LockDown LIVE: How to Handle Partial Roof Claims Before and After the Sale?

Foreign. Hey, hey. The roof strategist. And we are back again with another lockdown. Live. Today's video, big shout out to Justin. Different Justin than the last video. So Justin was talking about wind damage and discontinued shingles and how to get roofs approved. And it inspired this video, which is how to handle partial claims both before and after the sale. Now I'm jumping right in and rolling in hot, this one. So deal. The homeowner sees a partial payment come through, and they're like, hey, well, you told me that the roof was totally damaged. And they're telling me they're only covering a few repairs. And it makes you look a little, you know, not so great secret in winning the business. So say you approach someone who has partial payment. By the way, you can tell I'm a. I'm a freaking artist, am I not? So I'm going to teach you how to. How to earn the business. So if you knock on a door, you. You send. Well, if you're sending direct mail, if you're running a lead, if you're doing phone appointments, you're talking to someone, you find out that they've been partially paid. You can use this trick to win the business. And what to do when this happens after the sale, if they get denied. So this is really, really important for you because you can, one, secure those deals so you don't lose them. And Jason says, what up, Picasso? You like that? You want to be able to secure the deals and not lose them. So that's the first thing. Second. Second thing is to manage your reputation. And you can use this to win business that so many other roofers overlook. Because, guys, let me guess, you've heard this. This is what everybody teaches. The only sales tactic that the mainstream is teaching is offering free inspections. Does someone who has a partial payment need an inspection? Maybe you're going to want to see it, but ultimately they don't really need it. Obviously, it's going to be part of it. And you're going to be saying, hey, Adam, of course I need an inspection. But. But I want you to hang with me for a few minutes because you're going to see why there's another angle to come in. All right, now, before we go into this, I want to share. This is what accidentally led me to these sales conclusions and helped me with the supplementing process. Now, on this channel, I get a lot of requests. People email. Hey, talk about supplementing. Talk about this. Guys, my lane is sales and marketing, all right? And I really try to stay where I'm really good at. I know enough to be dangerous in the supplementing world, but. But I'm no expert. There's plenty of really good resources out there, and I'm working on finding some folks that I can send your way should you need someone. But I am going to teach you today a really solid negotiating tactic and some things that you can use both for homeowners to get these partial claims paid in full. Now. Now for the story that led to this. So I'm working this storm in an Area 3 tab roof, kind of near ground zero for a big hail storm. This guy was quirky. Okay? Quirky, Quirky homeowner. All the neighbors got new roofs. So I go out there, I do my inspection again. 3 tab roof, older roof, didn't really show a whole lot, but it had leaf protection, gutter guards. Okay. I don't remember what brand they were, and they were just destroyed. But the shingles really didn't show a whole lot. So the adjuster comes out, and he goes, adam, I'm seeing nothing. Like, I'm writing for the gutters and the gutter protection, and that's it. And I'm sitting there, and I'm kind of bummed out. And I'm like, I can't really argue the guy. Like, these shingles really didn't show anything worth covering, in my opinion. So we hop down. The homeowner, I tell him he is irate. He insists, I'm calling for reinspection. What can you do? What can you do? And this was when I was newer in the business, and I'm like, man, there's really no damage on your roof. I don't know what to tell you. They did a partial payment. Keep the money. Like, it's not worth redoing your gutters. After I leave, he calls for a reinspection himself. State Farm calls me, says, hey, Adam, I wanted to coordinate our reinspection. I didn't even know it was happening. And I'm like, oh, man, what a waste of my time. There's no damage. There's no way that this adjuster is going to overturn this claim. So I get out there. I'm going to continue on my Picasso art here. So I get out there, and again, the adjuster on the by the way, I ended up coincidentally meeting with that adjuster right before the appointment on a different claim. So he's like, hey, follow me over. We'll just go hammer this house out. I'm like, man, I really don't want to jerk you around. There's nothing on this roof. I'm just going to be honest with you. The homeowner is jerking me around, and I'm kind of doing this to save face. He goes, you know what? We got to do it. We owe it to him. So I'm like, all right, cool. So here's what happens. Jester hops on the roof, okay? And there are is gutter protection right here. Here's my gutters. Look at that freaking artist, guys. Quitting my day job, going into art. So there's gutter protection. There's the gutters, and the protection goes underneath the shingles. Okay? Now he walks the roof, and he goes, adam, you are right. There's no damage on this roof. And I'm like, I'm really sorry. Goes. But here's the thing. We already paid for the gutter guards and leaf protection, and they're slipped underneath. Let me see if I can do this for the camera. They were obviously installed underneath the shingles. Well, when you go to lift the shingles up, they crack. Then the next layer cracks, and the next layer cracks. He goes, this roof is irreparable. We've already committed to paying for the gutter protection. There's no way anyone can do that install. For that reason, I'm covering the entire roof. Can you believe that? Blew my mind. Lazaro, I just shot an email. Thanks for joining in. And I got your other email, too. We'll get back to that one. So my point in sharing the story is the homeowner called us in, taught me a lesson. It's called a working commitment. Write that down. Okay. When an insurance company covers any, whether it's window wraps, whether it's gutters, downspouts. I'm not drawing all this stuff. Whether it's a couple shingles or roof vents, it is what I call a working commitment. Okay? That means that the insurance company has acknowledged that there is, in fact, hail damage. They cannot go back on that. So once they make that working commitment, they've acknowledged this was damaged. Now they need to do what they need to do to access that area. Okay, so let me give you another example. I always use cars. You've heard me always pitch to homeowners using terminology about cars. If someone owns a house, they own a car, with very rare exception. Okay? So when you approach someone. Now I'm going to touch into this part on communicating this with a homeowner before the sale. So we're going to hit three parts. How to win the sale, okay. How to earn business from people who've had partial Payment number two is how to negotiate with an adjuster to get things wrapped up. And three is how to manage when this happens with your homeowners. So let's hit the first one, winning the business. They already had partial payment. You go to them, you say, listen, the insurance company has already given you a working commitment. They have, in fact, acknowledged that there is hail on your property. They said it right here. Okay? So when they acknowledge that they are now required to do what it takes to repair your home. Now, Mr. Homeowner, think of it like your car. Let's say your car gets stolen and some neighborhood kids are. Are leaving it in neutral and revving it up and dropping into gear and burning out. And that's what happens when your car gets stolen. Well, they destroyed your TR transmission. So when it comes back and they're going to replace your transmission because the insurance company will. Are they just going to buy you a new transmission? No. If the engine needs to get lifted, you know, if they can't access the transmission without the engine being pulled out, they're going to pay for all the things that touch the transmission to get replaced. The home is no different. So like I mentioned, with the gutter piece, it's a working commitment. They can't access that without, you know, lifting the shingles up. They can't lift the shingles up because they're not repairable. So now it's like an ending. It unfolds. So I tell folks, it is a working commitment. So write that one down. So. So when you win the business, you need to acknowledge the working commitment, and you need to use the urgency for using a contractor like you. Listen, whoever you use up front obviously didn't work out. By the way, was anyone there? Chances are they're going to say no, say, great, here's how it works. You get one chance and one chance only to get this done right. We're going to call for reinspection. You need someone like me, who's a professional restoration contractor. I know roofing. I know the insurance side. I'm going to help you get this taken care of. Okay, so again, calling it a working commitment will really help in driving the point. They have one more chance and that you need to be there for it. Okay, so again, if you've watched my video on the four stages of the claims process, this would be stage two, partial payment. Okay. All right, next, how to negotiate with the adjusters. Adjusters on site. I always say that. Listen, we acknowledge that there's hail. We acknowledge this needs to get done. What Happens when I go out there in this and I lift these shingles and they crack and it's just one layer after another. What happens when I go to replace the box venture and the shingles aren't repairable? Now, some adjusters, guys, here's the pushback, and I'm waiting for the comments. I just know they're going to come. Adam, we've tried that. You don't know what you're talking about. I know what I'm talking about, and I know that you're going to get pushback. I guarantee you'll get pushback, and I guarantee you will get adjusters that say, not my problem, or that's not how the ex insurance company does it. I know that will happen. But there are independent adjusters and smart adjusters that you can have a conversation. And I always ask you this, guys, because we've all heard the horror stories of roofers up on the roof with an adjuster, and the roofer doesn't like what they see. They come down, they pull the ladder out, the adjuster stuck out, stuck up on the roof. We've all heard of this stuff happening. I've talked to adjusters. You'll never going to argue your way into a claim getting pushed your way with an adjuster, just the same way as you're never going to argue your way out of a speeding ticket. If a cop comes up to your car and says, hey, you know, I pulled you over, you were speeding, and you say, no, I wasn't. He's like, but the gun says, you're doing 15 over. That wasn't me. Has that ever worked? Has anyone successfully seen a cop say, you know what, sir, you are right. I'm so glad you were rude to me. My apologies. This is going your way. It doesn't happen. Same with adjusters. So you will lose battles. But when you say, Listen, Mr. Adjuster, I understand this is where the primary damage is, and I recognize that there may not be significant damage on these other items. However, I'm in a position where the homeowner. I have a contingency agreement with the homeowner to complete this work, and I'm physically incapable of it. So the result will be relying on the homeowner. So I'm asking you, how can we fairly serve our mutual customer, this homeowner, to get this repair done? Because the minute I get into this, for example, without being able to access the shingles, if they're irreparable, we're in a world of hurt. Okay, all right. I'm gonna take a quick pause, feed into the adjuster ego, ask him questions that show his expertise, befriend him this way. Absolutely. Jason is spot on. Always, always, always kill him with kindness. Pump him up, make them feel good. Doesn't matter who wins and why. All right, Totally agree. All right. Now, if this happens after the sale, this is a more. More of a rookie error. Although it does happen to seasoned salespeople. If you are on the roof. Excuse me, with the adjuster. So you sign up the homeowner, you're like, hey, I was just up on your roof. Here's the inspection. Yes, there's a ton of damage. And let's call it in. Okay. Meet the adjuster. Adjuster comes down, she's like, ma', am, I don't really see anything. I saw downspouts, window wraps, couple box fence. Your rear is fine. And they write the scope. And then the homeowner sitting there being like, they don't know who to trust. Do they trust you? Do they trust the adjuster? The guy's scoping it out in his truck, and all of a sudden they think that you're some con artist when you know that you're not, because you're there doing your job, helping them out. Because those borderline claims go all the time. And sometimes it's not even borderline. It's destroyed. But the adjuster is on his high horse and says it's not. So on those projects, it's really, really critical that you do damage control. Now, there's two ways to handle this. One is the front end. Whenever you call in anything, no matter how bad the damage is, always set the expectations with the homeowner that insurance companies are interpreting this differently every single year. Every adjuster policy changes. Sometimes they want to see bruising to the matting. Other times it's just granulos. Sometimes it's 10 hits per square. Other years it's 8 hits per square. Right? So explain that all of these things change, and it's subjective. And you've seen if you have. If not, you can share a story. I've seen roofs that are, like, destroyed in an adjuster, I'm like, what do you need a roof? So explain that upfront so they know that the outcome could be crazy. Okay? Now, once you do that up front, that's going to help a ton from the reactivity of the homeowner. Then all you need to do is communicate with them to say, listen, this is good news. I'm going to share everything with you. When the adjuster leaves. But what we have is a working commitment. By the way, this gutter story I've told to a million customers because it is a great way to showcase the fact that this little gutter protection got an entire roof covered because the shingles were irreparable. So there's all these little loose ends that you're going to learn how to build in. Is it that the valley is woven instead of W valley or ice and water shield or whatever it is that you can't access? You know, you can't replace one slope without getting into the other slope. There's tons of little nuances blending the technicalities of an installation with what Xactimate says. So again, I'm not the supplement expert. However, I do want to say I do know my stuff and a lot of it is in the field and it's the human side of what Jason mentioned in the comments. So the other thing that I want to mention here is Garrett with one click code has been on the channel a couple times. They just reached out to me today actually to see if we could do another video together. And I know they've got got some new stuff coming. I'm not affiliated with them. I get nothing for sharing this. The reason I'm sharing this is on1clickcode.com There's a mobile app for Android and iPhones. You type in a property address and that property will automatically pull up all the code items. What's enforced by the city, by the county, who the person in charge is, whether sometimes like certain things aren't required by building code, but the building code may say must follow manufacturer spec. So they know all these things. So this third party verified stuff is really powerful to help you get those supplements in. So I'll give you an example. There's just, just so you can go down the rabbit hole of how to negotiate this. And again, I handle the human side. There's people that'll tell you all the fancy codes to enter an exactimate. I'm not that guy. They're great people. You should have them on your team, period. I'm not discounting it. You need that stuff. But I really like to stay focused on sales and marketing and to me this is sales, but sales to adjusters. So if you can present to them on your phone, even while you're right there, the guy stuff. This stuff's instant, it's freaking cool. It's free, by the way, right now I don't know if it's ever going to be paid or not, but you enter in your Address. You get the code, you say, hey, listen, adjuster guy, I'm pulling up these little gutters that were damaged in the leaf protection. But by. By law, when I open up this area, I have to bring it to code, by law. And if I'm going to be pulling up three layers of shingles to get to this, and there's no ice and water, but ice and water is code. And then it says, install the manufacturer specs. See how I'm going? Like, there's. It's a. It's an onion. And you can use that onion to get these things approved. All right, so that'll help you both before the sale and after the sale. Now, let's see here again. I just want to do a quick shout out before we wrap up today for all you that are here. I just missed it. I know that our president was just on the news talking about potentially opening the US Back up, what that's going to look like by state. So it looks like, you know, some areas might be earlier than others. I'm going to be here doing these lives throughout it. But we're going to need to adapt because once we do open up, we cannot expect that we're going to go back to slamming doors like we used to. There's going to be some social distancing, I'm sure for a bit, and we're going to need to get creative. This is not to be freaked out. We're learning now and it's working. You know, Jason, who's here? Jason had massive success landing deals. I forget. Shoot. I forget the name a gentleman was on yesterday. He landed three deals using the letters in the battle pack. So get creative, guys. Use that direct mail. Use the no door knocking, you know, taping letter like Jason shared. There's networking, referrals, cold calling, the realtor stuff, which I added to the battle pack as well. And by the way, last thing, just to plug all of this script. So when you're. When you're working homes that have partial damage, there are times where you're going to know when they have partial damage. Now, how would you know that? Because you're working a fringe area. Let's say you get a call or you. I love to work fringe areas, by the way, because there's a lot less competition and you could really open up a neighborhood without crawling over each other, people stealing, you know, walking your yard signs. So when you know that you got one home that had this partial payment, here's. Here's a tip. You hit the next door and you Say, hey, I just worked with Peggy. Her roof got partially paid by the insurance company. She's upset, and I was able to help her get it fully replaced. Now, while I'm in the neighborhood, I just want to stop by, ask you how the insurance process has been for you. Were you denied as well? And when they say, no, no, I wasn't, or, you know, it's going great, all of a sudden, whether or not it was partially paid or not, you're going to open up a conversation. But if it is, then they're like, holy crap, you're the expert. You're the guy. But if I just showed up saying, hey there, my name's Adam the roof shredderist, and I'm here to offer you a complimentary inspection to see if your roof is damaged. They're like, great. So again, remember in the beginning of this video, I said, you may not need that inspection thing. Now, we all know you're going to need to hop up there and take a look. But my opening hook, if I'm like, I need an inspection, they're like, I don't need an inspection. My insurance was out and already said it's damaged. They might not even know their options. They might need be thinking, I need to find someone to fix. I need someone to do the repair. But ultimately, what they really need is the right presentation to hook it, right? If you say, hey, I'm the guy that helped people like you, and they're like, hey, that's me. I have partial damage. Let's talk. How did you do it? But if you just show up offering a free inspection, they're gonna be like, I don't know if I need this. So again, when you know where your market's at, if you know you're working fringe areas, you can group it in one. I help people who've had their roofs denied or underpaid with the insurance company get full approval. Now, while I'm here, I just wanted to ask you, how's the insurance process been for you? And then, boom, whatever it is, they tell you, oh, we got. Oh, great. Do you have a roofer yet? No. I can help, right? So, again, knowing those stages is critical. I do have all this stuff in the scripts and my canvassing scripts in the marketing battle pack. I realize we're not using canvassing now. However, what I am hearing is working is people are using the canvassing scripts slightly modified for cold calling. I've also modified the cold calling scripts for the COVID 19. Specific stuff that's coming with my Battle Pack. So most of you by now are familiar with my stuff marketing Battle Pack is available. There's a link in the description, again, always backed by my 100%, no BS money back guarantee. Now, before we wrap up, thank you guys for being here. Justin, who suggested this video, thank you for the suggestion. I know we were originally talking about discontinued shingles. It's a very small market segment, so I wanted to open this up into dealing with these partial payments because the whole idea of discontinued shingles is taking something that was pretty small and turning into something really big because the shingles are discontinued, which is a great thing to do, by the way. I know some companies have worked with some companies that have done very, very well on that front. So I think that checks all the boxes on my little list over there. Thank you again for joining me today. I hope you guys are all well. We are going to get through this. The end is in sight. We're going to need to adapt and overcome. Now, if you like the video, I'd love to see a thumbs up on it. That tells me that this is good stuff. And if it's not good stuff, then I'm gonna go back to the drawing board. And if it is good stuff or even if you want to see other things, email me. My inbox has been more full than ever and I love it. I love having conversations with you guys. I just got an email from a gentleman named Dallas. Dallas emailed me and I put together a custom video reply and he was like, whoa, man. By the way, he's never even bought for me. I don't favor replies like he hasn't bought from me. He asked me a question, I gave an honest answer, and he says, I can't afford your stuff, but I want a copy of your ebook. So I sent him a video back. And I do this for people because we're human, guys. That's why we're here. And let's act like it with each other, with our customers, with our homeowners, the people we work with, family, everything. So thank you a ton. And it was just about to close. That seems to be the thing. Subscribe already, by the way, if you haven't, and then click the bell so you get those notifications when I go live. I'm gonna extend this for a minute so I can answer Jason's question. Jason says, what about partial roof replacement? Same exact concept applies, Jason. So if they say we're only covering the west slope, but not the east slope or north and not the other one, always, always, always Use that working commitment piece now on an up and over like this. If the hail was really aggressive from this angle and obliterated this, there is a chance that that side's not damaged. But there's other ways to do it. Whether there's. And those shingles are discontinued or won't match or they. The shingles need to go to Itel and Itel can't find a match. That's an option. I worked a commercial property. This was not all 100% my doing. We did this as a company, but we ended up with a. I think it was 12. I forget if it's 12 or 14 different buildings on a. It wasn't officially a retirement community, but it was like an unofficial retirement community. And what happened, Jason, is we went out there with the adjuster, came up with a. What was it about a $700,000 scope. The insurance company, without naming names, gosh, they drove me nuts. Came back and said, we're not paying for anything. They fired the adjuster. We ended up going. They got engineers involved. The engineers came back, it was $400,000. That working commitment turned into a $2.2 million claim with O and P. So why does that count? Because there was a lot of sighting involved. We took sent samples off to itel. They were out. Yeah. It was not all Snake, although I've had some bad issues with all Snake. The siding was discontinued and the policy had a matching endorsement on it. So we wrapped brand new siding on all 14 buildings. Beautiful project. The property looked fantastic and we were done. Totally updated. The HOA was ecstatic. It was. It was great. So anyway, Jason, hope that answers your question. Same exact concept. You know, when you have valleys, if you've got a complex or cut up roof, it's all the same concept of that working commitment because there are times that you can't tie in two slopes and up and over is, you know, obviously a different story. So. But you will see that. And at least if you had to do it, which I hate doing. No one likes a patchwork quilt. That's the time then that you can potentially sell the other side at retail if you need to in a worst case scenario. So that is that. Now I'm actually going to wrap it up, guys. Thanks again a ton. Click. Thumbs up if you dig the video. Subscribe to the channel. I'd love to have you here. I'll be doing these lockdown lives every single day. I noticed there's a lot of new people jumping in. So if you are new, there's a playlist. You can click playlists on the channel and I have all these. You can catch up to where I'm at now. You might like the Realtor video, insurance agents, the no door knocking, cold calling. All that stuff is solid. So thank you again Jason. Appreciate that. Awesome as always. And I will see you guys tomorrow. I don't do these on Saturday Sunday, but I'll be back every Monday through Friday. While we are all in this together, be safe, be smart. Stay on the gas. We will get to the email list. You'll get notifications when I go live as well, along with some other goodies. Be well, be safe. See you tomorrow. Take care guys.