Sharp Sales Growth Spurs Rocky Mountain CFC Expansion
Denver – It’s vital for tool and equipment distributors to align themselves with manufacturers who not only produce quality products, but offer their distributors support. For Rocky Mountain CFC Equipment Service Inc., partnerships with key manufacturers such as SPX, parent company to Robinair, and Forward Manufacturing have resulted in greater than expected sales growth.
Servicing what they sell has been a main ingredient to the success of the husband and wife duo. Mark and Lynn Cirbo, who own and operate Rocky Mountain CFC, a business they purchased eight years ago.
“We prefer to service what we sell.” Mark Cirbo said of the business, the only Robinair equipment service provider in the Denver area. “Service has always been our No. 1 priority,” he said. “We have an answer for the customer if there’s a problem with a piece of equipment.”
It’s this attention to the customers that has led the Cirbos to more than a 40 percent increase in gross sales over 2006, which prompted them to lease the adjacent space to their warehouse last February, increasing their warehouse space to 6,000 square feet.
On the heels of expansion, the Cirbos said they unexpectedly received a Top Sales Growth award from Lance Jones, Forward Manufacturing’s sales and brand manager, outperforming more than 40 distributors in the United States in year-to-year sales growth.
“To us it’s very important, especially in a region with limited coverage, to have such a good distributor.” Jones said of Rocky Mountain CFC, adding that the Cirbos do an excellent job with servicing the lifts.
The Cirbos said the majority of their customers, mainly comprised of franchise dealership service departments, but including independent repairers, are looking for a one-stop solution when purchasing and servicing Robinair A/C recycle and recharge machines, Forward lifts, Corghi tire changers, KleenTec parts, washers and UniRam solvent recyclers.
The ongoing success of the business can be attributed, in part, to manufacturer support and referrals from existing customers, Cirbo said.
It’s nearly impossible for big-box distributors to know the intricacies of each piece of equipment they sell, Cirbo said, pointing out that he takes more of a consultative sales approach, asking questions to properly match a shop’s needs with the right piece of equipment. “We try to ask the customer as many questons as we can.”
Being and end-to-end distributor and service provider expedites the service process, Cirbo pointed out. Knowing the history of the equipment, such as when the equipment was sold or last serviced, shortens the length of the service call, he said.
Cirbo said he still conducts service calls and employs two full-time technicians, Kevin Thomas and Travis Aipperspach, along with a part-time technician, Ed Trainer. Aipperspach mainly works on units in the shop, and Thomas makes outbound service calls, he said.
The Cirbos also hired a receptionist and office assistant Mary Gutschalk to accommodate the increase in business.