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tankless sales

6K views 31 replies 10 participants last post by  para1 
#1 ·
Who is selling them regularly?

How many?

What brand?

Customer feedback?

Are you selling them or are people already sold on them and just want you to help them decide make and model?

What scenario makes for the easiest sale?
 
#4 ·
I find it to be the same thing over and over.

They ask, you explain the math, the convenience...they like what they hear.

You tell them the price, they decide to stay with a tank.

I've done quite a few, but more often they can't justify the price.

You have to add it up in terms of percentage of use.
If someone lives alone & spends $15 a month, it isn't worthwhile.
If it's a family of six with a jacuzzi...probably worthwhile.
 
#5 ·
Tankless

I have sold one it was a Ranni I believe it how you spell it.To lazy to look it up. I had to run 10' of 3/4 gas pipe and 20' of water pipe installed on out side wall. $2800.00 is what I charged. I had no clue what to charge the guy. Took me 4-6 hrs to do. They asked me to install one. I didn't make sale it was already in his head to do it.
 
#6 ·
When I had my own shop, I sold and installed about 10 Noritz. Not one callback. I installed a Bosch for a friend that he got from Menard's, nothing but trouble. Finally yanked it and put a tank type back in. Noritz has pretty good installer support. The drawback in the Midwest is the fact that we have to install them inside, usually a basement, and run a lot of pipe to them. If I lived in a warm climate, I would have one mounted outside, in an exterior wall.
 
#8 · (Edited)
When I had my own shop, I sold and installed about 10 Noritz. Not one callback. I installed a Bosch for a friend that he got from Menard's, nothing but trouble. Finally yanked it and put a tank type back in. Noritz has pretty good installer support. The drawback in the Midwest is the fact that we have to install them inside, usually a basement, and run a lot of pipe to them. If I lived in a warm climate, I would have one mounted outside, in an exterior wall.
They have the worst tankless's, bar none.
They also have incredibly bad customer service, I spent literal hours arguing on the phone with tech support regarding a defective flow engine, the guy SWORE to me that they NEVER fail.

It was common sense to me, I'd checked flow at every fixture & it wouldn't fire until it had a flow rate of about 1.5 GPM, ran up and down stairs looking around for potential cross connections that might contribute to a loss of flow, despite verifying there was more than adequate flow to induce start-up.

I spent two days going back and forth with them over it.

My customer finally got them to agree that it might be the flow engine, they sent HIM a new one after he spent two weeks calling them back to finally reach a guy willing to listen to what I diagnosed as the problem.

A slap in the face, my customer wound up having to replace the flow device himself.

SCREW Bosch...I wouldn't buy a thing from them after that experience, tech support was insultive and condescending and it wasn't just one guy, they kept repeating the same lines of denial to avoid paying for the replacement part on warranty, the units are garbage.

Anyone who is inquiring about a Bosch is usually too tight on price anyway because they are the cheapest units out there...they attract bargain hunters.
 
#10 ·
I've installed about 10 Rinnai :thumbup: Best one out there !!

Only put them in so far on remodels ,,,were we add a level or a large bump out .

If they figured a way to cool the exhaust ,,, we could install as replacements in most homes !!

Otherwise ,,it's good old Bradford White tank types !!

Cal
 
#11 ·
I've installed about 10 Rinnai :thumbup: Best one out there !!

Only put them in so far on remodels ,,,were we add a level or a large bump out .

If they figured a way to cool the exhaust ,,, we could install as replacements in most homes !!

Otherwise ,,it's good old Bradford White tank types !!

Cal
Don't look now...but there's a condensing tankless on the market.

It claims an efficiency of 98% if I recall, with a cost thats supposedly competitive to standard tankless's.
I'll try to find the name...sounds promising, but they always do.
 
#12 · (Edited)
I sold my 4th Saturday morning which is the reason for this thread. It was an easy sell which almost makes me think the guy had been thinking about them already except for the fact that when I first mentioned it the other day it was to his wife (he was not present) and she acted like she'd never heard of a tankless water heater. I left one of Noritz's brochures behind and when I went back Sat. am it was like signing someone up to vote or something. Just ABC ok I'll take that one with these options.

So far I have sold and installed 1 Rinnai (2 years ago), 1 Takagi (last year), and this is now my 2nd Noritz this year with the other one coming just about a month or so ago. They all seem to be good units but Rinnai, I've heard and don't know if it's true, are beginning to flirt with the box stores which means quality will probably go down, Takagi seems good but is not adequately stocked and ship times I'm told can be too long, Noritz seems to be top quality from what I've heard (but don't have enough of a history with to really know) but one really nice thing about them is that I can get stable pricing for 6 months at a time which means I can price a job on site without having to "get back to ya" which I think makes all the difference in the world. Also, Noritz's commitment to sell only to the contractor seems to be stronger than the others. Not sure yet whether it is in reality but it seems to be doctrine with them, or at least they go out of their way to make a big deal about it. I haven't done a google search to see how many online resellers are selling them though.

What I'd like to do is find or develop a very successful sales presentation because among seriously legitimate prospects my closing ratio is pretty pitiful. For the guy on Sat. it really didn't make any sense not to go tankless because he was looking at replacing 2 40 gal ng units that were on seperate hw dist systems (a straight shot of about 30' of 3/4" pex solves that problem) both of which were located in interior spaces of the house (unnecessary gas leak potential as well as possible CO emissions). One of them also was pre-sealed combustion chamber, was not on a stand or in a pan and would have eventually flooded his house. So with an exterior mounted 751 series he gets continuous hot water and eliminates several potential problems (some of them possibly deadly) for not much more than what it would cost him to install 2 replacement tanked units. I wish they all always made this much sense, but unfortunately they often seem to have to be sold more as a luxury than as a smart investment.

If anybody out there has got these sales wired and doesn't mind sharing with the class, I'd love to hear maybe some selling points that I haven't thought of (which probably won't be too hard to come up with).
 
#20 ·
Maybe I'm starting to get a little better at this 'cause we just got a return call from a quote I gave about 2 weeks ago on a tankless package. I had written them off when they didn't call back within a few days. They called a little while ago and are ready to proceed! This means I will be installing my second of the year tomorrow and my third of the year on Wed. next week. These are coming in, after you add the extra pipe involved in relocating the unit, at roughly 4k each so far. I tell you what, as a one man shop I'd love to get to the place where I'm doing 4 - 6 of these per month and that's on top of all the other work I do. If I can get a steady stream of 4 - 6 per month I won't be a one man shop for very much longer. IF ...
 
#21 ·
I never sell any. Doing service, all people want is a quick fix most of the time. I got tired of people asking about tankless, most of them are cheapskates trying to save money on their gas bill, they always flip when they find out how much a tankless will cost! I go over everything with them, spend 30 minutes of my time, draw up a price...:blink:then its over....people never realize the total expense of converting from an existing tank to tankless. many have no idea how much the unit itself even costs.

So I stopped trying to sell them, its a waste of time for me. If someone calls specifically wanting a tankless and they realize that it is going to be a large intitial expense, Ok, now we're talking. But random customer who just asks while I am working on something else, "oh by the way, were thinking of getting a tankless heater to save money..." ...Waste of time, very low chance of sale.
 
#25 ·
In no way do I claim to be good at this. I am learning here too. All I'm saying is that this appears to me to be the future (tankless). I want to get in on it now before it really catches on, make my mistakes now so I can gain the experience necessary to sell, install, service, & repair these products and hopefully get to the place where my company is recognized throughout my market as the go-to guys for anything tankless. I don't want to be playing catch up on this one. If plumbers keep messing around on this we will wake up one morning to find that HVAC has stolen this work from us the same way counter top companies have stolen a lot of ks installs (they practically give them away in order to sell the counter top install) and the same way that tile companies steal a lot of shower liner replacements.

Tankless water heaters are a good ticket with a nice profit. I'd like to be at the top of the heap in my market one day.
 
#27 ·
What would help you is spending some time with the rep for whatever brand the supply house you use stocks. The manufacturers are promoting the hell out of the product already, all you need is to be able to be so familiar with the product that you can answer whatever question the HO sends your way.
This is a good niche for you guys that do service work, the box stores only stock the bottom of the barrel in tankless, and will not install them, but they will refer a local contractor if asked. That is where knowledge of the product comes in, you can show your potential customer the advantages to be gained by going with the brand from the supply house, and get the markup on the product instead of the box store.

Like it or not, the public is trying to go green in as many ways as they can, you guys can profit from it, but you will have to put in the work to educate yourselves, and the tankless heaters reps are more than willing to help you achieve that.
 
#30 · (Edited)
i Installed A Noritz 69m In A Kitchen. The H/o Was Doing A Gut Job, And This Was The Best Place To Put It. I Installed It Inline With The Cupboards. It's White, So It Fits In. That Was My First, Two Years Ago, No Callbacks. I Can Only Imagine How Easy They Are In Warm Climate Pex Areas.
I've yet to find a better way than an exterior install close to the gas meter. Pex comes in awfully handy in that scenario.
 
#31 ·
My sales "technique" for a tankless is VERY simple.

If a customer has done their homework and has a good grasp on what they cost to install, I'll take the time to go in depth with them, other wise I overstate the price and listen for signs of gasping/passing out.

A tankless will generally shave 1/3rd of the hot water bill.
With a ten yr warranty...I'll assume they last ten years.

The price difference minus the ten year savings of 1/3rd.

Simple, to the point.

I've talked two people into trying them, most installs have been people specifically calling for them with a fair grasp of cost vs savings.

On more occasions I've talked them out of them, someone who lives alone and spends less than $20 a month on hot water won't find saving $50 a year worthwhile.
 
#32 ·
S E R V I C E G U Y -- You will never sell a tankless install with that attitude) This is what you do: #1 Get out of the BOX, find out what you like about tankless (then forget that,leave it at home). #2 Educate yourself on one manufacturer product. #3 Charge a trip charge (no free lunch) #4 GO GREEN #5 sell to the customers needs& emotions (always be selling). WELL, now I'm just ranting. This is what happens when I watch Letterman while I'm online.:blink:
 
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