Episode 125 | How to Sell Without Selling (and Win) in a Male-Dominated Industry - Katie Malloy

I’m excited to bring you this episode of Uncopyable Women in Business, featuring Katie Malloy from Elite Heating and Cooling. Katie is a powerhouse in sales, marketing, social media, and community outreach—all while working in a traditionally male-dominated industry.

Katie and I dive into how she builds trust with customers, focusing on education over pressure when it comes to major home investments like heating and cooling systems. She shares her approach to using humor on social media, creating memorable content that connects with homeowners.

We also talk about her recognition as Woman of the Year by Little Black Book Women in Business, and the importance of women supporting women. Katie opens up about balancing work, family, and her passion for empowering the next generation—including her four daughters and son.

This episode is packed with insights on building relationships, selling with integrity, and creating an uncopyable advantage.

About Katie Malloy:

Katie Malloy is the Office Manager at Elite Heating & Cooling, a family-owned company serving Wentzville, Missouri, and the surrounding St. Charles and St. Louis counties since 2003. Elite specializes in commercial and residential heating, cooling, and commercial refrigeration services.

Plays a key role in both sales and recruiting  refrigeration service technicians.
She is also actively involved in community engagement, representing Elite Heating & Cooling in initiatives like the "Meet Your Neighbors" series.

Katie’s dedication to excellence and her contributions to the industry have earned her recognition, including being named Woman of the Year.

Learn more about Katie: 

Website

LinkedIn

YouTube

Kay Miller interviews women in sales with proven track records, as they share their experiences, success strategies and tools you can use to crush your sales goals. Kay has a history of sales success, earning the nickname “Muffler Mama” when she sold more automotive mufflers than anyone in the world. Kay and her guests deliver actionable insights and real-world tools that will help you overcome obstacles, adopt a winning mindset, and maximize your sales results.

Kay is the author of the book, Uncopyable Sales Secrets – How to Create an Unfair Advantage and Outsell the Competition. Go to Amazon.com and search “Uncopyable Sales Secrets” to order the book, or click the link below.

Contact:
kay@uncopyablesales.com
linkedin.com/in/millerkay
Order Uncopyable Sales Secrets: amzn.to/35dGlYZ

Transcript

Kay Miller 00:00:00
Welcome to Uncopyable Women in Business! I'm your host, Kay Miller, also known as Muffler Mama. Stay tuned as I, along with my guests, give you marketing, sales, and personal branding strategies that will give you an unstoppable advantage. Bonus episode.

Okay, thank you! I'm really looking forward to my conversation today with Katie Malloy. Katie handles the marketing, networking, promotion, and sales at Elite Heating and Cooling. Katie is involved with networking, social media, PR, and more. We're going to talk about all that.

Katie, welcome to the podcast.

Katie Malloy 00:00:47
Thank you so much for having me, Kay.

Kay Miller 00:00:49
It's always great when I get a referral from someone who's been a guest and somebody I know—in the case of Ruth King. Let me just look. Ruth was episode number 13, so she was early on in the podcast. We know her well, and she's a huge supporter of Unstoppable.

I'm not going to talk too much more, but Katie, when we were talking before we were on air, you said that The Unconquerable Book has really resonated with you and is very important to you and your business.

Kay Miller 00:01:20
Of course, I love to hear that.

Katie Malloy 00:01:23
Absolutely.

Kay Miller 00:01:25
We're going to talk a little bit about who you are and what you do. One thing that I got a kick out of is that one of the many things you do is social media, and you use a lot of humor in your content, which makes it so fun.

Tell me, what has been the result of that? You gave me a teaser, so how has that worked?

Katie Malloy 00:01:47
I think it's worked out pretty well. For the most part, I don't think most homeowners really want to talk about a new furnace. It’s not as exciting as new granite countertops, a big-screen TV, or a new Ford Bronco.

A new furnace is an unexciting but necessary purchase. So I try to make it fun and help people appreciate the money they're going to spend because it is a big investment.

Kay Miller 00:02:15
It is a big investment! And honestly, we can't live without it.

Kay Miller 00:02:21
And we're in Seattle, where it doesn't get that hot. But we work at home, and you cannot be productive when it’s too hot—or too cold!

It’s funny because people don’t want to deal with heating and cooling issues, but we have to. Otherwise, we’re miserable.

Before we get into your work in sales, I want to touch on something. I love your sales philosophy—how your goal is to help and not be a pushy salesperson.

But when I was researching you, I found out about the LBB organization, and I saw that you were named Woman of the Year in 2021 out of 750 women! That caught my attention. You didn’t even include it in your bio or intro.

Tell us about LBB and what it means.

Katie Malloy 00:03:12
Sure! LBB stands for Little Black Book Women in Business. I’m not sure how many members there are now, but at the time, it was around 750.

It’s a group that supports women in all aspects of business. And actually, I think they’re expanding now. You don’t have to own a business—you could be a stay-at-home mom. We have women who sell Mary Kay, Avon, and then we have C-level executives in the group.

The idea is that women need women. We need each other to build each other up. We’re often our own worst critics, and sometimes, we just need another woman to remind us that we’re doing great and to keep going.

LBB is an uplifting group of women. There are amazing meetings and networking events. Actually, we have a big book meeting coming up on March 7th here in St. Louis.

So, it’s all about empowering women and giving them the tools and support they need to grow.

Kay Miller 00:04:12
Now, is it a national organization?

Katie Malloy 00:04:14
I think the founder would love for it to be! It has grown tremendously.

It started in Wentzville, where the founder’s business is located. Now, I believe they have 12 to 15 chapters, expanding into Illinois, down to the Lake of the Ozarks, and up to Hannibal, Missouri.

Kay Miller 00:04:34
That’s great! At the end of the show, I’ll add links in the show notes so our listeners can easily check it out.

This sounds like a group that has huge growth potential—maybe even nationally or internationally.

Katie Malloy 00:04:51
Oh, absolutely. It’s an amazing group of women.

And if you’re having a bad day and need a pick-me-up, just stop in. Even if you haven’t seen these women in a year, they will hug you, lift your spirits, and fill your cup.

Kay Miller 00:05:07
That’s so exciting!

Now, I know you’ve worked in male-dominated industries. I have too!

Back when I started in the mid-'80s, I felt like women were competing against each other—being a little catty and sometimes bringing each other down.

But I see that changing. And that’s a big reason why I wanted to create this podcast—to help other women.

I’ve interviewed so many women, young and old, and everyone has been so open to sharing their experiences.

I love that you’re part of this movement to support and uplift women.

Now, you’ve been with Elite Heating and Cooling for eight years, and I love how you said, “I love what I do.” That’s exciting! Tell me more.

Katie Malloy 00:06:08
Yes! I’ve been with Elite for eight years now, and I love what I do.

This industry is kind of like going to the dentist. If a dentist tells you, “You have a cavity. Let me fix it,” you don’t really know if that was true or not once they drill and fill it.

I’m not saying people are dishonest, but trust is a huge factor in both industries.

In HVAC, when we tell a homeowner, “This needs to be replaced,” they have to trust us.

They have to trust that:

• We know what we’re doing.
• We’re being honest.
• We’re not trying to upsell them on something they don’t need.

That’s why I love what I do—because I know I’m helping people and doing right by them.

I’m not a technician myself, so I rely on our technicians, and they are not salespeople.

There’s no commission for them to push unnecessary replacements. If they say you need a new furnace, it’s because you really do.

That’s something not every company can claim.

Kay Miller 00:07:17
That is so important.

Actually, we had a furnace issue at home. Ours is about 15 years old, so it’s getting to that replacement zone.

We had three different companies come out, and each one gave us a different answer.

It reminds me of when you go to get your car serviced, and they bring out a dirty air filter and say, “You need a new one.”

And you think… “Is that actually mine? Or do they have a pile of dirty air filters in the back?”

So yes, trust is a huge deal in your industry.

And I know you’re trustworthy, because you talk about your closing percentages—but you also emphasize not overselling and explaining things in a way people can actually understand.

You focus on helping, and that’s why people trust you.

Tell me more about how you approach that.

Katie Malloy 00:08:33
So, when I arrive at someone’s home, the first thing I ask is:

“What issue do you want to resolve?”

Usually, I’m there because either:

1. A technician said the system needs replacing, or
2. The homeowner has called, saying, “My system is old, I’ve spent too much on repairs, and I’m ready for a new one.”

So, I sit down at their kitchen table and ask:

• What problems are you experiencing?
• What’s your goal? Are you looking for better efficiency?
• Are you planning to sell your home soon?
• Do you want advanced technology or smart controls?

Once we go through all of that, then I invite them with me. Let's go look at the furnace together. I want them to have a full understanding, because in any industry there's all these terms, right. What's a plenum? What's a line set, what's a condensate drain, what's a whip and a disconnect. And so I want them there with me when I can say this is the furnace, this is the evaporator coil. This is the plenum. These will all be new. This is this will remain the same so that they know when they come back down there like this looks like exactly what I had before or wow, everything is new. Is that what I really what I agreed to. So they know exactly what they're getting. And then once I have the information put together as far as the options for them, we go through step by step. This is you said you have this problem. This one will help to resolve that problem. This one is probably a little bit more than what you're looking for.
But I want to make sure that you see all your options. But this one is. And then it's always, well, what would you do if you were me? How long are you going to be here so that you can get a return on that investment? Are you looking for federal tax credits? Do you want to upgrade to a heat pump? Do you want to increase your efficiency? So things like that we go through all of that. So it's a very comprehensive consultation that we do at no charge because we want our customers to believe in us and trust us. And then the last thing that I leave them with is a folder in which my business card is in there. Company information is on the front. Flip it over. You're going to find my cell phone and my email address. You're welcome to call, text or email me. And I'm with them from before, during and after. I have customers that call me six months. A year later, I have a question how can I help you? Or if it's technical because again, I'm not a technician, let me get that answer for you, as opposed to me trying to just feed him a line of that.

Kay Miller 00:11:01 Doesn't mean yes, something you don't know.

Katie Malloy 00:11:04 I try to stay, I stay in my life. So and I think for the average homeowner and I have gotten into situations where there might be someone in a similar trade, an electrician or a plumber, and they know most of this terminology. And I'm like, if you already understand, that's fine. But I just want to make sure that you get it, that you're getting every bang for your buck on this.

Kay Miller 00:11:23 This sounds very familiar, because when we decided we actually decided to replace the blower motor, which fixed the problem. But we know that this is coming. So the salesperson for this company came out and he talked and talked. And I just it's so surprising that salespeople often don't get it. So when you talk about. You ask all these questions. You find out lifestyle, what they're envisioning, what what their needs are. So you ask before you tell and then you really explain things. None of this happened when we had our furnace sales man.

Kay Miller 00:12:01 He was a man. That's okay. He was a salesman. And so we were really dissatisfied. And I'll tell you what, when we do upgrade to a new furnace and a cooling system, heat pump, whatever it is, we will not be calling that company. The fact that you are developing trust and letting them know I'm only going to sell you what benefits you. And the fact that they say these are magic words, what would you do that shows that they trust you, that they've you've built that relationship with them? Because we always talk about trusted advisor. They can go online. I can go online and find out a lot of information about BTUs. And like you said, all the terminology, I don't know. But you're the expert. You can guide me and your customers through what they really need. So that's really on target with the unstoppable philosophy, all those customer oriented questions and the information you need to find out. And then of course, setting yourself apart and you're unique. Just being a woman in this industry right there is unique.

Kay Miller 00:13:08 And when I've been in male dominated industries, it's not that I really use that, but it makes me stand out and I'm sure it does you how do people react when they see a woman coming to the door that wants to explain all of this to them?

Katie Malloy 00:13:23 I think for the most part, pretty well the majority of the time anymore. It seems like more of the women are the ones that are making these decisions. And even when it is the man or the man and the woman together, I'm not a technician, so I can't talk up here. I talk on what I understand, and I don't assume that they also understand what I understand because they do this every day. So I think me being patient, even when the men have a tendency to be a little bit less patient because they might understand more than I'm assuming that they do. So I try not to make that assumption, but I also so there's there might be a gentleman in my office that sets the appointment, but I reach out to the customer first to say, hi, my name is Katie.

Katie Malloy 00:14:05 I just wanted to introduce myself. I will be the one coming to your halt. So they're expecting that it's going to be a female. And I think. I think it's all the way you set the expectation with the customer as well, that my job is really to educate you on your options. You can make whatever choice you'd like. We'll do whatever you'd like. But we as that's not true. That is not true. If they want to do something that would not be the right thing for their home, we won't do it. We would refer them. If that's really, truly what you want, then call someone else, because we're not going to put our reputation on the line for that. We're not that we've had to do that, but we would not. We don't want to put our technicians or our customers in a situation that could be detrimental to either one of them.

Kay Miller 00:14:50 You do have your reputation, of course, now with reviews and it's just it's all out there. So you have to really be cognizant of that.

Kay Miller 00:14:57 But I think you do that anyway. That relationship and that trust is huge. And I want to touch again on the closing percentages, because I don't want people to think that those two are exclusive. They absolutely are not. And I've interviewed multiple women on the podcast. One that comes to mind because I was just listening to her episode again. Guess what her name is? It's an awesome name, Katie.

Katie Malloy 00:15:24 We both relate to that.

Kay Miller 00:15:26 Yeah. Yeah. Katie O'Neil. And she sells recreational recreational vehicles. RVs. But her RVs are million dollar and up. They're super exclusive. But she educates, gives them information and again she lets them choose. She lets them buy. And yes, in your case people are saying, what would you do if it were you? I don't think Katie would answer that question because it's too it's got to be on them. But what you're saying to if you want your customers to decide to buy and not feel like they've been sold or closed. So can you speak to that a little bit?

Katie Malloy 00:16:03 I want someone to feel good about the decision that they're making, so it really needs to be their decision in the end.

Katie Malloy 00:16:10 And I will even leave it with, okay, it was great to meet you today. I know that Steve couldn't be here with you. So when you guys take a look at this later together and you have questions, call me. Don't hesitate to call me even if it's in the evening, because that's when you guys are together. And I want to make sure that I answer your questions, all of them thoroughly, that there's no confusion, that you play the telephone game. Right? You call me back the next day, then you talk to Steve, and then you call me back and forth, and then things are lost in translation. So call me if I'm. I'll even come back out. I don't mind, I'll go back out there in the evening if that's what they want. We can do a zoom call. We can do whatever is most comfortable for you. But I want you to feel good about the decision that you're making. Because it is a lot of money. It's. And it's the safety and of your home.

Katie Malloy 00:16:55 Indoor air quality is very important for your quality of life. You spend more time in your home than you realize. Think about the eight hours that you spend sleeping doing nothing but ingesting that air. So it needs to be filtered correctly. Humidity correctly. Everything needs to be on point. Your humidity should be between 40 and 60%. If it's over 60, you have a potential for growing spores. That makes sense, right? High humidity. If it's below, then you have a temp and opportunity for viruses to grow. And then you can get into that whole Arizona. It's a dry heat, so it's not so hot in the winter. If you add a little bit of humidity to your air. You can typically lower that temperature a couple of degrees because it's now a moist heat. When you play all of that into factor and you talk to people about their allergies and just their comfort level in their own home, that's where you should be the most safe. If you wake up in the morning sneezing.

Katie Malloy 00:17:49 We need to talk about that. So those are the types of things that we go into and just getting a thorough understanding. And then it's on them. Whatever they want is what they're going to get. If you don't want the humidifier, don't buy the humidifier. If you don't like, do you like to travel? Then maybe you'd like a thermostat that has Wi-Fi capability that can send you an alert to your phone. There's a problem. It can send us an alert if you'd like. So I go through all of that. They've got it all laid out, and then they can pick what they want. I want that system with that thermostat. No humidifier, but I want filtration. It's no package deal that I really didn't want that. Can you take that out?

Kay Miller 00:18:29 I want to take a quick break to ask you a question. Does your personal brand set you apart and make you unforgettable. If you're not 100% sure you need by free email series. Five steps to a Profitable Personal Brand. Sign up and get a daily email for five days, plus a bonus.

Kay Miller 00:18:52 A list of personal branding shortcuts that will give you an advantage. Go to. Five emails. So you've got a custom situation for every customer. And like you said, it's not just a package deal. But you've got to really care about people, care about customers, which I know you do. And the fact that you said, I love my job and I know there's a lot more to it. We're not going to be able to touch on a lot of it. Social media and PR what else did we say? Customer relations? Recruiting. You do it all. You do it all. A couple of things that jump out at me. One is that it drives me crazy. When someone wants to come and make a presentation, say, a new roof, which we've purchased and they say, we'll both of you be there. We want both decision makers there. And I hate that because normally when we buy something, especially for the home, we both want to be there or we both want the information.

Kay Miller 00:20:01 But often the final decision. Guess who makes it? Me, the woman. That's a lot of times even Katie selling these RVs she markets to the men. She does a ton of video and that's a whole nother story. But she said that she sells the men so the men can sell her to moose, which is what we call your ideal target market. They are really the decision makers. So I think that a lot of her customers would also be insulted if she said, I'm not going to talk to one of you. I've got to talk to both of you. So I like the fact that you mentioned that, because that's pretty common in these consumer sales solar panels or windows or whatever. Also, just the fact that you are an expert and I keep hearing the statistics and I don't know if it's more B2B, maybe it is, but people don't want to deal with salespeople. They just want to make the decision on their own. And you listed that you had a laundry list of things that the average consumer would never think about.

Kay Miller 00:21:01 So they are really doing themselves a disservice if they try to make this decision without someone like you.

Katie Malloy 00:21:08 I hope so.

Kay Miller 00:21:09 I.

Katie Malloy 00:21:09 Said. Like I said, my job is really to educate them and and teach them to what they should be looking at. And even if they've got one of my competitors coming out, call me. I'll help you. I met with a family on Friday. The me and the woman and the daughter were both home, and at the end of the conversation, as I was leaving, he they were like, thank you so much. Thank you for being thorough and explaining everything. We do have one more person coming on Monday. So I followed up with him today to say, how did everything go? Do you have any questions? Even if it's not me that they work with. I still want them to get the right thing for their family, so I want them to choose us. Please don't get me wrong, but sometimes they're price driven and we're not going to be the cheapest all the time.

Katie Malloy 00:21:49 That's not the way that our model works. We're not. Especially this time of year. Our slow type. We're still not. We're no gimmicks, just guarantees. So we're not going to market up to market down in certain months. We don't do that. So I want them to be happy with their choice. If that choice is someone else. I'll still walk you through the process. I'll still help you understand is at two stages of variable speed, all the things that come with that. And I explain what all of that means so that when the next guy comes in, hopefully I set the standard high enough that they can't adequately meet that. And that's my goal on every call is to I want to be the first one, not the last one. The next guy just kind of.

Kay Miller 00:22:29 Yeah, has to keep up with Katie, which is hard to do. But of course there's the discussion of what's the price and what's the value. So really, the old adage you get what you pay for is almost always true.

Kay Miller 00:22:42 But the fact of the matter is, not everyone has the budget, and if they just can't pay for it, or if you feel like they'd be way overextending themselves to buy your system, you don't want that either. If you really care about your customers, sometimes the choice will be someone else, but they have an impression of you. Their situation might change. They have referrals. All those things come into play. One thing I learned about you through through your bio and doing some sleuthing is that you have. I don't know if you have one daughter or more than one daughter for.

Katie Malloy 00:23:16 Your.

Kay Miller 00:23:16 Daughter's.

Katie Malloy 00:23:17 Or daughter's in one son.

Kay Miller 00:23:19 Yeah, okay. You've got okay, you've got a son. You've got a little mix there. But I'm.

Katie Malloy 00:23:24 The youngest of the five.

Kay Miller 00:23:25 So poor guy. I hope he can handle his older sisters. I'm actually an older sister of one little brother. And you know what? I picked on him and picked on him until one day he grew up and got bigger than me and that game over.

Katie Malloy 00:23:43 I would say the same thing happened that he was picked on, and now he's the biggest, the tallest of all of them. And he's just such a nice young man that I don't think he really gives it back to him. They would probably think.

Kay Miller 00:23:56 I'm I'm sure it's all in fun, but.

Katie Malloy 00:23:59 Oh it is. And they're very close. They all love each other very much. We're very fortunate. We've got a great family.

Kay Miller 00:24:04 That's really unfortunate. You know what? There are great parents who have kids that don't. I shouldn't say they don't turn out well, but they struggle. And then there are bad parents who have good kids. But I think mostly you're not just lucky if you have great kids because you've been a great mom too. Obviously, I have a great kid and I'm totally taking credit for how she turned out. So come on.

Katie Malloy 00:24:29 I didn't do it alone. I have plenty of help I can. Yeah.

Kay Miller 00:24:32 It takes a village. And I know you were a single mom for quite a few years.

Kay Miller 00:24:36 And that boy, hats off to you, because that's tough. That's really tough. And then you met your new boyfriend 17 years ago. That's where the 17 years came from. And now you work together. Things must be going well. You must get along. So before we close out, I do want to talk about what you want your daughters to see. We've got another generation of young women growing up that we want to have a different experience than we had. So how important is that to you? And how do you teach them or lead by example, which you're obviously doing that.

Katie Malloy 00:25:10 All I can say is what I hope that they have learned from both of us, because we were both single parents for a long period of time, is always believe in yourself. Do your best to support yourself, not necessarily to depend on someone else. I don't mean don't be independent of me, and that's not my goal. But don't rely upon somebody else for your happiness. Make your own happy. And family is everything without your family.

Katie Malloy 00:25:37 Life just isn't what it should be. So. And like I said, we've got five kids. They're all great kids. they're pretty close. And as long as they have each other, the world better watch out, because they. They will be a force to be reckoned with as they grow up and come into their own. And they are. So I'm very proud of all of them. And I know he is as well, and they should be proud of themselves. I certainly hope so.

Kay Miller 00:26:02 Yeah, I bet they are, because you've given them that. I remember my daughter, I was talking about Beyonce and this was years ago. I wasn't all that thrilled about her. She was doing a little bit too much hip thrusting for me. And I've got a teenager. And she said, mom, Beyonce is fierce. That's like her mantra. Fierce. And she said, and I love that about her. And I said, dang it, you're right. In fact, Beyonce just the other night they had the Grammys and she won best album for a.

Katie Malloy 00:26:32 Country album.

Kay Miller 00:26:33 Album. Talk about reinvention. Talk about confidence. She's had ups and downs. When she was having trouble with her boyfriend, her boyfriend, her husband, she wrote a song about him cheating. She's out there and I really I respect her more and more. So it sounds like you've got girls also. And your son, I'm sure, who are fierce. And that is a good quality to have because women have for too long been wallflowers and not really standing up for ourselves. So you've got you're a great model, role model, and, your girls are better for that. So I know you said your family is your why, and that's great. So I'm going to end with just your closing thoughts about your goal is to truly help, but it's also to sell or to get the right people to buy. So what are your closing thoughts on what you do? And I know you do a lot that's not sales, but we're going to just focus on that at the end here.

Katie Malloy 00:27:33 Really my goal is to be a good community partner to give back. We live in a small community. We serve a large community. But I want people to know that myself and Tim, my fiancé, that we are here to serve our community. We're here to back everybody and we will help whenever we can. We want to give back because we're very fortunate to be where we are.

Kay Miller 00:27:58 That's right. And it's worked for all these years. And really, people can tell when you're genuine and you care. Katie, I have loved our conversation. I'm inspired. I love your message. I love your passion for helping other women and just helping people and not selling them, but helping them get the very best. So I'm going to say one last time, Katie, I really appreciate it. Thank you for being on the podcast.

Katie Malloy 00:28:23 Hey. You're wonderful. Thank you.

Kay Miller 00:28:27 Thanks for listening to this episode. See you next time. And always remember to be uncopyable.