I don’t need your &$@?!%* resume. That is what a potential customer wrote to me this week while I was trying to help him. He had written to me asking for a delivered price of some swimming pool heat pump equipment listed on my website. To get him the most competitive shipping quote, I wrote back asking if he needed a commercial or residential delivery with a liftgate truck and another question to make sure this would be suitable for his application. I always do that because if someone gets something that isn’t proper for their project, then nobody is going to be happy. I then said that I once worked in his area so that I was familiar with his conditions and weather. Soon I received an e-mail back from him with a one line response saying that he only wanted a price and not my resume. So because he said that I didn’t give him either and now unfortunately everyone loses. Funny in way too as his LinkedIn profile was attached to the e-mail with all his business information. It was actually someone that would have been a good business contact for me as I need his type of services. Needless to say he is now the last person I would reach out to if I needed that type of service. I don’t know if something negative is in the air this week more than normal, but I then I followed up with someone who had asked for my free advice to help them plan their large geothermal heat pump project. I innocently sent them a text asking how the project was going? I was doing my job following up and caring about people who have reached out to me for advice. Then, I got back a text saying, “Stop texting me.” Now I have a pretty thick skin and have seen much worse in my time on the web, but this week’s hostility surprised me a bit. Half of my business is educating people for free about swimming pool, aquaculture and geothermal heat pumps. Most people disappear because they never do the project, it is not in the budget, their circumstances change or they pay much more and buy locally. That is fine with me. Tom Hopkins taught me years ago that if you make one sale in ten calls, then each phone call was one step closer to the ten. Hey, it can’t hurt to be polite though. I buy lots of stuff too. If you seem nice, have a good reputation and are knowledgeable about your product then I am an easy sale. Especially If you have your profile on LinkedIn, then it is in your best interest to be nice. If you engage me and I am trying to help you then maybe just say thanks for the information and then disappear. We are all in this together and at the end of the day experiencing a little courtesy makes it all worthwhile.
Best,
Marcus Cell 360 348 7574
Some swimming pool contractors are heroes. One of my pool buddies that installs my swimming pool heat pumps was asked to resurface a pool that after 20 + years looked really bad. He hired a subcontractor that he had used for years to do the cement work. They drained the pool to condition and then resurface the walls. The drain was plugged while they worked. Then before the job was completed, they didn’t visit the site for a few days, and didn’t open the main drain. It rained very hard during that time and the water table rose under the pool and popped it out of the ground, destroying it. Pools turn into big boats when the water table gets too high and the pool has no water in it. The company that was responsible for opening the drain washed their hands and refused to take responsibility. My buddy then tried to collect from his insurance company. He had paid for pool popping coverage for many years and thought that his foresight was finally going to pay off, as now he really needed help. The insurance company refused to pay for some technicality. To pay for the new pool my buddy who is at a retirement age, raided his IRA retirement money to pay for a new pool out of his pocket and that guaranteed that he would have to work for a few more years to make back the money. I am sure it was close to $60,000.00. I didn’t want to torture him asking for an exact number. He had to tear up the pool and lawn to make it like new. That was some Florida pool magic. I think they kept the old Gulfstream HE125RA heat pump that was still working well. He is a stand up guy who took care of business and took responsibility to make things right, without having to get sued or waiting to sue someone else or dragging his feet while he looked for money or just disappearing, like I have seen over and over on other big jobs. I get calls every week from a new pool customers who are trying to finish a pool that somebody else started and then abandoned. They are learning real fast what parts they need and I try to help them if I can but I am mostly a pool heater, Aquaculture and Geothermal guy. Not sure what the lesson is here. It is good to hang out with honorable people. Standard advice I would say; don’t just take the cheapest quote without researching who you are doing business with and getting as many referrals and finding as many reviews as you can. That wouldn’t have helped my buddy but if you can at least check if your contractor has current insurance and sit down with them and see if you like them at least. If you want to know about me you can Google the words “heat pump” and my name to see what I have been up to. If you need a swimming pool heat pump from Key West to Haines City and from Haines City to Pensacola please let me know.
Be safe out there.
Best,
Marcus Miller Cell 360 348 7574
