Known as the theme park of the world, Orlando, FL was headquarters for National Comfort Institute’s (NCI) 16th Annual High-Performance HVAC Summit last month. No, the theme was not Disney oriented: it was centered on the High-Performance Sales and Delivery Cycle.

Dominick Guarino welcomes attendees to the 2019 High Performance HVAC Summit

Dominick Guarino welcomes attendees to the 2019 High-Performance HVAC Summit

From April 15 to 18, Performance-Based Contractors gathered from across the country to learn about this cycle, network, and discover opportunities to enhance their approach to HVAC contracting.

For the second year, the NCI Summit was open to the entire industry, including the thousands of HVAC companies that have been trained and certified by NCI.

In accordance to the theme, all the workshops concentrated on one of the key elements of the process: Lead Generation, Lead Turnover and Setting The Appointment, The Sales Process, Hand-off to Your Installation Team, and Selling High-Performance Service Agreements.

Getting Things Started

NCI Summit Week began on Monday, April 15th with pre-conference training sponsored and conducted by both Goodman Manufacturing and Amana Heating and Air Conditioning.

Called the Business Planning Bootcamp, the all-day session helped contractor attendees dissect their businesses and create a roadmap to a higher quality of life.

This included examing key performance indicators, how to face challenges, and the importance of tweaking processes for a huge, positive impact on the business.

Guest Orientation and New Members

The 2019 Summit App provided an interactive aspect not only to the general sessions but to all workshops as well. For Reach for the Summit, contractors voted on whether the answers the two contestants gave were correct.

The 2019 NCI Summit had its largest group of first-time attendees who were welcomed to the event during an orientation meeting to help acclimate them to the program and events. New NCI members also attended.

The first-timers then joined all other attendees for the annual Welcome Reception, hosted by Goodman Manufacturing, which set the stage for the rest of the week.

Let the Learning Begin

Another first for Summit was holding all general sessions in the same room with the preferred partner trade show. This kicked off Tuesday morning, April 16th, as all attendees gathered and were treated to a rousing multimedia introduction, followed by an interactive game show called ‘Reach for the Summit.’

NCI Reach for the Summit contestants Jose Montes (left) of Kennihan Plumbing and Heating and Frank Copeland (right) of Copeland and Son AC and Heating Service.

NCI Reach for the Summit contestants Jose Montes (left) of Kennihan Plumbing and Heating and Frank Copeland (right) of Copeland and Son AC and Heating Service.

The learning began when two random contractors from the audience were selected to answer multiple-choice questions from real-world installation and service scenarios. The audience then had the opportunity to vote, via a mobile app, for which answer they thought was correct. The contractors earned points for correct answers with the winner taking home a new NSI 3000 Low-Level CO Monitor.

Reach for The Summit Commentators David Holt (right) and David Richardson provided entertainment and spin on the contractors’ answers to Performance-Based Testing questions.

Each question was followed up with commentary by David Holt and David Richardson, who discussed the merits of each answer and which way they felt the audience would vote.

The winner was Frank Copeland of Copeland and Son AC and Heating Service, Nashville, TN. Coming in second place was Jose Montes of Kennihan Plumbing and Heating, Valencia, PA.

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