Adam Bensman argues that in roofing sales you should give the first estimate because the first experience anchors a homeowner's emotional and comparative judgment. He uses a car-test-drive analogy (Camry vs. Mercedes) to show how the first estimator sets a benchmark, and emphasizes "speed to lead"—claiming customers have done research and that 80% of the buying decision is already made before contact. The first estimator therefore frames later competitors and is likelier to win.
Chapters
So the question was, should you try to not be the first one in the house? Because people want multiple estimates? And the answer is no. I will get into that right now, though. I gave a presentation that maybe next time I'm back, we'll go through. It's called how to Differentiate and Win in the New Feeling Economy. So I want you to think of this for an example. Let's say you guys are shopping for a new car, new truck, and let's say, no offense to whatever anyone drives, I'm just using these as an example. First car I drive is the Toyota Camry. Great vehicle, reliable as hell, going to do the trick. I go test drive it. I'm like, it's pretty nice. And then afterwards, I go to the Mercedes dealership and I drive an E series. I'm going to look back and be like, that Camry was a joke compared to this thing. What happened is the Camry set the benchmark. Likewise, that becomes the price anchor in this analogy. So I'm anchoring everything against that first experience. Likewise, if I drove the Mercedes E series first and then went and drove the Camry, your test drive in the Camry would last 30 seconds because you'd put it in gear, you'd hit the accelerator, and you'd put it back in park because you're now benchmarked against the E series. So when you're in the home, your homeowners are comparing contractors based on emotion and comparison. Those are the two factors, emotion and comparison. So what they're gonna do is say, hey, I had three estimates. Guy number one showed up on time, presented me an estimate, was attentive, asked me my questions, wasn't a pushy salesperson, had a great company in a reasonable price. Person two, never showed up. Person three, good job, failed to deliver, told me they'd get me the estimate in 24 hours. It was five days. Who wins? The guy that was first, even though he was first. And I know that was an extreme example. Sometimes people are, you know, know, show up on time, others don't. But my point is that humans by nature make decisions based on emotion and comparison. So when I'm first in the house, I'm going to set that benchmark here. And you'll see, as we hit in the number eight, that I'm going to set up my future salespeople that are going to come in behind me to be looked at as evil villains, because most of them are not. All that'd be a blanket statement, and it's not true. But many of them are. And if we know that one of those people is coming in and starts doing the things that I warned them about, they're going to now look back to me be like, man, that guy told me exactly how it going to go. Likewise, if I'm last in the house and I bring these things up, they're going to look back and be like, wait, guy number one and two did exactly that. And then now I'm the Mercedes that was driven after the Toyota Camry. So the other thing is that speed to lead is important. I believe that the first person out there I know some people use this false scarcity stuff, which I never quite understood. I'm sorry, but we're busy and they're staring at a blank calendar. Like, I know people that do this because they think that like, you know, they just want to leverage scarcity. But what the reality is, I don't know if you guys knew this. 80% of the buying decision has been made by the time they contact your company. So when someone calls into your roofing company, they've already done their homework online, they've vetted it, they've selected three people, they're buying a roof. What they need to do is figure out, metaphorically, the pre authorized check for $20,000. They just need to know whose name they're going to fill in on there. So when I know this about someone, they say, hey, I want to get you in as fast as possible so I can say hey, you know, to spell name. And then we just let them know how it's spelled. So that's my philosophy. Does that make sense? Cool.
