Steve Howard to Enter HVAC Hall of Fame

“That was basically how I started my sales training program,” Howard said. “It changed everything.” 

“Then I started sales training for YORK, and as luck would have it, Trane sent a vice president and a manager to one of my heat pump programs in Alabama. They liked it so much they asked me to work with them. Our company has been doing work with Trane almost exclusively for 35 years.”

The entrepreneurial life was calling. Steve and Charlotte founded ACT (Air Conditioning Training) in 1985. It was incorporated and renamed ACT Group, Inc. in 1989. In 1990, as an instructor with Alabama Heat Pump Training Center, he developed a seminar on “How to Sell Heat Pumps by Focusing on Value Instead of Price.”

“That’s basically how I started my sales training program,” he shared. “The key was to sell the benefits of heat pumps. It was amazing and changed everything.”

Five ACT Group trainers are on call for trainng as requested. They’re all independent contractors with their own businesses. 

Steve trademarked several sales terms within the No Pressure Selling^® program: Sell the Way Your Customers Want to Buy^®; Design the Ideal Comfort Solution^®; and a Comfort Concerns List^®, which is used to help consumers state their home comfort problems and needs.

“The lion’s share of contractors today use a ‘good/better/best’ process. The problem is, one of the choices has something they don’t want, and another choice is leaving something out. Our Design the Ideal Comfort Solution, we give the customer exactuly what they want, and the resistance melts away and closing ratios increase,” Howard said.

Charlotte added: “When you complete the Customer Concerns List, and read back what is important to them, you’ve helped them to sell themselves.” 

Jim Hinshaw, a fellow consultant and close friend of Steve Howard, now with ServiceNation, offered these words:

“I’ve shared the stage with Steve several times and had many conversations with him. He’s an outstanding trainer. I found myself in envy of his presentation style and skill. The material he’s developed for contractors is first rate. His service agreement program was way ahead of its time. He built upon the work of Ron Smith and Jackie Rainwater.

 “One of the unique aspects of Steve is he built a training organization. Most trainers are one-man bands. Steve’s ACT Group was and is a true business with a number of trainers. Of all of the industry sales trainers, Steve developed, in my opinion, the most professional and polished material for his customers/contractors to use.”

Thank you, Steve Howard for your career accoumplishments in support of HVAC contractors everywhere. Welcome to the Contracting Business HVAC Hall of Fame, Steve!