“Come springtime, all of the shock factors that are out there will be over,” he predicts. Chernoy points to what he calls the “spring training phenomenon.” He believes many potential buyers fear the economy will be worse than it really will be, and they have a wait-and-see attitude towards system purchases. But once the new presidential administration is settled in, he believes buyers will feel less uncertainty.
“There’s been a general freezing of decision-making but we’re seeing that thaw,” he says. To help overcome buyer uncertainty, Chernoy says, “We’re making sure all of our employees know about our sales successes.” The company formalized its communications processes somewhat, Chernoy relates. “We’re encouraging people to better understand the successes we are getting and making them aware of things they can do to improve the health of the company.” For example, technicians are making an extra effort to ensure that they have replacement parts with them to minimize the need to make repeated service calls to customers.