote that “The road to success in the HVAC Industry is paved with maintenance agreements.”

If you don’t have one, create one now! The fall heating season is the perfect time to begin selling them. If you already have one, maybe now is the time to update it with new service offerings.

Performance Testing

Speaking of updating maintenance agreements, do you include performance testing on yours? You should. Performance testing is a relatively low-investment, low-risk business you can add to your existing services that dovetails nicely with a healthy maintenance agreement base.

Performance testing lends itself to sales lead generation from your technicians who do static pressure and airflow testing on every call.

As Ron Smith also says, “Your best source of leads is from existing customers.” Maintenance customers can be the biggest source of performance testing leads and profits in the upcoming fall season.

Training

Let’s not forget the absolute need for training. As things slow down in the fall, you need to begin planning to reinvigorate your team with technical and soft skills training. Now is a great time to address any issues your techs may be having. Whether through virtual offerings, local classes, or in-house training, fall is the time to step this up.

By the way, networking is also very important. It’s probably been more than a year since you’ve gone to live meetings, conferences, and trade shows where you can mingle and network with peers. Talk about a great way to recharge your own batteries!

I could go on with more ideas, but the bottom line is this: as summer slows down, are you ready to move forward and take advantage of all the High-Performance opportunities that can enhance your upcoming heating season?