Contingency Agreements Will Change Forever Very Soon
Adam Bensman says insurance deductibles are getting bigger and payouts smaller, leaving homeowners with larger out-of-pocket costs. Salespeople need to stop assuming contingencies will work the old way and instead educate customers about what they'll actually owe, then offer financing options.
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The contingency agreement is no longer what it used to be. In this video, I want to share with you what I believe to be the very near future of contingency agreements and how you need to adapt your sales to use them in the changing landscape that we're experiencing so you can continually sign deals and outsell your competitors. Hey, welcome. Or welcome back. My name is Adam Bensman and I'm doing this video to update an entire playlist of videos I've done on using the contingency agreement as a closing tool. So what you are about to learn in this video and by the way, be a hero like share this one with the team. Team because they need to hear this is going to help you continually use the contingency agreement while other people will inevitably suffer. Mark my words, it will happen. So let's get started. 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. All right. The contingency agreement was a storm damaged salesperson's like number one closing tool. Now, I know there's a lot of people that are anti contingency agreement, some that use them, some don't. And I've covered all of that in that playlist that I share with you. I don't want to get in the weeds in it. I just want to talk about the very fast changing landscape of contingency agreements in this video. But quick groundwork. The contingency agreement was a glorified handshake that set the relationship off in the right way. What it did was tell the homeowner that if you go to bat for them getting the roof approved that you will be the contractor of choice and all they'll have to pay is their deductible. But things are changing, especially in that whole deductible piece. So let's talk about what's changing and how this could impact the contingency agreement. So you know how to use them. So what's changing? Number one is deductibles, we find. And by the way, this has been happening in states like Texas for a while and Florida for storm damage claims. There's often a percentage of home value as a deductible or often a special deductible for hail, wind or hurricane, which means a homeowner could be coming out of pocket for thousands and thousands of dollars, as opposed to the old glory days where people had 250 or $500 deductibles, which is what it was like when I first got into business. And things have quickly evolved beyond that as coverage is going down. Speaking of coverage going down, we have an influx of ACV or actual cash value policies. In other words, a homeowner who has a claim if the roof is $20,000, but it's 10 years old, they might only get say $12,000 for the roof and they got to come out of pocket to pay for the rest in these newer policies that are being written that like after 10 years old, it turns to ACV and we're seeing them on RPS policies or roof payment schedule policies. So in other words, homeowners expenses are increasing while insurance coverage is decreasing. This hasn't hit every single state yet. And I'm going to guess that in the comments below, I'm going to see folks from the Northeast, they're like, we still have thousand dollar deductibles, which you do and enjoy it while it lasts. And then you're going to have folks that are in, let's say Colorado or which have been more recent in more recent years to the percentage of home value in special deductibles for hail and wind. Now, this poses a little bit of a complexity or a problem when it comes to using a contingency agreement because gone are the days of assuming that the homeowner has an RCV or replacement cost value policy and a simple deductible that they have to pay. In other words, it got more complex because with these variable policies, a lot of policies even have been like changed and homeowners get this notice. But it's one of those, like long legal things like updates to your policy. No one reads it, the agents don't communicate it, and homeowners don't know the wiser until they have a claim and they're like, what the Heck, I owe $9,000 on my claim. I have $1,000 deductible. How did this happen? So what does this mean to you and how do you need to use the contingency agreement moving forward? Well, what we're finding, if you've been paying attention to my videos, is I'm trying to keep you on the cutting edge of what's happening and what will soon be happening. And that is a requirement for you to be a more sophisticated salesperson, a more intelligent salesperson, and a more informed salesperson who can educate homeowners on how this whole process works. Now, does this mean that you have to like rip up your contingencies and throw them out the window? No, it doesn't in fact, I would still encourage you to use them. But I think if you use them the wrong way, it's going to fail. So what do I mean by the wrong way? The wrong way of using the contingency is assuming that the piece of paper means something, because in reality it doesn't. I cover that in a whole other video of our contingency agreements. Enforceable. If you want to learn more, go watch that one. The reason I say that is the piece of paper that says, hey, you know, if we get this approved, you use us and you cover the out of pocket expense and assume that whatever the insurance company pays, they pay the difference. That piece of paper being unenforceable will open it up where homeowners like, wait a minute, this is enforceable? I don't know if I really liked you. I want to start shopping around. So how does this impact how you use them? In a few ways. First, you have to educate homeowners on what their true out of pocket expense might actually look like. And instead of being the bearer of bad news and showing up, this is really important by the way. So take note on what I'm about to tell you. Instead of showing up, be like, oh well, you know, it might not be a lot of money and you might have to come out of pocket. But don't worry, we've got you. Is we in sales are responsible for providing good news. Good news, Mr. Homeowner, your roof will get replaced. In part of it will get covered by the insurance and that will save you a ton of money. And all you'll need to do is bridge the difference. But you're getting this substantial amount likely covered. And we have a variety of different ways that we can help you through that. By the way, those variety of ways is a variety of financing options or cash pay, self pay options. Okay, so again, we need to one, not be the bearer of bad news, but be the bearer of good news. Looking at it as a glass half full versus a glass half empty. By doing so, we use assumptive selling techniques, meaning we're going to talk to them as if they've already chosen to work with us. This has been a massive difference for salespeople who have learned how to do this. Like this gentleman, Nate. Nate, by the way, joined me on my channel. He's a sales rep that did over $770,000 in a single month. He's a member of the roofing and solar form lines. He actually spoke at our members only annual event called the Room. And this was one of the Key things he said was attributed to his was speaking to the homeowner using this assumptive selling as if they are already working with him, they've already chosen him. So step number one, be the bearer of good news. Step number two is to communicate and educate what this could look like to a homeowner so there's no surprises because surprises kill deals. And number three, you have to develop a relationship. You know, so many people approach roofing sales as this transaction sales process, but transaction selling doesn't. It's not a good long term game. And the AI AI world we're living in, people are craving human connection more than ever. So if you have a strong relationship that works alongside that contract, you have a much higher likelihood of seeing it all the way through. But if you approach the sale from a transaction mindset, you do this, I do that, we're done. Then people are going to have this seed of doubt about the contingency and start shopping around and it won't mean anything. So your Keith's takeaways know what's changing and follow the advice in this video so you can keep using them, do them better and outsell the other people who aren't doing this because as soon as that homeowner has a surprise, they're going to turn to someone else. And that someone could be you. Hey, thanks for joining me in this video. And to help you understand the contingency agreement even more, jump into this playlist because I've got oodles of videos for you covering how to use it. Is it enforceable? The pros and cons and a whole bunch more. If you want even more, jump into my free training center. There's a link in the description below and I'll see you in the next one.
