How To Sell More Roofs + Create Better Processes (Expert Roundup)

“Shut up and give your customer something to talk about!”

“Disproportionately effective Marketing and Sales results – will always have less to do with what you advertise and say, and more to do with how much you listen, and what you do with what you hear.

This doesn’t just mean listening to them when you work with them directly, it means listen to the customers who don’t buy from you. It also means listen to customers before they inquire with you.

How are people buying things today?

Remember everyone who bought a roof would have rather bought a boat, so if they are going to spend their boat money with you… it’s got to be a great experience for them to talk about it. Otherwise it just relishes as that thing they HAD TO buy in order to be responsible home owners.

• Customers can book a hair appointment with an app but it takes 2 hours to get an appointment booked with a roofer.
• You can follow along as a restaurant and driver co-ordinate in a perfectly timed dance to bring you a $13 sandwich from across town… but roofers still think customers will live with the fact that your late.

Think about all the ways people buy things right now and ask yourself…. how can I make peoples roofing experience more on par with a $42 haircut, a $13 sandwich, a $19 Uber, or a stay at AIRBNB.”

Adam Sand

“Train, train, train + ask why should someone do business with me?”

“Build off your recruiting strategy. Training. Repeatable process only happen through training.

‘Training isn’t something you did, it’s something you do’- Brad Lea.

Repetition.

What do you sell? How is it sold? What is the pitch? Does everyone on your team know what is unique about your company? Differentiators.

Hack: Ask yourself the question: “Why should someone do business with me?” Do you have a compelling answer? Are you able to communicate that answer effectively? Next, survey your team. Do they have the ability to also communicate the same message effectively and without hesitation? If not, train, train, train. Role play is a proven method to ensure this is not just understood, but effectively communicated.”

Dustan Biegler

“Get the Right People, Do the Right Activities, Say The Right Thing”

“If you wanted to lose 50 lbs in a year, what would you do? Get a diet and fitness plan, right? Well – roofing sales is no different. There is a proven path to sales success. I call it The Roofing Sales Success Formula -“Be. Do. Say.”

• [BE] Get the right people…
• [DO] Doing the right sales activities every day…
• [SAY] Saying the right thing when they pitch, overcome objections, and close.

When you have a rock solid plan to ace the BE-DO-SAY,” growth explodes!!”

Adam Bensman

“Invest in your production. If your production is on point, it’s so much easier to sell.”

“I recently was in Florida visiting Eustis Roofing. They told me, it’s unfair advantage if you go against competition. And let’s say I’m a sales rep for this company and someone else selling for a competitor.

And we have two jobs going in the same neighborhood. If my job is clean and organized, if vehicles are wrapped, if you have nice net or a maybe equipped or right. Homeowners see like that is better company. If I come in and I can visually see it. We’re different. Like I’m not selling you that we’re different.

• You can see the jobs where nobody’s wearing uniforms.
• You can see when they’re done in one day and down by three o’clock and you can see jobs that take three days.
• There’s no yard sign. If you want to improve your sales process, improve your branding around your jobs.
• You almost want people demanding you / your company. They ask ‘What is that thing’ (The Equipter) or  they ask ‘Why the company has that net that protected the bushes’ (The Catch-all) and other one has a blue tarp step dresses, burning.”

When you take your wife to the restaurant, you walk by, you can see fancy restaurant and you can see cheap one from the outside. Before you go on a kitchen, the same thing here.

You can see those job sites and sales guys who work for solid brand. They are order takers.

• They can say like, ‘Hey, you don’t believe me. Go talk. You know, did you see that job? Did you see how it planned?’
• ‘But I can also point into that job is not as smooth as ours and there’s a reason for it.’”

Dmitry Lipinskiy

“Learn how they’re buying and then replicate that in your process and business.”

“Understand the buyer today isn’t the buyer of even 5 years ago. They don’t want to be manipulated, they don’t want to be “sold”, and more and more they don’t even want you in their home. Learn why buyers are buying today. Learn how they’re buying and then replicate that in your process and business. If you understand the psychology and needs of the buyer the process becomes logical not manipulative.”

Jim Johnson

“Ask for 10 reviews. Get a Data Accuracy Team, build your compensation plans around that.”

“Get a 360 degree view of the roof when it goes on. Then they have an interaction with it, post that on Facebook, it’ll spike the algorithm and go to the top. Then guess what?

I’m going to ask them for a testimonial, than I’m going to ask them for a review on Next-door, then I’m going to ask for a yard sign, then I’m going to ask them for .. there’s a million more, I could keep going.

• People ask for one review – I ask for 10.
• The problem is people don’t know how to make a system, to make sure it’s managed.
• The way you build a system is through a data accuracy team, and you have people checking that.
• And you build your compensation plan with rewards and penalties.”

Tommy Mello

“Teach conversational sales, not a traditional pitch.”

“Break the system/ sales process down into its basic elements. Teach conversational sales, not a traditional pitch. People are sedative to BS now a days, so align the process to focus on problem solving, not profit making. Make the process track able so the progress of the sales person can be measured.”

David Taggart

“Turn it into an assembly line versus one person trying to put a whole car together.”

“So for instance, at GMC – they’ve got an assembly line. I think that’s one of the best things that roofing companies don’t do. My second year in the industry, what we did:

• I will go out and knock the door.
• I will set up the inspection.
• An inspector will come behind me and inspect that roof.
• He would tell me if it’s okay, then I will come back and close that deal.
• He will show up to that adjuster appointment and I would keep knocking doors, keep generating business and doing the follow-ups.

I didn’t have to knock the door, get up on the roof, inspect the roof, go to the adjuster appointment.

• Once we got the claim file, it went to the office girl.
• She followed up on all the insurance company claims I didn’t have to follow up with insurance companies. If the check came in, she just called me and said, Deshaun, homeowner, got the check, go pick it up.
• Boom. I went and picked up the check and if I was too busy, then we had another guy that would show up to the home, on the house and sign the contract, pick up the check, take it back to the office.

And it was just very compartmentalized to where it was just streamlined. To where everybody focused on their one specific job to where you had your guys out there generating business, adjustors to come behind them, inspecting the roof, going to adjust appointment, office girls doing all the followups, collecting checks, the production team.

One thing that roofing companies mess up is they put so much responsibility on one person and these people might not have great customer service skills.

• They might have great sales skills or these people might not have.
• They might not be great at details, but they expect this person to keep a book of business, like super organized and on point, putting notes in the system at the end every call and all of these things.

Dashaun Bryant

“When building a successful Sales Process, the key to its success is discipline and accountability.”

“You can have the greatest process, but if the sales team isn’t trained correctly, held accountable to using it, and disciplined in its delivery to the prospect, it’s nothing more than another expensive process plastered on posters in the sales room! The process has to be easy to learn and execute as well as effective in the house.  Your process has to be a complete system and not just a bunch of one-liners and quick techniques you learned on Facebook. This process has to take you from the day before the appointment through signing the contract and what your company expects the reps do with the customer after the sale. Your process should also equip your team for roadblocks and detours while in the home.”

Chuck Thokey

“Imitate the ‘franchise effect’”

“Don’t reinvent the wheel! Imitate the “franchise effect” by implementing a proven system like the Roof Sales Mastery “All Inclusive Business Owners Package” which includes the Recruiting Machine and New Hires Training Programs. These systems allow contractors to standardize and systemize recruiting and training, and they have been proven by thousands of contractors nationwide since 2014.”

Becca Switzer

“Create a training checklist, and practice, practice practice”

“To create a good sales process you have to first write down each step that you follow when completing a sale. Simplify that process to make it duplicatable and repeatable. Create a training checklist that specifies a time to teach each step of the process to new hires. Practice, practice, practice. Set goals with your team and hold regular meetings to hold them accountable. ”

Randy Brothers

“Ensure the employees are bought in on using the systems and tools that were created within the CRM”

Roofing companies need to focus on building out their systems and processes in one centralized location. This starts with the proper implementation of a CRM system that is customized to their company’s workflows.

Majority of CRMs offer partnership integrations and open APIs that allow roofing companies to connect other third party applications. This means proposals, onsite documentation, and business reports are all in one location. The leadership team needs to ensure the employees are bought in on using the systems and tools that were created within the CRM. If not, it will not be successful. I suggest focusing on the benefits the CRM provides each employee. This could be things like staying organized, being more efficient, and improving their communication with customers.

You can also incorporate automated follow-up systems that engage with prospects without your salesperson having to put in any effort.

Nick Peret

“Increase the quantity and quality of your touchpoints.”

“Increase the quantity and quality of your touchpoints with your prospects and clients. Every single interaction should add value and make your prospect feel comfortable engaging with you. Tell your prospect exactly what to expect, and then deliver on those expectations. That’s how you build trust, one step at a time. You will immediately stand out from other companies, make your prospects feel more at ease, and generate more sales and referrals.”

Joseph Hughes

“Implement a sales process that extracts the pain points, and creates value prior to sending the proposal.”

Implement a sales process that extracts the pain points, and creates value prior to sending the proposal. Leverage technology to expedite the case studies, social proof, of your competencies, along with the measurements and proposal. Employ this professionalism – to indicate that you’re actually helping them solve a true problem. 

Ryan Groth

“Have a professionally graphic-designed quote”

“This is a biased answer but using SumoQuote completely changed our roofing businesses. It gave us a massive advantage over our competition. By standing out from our competition with a professionally graphic-designed quote, we not only increased our closing rates, but the margins that we sold work at as well. A professionally crafted quote showed a homeowner that we would preform better through every detail of their job compared with others they were considering. We consistently won a homeowner’s trust (and money) at the critical point in sale by showing them visually which business was the most professional to complete the work on their most important possession. ”

Ryan Shantz

“Make a customer for life out of everyone you encounter”

“Just because it has always been done a certain way means nothing now. Buyers are different and you need to identify who your customer is and what processes, unique offerings and technologies optimize the experience for them from the first contact to the retirement of them as a customer.  Customer experience is the biggest thing to focus on moving forward, make a customer for life out of everyone you encounter.”

Josh Swisher

“Give your customers options. Work on their time and terms, not yours.”

“Give your customers options. Work on their time and terms, not yours. If a customer just wants an estimate dropped into their email box, get creative and deliver value through video, interactive models, photos, etc all coupled with the estimate (which should be the least interesting part of your email pitch) doing this will help you stand out among the sea of the “your estimate is attached” emails from the other roofers. ”

Charlie Anderson

“Stop taking orders and giving stuff away.”

“Learn how to actually sell, especially if you’re a storm restoration contractor. If you’re selling “deductible only” roofs, and giving away every upgrade under the sun, well, you’re really not selling. You’re taking orders and giving stuff away.

Actually learn how to create and sell value, all of sudden volume isn’t the goal, but rather exclusivity and working with the customers that truly are seeking great value and to take care of their home.

(If you truly learn this skill, all of sudden it’s not a huge deal if there are no storms for a year.)”

John Dye

“Give them the process that makes sales predictable.”

“I think the first step is to actually create a process to sell. This does not mean go knock doors that’s our process. This means step by step these are the expectations and steps to getting a sale. A process to gather leads a process to coach a sales team and to practice the sales process. Contractors spend a ton of time building out the process to building a roof, but do not give the same attention to getting a sale. Sales are the life blood of your organization so why would you HOPE your sales team has the ability to make a sale? Stop hoping they will make a sale and give them the process that makes sales predictable.”

Derik Kline

“Spending time on educating the neighbors is KEY!”

“The best sales process is something that makes your customers remember who you are. So many companies neglect THE NEIGHBORS of jobs that they have completed. The neighbor of a build is going to be the closest thing you can get to a referral, so spending time on educating the neighbors is KEY! One of our favorite methods is sending personalized postcards to the neighbors of a job both BEFORE and AFTER a build. ”

David Carroll