Watch above or read below.

Matthew Burns:
This is how we get half of our episode ideas. Steve is driving down the road, sees something, has a conversation with somebody, was talking to a partner, whatever it is that he’s done. And I get a text message that says “HVAC, remind me.”

Stephen Semple:
Actually, I have to say “HVAC Barrie. Remind me.”

Matthew Burns:
Oh, he did actually put it down. So HVAC Barrie. But just remind me. And then at some point in our 50 conversations a day, I have to remember from a text message. Anyway, we’ve forgotten about this one. It was put out a couple of weeks ago. We had forgotten to talk about it. And this morning before the episode, Steve, tell me, man. Tell me what you want to talk about with HVAC, HVAC company in Barrie.

Stephen Semple:
Okay. We just brought on a new customer in Barrie, and the campaign is fricking brilliant, and we are going to take over the market, and we’re going to kill it. And my request to you is we should just run an ad at the end of this so people can hear about Measure Twice, Kev.

Matthew Burns:
Well then let’s give full credit then. So this is…

Stephen Semple:
Yeah, Jeff Sexton and Crystal.

Matthew Burns:
And Crystal Semple. His daughter, by the way.

Stephen Semple:
Yes. They’re the two writers on it, and this campaign is brilliant. In the process of creating that, of course, one of the things that we do is we take a look because we want to know what others are doing, what they’re saying. Where does the competition sit in all this? Market research.

But our market research is literally what’s the messaging that’s going on out there? Because what we know right out the gate is we need to do something different to stand out.

Matthew Burns:
Correct.

Stephen Semple
Well, here’s the thing that was really interesting. It’s the added twist that my customer provided because they do some extra things. What everybody talked about was what every competitor except one did. There was one that didn’t do this. Every competitor that I was able to find all talked about two things: affordable and fast. And literally would talk about how on a hot, humid summer night in Barrie, the last thing you want to do is wait for somebody to come and replace or repair your air conditioner.

They would literally have copy all about how that’s a really crappy place to be. I’ll give them credit because Barrie does… There is a ton of humidity in Barrie.

Stephen Semple:
It is a very humid place.

Matthew Burns:
It’s gross. So I understand why they talk about it.

Stephen Semple:
Because it’s between two big lakes, right? So yes, if you did market research, that would be what people would say they want. Here’s the problem. As soon as a heat event happens, pretty much every competitor in Barrie – you’ve got a two-week wait.

Matthew Burns:
So how quick is that?

Stephen Semple:
And how do we know that is our guy? Every time it happens, somebody phones his competition and finds out how long the wait is. And it’s a one- to two-week wait. And look, here’s the other thing we know. There are all sorts of consulting groups out there that help home services companies.

And what the accountants and coaches all preach to these companies is that what you want to have is you want your board fully booked out a week or two weeks because that makes the business easier to run. Predictable income. Fine. Run your business that way. Fine. Here’s the problem. Then don’t run advertising saying we’re fast. When you actually have organized your business to be slow.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah. You cannot promise something you can’t deliver. It is going to hurt your business.

Stephen Semple:
Right. Because we talk about trust, right? And we talk about what’s one of the ways in which we establish trust. Do what we say we’re going to do. Anytime we’ve asked that question, how do you build trust? The first answer is always, every time, do what you say you’re going to do.

And right out of the bat, what are they doing? Lying to their customer because they have zero intent, zero intent to be there the next day. They’ve organized their business not to. So why make that promise? So our campaign does not talk about affordable, does not talk about speed. Instead, we’re talking about it should be done right.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah. Listen, this really isn’t all that different than our episode on Tesla breaking its brand promise. It’s very much the same thing. And guys, I’ll link that one down below. But Elon Musk, like it or not, built a brand reputation all about environmentalism, for the environmentalist, for taking care of the environment, being good. And then he broke his brand promise no different than this.

Stephen Semple:
But this one’s even more on the head.

Matthew Burns:
It is way more on the head.

Stephen Semple:
It’s way more on the head. We’re going to promise to give you a good price and do this quickly. And then the phone rings and it’s like, we’ll be out in two weeks. And even in your own copy on the website, you aggravated the issue talking about how crappy it is to be in Barrie without an air conditioner.

Matthew Burns:
Right. And Elon didn’t make any promises, but broke the perceived promise.

Stephen Semple:
Broke the perceived promise. These are made promises.

Matthew Burns:
Correct. Guys, it’s gross. You don’t have to do things that way. Just don’t do them the opposite way you say you’re going to do them.

Stephen Semple:
Right. And your answer back to the consumer cannot be… If I said to them, I’m sure if I called up and I said to them, “Well, you guys said you’d be fast.” Well, sir, you have to understand we’re in the middle of a heat wave. It’s like, I don’t have to understand. You said to me, you said to me you are going to be fast. And now you’re telling me you aren’t because summer hit, which happens every fricking year? Come on, man, you’re a liar. You’re a liar.

Matthew Burns:
Summer hits every year. I wish I had known that! [laughter] One of the things that we do when we go into a client is we try to find their unleveraged assets. What’s the superpower that they don’t even realize is a superpower, so that we don’t actually have to change the way they do business? We’re just now going to talk about the thing they already do awesomely. And these guys are going out of their way to say that they do something that they don’t do awesomely, which is really weird.

Stephen Semple:
Well, look, and it’s driven from, well, what we know: we run our Google Ads. When we talk about being fast and affordable, we get more clicks. And what we know from consumer research is that what people want is they want it cheaper and faster. Okay, but only if you deliver on it.

Matthew Burns:
But we did our research.

Stephen Semple:
But we did our research. And on top of that, of the 27 companies, 26 of them are all saying the same thing. Yeah, right. So on top of that, you’re not even standing out because you’re all saying the same BS line. I love it. Because we’re going to crush the competitors.

Matthew Burns:
Let Stephen’s company win. So the rule is here. If you make a promise, stick to it. Isn’t this something we learned in kindergarten?

Stephen Semple:
Right. Is trust important to the sale? Yes. How do we establish trust? We keep our promises. Keep your promise. If there’s something you can’t do, don’t promise it. Don’t even let the consumer feel it or think it. It’s not that hard. Some of these things would make the phone ring, but then the first interaction is a broken promise. How good is that?

Matthew Burns:
I knew you wanted to talk about this. I didn’t know all the details. And I was kind of like, is this really a Sticky Sales Story episode? Because we talk about the way to do good advertising is by building up a story and then using that story to make the message sticky. And here’s the thing: the message is really sticky because it’s obvious.

The one thing about this is their message of affordable and quick is kind of in this consumer’s mind anyway. Nobody’s going like, “Man, I am going to look for the slowest, most expensive company.” It’s not even a thought process. You don’t really have to say those words. So it is a story that is built up in the mind of the consumer that you never really have to say, but these guys did. They doubled down, tripled down on it.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah. Now how we position is that we measure twice. We take our time. We do an assessment. We do some tests, figure out the right unit.

Matthew Burns:
Okay. I’m going to let everybody else in on the secret. What he knows is that 50% of the market buys based on relationship. A relational buyer cares about one thing over top of everything else in the world.

Stephen Semple:
They hate making the wrong decision.

Matthew Burns:
And by making the wrong decision, they’re not worried about price. They’re not worried about speed. They’re worried about it never happening again. I love the work that you guys do, and I can’t wait to hear what Crystal and Jeff came up with. Okay, so I’m going to put that in at the end. Steve, any last words on broken promises?

Stephen Semple:
No, just keep your promises, man. Just keep your promises.

Matthew Burns:
Keep your promises. Oh my God, I’m going now. Bye guys.

Barista: Order for Chet?

Chet: Kev, you’re grabbing a double double, eh?

Kev: Black for me, thanks. Hey, I just got Mrs. Rogers set up with a properly sized AC. Her last guys went way too big.

Chet: What are you going smaller for? Bigger is better, but I always bump her up half a ton. She blows colder than a penguin’s backside.

Kev: Yeah, but too big never blows cold long enough to drop the humidity or push cold air to all the rooms. And all that short cycling kills service life.

Chet: You’re overthinking her, bud. Blows cold, holds temp, good to go.

Kev: So your customers don’t complain about their upstairs?

Chet: Heat rises, Kev. Everyone’s upstairs is warmer. That’s normal.

Kev: Only because old school AC guys like you wing it.

Chet: Never wing it, and you’ll never fly, Kev.

Kev: Chet, someday we’ll get you measuring, not guessing.

Chet: I’m guessing. You shouldn’t try fixing this rink when us old schoolers are already playing shitty.

Announcer: For a new school AC company that always measures, never guesses, and fixes the normal problems old schoolers can’t, call Measure Twice Kev at centralheatingandair.ca.

Latest posts by Sticky Sales Stories (see all)