How to Sell Big-Ticket HVAC Maintenance Contracts and Service Agreements

Transitioning from selling residential HVAC maintenance agreements to “lightweight” commercial HVAC maintenance contracts doesn’t require a complete overhaul of your sales process or agreement structure.

For instance, when setting up a maintenance agreement for a small strip mall with mom-and-pop businesses, it's often simple to connect directly with business owners or decision-makers, much like you would with homeowners. The system maintenance is typically not extensive, and the associated contracts are relatively straightforward.

In contrast, the sales process is more complex when dealing with larger commercial or industrial-scale facilities. You need to understand how to identify decision-makers, navigate through gatekeepers, price contracts for profitability while avoiding sticker shock, and communicate in ways that resonate with prospects and ultimately allow you to close the deal.

If you can navigate this process effectively and close these larger service contract deals, you can lock in recurring revenue that bolsters the cash flow of your business. 

For this article, we interviewed ServiceTitan industry advisor, Johnathan Day, to get his advice on selling these larger HVAC service contracts. 

Below, we lay out the main steps and considerations for HVAC businesses with plenty of insights from his experience running and building large HVAC companies. We also walk through some of the ServiceTitan features that help HVAC shops manage and execute maintenance agreements and service contracts.

Table of Contents

• Step 1: Creating Opportunities and Identifying Decision-Makers

  • The Role of the Technician

  • Following Up on Service Calls

  • On-Site Visits

  • Cold Outreach

  • Navigating Through Gatekeepers

• Step 2: Pricing Bids Strategically

  • Avoid Sticker Shock by Targeting a Specific Need Within the Facility

  • Consider Seasonality

• Step 3: Closing the Sale

  • Consistent, Non-Invasive Follow-Up

  • Provide Added Value

• Other Considerations

  • Create a Dedicated Role or Department to Sell and Manage Commercial Contracts

  • Invest in Sales Training

• ServiceTitan Features for Streamlining HVAC Maintenance Agreements and Service Contracts

Step 1: Creating Opportunities and Identifying Decision-Makers

The Role of the HVAC Technician

A lot of times the best leads for selling larger service contracts are facilities that you’ve already visited for routine HVAC repairs and service calls. To maximize these opportunities, technicians should be trained to build trust or rapport with the lead maintenance personnel and, if possible, gather information about key stakeholders and decision-makers who would be involved in approving recurring service contracts.

Any information that can help with identifying decision-makers or setting up a site survey is a win. Additionally,  technicians and office staff should focus on delivering a great customer experience. In future conversations, it helps a lot if the company has a positive initial impression of you.

Following Up on Service Calls

Even if a strong relationship isn't established during the initial visit, following up on service calls provides a natural opportunity to turn that job into a more substantial engagement. 

Ideally, HVAC sales teams should be debriefed by the technician who took the service call to get any information they gathered. If you’re using HVAC software like ServiceTitan, technicians can record notes and upload photos and videos via our field service mobile app, and those assets can be easily accessed by staff in charge of following up.   

On-Site Visits

Visiting a site in person will often give you a significantly higher chance to actually speak to someone. When showing up without an appointment, try to speak with the lead maintenance person to start. You shouldn’t walk in and try to shoot straight for speaking with the general manager or CEO, even if that’s who you’ll need to eventually speak to. 

Just as when you’re following up on a service call, it’s helpful to gather whatever information you can about the business, facility, and staff beforehand, whether or not you’ve visited or serviced that facility previously. It helps to know some specifics about the equipment they have to provide you with some items to discuss.

For example, if you can see that the building has a chiller outside, you might say to the receptionist, “Hey, is your head of maintenance around? I just want to talk to them about the maintenance plan on your chiller.” By asking about something specific, you’re more likely to get them to give you some of their time versus coming in and trying to sell them on an extensive contract.

Cold Outreach

If you have the resources, cold emails and calls are also part of the playbook for creating opportunities to sell large maintenance and service contracts. There are B2B subscription services that provide pools of companies and contact information for their higher-ups including emails and phone numbers that you can use to reach out. 

Again, don’t shoot for the top and try to email the CEO who gets dozens of sales emails every day. Instead, depending on the size or structure of the company, try reaching out to the equivalent of a director or VP-level employee. These people often aren’t being advertised to as much, and are commonly in decision-making roles for individual sectors. In addition, if you need to get to a CFO to get a contract approved, VPs and directors communicate with those individuals.

In contrast, a lead maintenance person or facility manager might be five or six levels beneath those executive roles, making it a more difficult and longer process to get up the chain to decision-makers. This is why it’s important to take time to research and understand the structure of a company before reaching out. Once you have a list of companies and contacts, LinkedIn is a great tool for this.

Navigating Through Gatekeepers

Throughout all of the steps above, it’s common to encounter gatekeepers with varying levels of openness to talking with you and helping you get in contact with decision-makers. Sometimes rapport will be established easily, but often navigating through gatekeepers requires finesse.

Lead maintenance personnel or facility managers, for example, sometimes have a bit of an ego. They feel like they’re supposed to have the know-how and ability to take care of the facility and shouldn’t need outside help. If you don’t approach them carefully, they can feel like you’re stepping on their toes and might block you from getting up the chain. 

Understanding this mindset can help you in this scenario. If you can approach the gatekeeper as a partner, showing respect for their position, they’ll ultimately be more likely to help you get an introduction to someone with the authority to make purchasing decisions.

Step 2: Pricing Bids Strategically

Avoid Sticker Shock by Initially Targeting a Specific Need Within the Facility

When pricing a service contract for a small commercial facility like a strip mall with only two or three HVAC units and no full-time maintenance staff, it’s reasonable to pitch a contract for the entire building right from the start. However, when dealing with a large commercial facility with 100 units, for example, proposing a $15,000/month contract to service all their equipment can be a tough sell.

To address this, it’s often more effective to start with small but critical needs within the facility, such as maintaining essential equipment. Design your initial contract to focus solely on these key pieces of equipment. As you establish the working relationship, you can gradually expand the scope to include servicing more of the facility.

Consider Seasonality

Timing is crucial when pricing bids. The best time to approach companies is from October to December when they are finalizing budgets for the next year. This period provides an opportunity to align your services with their budget planning.

Mid-year (May-July) is the most challenging time to sell, as companies have often spent a significant portion of their budget. During this time, consider offering smaller contracts to get a foot in the door and set the stage for larger deals later in the year.

Step 3: Closing Service Agreement Sales

Consistent, Non-Invasive Follow-Up

The key to closing big-ticket contracts is consistent, non-invasive follow-up. In Johnathan’s experience, on average, it takes six contacts to close a deal in this industry. The approach is to maintain communication without being pushy, ensuring the potential client knows you are serious and reliable.

Provide Added Value

Lastly, one of the most difficult and important aspects of closing the sale is providing added value and communicating about it explicitly to the prospect. 

Any additional benefits you offer can help compel prospects to opt in. Examples of these benefits include:

• Percent off services

• Fixed rates on services

• No after-hours rates

In addition, include in your proposal a full list of the tasks you’re going to do for the client. By being specific and detailed in your proposal, it’s easier for prospects to understand the value they’ll get for their money. 

Other Considerations

Create a Dedicated Role or Department to Sell and Manage Commercial Contracts

Particularly if you’re just starting out pursuing larger commercial service contracts, it can seem sufficient to have your technicians lead this effort when they’re out on service calls. However, you don’t want your technicians (who you’re paying, for example, $50/hr) out on service calls trying to turn them into full site surveys and in-depth sales visits. It’s a risky way to have them spend their time when they could be out doing billable work.

Furthermore, understanding how to talk to customers about these larger-scale service contracts and create them is a specialized skill set that not every technician has. As such, it helps to have a dedicated role or department focused solely on selling and managing these contracts. 

Invest in Sales Training

If you don’t have an experienced salesperson to lead this effort, investing in an HVAC sales training program can help your appointed team members learn how to identify decision-makers, navigate gatekeepers, and tailor pitches to different levels within an organization. In addition, it can help your team learn to identify different types of businesses and structures, ensuring that they can effectively manage the entire process from initial contact to closing the sale.

ServiceTitan Features for Streamlining HVAC Maintenance Agreements and Service Contracts

ServiceTitan offers a robust tracking system to help HVAC contractors create and manage service agreements tailored to the specific needs of their customers. When creating service agreements, users are guided through a workflow that includes options to:

• Select templates to use as a starting point for their agreement

• Select the locations covered under the agreement

• Select equipment at those locations

• Plan any service or maintenance visits covered under the agreement

• Set pricing, a billing schedule, and payment terms for the agreement

All aspects of service agreements can be managed on the Service Agreements screen, and you can also run reports on the profitability of your service agreements.

Managing Commercial HVAC Service Agreements from the Office

Each commercial service agreement that is created in ServiceTitan can be managed from the service agreement dashboard, which shows a high-level overview of the agreement, including scheduling notes and visits, covered locations, billing information, and more.

From the side menu, users can easily view:

• Details: Information about the agreement, including the account manager on the agreement, the template used to create the agreement, a summary of the agreement, and a PDF download of the agreement. 

• Profitability: Details on profitability reporting (such as budget versus actual, and expense details). 

• Billing and Invoices: Billing schedule, payment terms, and historical invoice information. 

• Visits: Historical and future visit information. 

• Equipment: Equipment added to the service agreement.

• Materials: Information about the materials expected to be used on each visit of the agreement. 

Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the key features that help with managing maintenance contracts.

Scheduling Visits

Service agreement visits provide office staff with a streamlined system to manage the maintenance schedule for HVAC service contracts. Users can view past and upcoming service visits, edit visits, and add new visits as needed. 

When adding a visit, users are guided through a series of fields and dropdown menus to define the following: 

• Visit name (e.g. Regular maintenance, etc.)

• Visit window (date range for the visit)

• Job type (e.g. Filter change, emergency service, etc.)

• Cost estimate

• Task summary

• Equipment to be serviced (chillers, air conditioners, etc.)

Once scheduled, these visits can be easily tracked and updated. Staff can also be notified when a visit is overdue.

Tracking Equipment

Service agreement equipment functions as an asset management system, enabling office staff to document equipment details such as manufacturer, model, serial number, installation date, and so on. 

Each piece of equipment that is covered in a service agreement can be added and attached to a specific location, such as a commercial building. Users can also define quantities for equipment and use tags to indicate equipment needs (e.g. “maintenance”).

Once this information is entered into the cloud-based system, it can be attached to service visits and easily accessed and updated by office and field service staff.

With these features, office staff no longer need to build and manage complex spreadsheet systems to track assets for their commercial clients. In addition, all of the information that is tracked through service agreements is seamlessly integrated with the other parts of the ServiceTitan platform, such as our CRM, reporting, and accounting features.

Facilitating HVAC Service Contracts from the Field

When technicians are initially auditing commercial HVAC systems (e.g. during walk-throughs with facility managers), they’re able to use the ServiceTitan mobile app to document details about the commercial property and equipment to be serviced. This can include using relevant forms and checklists, taking photos and videos, and taking notes that can all be shared with office staff for creating the service agreement.

Then, once service technicians are on-site to perform tune-ups or preventive maintenance services, they have numerous tools at their disposal via our mobile app, including:

Access to Detailed Job Histories

First, they have access to the customer’s complete job history, including:

• Previous estimates

• Recurring services

• Existing HVAC equipment

• Previous invoices

• Photos and videos

• Job notes

There’s no need for them to constantly get on the phone with the office to figure out essential details, and there’s no chance of them forgetting key paperwork at the office. This helps avoid job delays and equipment downtime, provide better experiences for your customer base, and avoid delays in service and payment.

Access to HVAC Maintenance Checklists

In addition, technicians can access or be prompted to fill out maintenance checklists via our custom forms feature. These checklists can be created and customized via the office or the field. Business owners can require technicians to complete these forms to close out a job — giving them peace of mind and ensuring key steps aren’t missed during routine maintenance.

So, if a maintenance job requires assessing a commercial air conditioning system, the checklist can ensure techs perform a thorough checkup, grading all of the necessary elements. For example:

• Air intake

• HVAC piping

• Heat exchangers

• Condensers

• Refrigerant

• Humidifiers

• Controls

• Fans

• Air filters

• Air terminal units

• Coils and pans

• Etc.

These forms can be easily duplicated to account for maintaining multiple systems on a given job (particularly useful in a commercial service context). They also provide a form of documentation of work to explain to customers when an issue or breakdown needs to be addressed.

Access to Warranty Details and the Ability to Order Replacement Parts

In cases where technicians encounter faulty parts or equipment that needs to be replaced, they can easily access warranty information on that equipment (in cases where it was installed by their company). This can allow them to more quickly understand the next steps for addressing the issue. 

When parts or equipment are under warranty, techs can also initiate orders for replacement parts right from their tablet, office or warehouse staff can follow up, leveraging our HVAC inventory tracking workflow to see that entire process through. 

Ability to Quickly Create Estimates and Work Orders from the Field

When field technicians discover issues with HVAC equipment while on maintenance jobs, they can either:

1. Create an estimate on the spot for resolving the issue. Our mobile estimates feature allows technicians to select equipment and materials from ServiceTitan’s integrated pricebook functionality, and easily build an estimate on the spot. That estimate can be presented via the tablet if someone is on location to view the estimate, or it can be emailed for review and approval. 

2. Upload the relevant details of the issue to the mobile app (photos, videos, notes, etc.), and notify the office to create an estimate for resolving the issue. Office staff can view the photos, notes, etc. in real time, allowing them to quickly create and send an estimate. There’s no need to wait for techs to bring paper documents back to the office, and there’s no chance of losing crucial photos or notes. This feature significantly reduces the time it takes to deliver estimates to customers, who often need the work done urgently. 

In addition, the same follow-up features can be used via the field and office to track and follow up on open estimates that are sent to customers, allowing you to close more deals and maximize profits. 

Automate Billing and Get Paid Faster

Finally, ServiceTitan offers several features that help you get paid faster with less effort on behalf of your team.

First, once you’ve defined the billing settings in the service agreement set-up, ServiceTitan will automatically deliver invoices to customers at the appropriate times (based on the preferences you set — which include duration, frequency, pricing, a corresponding invoice template, and other flexible details such as discounts, customer-specific pricing, etc.).

This is a huge timesaver, relieving your staff of the need to track every service agreement client, set reminders, create new invoices for each billing period, and ensure they get sent at the appropriate times. All of this is simply done for you. 

And second, customers also have access to a self-serve customer portal. This allows them to log in and view their maintenance agreement details any time, as well as view detailed job histories, schedule appointments, view invoices, and pay their bills — without the need to call in, make requests, speak to your team, etc. — all of which further reduce the demands on your staff, and free them up to focus on other important tasks.

See How ServiceTitan Can Help You Manage Commercial HVAC Contracts

Managing service contracts for commercial clients presents a unique set of challenges that require a sophisticated yet user-friendly solution. 

By adopting ServiceTitan, HVAC service providers can overcome traditional documentation drawbacks, improve communication between technicians and office staff, and ensure a high level of service for commercial clients.