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42 FEBRUARY 2014 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com HVAC/ HYDRONICS By NICHOLAS UPTON Upselling with Outdoor Reset Controls Both customers and technicians often need education G etting someone to pay a little more for his or her heating system is tricky. A storm of factors from out- dated data, no money for advertising and lack of kno- whow mean many people just can't upsell a customer to an outdoor reset control system – or maybe those making the pitch just aren't great salesmen. "One of the difficulties we have is we have a lot of fantastic techni- cians but the fantastic technicians are lousy salesmen, and the very good salesmen are lousy technicians," said Mark Chaffee, director of brand marketing at Taco, Inc. "The rare person that possesses both of those usually owns the company and has done very, very well." Chaffee said that getting everyone on the same page is a great idea, but it has to come from the technician to really make an impact. "There is nobody big enough in our industry to run a consumer advertising campaign – we can't do it. So a lot of the reliance is definitely on the contractor or whoever is in that house – the HVAC professional – to tell the homeowner about it and effectively convey the story of why they should do it," said Chaffee. He said that trade organizations and government subsidies could really get the ball rolling, but it needs to be a personal sale for the foreseeable future. Rich Simons, director combustion product management at Honeywell echoed those sentiments. "The first part is to get the contractor to ask the question. For Honeywell in general, across all product categories, that is the hardest thing. There's some contractors that it's just not in their DNA to upsell," he said. Chaffee said that educating technicians is a big step too. After all, if someone is afraid to install a system, they're not going to sell it. He said they worked hard to get educational materials including pamphlets, webinars and other information to the contractors as well as the consumer so they didn't have to think too much about selling and gets technicians comfortable with the technology. "Not enough people have taken advantage of those tools," said Chaffee. "If I have to reprint this thing every two months, hallelujah, somebody's using it. But that hasn't happened yet." So how do you make that sale? It's not exactly arcane technology in the industry, having been around for years and mandated in new boilers since 2012. Every contractor knows the basics, but getting that information to the end consumer needs to be a conscious activity or they'll find another way to heat their home. "I think for an oil dealer specifically, is for those dealers to think of themselves as solution providers not just oil providers, " said Simons. "In the past, a lot of oil dealers have said, 'Look, why would I want to sell efficiency when they're going to burn less oil and I'll make less money?' The problem is the next alternative to that is turning to gas." The easiest way to sell an outdoor reset control system is mak- ing it all about the bottom line and building that relationship with the consumer. If a contractor can demonstrate that they are in this together, it's going to be easier to upgrade an old boiler. "In this case, an oil dealer can come in and say, 'Hey, I really can't control the price of your oil supply. But I can make sure that your equipment is running as efficiently as it can,'" said Simons. Greg Leupin, the sales and marketing manager at Tekmar con- trols, a Watts Water Technologies company, said financial concerns are one aspect, but better comfort is another easy sales tool. "Interesting enough, the other portion of it that it really provides is better comfort. Because you're not really blasting the building with really hot water and then you turn it on and off, but rather you're modulating that energy input into the building," said Leupin. "So comfort is another big one." Outdoor reset controls can also prevent what amount to low- efficiency feedback loops where a lack of comfort turns into a major source of heat loss. "A lot of times, we drive around these dorms and they have the windows open. And that's because they're running these heating systems hot all the time," explained Leupin. "If you had outdoor reset and say your radiator doesn't get that hot because it's relatively mild outside and they open a window, well you're not getting enough heat out of that radiator. Therefore they're going to close the windows." Simple explanations and analogies are a great thing for techni- cians. Even if they're not great salesmen, they can put the idea of an outdoor reset control in the end consumer's mind. Glenn Allen, the Electronics Product Manager at R.W. Beckett Corporation, said just keep it simple. "Basically, it just requires less energy to maintain a lower set point in the boiler. In milder weather, you have a lot less heat loss in that building," said Allen. "The biggest potential for saving energy is milder weather; you don't need 200-degree boiler water when it's 60 degrees out." And if all else fails, break out Chaffee's car analogy. "Every time a boiler turns on you ramp up to 100 miles an hour. Imagine if you're car ramped up to 100 miles an hour. Well, the speed limit is 35 but your car wants to go 100. So what do you do? You gotta press on the break to slow the system down," said Chaffee. "So you're using 100 miles an hour worth of gas and work on the car and wear and tear, but you only need to go 35 miles an hour. And that's what these systems do."