Air conditioning projects, from beginning to end, must have the accompaniment and advice of an expert, who guarantees results of maximum efficiency.
by Camilo Botero*
At the suggestion of the editor of the journal, in search of topics that are of interest to the appreciable readers of the magazine ACR, this time I will comment on the Technical Consulting and its impact to achieve that our air conditioning projects are of maximum efficiency, with minimal impact on the environment.
For about 20 years I have as a bedside book, for the subject at hand, one that is already in its third edition and whose title is: "Inside the Technical Consulting Business", written by Harvery Kaye, Mechanical Engineer specialized in heat transfer and fluid mechanics at MIT, which has totally coincided with my professional performance during these years, and mainly now since I am primarily dedicated to the solution of problems of some complexity in the industry and in air conditioning, with demanding specifications.
Says the author: "Every engineer with years of professional practice has worked hard to obtain his technical skills ... and therefore deserves to claim credit for his innate creativity and receive income for them", and also that this knowledge and experience is unique and non-transferable and that he does not have to worry about the competition if he manages to find situations, where their skills match the specific needs of their clients and highlights: "The client's problems, are the consultans blessings".
The author goes on to say that technical skills are only half the story and that the Technical Consultant must learn certain business skills, if he wants to achieve professional independence; how to define the identity of your consultancy (abolish the "copy and paste", as usual) and appropriate the magic of doing your own professional performance and being responsible for your future, learning survival techniques.
Specific solutions
The Technical Consultant must be very clear that his profession is very different from that of Management Consulting, because it is always about finding solutions to specific problems and technical needs, whose results are always measurable. The Technical Consultant must find his own form and style, his market niche and in my opinion, have an ethical and transparent performance where no commissions are received from manufacturers or contractors, who will participate in the execution of their designs. Your commitment is fundamentally with your client and with the specific project, which will keep you always working, since you will earn the trust of your customers, but you must bear in mind that Technical Consultants are not "magicians" who solve all problems, because we work with the laws of physics, mainly the first and second laws of thermodynamics, which are inviolable. As I sometimes tell my clients jokingly and seriously: "I studied engineering...not palmistry...!!! ", when they ask me for solutions that go against those laws of thermal sciences.
Marketing of Technical Consulting,
The author refers to three fundamental truths of the marketing of Technical Consulting, to which I will make some comments based on my current experiences and the market conditions of said activity in our environment; these truths are:
The first is that there is a latent need for such a consultancy, which depends in essence on the specific technical skills of an engineer who has them, has proven to be effective with them and who can certify them with solutions already tested and repeatable in a particular case. That is, there is an underexploited market.
The second is that getting the job is more difficult than doing it, there are too many reasons for it and one is that there is no obligation to hire designs, and another is that there are many contractors or team representatives who offer "free design" if they get the project or if they buy their equipment ... here I also make the joke clá I put my clients..." that's like a doctor with a funeral home", since there is no such thing as objective and appropriate design for a specific project, which is "free"; the best investment a customer can make is to pay for a design where it gets maximum efficiency, minimal ecological impact and maintains its parameters throughout its useful life. The RITE specifies this very clearly. In addition, the value of the design in our environment only represents on the order of 3% of the total value of the project and sometimes even less.
The third truth is that every technical skill has its life cycle, therefore, the Technical Consultant must remain in the state of the art of our trade, attending fairs, congresses, seminars, courses, being a teacher in the guild and the formal academy, elaborating standards, participating in union activities, achieving professional titles or technical certifications, giving lectures, writing technical articles and books. In these challenging times where technology is changing in a dizzying way, the Technical Consultant is forced to study every day.
The Technical Consultant in Air Conditioning must know in depth the principles of psychometry, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, with all the theory that supports this knowledge, and with its associated differential equations, which allow to elaborate mathematical models of a certain complexity. As for the calculation of the thermal load, this is more an art than technology, based on these principles, a lot of experience, knowledge of the climatology, architecture and construction materials of the area, where the project is carried out.
Here I will add something that sounds like heresy and that brings me problems when I dictate the thermal load calculation class, and that is that the software for this function that are excellent for comfort projects with a large number of rooms, lounges, auditoriums, dining rooms etc., if you do not have the knowledge and experience, they give rise to huge errors, being misused, and I can see this frequently, in my work of intervention.
To prove that what I say is true, always in class on the subject, I do the following exercise: I ask my students to calculate the thermal load of the room where we are, consulting all the texts, using the software of their preference, consulting with their classmates, and if there are 20 students and the most likely answer is 4 TR, when making the normal distribution of the answers, which are all different, there are two or three close to this value and the others range from 1 TR, to 20 TR, or more.
The book continues with topics such as the art of getting customers, creating demand, defining who their customers will be, who really appreciate the specialized service provided by the Technical Consultant, defining the target markets; in my particular case are thermal engineering projects, mainly in the industrial sector, and large air conditioning projects such as thermal districts. In general, if the consulting office does not have high fixed costs, having a few clients who appreciate their knowledge and who pay what their engineering services are really worth is enough. It is not a business of "many" but of "good" customers.
Digital media
As for the internet, he states that it is experiencing explosive growth as a means of communication in engineering projects and that it helps the Technical Consultant, to promote himself, do marketing, have contacts, email, technical references and have professional groups; in this whatsApp is spectacular. I use the internet to communicate permanently with my clients, guilds and peers in engineering, as well as to consult specific details of a project since, on the network, there is an amount of knowledge of incredible dimensions. When I did my first Air Conditioning design course in 1981, in the factory of one of the most recognized companies in the sector, the printed material they gave us, weighed 33 Kg!!! That information today can be carried in an electronic memory type card, in the wallet.
The use of digital files helps projects to be stored on the PC, in electronic memories, CDs, or on removable disks to support them. The same goes for the catalogs of which I have two rooms with libraries full of these, but with the help of the internet, they are becoming obsolete, I have been giving my students and alumni a good amount of this printed material, but as they also access the internet, or digital information provided by manufacturers, each time, they receive them less.
The book also teaches the aspects that must be taken into account in marketing, such as making intelligence of the competition, customers and the macroeconomic environment, positioning properly, making the marketing plan and putting it into action. It explains how to carry out technical sales visits and how to develop skills of said technical sale, projecting a reliable image, since what the Technical Consultant has to sell are his knowledge and confidence, through billable hours; that is why he must be so demanding with the time he devotes to those visits and to the meetings associated with projects that sometimes become endless and are not billable. You must also earn the appreciation and respect of the customer, without becoming their "employee"; highlight the specific need of a customer, because from there usually more businesses are born. You need to attend to all the objections and interests of your customer, without pressuring him to make the purchase.
Solving real problems for your clients always brings good economic returns and prestige to the Technical Consultant. The customer is always waiting for solutions on a favorable economic technical basis for him. The preparation of quotations and contracts must be clear, specifying the deliverables of each project, so that the settlement of contracts is easy to carry out.
Anyway, to finish, I must tell you, that Technical Consulting is a note ... !!! We need to promote it and give it the importance it deserves in HVAC & Refrigeration projects.
* Camilo Botero is the current Secretary of the Federation of Ibero-American Associations of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration - FAIAR; he was president of ACAIRE and is president of Camilo Botero Ingenieros Consultores Ltda. He has worked as a teacher in several Colombian universities, guilds and currently in ACAIRE in diploma courses of air conditioning projects, energy efficiency in air conditioning and refrigeration, cogeneration and trigeneration, applied psychometrics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer and turbomachinery. ([email protected]).
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