Introduction

Everyone wants to grow, but very few know how. Learning how to grow an HVAC business in 2025 isn’t the same as it was in the 1990s or early 2000s, pre-iPhones and pre-social media. In this straightforward guide, we’ll give you 7 strategies that have helped our HVAC business scale from six figures to eight figures and beyond. And they can help you too!

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Approaches to Growing an HVAC Business:

Some HVAC founders are sales and marketing oriented. They say the primary way to grow is through spreading the word, advertising, promotions, anything and everything to get new customers. While that’s one approach to growing a business, it is not the only approach.

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Other HVAC founders are operations and process oriented. They say the primary way to grow is operational efficiency. Less inventory, less waste, less overhead. You don’t need as much revenue when you don’t spend much. Their motto is to run the business “lean and mean.”

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Other HVAC founders are cash oriented. They say the primary way to grow is through creative financing, using other people’s money to leverage growth. They may use the cash in a way that blends the first two groups listed above. Primarily though, they focus on the numbers. Profit and Loss statements, Balance sheets, and Cash Flow statements are the name of the game.

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The last group of HVAC founders are people oriented. They say the primary way to grow is through taking care of their customers and their employees. They believe they’ll get more repeat business and more referrals by providing a top notch service. Take care of your people and the numbers will take care of themselves, they say.

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In the paragraphs that follow, we’ll lay out a couple growth strategies from each of these buckets. Try to use one strategy that is in your wheelhouse and try to take one from an area that’s a bit outside your comfort zone. Ready?

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Growth Strategy 1: Be Known for Greatness

Being known for greatness is primarily a people oriented growth strategy. When people in town say, “If you want the best HVAC company, use [insert your business name],” you’re going to be booming. You'll get more referrals than you know what to do with!

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You’ll also get the best employees applying to work with you. You’ll have the best team. You’ll get a steady influx of referrals. And your phone will always be ringing with more jobs incoming.

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What do these names have in common? Lebron James and Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and Alex Ovechkin, Nolan Ryan and Pete Rose.

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Aside from the fact that they’re all old now, they are known as the greatest players in their sports. Franchise owners were willing to pay millions of dollars and fans were willing to buy all kinds of merchandise and memorabilia because of the greatness of these players.

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If your company is great, the cash will flow freely to you.

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Strive for greatness and see what happens!

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Growth Strategy 2: Invest in Sales Training

Investing in sales training is obviously a marketing and sales oriented growth strategy. It doesn’t need much explanation, but we’ll provide a few quick numbers for you to see the value in training.

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Let’s say you’re a $1Million HVAC business. You have 4 sales reps who currently do all of your quoting. They each average 4 site visits per working day.

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4 reps x 4 visits x 5 days = 80 visits per week.

Let’s say 50 weeks in a working year = 4,000 visits or at-bats.

They currently close 16 jobs per week. That’s a 20% close rate.

For those 50 weeks in a working year = 800 jobs secured.

$1Million spread over 800 jobs = $1,250 average order.

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If a sales training costs $7K for each person ($28K) and it helps them close just 5% better, do you know how much your revenue has improved?

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You’re now closing 20 jobs per week at a 25% close rate.

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For those 50 weeks in a working year = 1,000 jobs secured which is 200 more than before.

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If your average HVAC job order was $1,250, and you earned 200 more jobs, that’s a $250,000 increase in revenue. You paid $28K and got $250K back in revenue. You just netted $222K.

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Growth Strategy 3: Hire a Social Media Person

Hiring a social media person is a marketing and sales oriented growth strategy. Of course, if the person is a great culture fit and takes care of customers and prospects well in their interactions, then this is also a people oriented growth strategy.

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You might not be a big social media person yourself. But the truth is, nearly every American has at least one social media account. Many use more than one platform. The average person uses 6.83 social sites regularly. If your business isn’t actively on at least one social media, you’re missing out.

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What if you pay a part-time social media person $25K per year and they post on your accounts every day? Based on the example we used above, for a $1250 average order, how many new jobs would you have to get to pay for that person’s salary?

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You only need to get 20 jobs from social media inbound leads, and you’ve already paid for that person. Worth a shot?

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And who knows what kind of brand exposure and reach that gives you if you’re posting every day on multiple platforms?

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Growth Strategy 4: Focus on Process Improvements for 1 Month

Focusing on process improvements is obviously an operations and process oriented growth strategy. But let’s be honest, when you’re running around with your hair on fire, trying to keep dispatchers, techs, and the shop all in sync, the last thing you’re thinking about is processes.

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While this isn’t the most fun strategy for most HVAC owners, it can often lead to the most aha moments. As one business guru once said, “The fastest way to grow profits is reduce expenses.”

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In other words, you don’t have to go find new customers or get more job orders. You might just be leaking money paying for things you don’t use, having inventory sitting around unused, or having techs sitting in parking lots pretending to be on the clock.

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Unless you have GPS tracking for your fleet, that last one may be hurting you more than you think. Thankfully, some field service softwares have GPS tracking for the fleet. Perhaps you don’t have this problem with your techs? Perhaps you have other process issues?

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I’m simply recommending that you take one month and focus on process improvements and see what waste that can be eliminated. Cutting a few of these expenses will immediately help your profit margins. It may not grow revenue, but it will grow profit, which in turn grows cash.

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Growth Strategy 5: Optimize Your Google Listings

Optimizing your Google listings is a sales and marketing oriented growth strategy. When people search, “HVAC company near me,” will your name come up? If not, you need to fix that.

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Everyone uses Google search in the U.S., and if you’re not coming up in the search engine results, you’re not getting tons of business.

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Hire an SEO specialist who knows what they’re doing and make sure you fix this asap. We can recommend the guy we use if you’d like. He’ll help you optimize your local listing and your phone will start ringing with prospects, you’ll get more jobs, and your HVAC business will grow.

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Growth Strategy 6: Improve Your Cash Conversion Cycle

Improving your cash conversion cycle is definitely a cash oriented growth strategy.

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Anyone who is in the HVAC business, or any field service business for that matter, knows that cash lags behind. You may do work today and not be paid for it for 30-60-90 days. That’s a long time to float and be someone else’s bank.

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One of the greatest things you can do to improve your business health is decrease your cash conversion cycle. What does that mean? Shorten the time it takes for a dollar to come back into your business after you spent it.

Believe it or not, there are some industries that have a negative cash conversion cycle. In other words, they are paid multiple days BEFORE they have to do any work.

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While I’m guessing you likely won’t be able to change the entire industry’s expectations overnight, you can do some simple things like:

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• Collect the payment on the spot. If you’re in residential HVAC and you just completed the job, see if the customer would like to pay right when you finish. You can do this with the best field service softwares.
• Offer a 10% discount if someone pays in the first 7 days following the completed work.
• Extend accounts payable by asking for 30-60-90 terms to pay a vendor for supplies.
• If a job is over a certain threshold, perhaps you can make terms requiring ½ upfront and ½ after the work is completed.
• Consider using a financing option where the customer signs up for a brand-based credit card and you get paid immediately by the card company.

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Growth Strategy 7: Consolidate Your Software

Consolidating your software is primarily seen as an operations and process oriented growth strategy. But, when you have the right software for your business, it gets all of your people working in the same space and “on the same page.”

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The right software will help you:

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• Grow your sales and marketing
• Improve your operations
• Speed up your cash flow
• Help your people coordinate their efforts

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When you consolidate to the right software, you will grow your HVAC business. Excited to get growing? Let's do it!