Adam Bensman (the Roof Strategist) explains that there are only two reasons people buy: wants (desire-driven purchases) and needs (necessity-driven purchases). Because roofing is typically not a "want," salespeople should focus on creating and communicating need. Bensman presents a three-step sales domino: build trust → create need → demonstrate value/money. He gives tactics to raise perceived need (inspect to "sell," avoid simply telling owners the roof is "damaged," emphasize active leaks as high-need cases) and cites supplier data estimating quarterly material rate increases of 7–12% (used to argue urgency; he projects prices could double in ~5 years). The video includes links to additional trainings and resources (free training library, related videos) and repeatedly urges ethical use of inspection evidence to create urgency.
Questions this video answers
September 5, 2022.
Between 7% and 12% per quarter (as stated in the video).
He says an active leak puts the homeowner at an "11" on the need scale.
Chapters
There are only two reasons that people buy things. That's it. There's two reasons that drive people from where they are right now to deciding to give you their hard earned money. And this applies to any single product that anyone ever buys, whether it's a new pair of shoes, whether it's a new car, a new truck, a new phone, a lift kit for your truck, all the things that are exciting to purchase. And the same applies to all those things that are not so exciting to purchase. Things like a roof. Now, this is a wildly simple sales philosophy, but the breakthroughs that you can have by applying these principles that I'm going to teach you today can help you close a lot more sales. And here's why. I'll prove it to you. When you learn why people make buying decisions, you can custom tailor your sales presentation and all of your customer communications to just totally line up and resonate with that customer. This is what creates that experience. When homeowners truly cut you off and say, I'm ready to move forward, what are the next steps and allow you to use that jump close? And it's because you've been able to identify which one of these levers or these two reasons that customers make buying decision decisions. Again, I look at them as like levers in their mind. And if we can pull these levers appropriately by customizing what we say and how we say it, our sales message just matches and it sings beautiful words of poetry in their ears. And they're just super excited to work with you. So before we get started in today's video, I just want to say welcome or welcome back. My name is Adam Bensman, the roof strategist. And everything I do here on my YouTube channel and in my podcast is designed to help you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. And I've got a few ways I can help you do that beyond right here on YouTube. And the first one is the no brainer. It's a freebie. It's my pitch like a pro roofing sales training video library. All the videos I've ever done, organized by category for easy binging in a way more robust way than I can do here on YouTube. And you can get yours for free over@therootstrategist.com right now. And you can click the link in the description to this page. Alright, the other thing, if you haven't yet, you can take a peek at our programs. There's information in the video and podcast description along with information for a demo and how to get ahold of us. If you have any questions. Alright, now let's get back to today's video. The only two reasons that people buy things and how you can learn how to manipulate your sales dialogues, your sales communications to create beautiful words of symmetry in your prospect's mind so they choose to work with you. Now, let's first break down the two things, the two reasons and only two reasons that people buy things. Number one is drum roll here. Come on, pen. There we go. Things that people want. Alright, now, what do I mean by things that people want? This is the stuff that's fun to shop for. This is the stuff that you find yourself laying in bed at night on your phone doing research about the lift kit for your truck, the next vehicle you're going to buy, which phone you might want, the elective purchases that are driven by pure desire. These are the things that we can't wait to get. There's so much to joy in fulfillment that we seek through these buying decisions. So I want to ask you this right now. Does a roof fit this criteria? And for most people on the other end that are watching this, you're probably thinking yourself, heck no, it doesn't. No one wants to buy a new roof. No one's like, oh, honey, I cannot wait to spend 20 to $40,000 on a new roof because it's going to give us all this new opportunity and amazing experiences and increase the home bill. No, no one thinks that way. So if you, if the first decision is a want, then what's the next one? The next one is the big one. Things people need. Things people need. Yeah, like I said, crazy simple. But we're going to break down this psychology a few layers deeper so you can apply this on your next sales appointment. People buy for two reasons. The things that they want, which are exciting to seek pleasure, and things that they need that they literally can't live without. So if I were to list out a few of those items that people, you know, want to buy, this could be a new cell phone. This could be a new truck. This could be a house. It could be a lift kit. The fun stuff to purchase, right? And things that people need. I'm going to give you an example. Electricity. They have no option but to pay your electricity bill. If you're on the highway and you get a flat tire and you don't have a spare, do you want a new tire or do you need one? No, you need to get your tire fixed or you need a donut or you need a replacement on the Side of the. So again, things like tires, these are wear items on a vehicle. You need to get an oil change for your car, right? We don't buy this stuff because we're excited. Oh, I cannot wait to go bring my truck in. Especially if you're driving a diesel and you're doing the $400 oil changes. No one is excited about it. So we've got these two categories. We have wants and we have needs. We've just agreed, right, that no one wants to buy a roof because it's not fun. But what we need to do, instead of learn how to communicate our sales message. To do what? To focus in by cutting out the want and focusing in on our need. Now, what you'll see, in my program, I teach that there are three dominoes that we must knock down in order in order to get the sale. And those go trust. We have to develop trust. We have to create a need, and then we have to showcase that our financial exchange of money for product is a high value. So we have trust, need, and money. So in sales, we have to develop trust first. Then we have to create the need because people don't want to buy a roof. So how do we showcase the findings of what we discovered on the roof? So the homeowner begins to say, hey, you know what? I really do need a roof, and I need it now, right? The higher the need, the higher the likelihood of the buying decision. So I'm going to ask you a question. You selling retail, do you have a higher likelihood of selling the roof on the homeowner who has an active leak or the homeowner who's planning to, hey, come on out and give us an estimate. We know we got to replace the roof in five to seven years. Okay, which one? Now, common sense says the person who has an active leak. Why? Because there is a very, very high need. So if you look at need on a scale of 1 to 10, I want you to focus on all of your communication to legitimately and ethically communicate to drive that customer as high towards a 10 as possible. If they have an active leak, they're in an 11. If they're looking at a new roof in five to seven years, their need right now is probably about a three. So we need to find those compelling reasons to get that homeowner to take action. I'm going to give you a few of those tips right now. Number one, I want you to go watch my video. Say, never, ever, ever, ever tell a homeowner that the roof is damaged, and I'm Going to link to that video right here. I wish I could blend it in, but this video would just get way too long. So believe me, you're going to want to go watch that. That is a key driver for creating the need. Next tip, you need to do an inspection that sells to find other compelling and legitimate reasons highlighting problems that homeowners may not have been aware about, to create the need for them to do the roof now. Now, other options on the storm and retail side. On the storm side, people may want to wait, right? Hey, I want to wait till later this year and there are ways, angles of attack for us to showcase the need to do the roof now as opposed to waiting. And I've done another video on that topic that you can watch right up here and that's I want to wait to do my roof now. On the retail side of things, there is legitimate urgency. There's urgency because the price of roofing materials, we're getting quarterly rate increases at the time of this filming between 7 and 12%, which means at today's rates, compounding, by the way, much faster than the stock market is, meaning the price of roofing is going up more than the stock market. Exponentially more. Means the price of roofing will double about every five years at today's rates. So if a roof is 20 grand today and a homeowner wants to wait to get it done, yeah, they can. But they must be aware that that roof in five years will probably cost about $40,000. Isn't that crazy? $40,000 doubling in price, an extra 20 grand. And I've broken that down in a video as well. Alright, now if I can find that one on YouTube, which I believe we put it up there, or it was in a training. I've done a lot of these videos, so we'll have to figure that one out. But I'm going to link to that one if we have that one available for you. Breaking down the rate increases in again based on real data we're getting from the suppliers, compounding that interest on those quarterly rate increases and projecting that out over a number of years, the average roof again will double in five years. So there you have it. You have now learned that there are two reasons and only two reasons, that people buy things they buy things that they want to buy and things that they need to buy. And since roofing isn't an exciting item, not something people look forward to, we need to learn how to sell things that people don't want to buy by focusing in on need, creating the need now you have enough to run with on your next appointment. So as you're communicating, I want you to think to yourself, with my customer, am I successfully communicating the need for them to take action now? And am I successfully asking them questions to help them come to terms with the fact that they need a roof now and not to wait? Now, if you liked this video and you want more, this core philosophy right here, the trust, need, money, and how we are going to run that sales appointment, I give you the entire thing step by step, inside the roofing sales success formula, what to do and say inside the house to create this totally insatiable need so customers buy from you. And I do teach you my objection strategy as well, knocking down the trust, need and money issue. All right, bringing us to a close here. Your new mission is to approach every sales dialogue with this in mind. I need to focus on creating an absolute need, and I'm going to use every ethical angle I can. I'm going to use all the information at my disposal, and I'm going to slow down and work on my inspection so I can communicate clearly and have indisputable evidence for that homeowner to again, focus in on the need so I can win the sale. Hey, thank you again for joining me in today's video. Just because our time is about to wrap up doesn't mean it needs to. So if you want to continue with me on YouTube and I want you to jump into this video that I mentioned before, which is the never, ever, ever tell a homeowner that the roof is damaged. Because this is kind of like the big one that's going to help you create that need. And if you haven't done it, pop in right here and get a free copy of my pitch like a pro roofing sales training video library. And I will see you very soon on the next video.
