5 Terrible Mistakes Most People Are Making in Roofing Sales

These five terrible mistakes are costing you sales right now. And I'm willing to bet that you are making at least one of them, if not more. Now the worst part is the people that are making these mistakes are completely unaware of the fact that they are making them. And to make matters worse, most people who are making these mistakes, they actually are making the very mistake thinking they're doing a good job when in fact it's actually losing them sales. But my goal in making this video is to help you become self aware so you can spot these mistakes before you make them stop them. Just like that. Which is wildly simple and stupid. Easy. So you can start closing more sales in a pretty effortless way. I learned all of this after training tens of thousands of roofing sales reps. And no, the critique comes Adam, that's just your number of YouTube subscribers. No, YouTube is one thing. Then there's the many, many, many, many thousands that I put through my sales training system. There's the near 1500 salespeople that I work with on a regular basis at the time of this filming inside the Roofing and Solar Reform Alliance. There's the thousands of people that I've trained all across the United States speaking on stages and the companies who I had flown out and run sales appointments with along with my very own team when I was in the business. What I am teaching you is not theory, it is a proven system that with minor adjustments which you're going to learn right now, you my friend, are going to increase your close rate in one of the easiest ways possible. Welcome or welcome back. Adam Bensman here and I cannot wait to get into today's video. Roofing sales is personal development in disguise and the reward for growth is life changing. I hope my content helps you create a richer life. And bank account mistake number one, trying too hard to get people to like you. We all know the saying in sales, people buy from people they know, like and trust. But let me ask you a question. Let's say you need a life saving brain surgery. Do you choose the doctor who you don't like but you know is going to do an incredible job because he's done thousands of these surgeries, or the doctor that you really like that just graduated med school? Do you see my point? There's a big difference between being liked in being trusted to solve a problem. And although likability is a factor, it is not as important as someone who trusts you to solve their problem. Which is why, for example, if you had a dog or a cat that needed pet sitting while you were on vacation. You have that one friend of yours who, who you really like, but you're like, yeah, I don't know if I trust him to watch my dog. Those are the people that you like, but you don't trust. And in sales and in my sales philosophy, which I call the 3DS system or three domino selling, we have to knock down the following three dominoes in order. Number one is to develop unshakable trust. Number two is to create an insatiable need. And number three is to make the money make sense. Trust, need, money. You don't see liking on that list now, do you? So stop being that person who spends up to an hour in the house trying to get buddy buddy and get people to like you and instead focus on developing trust as the person who can solve their problems. Number two, mistake, not asking questions. Have you had this happen? Let's use an example. In the storm world, you run an appointment after you get a lead, whether it's self generator and inbound lead doesn't matter. You do your spiel 30, 40, 50 minutes, and then at the very end, the homeowner says, hey, you know, thanks for coming out. Our insurance company already came out and approved our roof. We're just looking to get some estimates. Have you had that happen? Or how about if you're selling retail roofs, that at the very end of the appointment, after your spiel, the homeowner says, hey, thanks for coming out. We just know we need to replace the roof in five to seven years and we just want to get estimates so we can plan ahead financially. Have you had that happen? Yeah, that's because you didn't ask questions up front. So what you did is the thing that you were maybe trained or thought was right, which was selling a roof. There's one way to sell a roof. But instead, if I were to just ask even one simple question at the beginning of the appointment, I could ask something like, hey, where are you at in the process? And how the homeowner would respond. Would indicate on a storm damage claim whether there was no claim, partial payment, they got denied, or they were sitting on a check. Those are four different scenarios that would require four different pitches, were they not? Because I'm not going to sell to someone who has not yet filed a claim the same way as someone who's sitting on a check and waiting to collect estimates from contractors. Those are different. Which in the retail world, by asking, where are you at? In the process, I would know very quickly, or if I asked, what's the problem with your roof, I'm going to find out. Number one, is there an active leak or a problem with the roof that they need fixed right now? Number two, is this just a case of an old roof that needs to get replaced soon? So they contacted us. Number three, is it a cosmetic upgrade because they're doing an addition or new siding or windows? Or number four, are they planning ahead for a life event? Maybe they're putting the house on the market. Maybe they're planning ahead financially. Or maybe they got a letter from their insurance saying they'll drop them if they don't get the roof replaced. So don't make the mistake of cramming a bunch of irrelevant solutions down a homeowner's throat and instead stop and ask a question. And by doing so, you will strengthen point number one, developing trust in your ability to solve their problems. Number three, telling homeowners their roof is damaged. Now, I've done an entire video on this topic, and I don't have the time today to get into that level of detail, but I will tell you this. If you're the I sell roofs guy, because, by the way, that's what all of our logos say. I don't know if you knew this or not, but your logo and his logo and her logo, they all say the same thing. And it says, I sell roofs. So if you're the I sell roofs guy or gal who shows up to offer a free, no obligation inspection, and then you come down off the roof and go, gee, golly, your roof is damaged and you should buy a new one today. For me, it doesn't go well, and people don't like to be told they have a problem. I'm about to celebrate six years without having a drink. Well, guess what? Did I stop when my friends or my own mother hinted that I had a problem? No, no, no, no. I just got defensive and angry because. Because I don't want to be told I had a problem. But I stopped drinking alcohol and I quit cold turkey. Why? Because I admitted and owned the fact that I had a problem. And the same goes in sales. If you want people to take action on their problem, they need to own the problem first. So if you want to learn how to do that by using framing, how we communicate what they're about to see. So the homeowner is actually the one that tells you that the roof is damaged, and they are the one that takes ownership of it. Then click the link on this card up here and watch that video to. To learn why you need to stop Telling homeowners the roof is damaged, number four, leaving the homeowner in control. At the end of sales appointments, a homeowner might say things like, thanks for coming out, we'll call you if we're interested, or we'll follow up with you in a few days after we think about it. These are what I call appointment ending objections. And for most salespeople, they fold up shop, they shift into nice guy mode, whip out the business card, say, ah, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate you. Listen, thank you. No pressure. I pride myself on our customer service. Here's my cell phone, by the way. It's right here. Call me anytime, day or night. I'm here to help. And then you follow up incessantly and you get ghosted. It's because you left it in control of the homeowner. In a football analogy, you were advancing the ball down the field throughout the sales process. And then at the very end you said, you know what, I'm done advancing the ball. You can have it now. And then you hand the ball to the homeowner and now you're not in control. The the easy fix is simple. Set your follow up appointment and next steps before you leave the house. This is a very difficult thing for people to do internally because they feel like they're being pushy. But once you learn the technique behind this, it is quite simple. All we need is a relevant reason for that follow up. So if the homeowner, for example, says, hey, thanks for coming out, we'll call you in a few days if we're interested, before I go to set the appointment, I'm going to overcome that objection. Once I do, I may either close the sale, and if I don't close the sale at this point, I now have more substance. Maybe they're waiting on one more estimate which is coming tomorrow. So now is my relevant reason to say, hey, Mr. Homeowner, I understand that your final estimate is coming out tomorrow. When would be a good time on Friday or Saturday for me to come out so we can go through everything side by side and I'll help you make a decision even if it's not with me. And, and now we get the follow up appointment set. And yes, I know your next concern. Well, what if they don't want me in the house? Then stick to a phone call. Say, hey, I understand you're busy, let's stick to a phone call. But at the very least, you have a committed time for a follow up. So in summary, we cannot leave it up to the homeowner to be in control, we need to first lean into those appointment ending objections and then if we don't close the sale, set the follow up before we leave. Number five is not closing the sale. Now, what do I mean by that? Not asking for the business. I just want to remove the ego surrounding this. And people say like always be closing, yada yada, and people don't close because they're afraid of rejection. I think that's all garbage. I think there's one reason, the main reason that is the overarching reason for why people aren't closing deals. It is because they're not asking. And the reason they are not asking has more to do with them than the homeowner. What do I mean? The person, meaning you, the salesperson that's not asking for the business is afraid. You're afraid of coming across as being salesy, sleazy or pushy. You're afraid of that homeowner viewing you in such a light. Because the way that you identify, the way that you look at yourself, the way you know that your morals and values are, you do not want to be a pushy, salesy, aggressive person. Like, hey, if you want to work with me, great. But because you don't ask for the business out of that fear means you don't get the business. There's a way to overcome this, which I'll touch on in a minute. But at the end of the day, you need to realize that you are your own worst enemy. You are the roadblock. So your objective is to learn a way to close sales that allows you to conquer your own fear so you can be direct. Because at the end of the day, sales is like dating. And if you want to take a relationship from dating to get married, what do you say to someone? Do you finish seeing them for years? Say, hey, honey, I know things have been going really well together. I love hanging out with you. You know, what do you, what are you feeling? What do you, what do you think about our future? Who wants to marry that guy? What do you do? You get on a knee and ask, will you marry me? You are direct and in sales we have to do the same thing. I teach my entire process for how to close sales, plugging the holes in these mistakes inside my sales system, which by the way is available for roofing companies inside the Roofing and Solar Reform Alliance. So you can click the link in the description to learn more or apply to join. But just because our time here is about to wrap doesn't mean you're in my time has to. Because maybe you want to learn how to close more sales to conquer your own fear. And you are just in luck because I've hand selected this very next video for you that teaches you my go to closing strategy that will conquer your own inner fear and most importantly, close even more sales. Watch that right now and I'll see you in the next one.