7 Closing Techniques Every Roofing Sales Rep Should Know

Here are my top 7 favorite closing techniques in roofing sales. And these are for you if you've struggled to close sales in the house, if you're running a team and close rates aren't what they should be. I know it's pretty cutthroat out there right now, or if you're someone that has been afraid to ask for the business because you just don't want to come across as being salesy, sleazy, or pushy. These 7 different techniques can be used mix and match or on their own to help you earn more business. And it's all done in a way that's natural, organic, and without feeling salesy, sleazy, or pushy. Before we get into these top 7, I just want to say thank you for being here and welcome or welcome back. My name is Adam Bensman. You may have been seeing some changes here on this channel and they're all really exciting. First, I am proud to announce that I joined the TAMKO family. In fact, TAMKO acquired the Roofing and Solar Reform Alliance, which means now all of my training, the magical community I run, all the industry experts in the AI Alliance brand, which is like your AI coach assistant in your pocket. Is all available at no additional cost to the TAMCO EDGE contractors. There's a link in the description to learn more, or you can go to RSA.pro. The other thing that you're going to be seeing is even more education around running a roofing company. It's business content. But for today, I want to focus on you if you're in sales or if you're running a team. So let's get started. And we're going to start with number 1 on my list, which is my go-to closing technique called the Comfort Close. Now, you may have heard this and don't worry, stick around because I'm going to be hitting another 6 that you may have not heard me talk about here on this channel. And at the very end, I'm going to share the one thing that some salespeople just have a tendency to do, and it can totally kill a deal at the kitchen table without you even realizing what you're doing. So let's talk about the comfort close first. The comfort close works based on riding what I call the emotional wave that we've created for the homeowner. If you've done an incredible job, you've showed them the lows of the roof and what they might want to be concerned about, but at the same time provided comfort and a clear path forward to get to the desired outcome of having an incredible, gorgeous, brand new roof with a beautiful warranty with nothing to worry about. So the comfort close is very simple. There's a setup which clears all questions, and I dive into that more in my Closing Masterclass that I recently published. You can hop into that. But once I clear all of the objections by asking these two questions, which is, do you have any questions for me so far? And does all this make sense? Then we can use the comfort close, which is, great, are you comfortable moving forward? Now you can mix and match, say like, are you comfortable choosing me as your roofing hero? Are you comfortable getting your project started? However you want to use it, the main idea is to say, are you comfortable? So that's number 1 on the list. Number 2 on the list is a common technique taught in sales, and I really like it. It's called the options close. And there's 2 different ways to use the options close. If your company is offering a best, better, good option in the house, an options close could, could go something along these lines. Hey, after I shared with you these 3 packages, which you would mention by name, "Which one do you feel is best for you? This one or that one?" And you'd use the names. And what we mean by an options close is we've removed too many options where there's not analysis paralysis. And now the choice isn't, "Do you want to move forward?" It's, "Do you want this roof or that roof?" And it can also be used at the very end. Maybe if you're not using a best, better, good system, or if the homeowner chose which package they want or indicated, now you can use the options close in terms of payment method. Hey, and again, you'll see when I say mix or match, you'll see I'm going to marry this to the comfort close. Are you more comfortable taking advantage of our affordable payment option or paying by check? So that's the two options. You want to pay with a financing plan, right? Affordable payment option or by check. So that's the option close. I'm limiting the options to just two. All right. Moving up on the list, I'm going to refer to it as the ask list— excuse me, the ask list close. That one's kind of a tongue twister. The ask list close. And this is the assumptive selling technique that can be done wildly effectively, But there's so much room for error that if a salesperson doesn't follow the steps appropriately, it can get lost. So the Askless Close uses this assumptive selling that could provide, again, a series of, of options questions. Once we get the package, then we pick the product, then we pick the color, then we might move on to, great, all we need is a deposit. So again, you never asked for the business. You're simply going through the process of the roof replacement, assuming you've already worked with them. Many times at the table, you'll find that you can have the contract out or your paperwork literally selecting all of the options in building the contract or the proposal in front of them and say, great, all that's left is, is a deposit. Right. And again, you're not asking for it. You're just guiding the homeowner through the process. So that's the askless close. Next up is another favorite of mine is the if-then close. Now you'll find this teaching Oftentimes brought into the practice of overcoming objections. If we can do this, then are you moving forward? So an if-then close would work really well as an example in a storm damage environment. If a homeowner, let's say they had an older roof, it was obliterated by a hailstorm, and maybe you're working by way of contingency as an example. And again, this will work for retail as well. You can say, hey, if we can take your roof from this old state with quite a significant amount of hail and wind damage to a brand new, beautiful roof with X, Y, and Z product and color, then would you be comfortable moving forward with us? And again, you'll notice that I married the comfort clause in there. So if we can turn this into that, then would you move forward with us? Same thing if there is any objections that they brought up. I'll give you another example. If the homeowner had a special request and they wanted the roof installed on a Saturday, I could say, hey, if we can get your roof installed on Saturday, then are you comfortable moving forward with me today? And if they say yes, say, great, now we're good to go. So the if-then close can be used to build excitement about the future outcome of what their home could look like, as well as addressing a primary either concern, objection, or preference in the process. All right. Next up, similar to the ask-less close, I call the install date close. And by doing this again, it's kind of another evolution depending on the operations that your company has. Now, some companies will allow their salespeople to at least have an idea of when the roof might be— when their backlog is available to get scheduled. So generally, you're not going to be able to pick an install date at the kitchen table. If you've got the tech and the organizational skills for that, mad kudos to you. But generally speaking, a salesperson will know roughly the backlog. We're out 3 weeks, as an example, say. Excellent. So now the next step is to pick your install date. And we're scheduling the week of blank and we can go ahead and pick the date. And then, and then again, we move forward with the rest of the series of the askless close. This is a bit more of an assertive technique than the askless close. And again, could be brought into there where we're picking the product, the color, the install date, then the deposit. But generally speaking, if someone is picking a date for install, they're quite committed to moving forward. And it's another way to earn the business without asking for it. All right. This brings me to one of my other favorites on the list, which is what I call the negative agreement close. This is very similar to the technique you may have seen on this channel of me teaching how to do door-to-door sales. And in door-to-door, we often can lead with a question like, do you have any objection if I hop up on your roof for a complimentary inspection? So when I say, do you have any objection? Naturally, people since we've been— we're 2 years old, we want to say no because it's a protection of boundaries. But when we say no, we're actually in agreement saying yes. And it's just a really comfortable way to engage with homeowners and meet them where they are. So a negative agreement close could say, hey, do you see any reason you wouldn't want to move forward with us? And if they say no, then say, great, all we need is an autograph right here and a deposit. So that's another way to transition to the close. Again, do you have any objection? Is there any reason you want to move— don't want to— wouldn't want to move forward with us? Any, any no question would work just splendidly for the negative agreement. Now, the last one on the list, and this is if you're really, really selling just a beautiful cosmetic upgrade to the home and a cosmetic upgrade could be something just as a stunning product, but it could also be a transformation from an old dilapidated roof. And I know we've all served those customers and quite frankly, those are the customers that are the happiest with us because they see this transformation. You know, it's a— it goes— the difference is like they buy something that makes them smile every time they pull in their driveway versus like getting new tires for their car. Right. So it's the same tire, but I just had to replace them. It was expensive. And that's what I— this is what I call the from-to close. If we can take your house from blank, let's just say it's an older home. If we can take your house from this older roof that's showing its age to a brand new gorgeous roof with so-and-so product with so-and-so color looking the best in the neighborhood, right? Then would you be comfortable moving forward? And again, you can see I've married the from-to close with the comfort close. Now, psychologically, the from-to close is a technique known as future pacing, and it's empowering the homeowner to envision what their roof will look like, the transformation that you're going to make happen before their eyes. This is slightly different than the if-then close because the if-then close is circumstantial or regarding a challenge where the from-to close is really about building this excitement of the future state of every time they pull in their driveway, they're looking up and they have the most beautiful roof in the neighborhood, or better yet, the most beautiful roof to them because they're proud of how their home looks. So which of these techniques do you want to start trying today? That, my friend, is your action item to do right now and put it to use. And if you want to learn more about joining me inside the Roofing Strong Alliance by Tamko, click the link in the description. We'll see you inside.