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Welcome to the First Edition of The Attic Advisor
This monthly newsletter is coming to you from Specialty Comfort Enterprises and has been designed with you in mind. Each month we will be coming your way with helpful articles designed for Service & Sales Techs, Installers, Comfort Consultants and Dealers /Owners.
Our mission is to inform and inspire!
We’ll be bringing you sales tips, dealer updates from around the country and helpful hints for installers. We want to partner with you to bring greater comfort and savings to your homeowners and increased profit to your business.
We want your input! Let us know what questions you have. Tell us what’s been working for you. Send us your photos. What topics would you like us to cover?
We’re excited about the expanding opportunities that AttiCat is providing for all of us. Let’s work together to make the most of your AttiCat adventure!
Steve Curtis
Editor
In This Issue:
A Man’s Home Is His Castle
“A man’s home is his castle.” I checked the internet on this brainy quip and could not find who the brilliant man was who made that statement. What about a woman’s home? Who does all that painting, decorating, furnishing, and organizing? Who goes to The Container Store to find just the right shade of clear storage containers for the pantry? Who purchases four or five colors of sample red paint (salsa, barnyard, hot tamale, Caribbean sunset, to name a few) to test on a wall before investing the money for three gallons of just the right shade of red?
I believe that more than any other time in American history, women (o.k. and some men), are spending a great deal of time and money decorating their homes in order to convert them into castles. Television programs such as HGTV, OPRAH, FIT TV, and an array of other programs, are teaching regular ole’ homeowners how to convert their plain vanilla residential, cookie cutter house, into a unique, customized, statement-making home or castle, as the saying goes. Homeowners are fauxing their paint, tiling their floors, creating outdoor entertainment areas, and installing individualized retreats.
Knowing that homeowners are fiercely protective of their customized domain, whom do you think they are going to allow to enter their sanctuary to do some home comfort and energy saving enhancements? From personal experience, having created a castle myself, I am very discerning and cautious as to whom I trust to enter and do work in my home. I must be assured and convinced during my first meeting with the company that they are reputable, honest, competent and extremely considerate with my customized domain, i.e. castle.
It is vital that an insulation company representative arrives looking sharp, professional, knowledgeable and respectful of the home or castle environment. A cigarette smoking, dirty, foul mouthed insulator will not make it past my front porch much less into my beautifully decorated (if I do say so myself) home. It is imperative that installers are trained by their respective companies to make the best impression possible during the first meeting with a potential customer. They need to be skilled in securing the job. They must convince the homeowner of their competency and care throughout the insulation installation. When a happy, satisfied homeowner witnesses careful, quality work, they want to tell all their friends about the excellent decision they have made. Remember, studies have shown that on average a satisfied homeowner will provide nine positive referrals. A dissatisfied homeowner will tell 16 - 20 friends of their dissatisfaction.
Choosing Specialty Comfort Enterprises for insulation training is a smart choice. No other insulation installers in the field have the quality training and expertise these technicians now possess. As your insulation job orders increase, be sure to continue to reinforce the successful habits your technicians have been taught. Excellent work and strong referrals should be rewarded.
Remember, houses are no longer just houses, they are castles!
Linda Beck
Trainer/Consultant
Why AttiCat® Insulation Sold by the “Big Box Stores” Doesn’t Matter
My friends,
As we all know Owens Corning sells the same AttiCat® machine and AttiCat® insulation to the most well-known DIY retailers. In fact, Owens Corning established that relationship long before we had the opportunity to develop the HVAC market. Frankly, if the big box stores had been more successful we would not have had the opportunity to engage in this business. The big box store strategy is very limited in its potential to reach your customers and they are not and will not be a competitive threat to you if you follow the Specialty Comfort Select AttiCat Dealer marketing strategy. Here’s why:
- Insulation is just one of thousands of products they have to sell. Their people do not have any technical, sizing, application or installation expertise. You do.
- Only a small percentage of stores even have blown-in insulation... or a machine.
- If they have a machine it may or may not work.
- They may or may not have enough insulation in stock. The homeowner who runs short may have to wait for more... and rent a machine again.
- Only your Select AttiCat® Distributor in partnership with Specialty Comfort Enterprises can and will provide each of your employees with a Personal Use Program. This program will give each of your employees up to 20 bags of insulation for the Personal Use price of $15 per bag.
- The homeowner has to figure out how much insulation he needs, has to learn about proper ventilation, has to take the risk of stepping through the ceiling, has to figure out if he can insulate over can lights, has to crawl through old insulation, has to read the instruction manual, has to learn that a 12 amp draw on a 15 amp circuit will pop the breaker when he uses his $4.00 extension cord, will poke his head or worse on a roofing nail... you get the picture.
- The best job most homeowners can do is a poor job compared to the “attic upgrade” we train our dealers to do.
To learn more, including how to “Build Value to Earn the Sale” click on this link.
Tom Piscitelli
Installation Tips
Can Lights
Before blowing insulation in an attic, it is necessary to check for “can lights.” The best way to locate these lights is to check from inside the house rather than looking in the attic. If you’re only checking for lights by looking in the attic then you may miss them if they are already covered by insulation.
There are two basic types of can lights:
IC-rated can lights are insulation certified and you may blow insulation over these lights. These lights may be identified in a couple of ways. One way is to remove the bulb and look for “TYPE IC” or a similar IC statement within the canister. Another way is to look for the presence/absence of slots in the canister. After locating the can lights from below, you can visually inspect them in the attic. If the can light does NOT have slots in it for ventilation then you may blow insulation over it.
Non-IC rated can lights will need a heat shield placed around them prior to blowing insulation. These lights will have slots in the canister.
Heat shields are constructed of duct board. Simply construct a duct board box to place around the can light. The easiest and quickest way to do this is to use a V-groove tool (these may be purchased from your distributor). The V-groove tool quickly cuts a groove in the duct board so that it may be folded into a box shape and sealed on end with foil tape. Cutting four separate sides and taping each one together is extremely time consuming so we strongly recommend the V-groove tool.
Be sure there is at least 3 inches of space between the light and the heat shield. It is also recommended to make the heat shield 2 feet tall with a duct board lid on it. Two feet top clearance allows adequate space for heat dispersion from the light while the lid prevents heat loss through the attic.
If a non-IC rated light has been installed up against a bottom cord, then simply cut a notch in your box to ensure a proper fit.
Remember, an IC-rated light means “I Can” blow insulation over it and a non-IC rated light requires a heat shield box.
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Ron Smith says...
 “I’ve studied and become familiar with Gary and Tom’s Select AttiCat® Dealer home insulation program. Their comprehensive offering provides homeowners and HVAC contractors the opportunity for a classic win-win relationship. The homeowner wins by saving money on energy costs, by improving their home’s comfort, by reducing wear on their HVAC equipment and by “being green”. The contractor wins by being able to improve the benefits and value they offer to their customers and adding a viable and profitable product to their portfolio.”
Dealer of the Month
July’s dealer of the month is Right Now Heating & Cooling in Boise, Idaho. Right Now has been in the Boise area for 9 years and currently has 32 employees with 18 service vehicles. They have one box truck dedicated to AttiCat® and are looking to add another smaller truck and trailer to handle the outlying areas in the future!
Owner Jeff Cox says AttiCat® has been “awesome” for his company. Since their training at the end of May they are already averaging between two and three jobs per week with their sights set on reaching a goal of five per week by the fall.
They are currently getting around 50% of sales from the comfort advisors and 50% from the service techs. Jeff said something they have found helpful is to have all of the guys carry a ruler with them at all times and he considers it one of the best sales tools that they use.
In order to let everyone know that they can do insulation they are including the Pink Panther on everything from their trucks to their uniforms to help spread the word that they can help with insulation as well as their usual outstanding services. Another thing they are doing at Right Now is to have their guys carry a small zip-lock bag of insulation with them at every appointment to show the customer that this is not your father’s itchy type of fiberglass insulation. Jeff said that his guys will actually pull out a piece of insulation, or “cotton candy” as they call it, and rub it on their arm to show that it doesn’t itch and then offer to let the customer take a look at it.
The comfort advisors are offering AttiCat® as part of the package with each system they show to the customer. They are offering to upgrade the attic using 6, 12, or 18 inches of insulation. The results have shown that most people are going for the middle choice, with some deciding to go with the best and very few choosing the lowest option. They are using inches versus R value to keep it easier for the customer to understand. In an effort to increase the number of opportunities to talk about AttiCat® they are offering their clients a free energy audit.
Jeff said he has been very impressed with how well AttiCat® is selling in this economy and can see Right Now doing 7 jobs a week using two rigs when the economy turns around. In talking with Jeff, I can tell that his guys take pride in truly giving his customers an “attic upgrade”. They are using before and after pictures to show the customer the transformation that Right Now can make to their attic. His installers take pride in doing all of the little things that the other guys don’t do, from installing cat walks and improving attic accesses, all the way down to clearing out the spider webs in the attic. Great job guys and keep up the fantastic work!
Mike Berry
Trainer/Consultant
New Photo Galleries
 Gilley’s Heating & Air Conditioning Boot Camp
 Home Comfort Heating & Cooling Boot Camp
 Huntington Heating & Cooling Boot Camp
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