How ACCA Helped Dru Smith Sell HVAC Smarter
Posted on:
Selling HVAC well, for Dru Smith, takes more than a good pitch. After ten years on the sales side, he’s not a technician, but he’s come to know the systems well enough to explain them to a customer and train new hires to do it too.
That background shapes how he uses his ACCA membership. He didn’t join to build on technical skills. He joined because he wanted to understand the work well enough to sell it better and to help his team do the same, without going back to school for it.
Asked what membership means to him, Smith lands on a single word: “Support.”
The invaluable payoff of connecting and learning
Two of ACCA’s four pillars resonate most with Smith: connect and learn.
Connection drew him in first. After building his HVAC sales career at Sila Services, he felt he should be networking more with other professionals in the industry, trading real experience rather than working in isolation. Learning matters just as much, and in a way specific to his role. Because he isn’t the one installing the equipment, he needs a working knowledge of how an HVAC system functions to teach his team and give them credible footing with customers. The better his salespeople understand what a furnace, a heat pump, or an air conditioner does, the better they can sell maintenance agreements that serve the homeowner.
Building a career on solid ground
Smith is candid that engaging with ACCA was, in part, a deliberate career move. He had watched the value the organization delivered through colleagues like ACCA’s immediate past chair and Sila Services’ chief learning and development officer, Eddie McFarlane, with whom he works on talent and development, and he wanted that same advantage on the sales side. He saw engaging with his membership provided by Sila Services as a way to understand the industry better and open doors as his career progressed.
He’s also confident that HVAC offers the kind of stability he can count on. “Everyone’s going to need to be hot or cold,” he says. That’s what makes him want to commit to the industry for the long term, to “hang my hat on this for my career.” ACCA, as he sees it, is part of how he moves forward in it.
Training new hires with help from ACCA
The clearest example of that payoff came when Smith was struggling to get new hires up to speed. His salespeople were trying to sell maintenance plans without fully understanding what they were selling, which made it hard to hold an informed conversation with a customer.
Smith joined the ACCA Member Experience Committee and was connected with Maggie Contador, ACCA’s education and training specialist. The two spent about an hour on the phone working through exactly what he needed. Contador shared a walkthrough that explained HVAC in plain terms for someone with no field experience: what a return is, what a furnace does, what a heat pump does, what an air conditioner does, all in the proper terminology. She also provided worksheets and quizzes, with answer sheets, so Smith could measure how well his team was comprehending the training.
The result gave his sales team enough foundational knowledge to get on the phone and talk to customers intelligently, without needing to know the technical specifications. His team became faster and more productive, and he has kept using that training with new hires since. That level of support and guidance points to what he values most about membership: community, and “not feeling like you’re alone, feeling like you have someone to ask a question to that would have a reasonable answer.”
Leading with more confidence
Membership has also changed how Smith leads. He feels surer of himself now, both in what he knows and in his read on where the industry is going.
Much of that comes from staying ahead of change. ACCA’s timely alerts on shifting legislation and regulation mean that by the time news reaches him through his company, he has already been paying attention. He’s had time to form a view and can help plan for his department rather than react late. That early awareness, paired with a stronger base of knowledge, is what makes him feel more confident and secure in his role.
Staying abreast of HVAC industry changes
Asked why the industry needs an organization like ACCA right now, Smith points to the volume of technology and misinformation in the market, and how much of it is opinion presented as fact. ACCA grounds members in the actual legislation and regulations and gives them a place to discuss it openly.
He uses buying decisions as an example. When you’re weighing one CRM or software platform against another, the vendor will only show you the upside. “They’re not going to tell you the bad parts of it,” he says. “At least this way, you can get a real-world application response from someone else who’s using it in the same way.” Smith mostly treats ACCA as a knowledge base. He reads the ACCA Contractor Forum and keeps what he sees in mind, and he’s worked through technical videos on subjects like refrigerant, so he’s ready when his team comes to him with questions.
What he tells members on the fence
For anyone on the fence about engaging, Smith doesn’t hedge. Leveraging your ACCA membership may feel like a risk, but in his words, it’s “a risk worth taking because the potential is unlimited.” That potential turns up everywhere: in the knowledge base, the forums, the training sessions, and the ACCA MIX Groups® that bring the industry together.
Looking ahead, Smith wants to do more of the connecting himself — more networking and helping new members get their footing. That’s where his passion is, he says: helping people see the potential in ACCA that he sees in it.
Posted In: Sales & Marketing, Soft Skills
