Closing Myth BUSTED

The biggest closing myth of all times is that closing happens at the end of an appointment. You present and then you close, right? So naturally the easiest way to close more deals is to focus on the end, right? False. In my opinion, this is the greatest myth of sales in general and especially in roofing sales, because it is my belief that 90% of the sale is won or lost in the first 10 minutes of the of your appointment with that customer. Whether it's an inbound lead for Storm or retail, or whether it's a self generated lead and you're knocking doors, those first 10 minutes of a sale will make or break your close rate far more than what you do at the end. And if you don't believe me, then stick around because I'm going to prove it to you right now. Hey, my name is Adam the roof strategist and welcome. Or welcome back. I'm really excited to have you here. Everything that I do Here on this YouTube channel is designed to help you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. And I've had the opportunity to help thousands and thousands and thousands of sales reps overcome the same sales challenges that you're likely going through right now. So if you are new here, click the subscribe button and smash that bell so you don't miss a thing. And I'd like to invite you to join me with a little bit of a freebie. I have what I call my pitch like a pro roofing sales training video library. It's all the videos I've ever done, organized by category and I'd like to send you a free copy. You can get yours now@the roofstrategist.com or by clicking the link in the video description. Alright, let's get to this closing myth. So I just made a pretty big claim that 90% of the sale is win or lost in the first 10 minutes and I told you I was going to prove it to you. So here it is. Andrew is a salesperson. He's actually the owner of a company. Andrew has 20 years sales experience. Two decades. And he bought my program to train his team. But Andrew has gone through it two to three times and he's a member of my Pitch Pro movement where I work together alongside other mentors to provide ongoing coaching, support and an amazing community for us to grow and perform at our highest level. And in our call the other day, Andrew chimed in to share a victory, which we often do. And Andrew says to everybody, I just got my first 100% close rate week I brought in $200,000 in residential retail sales in a week. Can you believe that? Now, I know what you're thinking. I do. You're saying 100% crazy, unrealistic, it's a lie, it's a gimmick, and it's unsustainable. And I'm going to tell you this, it is true. And I agree that it is 100% unsustainable. So now that we have that out of the way, no one's going to keep 100% close rate. But the important thing is it's possible. Which leads to the natural next question, which is how? Why? What did he change? So I said, andrew, share with us. What did you change? How did you get 100% close rate? You have two decades of sales experience. So Andrew is using the car park formula that I teach in my program. There's a link in the video description, by the way, should you be interested for yourself or your team? And Andrew focused on everything leading up to the presentation. So in my mind, we have the first half, which is everything leading up to the presentation. The second half is the presentation. And then again at the end of that presentation, we have our close. Now, I asked Andrew what he changed, and he says, here's the funny thing. I didn't change a thing in my presentation. I changed everything leading up to the presentation. And that, my friend, is how Andrew got 100% close rate that week, which is why I believe 90% of the sale is won or lost at the very beginning. Now, I have one more story for you. And if you don't believe me, this story should push you over the edge. Now, I was hired and I'm under an NDA, so I'm going to be changing the names of the company. But I worked with this law firm. Yes, a law firm. And I know I wasn't a big fan of lawyers myself, but when I took a little break from the roofing industry, I stayed as a direct sales consultant. I get hired by this law firm, and my job as a personal injury law firm was to help them increase their close rate of cases on the phone. People would call up who needed their services, and I'd say, hey, I can help you find close more deals. So it's pretty high stakes. The phone rings. It costs a lot of money. I'm talking three to eight hundred dollars to make that phone ring. Every single lead is tracked. So I begin listening to all of the recorded calls. And I kept noticing, by the way, their close rate was about 76%. Really good. But we know we could make it better. So we're at 76%. And I'm listening to these calls and at the very end of the call, I hear it. Customer says, or the potential new client, as they call it in legal world. He says, hey, I'm interested, but what is this going to cost me? Now I'm sitting here thinking, listening to this. I'm like, doesn't everybody know, like, it's a personal injury lawyer, there's no fees unless you, unless you win. Like it's a contingency lawyer. But people don't know that. And some people who've never heard it before, they're afraid if you can't afford a lawyer and you're calling one, that's a big bill to get stuck with. So I'm sitting here thinking, I said, everyone's asking at the end of the appointment. They're asking at the end. This means that if that question's in their mind, their ears are closed. So it's just like when you were back in school in math class like I was, or maybe it was science or history and you got stuck, like, hand goes up, teacher, I'm stuck right there. And then your ears close and nothing else sinks because you're stuck on this point. And I realized exactly what was happening to our callers. So all I did was change one thing. That big objection that happens at the end. We slid right in the beginning. And I opened with, hey, I just want you to know this is 100% free consultation and there are no fees unless we take your case and win. Does that all make sense? And they said, yes. And that one change, with just a couple other tiny tweaks rocketed us up to a 90 to 100% close rate, week over week, 90 to 100%. And that deal, my friend, was won at the beginning. So how does this apply to you? Let's get to it. The number one problem in the roofing industry is that we have a one track presentation. Okay, so this is a one track prezi. I'm writing prezi for short. This stands for presentation, one track presentation, meaning we sell roof. Here's roof solution for you. Now I want to ask you this, does one size fits all? What about a storm claim? There's four stages, right? No claim, partial payment denial, check in hand, and within those there's no claim. What damage you talking about? Right? Or oh, thank God you're here. Or partial payment denial. There's similarities, right? No, our insurance was out. We're good. Or I'm so Angry my carrier denied my roof or is only paying for repairs, or they're sitting on a check saying give me an estimate. And in the retail side of things, there's four reasons people replace the roof. Its age, end of its lifespan, a leak or an active problem. Cosmetic upgrade, they got a new garage or an addition, they want to tie it all in. Or they're doing a remodel on the home, or they're planning ahead for a life event. Meaning, hey, we got to replace our roof in five to seven years. So we're just wanting estimates so we can budget financially. Little do you know the price of roofing is going to double in the next five years at today's rates. But that's a conversation for a separate time. So my point is we've got storm, we've got retail. We know that most every contractor out there is, needs to be able to sell both and handle what comes in. And we know that there's different scenarios. So will a one track presentation speak to that customer? No, it won't. So at the very beginning of the presentation, we need to assess or discover by either selling like a doctor, that's one way to think of it, you know, diagnose, prescribe, and then give the solution. And. Or selling like a detective by asking questions to identify where they are in the process. So by assessing our customers needs, we can clearly understand the problem that they have, the cause of that problem, the impact or consequences of that problem to then showcase our solution. Because if we all just agreed that there's four different scenarios, technically seven if you count the different mindsets on storm and four for retail, is it the same problem? No. And what do people buy? They buy solutions to problems they have. So by spending more time in the beginning, we're able to assess or identify exactly what's going on with the customer. So you can say we do all these amazing things for you, but all you need to do is pick and grab the key parts of your presentation that say you're dealing with this. Mr. Homer, Mr. Homeowner, this is all that matters. Piece one, two, five and seven, plug in. Boom, good to go. Now all you're doing is selling to what they need to hear. It is amazing what happens. So the way that you can increase your close rate the most is by properly assessing where that customer's at so you can custom tailor your presentation to fit their needs. To fit their needs to solve their problem and make it feel like a totally customized solution made just for them. Now I teach you this entire system inside the roofing sales success formula. There's a link in the video description below. Happy to do a demo for you and if you have any questions, you can call or text our team here at 303222 7133. Now the next thing that I want to focus on here is after the assessment, we need to do the most important part, which is getting that homeowner to take ownership of their problem. We don't want to tell them you've got a problem. We need them to own their problem. Once we assess the situation and know what's going on, we need to dive really deep again by either selling like a doctor or assessing the situation to really connect with the impact that that problem is going to have on the homeowner before we then present. And the last thing that I'm going to share with you is this. There are three dominoes that we must knock down in order in order to get the sale. Those go in this order. Which is first, we must develop an unshakable trust with the homeowner. This is rapport. And again, connecting on a human level. But trust doesn't win business all the time. The next one is need. This person needs to need a new roof and need your services to do it. So this is where that homeowner is going to then connect with this desire to say, I need a new roof because I just saw the condition of my roof. So again, if you didn't watch it, watch this video up here. It says never, ever, ever tell a homeowner the roof is damaged. Works for storm and retail. Click this card, watch that video. It's going to go really deep into how to get the homeowner taking ownership of their problem and describing the roof damage to you so we can maintain this trust. Then we have the money issue. And I'll tell you in my presentation, I'm going to overcome the deductible or price objection before we even present. So we've knocked down the three dominoes that we must knock down in order, in order to get to this, to get to the sale right away before we even present. Do you See now how 90% of the sale is won or lost in the first 10 minutes? Closing is a good thing. We need to do it. But the real closers are, are great openers because you can assess what's going on, get that homeowner to own the problem that they're having and then again overcome that money issue before you even present. And by doing this, you can lift your close rate substantially your key takeaway, my friend. Ask more questions. Where are you in the process? Why am I out here today? How many estimates have you received? Then we can dive deeper into their exact problem to provide the perfect solution. And remember, to watch that video, you need them to take ownership of that problem. So thanks for joining me in today's video. And if you like this video and you want more than hop into this playlist I'm closing and let's close some deals together. And if you haven't done it, click right here to get a free copy of my pitch like a pro roofing sales training video library and I'll see you very soon on the next one.