If you’re like most businesses in our industry right now, things are slow. The weather has turned, foot traffic is sluggish, and the backlog of the burn season has dried up. Now, for companies on the western half of the continent that barely had a winter, it’s especially bad—but even if you were carried along by the arctic freeze of the East Coast, that momentum can only take you so far.

We see it every year, but now especially, the seasonality feels more pressing as overhead and labor costs continue to rise. That said, it’s imperative to bring sales in, but how do you cultivate them with no door swings? Well, as my old boss Jeff Melberg always said, “When there’s no wind in your sails, get out the oars and paddle.”

This wisdom is really important for us to understand because, even in the off-season, people still buy fireplaces—the question is: Are they buying them from you?

We obviously don’t have the power to affect the prevailing winds, but we absolutely have the ability to move our companies forward regardless of the weather around us. Just like rowing a boat, though, input equals output—and our decision to show up and do the work will be the difference between making it to our destination and wallowing adrift at sea.

If you’re looking to bring business in when the sails are flat, here are three ways to start rowing your boat:

1. Unleash the power of off-season service.
2. Follow up with every opportunity from the last three years.
3. Join the local building or remodeling association.

Putting any of these into practice can make a radical difference in your off-season revenue and set you up for an incredible payoff season when the cold weather returns.

Here’s how you do it.

1. Unleash the Power of Off-Season Service

A lot of companies treat service as an afterthought and are content to let the ebbs and flows of foot traffic carry them, but this completely ignores what may be the most powerful lever to grow your business: your existing customer base.

The logic on this is simple.

Every customer who ever bought an appliance from you needs it serviced each year. Those service calls often range from $200 to $500—and that’s just for the basics. Nearly every fireplace has the opportunity for upgrades as well: fan kits, remotes, tool sets, Bluetooth controls, and more. And, guaranteed, if it’s been long enough, the appliance itself will need to be replaced—and you can help with all of this.

So, here’s how you unleash the power of an off-season service program.

First, export all of the email addresses in your customer database to a spreadsheet—bonus points if you can sort them by location and fuel type.

Second, import that list into Mailchimp, Constant Contact (or whatever mass-email delivery platform you prefer), and create a campaign that will email each customer 15 times over the next six weeks. Make sure to set the campaign to stop if a customer clicks the booking link you’ll include in the email.

Third, draft 15 thoughtful follow-up emails for your customer. The first should include a coupon for an off-season service call ($50–$75 often works really well) that expires in three weeks. Write your emails with that expiration date in mind, with the final two emails being a 24-hour warning and a final last-day call to action. These emails should include testimonials, checklists of what you take care of, and stories of how off-season service (or lack thereof) affected previous customers you’ve worked with. Make sure to include a booking link at multiple points in each email so it’s easy for your customer to take action. Even if you don’t have the ability to schedule online, just include a link to a specific contact form on your website that your team will know is for the service promotion. Once you’ve done all that, you can launch the campaign.

But it doesn’t stop there.

As service calls start to come in—and I assure you they will—your team needs to go out prepared. Make sure that every service truck and technician is equipped with:

• An understanding of the standard service checklist to complete.
• Flat-rate pricing for all standard services (thermocouple replacement, valve, pilot assembly, fire bricks, baffles, control boards, etc.).
• A checklist of upgrade options—with pricing—for every type of fireplace (all of these upgrade options need to be on the truck at all times).
• A list of good/better/best replacement options—with flat-rate pricing—for fireplaces, stoves, and inserts that need to be replaced.

At every service call, after completing the inspection, the technician should review the upgrade options for the fireplace with the homeowner and offer a discount—10–15% is usually enough—for replacing them on site versus waiting to do it later (and having to pay you for your inspection a second time). If the appliance is eligible to be replaced, review the good/better/best options on hand and the flat-rate pricing for each. Consider crediting the cost of the service call, plus an additional $200 to $300, toward the new appliance if the customer moves ahead in the next 30 days.

As you run this play year after year, your customer list will grow beyond your ability to serve it. At that point you have a few options—break your email list into four parts and run one campaign each quarter, hire more technicians to handle the consistent workload, or both. Either way, it’s a great problem to have to figure out how to staff your company for the demand of what used to be the downtime.

Building an off-season service program like this can revolutionize a business. Yes, it takes time to set up, but your company will charge ahead while everyone else is waiting around for the wind to come back.

2. Follow Up With Every Opportunity From the Last Three Years

It goes without saying that follow-up is the single most neglected part of the sales process in our industry. And, if your company is like most, this presents a tremendous opportunity waiting to be realized.

So, when the wind dies down, rather than trimming your staff or cutting hours, get out the oars and start following up. And if you’re not sure where to begin, consider starting here.

Create a spreadsheet with a list of every quote you’ve written over the last three years, with columns for first name, last name, email, phone number, unit name, and dollar amount (this may take some time to assemble).

Next, create an automated email campaign, similar to the one for the off-season service program, which emails your customers 15 times over six weeks, checking in on their projects and asking if they’d like to move ahead. If you want to supercharge this, it’s amazing how a $200 coupon that expires in three weeks will move people to a decision.

Once you’ve launched the automated campaign, work with your team to start making phone calls to those same customers. It might seem like overkill, but the combination of manual and automated follow-up is incredibly powerful—this is something most companies miss. Make sure that each customer gets called 10 times over the same six-week period as the emails, and train your team to leave kind and thoughtful voicemails if they miss the customer.

If you’ve never put a follow-up program into place before, this might seem like a lot—and it is. But in today’s busy and distracted world, it’s the only way to stay top of mind with your customer.

In my experience, I’ve seen about a 3% unsubscribe rate from these automated follow-up email campaigns. That’s pretty low if you think about it. And, even if customers are just deleting the email each time they get it, it’s still putting your brand in their heads at that moment. When you combine it with the phone calls your team is making, it puts customers in a position where they’re thinking about the project again and are ready to make a decision.

Now, many of them will say no because you’ve waited too long or because other things have come up—but some will say yes.

And that’s all you need.

For perspective, a number of years ago, Closing Commander had a number of companies send seven emails to every past quote they’d written up—no matter how old. While most of the opportunities didn’t pan out, some companies saw hundreds of thousands of dollars in business come in directly because of those emails.

The best part of this is that it hardly costs anything—and once it’s built out, will continue to bring in business all year long.

When the wind isn’t blowing, you can row your boat to better waters by building out a follow-up process.

3. Join the Local Building or Remodeling Association

When retail business is slow, there’s still a group of people buying fireplaces—contractors. And one of the rules as old as time is that contractors like hanging out with other contractors. Now, nearly every part of North America has some kind of building or remodeling association that you can join to bring in new business when the seasonal winds have dissipated.

Here’s what you do.

First, go online and join the building association closest to you. Now, a note on this—depending on where you’re located, there might be multiple associations to choose from. If that’s the case, I would advise picking a remodeling association, because that’s closest to the kind of retail work most hearth companies are set up for. But either way, make sure to join a nearby association regardless.

Second, start attending the monthly chapter meetings and any of their trainings or extracurricular activities to learn how the group works. As you’re at these events, get to know people, rub shoulders with the different members, and let them know what you specifically do.

Third, volunteer for anything they need help with. Organizations like this are always desperate for volunteers, and your service to the association will grow your credibility with members immensely. As you become more and more connected, you’ll have the chance to host events at your business and show contractors firsthand the value you offer.

Finally, sponsor a hole at the yearly golf tournament or a team at the summer trap shoot. These small tokens of support go a long way for your business when they’re combined with your week-in, week-out service to the association.

This play doesn’t have a quick payout. It’s going to take four to six months of work, but over time you’ll be amazed how you start getting calls from builders and remodelers who are unhappy with their current fireplace providers and need someone reliable to help them. Because you’ve established your rapport through the association, it won’t take a lot to win the opportunity—you just need to make sure you deliver when the time comes.

Building relationships with like-minded professionals will benefit your business for years to come and establish another channel to bring in revenue as the winds of the busy season fade.

Conclusion: Rowing Is Hard, but It’s Better Than Floating Aimlessly

Most retailers in our industry have traditionally looked at the off-season as a time to reduce staff, close on Saturdays, cut purchases, and pray for the wind to pick back up again. But just like Ransom discovered on Perelandra, sometimes you’re the very answer to the thing you’ve been praying for.

Any company that sells heating appliances will deal with waves of seasonality depending on the weather. If this isn’t what you signed up for, then you picked the wrong business to get into. But I would argue this is a tension to be managed rather than a problem to be solved.

While some businesses are content to let the wind carry them where it may, that mentality doesn’t make the most of the opportunity we’ve been given to serve and, as many aging owners are finding out, leaves your company in a terrible position if you ever want to make an exit.

It’s up to us to decide if we want to make the most of the off-season. And while it’s never easy, it is possible if we apply ourselves to it with diligence and tenacity.

You can make the most of the dry season by unleashing the power of off-season service, following up with every opportunity from the last three years, and joining the local building or remodeling association.

Things are always easier when momentum is carrying you, but there are other ways to keep your company moving when you don’t have that luxury. Remember, when there’s no wind in your sails, get out the oars and paddle.