Did an Elephant Show Up at the Applied AI Conference?
Mark McGready, Director Data Analytics and Solutions for IDEA, attended the 2026 Applied AI for Distributors Conference organized by Distribution Strategy Group. While he spoke to attendees about IDEA’s Data Whispers solution and how Nudge (its avatar) helps drive sales, profits and acts as a virtual sales coach and information resource tailored to each distributor’s offering and is based…
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Blue Hawk Brings Construct CRM to its Members
Integrating with your customers provides an opportunity to add value to them and help solidify your role as their preferred distributor. The key is recognizing…
DOE Furnace Rule Fight Exposes Gap Between Energy Policy and HVAC Field Reality
TL;DR: This article argues that the fight over the DOE furnace and water heater rule is really a fight over whether energy policy reflects how…
Adding a Nudge to Your Sales Coaching, at the Point of Impact
Every conference has some session about AI. And every reception at every conference has someone asking about what you’re doing with AI. So, imagine being…
The AI Boom Exposing the HVACR Industry
TL;DR: The AI buildout is creating a cooling challenge the HVAC/R industry cannot treat like traditional comfort applications. As rack densities rise and heat loads…
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Adding a Nudge to Your Sales Coaching, at the Point of Impact
Every conference has some session about AI. And every reception at every conference has someone asking about what you’re doing with AI. So, imagine being at a conference that is all about AI and where everyone is talking AI 24x7x3. This is what will happen next week at DSG’s Applied AI conference in Chicago. If you are attending get ready…
The AI Boom Exposing the HVACR Industry
TL;DR: The AI buildout is creating a cooling challenge the HVAC/R industry cannot treat like traditional comfort applications. As rack densities rise and heat loads intensify, success will depend on precision design, verified commissioning, tighter field execution, and much better training. In the author’s view, the industry’s biggest risk is not demand—it is assuming “good enough” practices can survive mission-critical…
Why the Shift to Service Is Making Diagnostics a Distributor Opportunity
As the HVAC/R industry shifts away from a replacement-driven model and toward service, maintenance, and repair, the implications extend well beyond the contractor. For distributors, this transition is reshaping what customers need most: not just equipment and parts availability, but stronger support around diagnostics, troubleshooting, training (such as the vacuuming testing Don Gillis shared), and application knowledge. In a market…
Schneider Electric Delivers Green for HVAC Through UL ECOLOGO
ESG … sustainability. Many publicly-held companies believe in it and promote it. Some issue lengthy reports about their ESG initiatives. Rather than “just publish,” I frequently ask “what is the benefit of this to end-customers? to distributors?” And surprisingly, 99% of the people (probably PR and marcom roles) don’t respond. The end-result, I don’t publish. Schneider Electric’s PR firm took…
TUG Connects: More Than an Infor Conference
Infor is one of the most prominent ERP systems serving the HVACR market. Last month their users group, TUG, which is independently run, held their annual event. If your company operates on the Infor platform, this is where your IT and sales operations group (as well as others depending upon the agenda) go to keep your company on the leading…
How Vacuuming Can Deliver HVACR Distributor Sales
As the HVAC industry transitions toward A2L refrigerants and increasingly emphasizes installation quality, contractors are paying greater attention to evacuation procedures, moisture removal, and leak detection. Noted industry trainer Don Gillis, in his inaugural article for HVACRTrends, shares technical insights on the need for vacuum testing. According to Don, the two primary causes of a failed vacuum decay test are…
Turn Your Customers’ CRM into Revenue for You
In the age of digital, distributors are seeking ways to get closer to their customers. Consider, if you have an electronic connection, and ideally an integration, with your customer, the relationship is deeper and you are building a moat around the customer. Your competition will still win some business (selected lines, locale, credit, perhaps price) but you win the dominant…
Is CRM for Rep Agencies Still Optional?
CRM for rep agencies is a topic that has frustrated leadership teams for years, and the conversation rarely lands cleanly. Chris Atwell brings sharp, practical thinking to it, and the timing is good. I have been working on a research project focused specifically on how reps are using these tools today and what they actually want and need from them. Chris’s…
