OBJECTION: “I don’t want to file a claim”

I don't want to file a claim. This is one of the most common objections I hear when it comes to selling hail, wind or hurricane damage roofs. For some reason, homeowners often get resistant about using their insurance company, like it's an evil thing to use. Or maybe they feel that their roof wasn't damaged severely enough and they didn't quite need to do it. Well, in this video, I'm going to be giving you five, yes, you heard me right, five different angles of attack to overcome this very objection. The I don't want to file a claim now, before we get started, I want to cover some groundwork and some ground rules. I don't believe in the whole flashcard approach to objection handling. Why? Because practicing the perfect rebuttal is combative. They say this, I say that, and that doesn't really lend itself to a healthy conversation in developing trust. So when someone says this and we say, hey, well, you're being stupid, you pay for the service, that doesn't go so well. It really feels like someone's throwing punches back and forth. And frankly, it's not how I interact with my friends or my family or, or any of my close relationships. Which is why I teach the ARO objection handling formula, Acknowledge, reassure and overcome. To make sure people feel heard and understood before I give them a fresh perspective on their own situation. The other reason that I'm giving you five of these different angles of attack is not every customer will need all five. Some might only need one, some might need five, some might need three. But anytime I do these videos, I give you the long winded version so you can harvest what works for you in the real world. Now, the last thing I want to share, and the whole objection side, in my opinion, and I teach this inside my all in one sales training and sales system, is that every single objection means one of three things. The homeowner doesn't trust you, they don't think they need you or a roof or it's a money issue. So when I ask you what's this objection mean? I don't want to file a claim need. They don't feel like it's a strong enough need to take action on the roof. They may trust you, they might like you, but at the end of the day, they don't want to file a claim is because you have not created enough of a need. They don't see that the benefits of getting that claim filed outweigh the risks. And to them they say, hey, the need is not strong enough. I don't have A problem with my roof. My roof is not leaking, therefore I don't need to do anything about it. So it is us up to us to create the need for them to take action. And here is how we do it. Now first I just want to say welcome back and if you're new here, welcome. My name is Adam Bensman, the roof strategist. And everything I do here on my YouTube channel and on my podcast and in my all in one sales training and sales system is designed to help you and your team smash your income goal and roofing sales and give every customer an amazing experience. In order to give an amazing experience, we've got to earn the business and this is a big obstacle holding us up. So let's get to it and I will teach you five different ways to overcome this. Objection. Alright, now method number one, and by the way, what I'm writing down here is an act of God claim. You have to check your state laws. This act of God clause means that an act of God claim, meaning a event outside of controlled by mother nature, hail, wind, hurricane, things like that, can't make your rates go up because it's different than a theft or burglary claim or you got drunk and left the stove on and burned the house down. Those are all negligence, theft related. They're handled and categorized differently than an act of God. Now there are a few states that this does not apply, so just disclaimer. I'm not a public adjuster and I'm not an attorney. I don't have all this stuff memorized. It's not my sweet spot. Sales are my sweet spot. So do check with the state in which you operate and if you want to drop a comment, if you live in one of those states where the act of God clause does not apply, meaning a claim that is an act of God means that your rates cannot go up. Of course rates go up every year, by the way, because it's an aggregate of all the claims in the area. And just like health insurance just goes up each and every year. But in terms of the insurance company saying we're charging you more because of this, if it's an act of God, in most states, they can't do that. All right, so that's method, angle of attack, number one. Number two, this is the biggest one, Mr. Homeowner, the lifespan of your roof has been, oops, let me change. This has been compromised. Now, what does this mean? This is true. If hail or wind impacts a roof and damages it in any way, even if it's minor the lifespan of that roof is compromised. So if you expected this roof to last, I don't know, 30 years, I know my Dallas, Texas friends are like, you don't get 30 years out of roof down there. I know that. But if you're expecting the roof, which you paid for, it doesn't matter what's going to happen. You paid for the roof to last this long. If there's a hail or a wind event and the shingles are compromised, the lifespan of the roof is shortened. What does that mean to the homeowner? It means that if you bought a new truck and you expect it to last 200,000 miles and hail event comes, or neighborhood kids steal it and go mudding and throw it in reverse and start doing donuts, it might only last 100,000 miles. Which means you're going to go out and buy a brand new truck 100,000 miles sooner than you expected, which is about 10 years for most people. And by the way, that's the reality. This is the tr true to life reality. In addition to that, the manufacturer's warranty becomes null and void when it is impacted. So add insult to injury. This brings us to point number three, which is the price of roofing compounds. Okay, so we'll put this together. Mr. Homeowner 1 On an act of God claim, they can't increase your rates. Check your state laws, make sure you can say that next, the lifespan of your roof has been compromised. Even though your roof may not appear to be leaking now, it might not have any issues that are obvious to you. The truth is the lifespan of your roof is reduced. Similar if your car tires, if you bought car tires, maybe you shop. You said I want that tire because it has a 50,000 mile road wear warranty. Well, what if you got it and then 15,000 miles in you need to replace your tires. You're going to be upset because you're going to buy new tires. But the difference is you're now paying for roofing. And roofing is the most expensive maintenance item on the home. And the price of roofing about doubles every 10 years and that's going up at a faster rate right now with the rate increases that we're seeing. So if it's drops by 10 years and then the price doubles every 10 years, that homeowner is coming out of pocket with enough money to go remodel the kitchen or buy a brand new vehicle with cash. It's not a fun place to be. Alright, which brings us to number four. This is which by the way, what we've touched on now are mostly related to the money side of things. I want to get on to the liability and more the emotional side. There is money involved, but this is future loss in liability. Now, I know this verbiage sounds big. Future loss and liability. What do we mean by this? Future loss means an insurance claim down the road or other damage that occurs, and liability means who's paying for it. Here's what we mean, Mr. Homeowner, you don't want to file a claim now. Whether it's wind damage or hail damage, the future impacts of that damage could lead to problems in the roof or failure points, which mean what? Water coming in. Water coming in becomes very expensive. We have interior repair to do. We have dry outs. We have repainting ceilings, and then any carpets or furniture that might get soiled or destroyed. And then in some climates, you have threats, environmental threats, such as mold through moisture penetration in the home. What happens, Mr. Homeowner, is if you don't file a claim, even though the damage may be small, what happens is you have a limited window of opportunity to make that claim. Let's say it's a year to three years, depending on the type of loss and the state. And I know sometimes it's shrinking down about six months. If you're outside that window and then something happens and the insurance company links it, say it's a wind damage shingle that lifts up, you don't file a claim and water pours in. Two years later, insurance company comes out. They say, hey, there was a wind event on this date. You didn't do anything. This was damaged before. This is old damage. We're not covering it. And the truth is the insurance companies can do that because it is your responsibility to prohibit or keep any future loss from occurring. Very similar if your pipe froze in your house and there's water that bursts, right? Pipe freezes, burst water's coming out. It is your responsibility as a homeowner, by law, on your contract with the insurance company, is to stop future loss from occurring. Meaning I got to stop the water from flooding. We don't wait and sit around and then hope someone shows up. Our first plan of attack is to stop that. Same thing with the fire. You don't let the house burn down. You got to put the fire out as quick as possible. The same goes for your roof. Even though it's less extreme and emotional, it is our responsibility to keep future damage from occurring. So in the event anything does happen to your home, you will be paying out of pocket for that. Meaning you are 100% liable. And then the final reason that most people forget about is that insurance is truly a service that you pay for. And most folks are paying this monthly out of escrow, out of their home insurance, excuse me, out of their home, out of their mortgage, or they're at least paying for it annually, month over month, year over year. It is a service you provide to protect the most expensive maintenance item on your home and to protect the most valuable asset that you have, which is your home property. So for these five reasons, you now have five angles of attack to combine them, to educate homeowners on why it is that they may wish to file a claim for their roof damage, even if it's minor. Now, if you have questions about the ethical implications, like what if it's small, I'll link to a video here at the end to show you how to handle those situations. But in this, we now know one, that the reason they don't want to file a claim is you didn't create enough need. They don't feel the need or understand it. And then number two, to give them five different angles of attack to educate them on creating the need for them to then file the claim again from an act of God, meaning severe weather event can't increase their rates. Check the state. The lifespan of the roof has been compromised, which means they pay out of pocket to replace it 5, 10, 15 years sooner than it should have. Similar to a car or truck tires, the price of roofing is going to double every 10 years on average. Right now that's historical average. Right now that's dropping depending on the market, with the rate increases as fast as five to seven years in some markets. And in the future, loss and liability, if anything else comes up, you're liable. And then finally, you have been paying for a service. And insurance is a service that we pay for. It's a service agreement. Now, I hope this video helped. And if you want more, and maybe you're wondering, hey, you know what, what do I do? If it's marginal damage and it's kind of on the, on the edge of calling in, if that's you, then I want you to watch this video on the ethical questions of how to deal with marginal damage. And if you want even more of these videos, click right here and download a free copy of my pitch like a pro roofing sales training video library to get access to all the videos I've ever done, organized by category for easy binging and I will see you in the next video.