Roofers Who Ignore This in 2026 Will Lose

The future of roofing is already here and it is changing lightning fast, seemingly every single day. And that's why I made you this compilation video to share with you 5 fast-changing trends for you to jump onto right now so you can dominate in 2026. My name is Adam Bensman. Welcome or welcome back. Now please enjoy.

Here are the 3 biggest opportunities in roofing sales in 2025 to 2028. And those who move on this the fastest will get the first mover advantage in their market and scrape up more sales while everybody else is chasing your heels. There are 3 big opportunities that are opening up here in the roofing space, and I'm gonna give you the opportunity, explain why, and share what you can do about it. So starting with number 1, the number 1 biggest opportunity that I see in roofing sales is to offer or continue presenting in an even better way, upsell offers to every customer.

I'm gonna repeat that.

You should be offering a premium roof solution to every single customer, no matter what, period.

Why?

Because the research shows it. See, to date, 75% of residential re-roofs have been asphalt shingles. Of course, that leaves 25% as premium products, things like Class 4 shingles, stone-coated steel, standing seam, products like F-Wave. These products are growing in market share. What that means is homeowners, they're valuing longevity and ROI more than ever before. These are things that many of us didn't have to have in the sales process like we do now because consumer trends are shifting. And I recommend that every company— and a lot of them aren't doing this now, even— well, especially companies that are specializing in storm damage. But there's a rich opportunity as people are stuck in their homes they purchased during the 2020 era with really low interest rates, that if homeowners move, their mortgages are going to double. So now that they're staying in their house, paired with the pressure from insurance companies with rising deductibles, people are saying, hey, you know what, I think that instead of having to go through this roof replacement every 3 or 5 years due to a hailstorm or a hurricane, I want a roof that's gonna withstand these conditions because my deductible is outta control. So this is why you should be offering a premium roof. Places to look: Class 4 shingles, stone-coated steel, standing seam, products like F-Wave. These products have a demand, and there's a psychological reason to offer them because your homeowner will anchor or compare the price of the premium product down to your regular one. All right, opportunity number 2: present financing. Okay, I know some of you, you might be like, hey, I already am. Here's what I mean. Homeowners are valuing affordability, so offering affordability is not cheap, it's affordability. That's why people buy Rolexes and they finance them. Here's where you need to be offering it. Number 1, in your marketing, but do not be offering cheap roofs. If you say roof starting as low as $99 a month, you get cheap homeowners. You talk about financing as affordability, offering affordable financing solutions to fit nearly any budget. You present limited time offers like 0% down, zero payments, same as cash for 12 months. You offer various solutions, longer terms, okay? And you have other tools in your pocket to help create affordability. If a homeowner doesn't get qualified for traditional financing vessel, you can offer potentially a HELOC, which is a home equity line of credit, if they've been in their house and they've got equity in their home. So that's why being educated on financing, offering it in your marketing, and presenting it in your marketing, making sure that your, whoever's answering your phones, whether using a call service or doing it in-house, that the script talks about financing. In fact, I have a training for office staff called the inbound leads phone sales strategy with the call script for your inside sales team. And I emphasize in there, would you like to learn about our affordable financing solutions? They are aware of it out of the gate. Put it in your emails. Heck, here's a pro tip. Put it in your email signature. P.S., ask us about our affordable financing solutions. This way everybody knows. And again, if everybody offers it, but you offer it first, you're in a way better position. Opportunity number 3 is virtual and over-the-phone sales. This is huge. Consumer trends are shifting. The days of sitting in a home and doing these long drawn-out traditional sales appointments are dwindling. Their days are numbered. When you offer convenience, which is by the way one of the 3 pillars of building a profitable future-proof company that you love, Convenience is important. Now, it doesn't mean everybody needs to be forced to do virtual appointments, but virtual appointments are powerful. Big idea is that when you lead with convenience and you say, hey, you know what, we offer a no-pressure solution, we'll do a phone call, we have evenings and weekends available, you can then shrink your appointment times from, again, these drive time plus a 1 to 2 hour appointment, do it over the phone and still see sales closing. Roofing companies with the first mover advantage are hiring this new role that's never been in the roofing business before. And in this video, I'm gonna share with you why smart roofing companies are filling this role and how you can start right now. Because the industry is changing and I have spent countless hours and sleepless nights preparing the 2025 to 2028 Roofing Market Report. It's available free, there's no catch. You can get a copy right now in the link in the description or by going to roofmarketreport.com. Alright, now we're gonna look into the AI section and you're gonna start to see what this role might be and how you can start filling it.

So here we go.

Starting at the top of the list, we have in the next 3 years, the tail end of 2025 at the time of this recording, we are going to see that homeowners, and by the way, this pairs, this top point pairs with what homeowners want, which is instant information. And homeowners, another part of this report, will choose to work with tech-enabled companies over those that don't. So as we see things changing, these chatbots and phone agents and scheduling tools will become the norm. And you can see down here it says, why expect widespread adoption by 2027 with AI? Again, a tech-enabled company that's like, hey, can't figure out what color to choose? Use our project visualizer. Upload a picture of your house, click here, click here, click here. You're like, oh, I want that one. And the next guy was like, I Hi, call us, we'll give you an estimate. We won't share our pricing. By the way, we want a 2-hour appointment with you. Oh, and also, I don't answer my phones after hours. You can see why these tech-leading companies are going to start grabbing market share over what I'll call the more antiquated or old-school ways of doing business. All right, now I want you to scroll down to these two things, okay? Investing in AI development will result in better profit margins. You might be wondering why. Read the next bullet. Operational agents will reduce administrative staffing requirements. Now, we know that roofing has just gotten more and more expensive as a business. Insurance, like paying GL, workers' comp, is going up. Material is going up.

In fact, I've heard of people spending 44% of their net—

excuse me, of their gross sales is going towards material. But when you bring AI into your business. It allows you to reduce the administrative requirements, meaning less people, which allows you to stay healthier. Especially if you've been tuning into the channel, you'll see that marketing costs are statistically continuing to increase. So as marketing costs go up, so does everything else. We have to find some places to bring costs down to have healthy margins, and that's where AI is coming in. Now, here's the role. We see all of these different things we can be doing, and there's no shortage of agencies that are very hungry for the money in your pocket. So the move here to get a first mover advantage— I'm watching companies do this right now— is to find this role: the tech integrator. The tech integrator is a person whose pulse is on all of the latest AI happenings, because this stuff is evolving. If I were to tell you the latest AI tools today, I kid you not, within 2 months there's going to be new ones. There's going to be evolutions and updates and releases. This stuff is coming and many people are resisting it. But when you start bringing it in-house and if you create the role of a tech integrator who doesn't need to know roofing, but they can sit there and observe your workflow and say, all right, I can solve X, Y, and Z, we can do this. Now, instead of you paying $3,000, $4,000, $5,000, $7,000, $8,000, $10,000 per month to multiple agencies, you bring one person in-house on salary and you have an AI whiz to automate your business, create an amazing experience that people would want to refer and review, and give homeowners what they want while giving you not only the first mover advantage, but the opportunity to be a continual first mover as technology evolves. So if you want your first mover advantage, create and hire a tech Integrator role.

There are ethical concerns with financing storm damage roof replacements that no one is talking about, especially as the trend of treating these hail, wind, or hurricane damage roofs like retail. By the way, there's a reason to do it, and I know why. Insurance carriers are harder to work with than ever before, and homeowners' out-of-pocket expenses are increasing. So there's a time and a place. But sadly, roofing sales reps and companies are encouraging homeowners to pursue financing options, in my opinion, sometimes for the wrong reason, because that just means that the company gets paid faster, that it can move on to the next one. What this is doing is leaving homeowners vulnerably exposed to very expensive consequences, consequences that they may never have signed up for if they knew what could happen. So I want to lay some groundwork first. To further understand these ethical consequences and then share with you how you can change your pitch and how it might lead to people spending 2 to 3 times as much money. So let's start at the top. Now, of course, if you are approaching storm damage roofs in a retail fashion, being financing their out-of-pocket expenses, you're in an area that likely gets hit over and over and over again. That's where the highest deductibles are. So for this example, I'll use Dallas, Texas. Let's say a homeowner has an $8,000 out-of-pocket expense towards a roof. And I've heard of numbers even hired. Sometimes roofs aren't even insured because they're ACV or the value of the roof is less than their— excuse me, is, yeah, less than their deductible. In other words, they're going to pay out of pocket for it. So let's say, for example, it's an $8,000 out-of-pocket expense and you, meaning the salesperson or the company owner, whoever says, all right, we're just going to finance that roof for the homeowner. Well, the homeowner then finances the roof. Over 10 years and they have an $8,000 deductible. So let's say they finance the $8,000. Now, in 3 years, there's another hailstorm. Shocker. It's going to happen. Maybe it's not 3 years, but it's 5. Now, that homeowner, let's say, is only 2 or 3 years into paying off that loan. They get another hailstorm.

Now what?

They are carrying this loan and they need a new roof. This is the ethical problem that I have with financing storm damage roofs. So the consequence in what I see is the ethical problem is the lack of education to a homeowner on what could happen in the future and how changing what they do now will actually save them money down the road. Homeowners are staying in their house longer than in recent history because the 2020 era days of these really low interest rates are gone. We're seeing that the real estate market is tanking. We are seeing that if someone moves, they have to spend twice as much in a new house than they're in now for their mortgage, even if it's the same price. We're also seeing insurance coverage is reducing, which means homeowners' out-of-pocket expenses are increasing. So to that homeowner whose roof you replace and encourage them to finance and they get a claim in 3 or 5 years, The cost of roofing goes up and their coverage may go down, which means they're going to owe even more on the next roof replacement. So what do we do instead? What we do instead is we act as an advisor, almost like a risk advisor, to help a homeowner make the right decision. Now, there's many options, and I'm just going to continue along with the examples in Texas for hail-prone areas and recommend to the homeowner to choose an impact-resistant shingle, whether it's a Class 4 shingle, maybe it's standing seam or stone-coated steel or one of these new innovative products like F-Wave. These products are— could be a game changer for the homeowner. Now, I am hesitant to cite the exact data that I've heard and been told because I haven't seen the source myself. But what I can share with you is from what I've I've been hearing anecdotally from manufacturers in conversation is that these impact-resistant shingles could reduce a claim by a very, very, very, very significant amount, which means the homeowner, like, the chances of them financing the roof and getting a new one gets cut and cut and cut to just a little small risk, a really minor risk. So when you're sitting in the home with your homeowner who's about to finance a roof, and maybe they're going to do a 5-year loan or a 10-year loan. What about instead being the hero to them, spending the extra time and saying, Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner, I recognize that this is an expense you didn't plan for and you're about to invest $8,000 on this roof system. And I just want you to be prepared so you can make the best decision that's best for you. And it's important that we understand both the pros and the cons of this decision. Now, the pros is we can get you started with this incredible financing offer, very low monthly payment, and you're going to be— you're going to be set. But the cons is that if we replace a roof that got damaged with another roof that could get damaged, this means you might be in a similar situation in 3, 5, 7 years from now when you're still, you know, paying off the last loan. So many of the homeowners that we work with use this opportunity to cut their risks as low as humanly possible. And in that, they make a very conscious decision at this time to try to get the last roof they'll ever need, a roof that could save them on their insurance premiums because they're impact resistant, a roof that's going to reduce the chance of it getting damaged in a future claim by a very, very, very significant amount, and a roof that's going to look amazing. And that is where these premium roofing systems come into place. And this, by the way, is where you present your Class 4 standing seam or stone-coated steel. And what this allows the homeowner to do is to make an informed and educated decision to say, okay, now I know all the risks and it wipes your hands clean. If they say, you know what, that roofing system is too expensive, we can't afford it, even if you could stretch the loan terms out because the risk goes down of that getting damaged in the future, at least you did your part in giving them the information they needed to, to make a decision that's best for them without being caught on their heels or blindsided or feeling like they got a bait and switch.

Watch as I build a high-converting landing page which will potentially even beat the one your agency built for you in 10 minutes or less using ChatGPT-5. Because with this new development of ChatGPT, even though it's been able to do some of the stuff that I'm going to show you in the past, it does it 10 times better.

How do I build a website?

I'm not a tech person. I got to find someone who can tee this up fast. Well, all that is going to change, and I'm going to show you how in this video.

So let's get right to it.

I'm going to share my screen with you right now. I'm going to show you how using ChatGPT-5 with this one simple prompt, I was able to build a landing page using ChatGPT-5.

All right, here's the prompt, and I'm going to break it down so you can copy-paste this, pause the video, rewatch, and write this down. It says—

let's go line by line, okay?

Help me build a landing page.

I'm a residential roofing contractor. I'm building a landing page for PPC ads and want it to convert as high as possible. Please write, design, and build the landing page for me. That's a lot of actions, isn't it? Write, design, and build it. It says my headline should speak to my prospect's biggest desires, which is fast, friendly, and affordable roofing services. Now, I wanna get into this. I analyzed 1,642 Google reviews using AI, but what it revealed to me was a strategy that you can use too.

And I analyzed all of the results. I said, "Give me the most—

the top 10 most emotional words or phrases used in these reviews to describe the experience." And the language that was spit out in these reviews was mind-blowing because it's not what you would think to put in your marketing.

So, when you can go through is you'll analyze your reviews and pull the exact language from your customers that they're using in your marketing copy.

And that's marketing jargon for the words you use to sell in writing. And again, our headline should speak to your prospect's desires. These emotional words and phrases that you pull from your reviews.

And it says, my offer should be a free roof report.

So maybe it's a free roof inspection, a free estimate.

I like roof report and zero down, zero interest, zero payments for 12 months.

I want to include something about affordability because affordability is— in cost effectiveness is one of the most important things for you to keep in mind to stay competitive. And roofing is really behind the times in masses when it comes to offering financing. So lead with it early and often about how affordable you are. And then the last detail was what information I'm going to collect on this form.

And it's simple.

It says the form should collect the property owner's name, address, email, and phone.

Okay?

One prompt. And check this out.

It says, "Okay, I thought. Here's what I delivered." I can pop this open and bingo, there's the code.

And I'm like, oh, I don't know what this code is, but let's take a look. Now, this is one prompt.

And look at this.

Company name is up there. Licensed, insured, local and family owned. Your phone number, all that can be plugged in and branded. Limited time financing, zero down, zero payments for 12 months. And then our beautiful headline, fast, friendly, and affordable roofing. Free report within 24 hours. Same day inspections, honest pricing, and 5-star service. Get a professional assessment with photos, a repair or replacement plan, and clear next steps, no obligation. Same-day inspections, insurance claim help. And this I might change to storm damage help so I'm not violating UPPA laws, because remember that ChatGPT is a better slave than it is a master. We need to tell it what to do. You still got to be human and think through this to make sure you're being compliant. Okay, so just keep that in mind. And then local 5-star rated. Okay, uh, there's your form again. What's in your free report is high-resolution photos, drone and ground images. A condition score and lifespan estimate. These are things you're already doing, and now you're packaging it up, which is the art of marketing. Okay, and then we have repair versus replace condition, transparent pricing and options, good, better, best payment plans, insurance claim readiness checklist. Okay, why homeowners choose us. These I would actually spruce up with the information that you'll see in the very next video on the language that your homeowners are giving you. How it works. Schedule, inspect, fix, get your free report. And then what your neighbors are saying.

Boom.

Your social proof and testimonials. And you can even include some, some direct quotes or pictures in there. And then your FAQ. And using ChatGPT, which is a couple more prompts, you can say, hey, I don't know how to build this, or I have a new web person.

Copy paste the code.

It's in their hands and you are ready to rock.

Mike, you sent me this text and it right here it is. It says roofing companies in Minneapolis, and then Google added this new search feature called online estimates. And then you put Google just put Roofful subscribers in the pole position. So the game is changing. Let's talk about it.

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, everybody thinks that we asked for it and, uh, they answered, right? So we're like, hey, can you put this call to action for a, uh, instant on online estimate? And, uh, they did that for us. So I want to kind of first say there was not one call to action. It wasn't just about online estimates. It was also two other very important things. Are you open and are you highly rated? So clearly those three things Google has decided these are really what homeowners are asking for. And by clicking on either one of those, uh, any number of those three, it actually amends the homeowner's search. With one click of a button.

But when I click online estimates again, that's going to filter. And look at this, you can get online estimates in companies like Burt Roofing, Beyond Roofing, roofer.com, and Infinity Roofing. So they're already pulled up top.

So right away, that's your Gemini, right?

Gemini.

But notice, did you, did you notice, and I think this is really key, accentuate the fact that your search just changed. Your search is no longer roofing companies Dallas. It now added online estimates. Roofing companies Dallas. So what those, what those pushing those buttons do is with one click, it's actually changing what you search.

Yeah.

I wanna show everybody that again because this is what it showed before. We have two paid ads, we have our, our map pack, we have also other searches and then some roofing companies and then some, some stuff on Reddit. And the minute we, we click this, it is running Gemini. And once this answer populates, it's gonna punch down everything and just give me the, the Gemini search, which is right here. And it's funny, look at that. The company's changed.

I did it again.

The company's changed.

So, Mike, let's talk through from a practical standpoint what this new feature means.

Yeah, we have had the luxury of being in control of the sales process for generations in the roofing and home improvement industry. And so We just, what that is the biggest thing that has changed is that what used to be completely in our control is now we have to surrender a little bit of control and not for bad reasons necessarily. It's just very different and you have to continue to amend to that change.

Yeah.

Yeah. Google's giving people what they want. I mean, it's, it's that simple. And right now, which we'll get into, that button clicking online estimates really is essentially more of a pulling up whether your profile settings for your GMB, your Google My Business, has indicated under your service options when you edit your profile, whether you offer online estimates or not. So it may not even mean that like there's an online estimate. It like literally just amends the search terms. For the homeowner by making it easy. This is what I want. Yeah.

So, uh, you can lie. I mean, you literally could, you could set up pages that talk about having an instant online estimate and not actually do it. And you can draw the benefits of that. But what are you left with is a disappointed homeowner that came there for that option and they walk away empty-handed.

And again, if we, if we click this and I just want to show, let's, let's pull up a few. So we got Burt Roofing. I'm just going to open in a new tab. And, and then Corey here, and we'll just start with these two. So yeah, there's get a free quote. Looks like Roofle is installed here. So they do have that. And then this one says request a free online roof estimate, request a free estimate, and we'll see where this one goes.

Did that jump off the website too? No, it's—

yeah, this—

no, this was also—

yeah, pop up. So it sent us to a landing page. So my point is, uh, it really doesn't necessarily mean that the online estimate will be given, but it's saying, hey, here's, here's the path for you moving forward. So Mike, what would be your, like, your, your steps that you would instruct someone to take, uh, to start showing up on this online search, but then also How to convert traffic from that search?

Yeah.

So that, and, and those are the two questions, right? Because number one, just get one, you know, like even if you, I've seen some that, that it really requires, uh, you know, 6 or 8 questions in order to get through it. I've seen other ones where the homeowner's, uh, inputting all of their own information to be able to generate a quote. The, the fact is anything will start converting higher than what you're currently converting at. So that's really the first point. First point is get something on there to be online estimates. Give that ability to the homeowner to be able to see that and, and have that experience because clearly that's what they're demanding. That's what they're used to. Doesn't matter if they're buying a house or a car or a boat or anything. They have price transparency in every industry outside of home improvements. Now the demand is there for home improvements. Secondly though, it becomes a whole question of A/B testing and, and it's, and it kind of becomes a little bit more complicated from there. So when you add an instant estimator or an estimator on your website, how much is it helping? Are you getting twice the number of leads? Are you getting 3 times the number of leads? Are you getting 6 times the number of leads? That is what ended up driving that cost per lead or that acquisition cost of each of these leads down. And then which ones are converting into an actual appointment and which ones, how much of it is actually increasing your close rate in sales.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And for those that resist it, and again, I share this in the report, homeowners now, when you look at the trends and the research, they prefer tech-enabled companies and they're more likely to do business with a tech-enabled company than without one, without tech. What I do think, and Mike, I'm curious if you agree, I do believe strongly that this is just the beginning 'cause they're going to be looking at the data, consumer trends.

Are people clicking this?

Is that what they want? When they land on the website? Is there long page time, page time, meaning people are actually getting an online estimate, or is this, like you mentioned, a bait and switch? I think this is just the beginning of what might be to come yet. Curious your thoughts.

Yeah, 100%. And, and I'll take it one step further. I don't think we can have this conversation without talking about answer engines and, and the impact of AI on this. And, uh, we were kind of joking a little bit because I sent you a, uh, a Google ad We have to stop and think like, when is the last time we've watched Google advertise their services? You don't have a search engine, you Google something. And now all of a sudden they have a 30-second ad for Google because I think they understand that disruption is on the doorstep and not just disruption, but potentially ex, you know, extinction. Yeah.

Who would've thought?

Right. And so even as you were, you know, showing that and pushing those buttons, what did it do? It sent you over to Gemini.

Yeah, right.

That's where AI is picking up on these answers. Like, AI wants to know, are you open? Are you highly rated? Can I get an instant online estimate? That kind of thing. So, so we are really seeing a glimpse of the future in the way that this is pointing us in the future direction. Homeowners in America today are looking for a variety that solves their desires, that quenches their thirst. And so as a home improvement contractor, you need to come and you, yes, you need to define who you are, but you have to also define who you are to your customers. What does that look like? And as you turn your back on certain technologies and turn your back on certain things, that's totally fine. That's up to you. But you also are going to suffer the consequences of turning your back on that constituency. You're never gonna do business with those people. And the problem is that group of people who desire technology is only growing bigger and bigger and bigger. Where the people that want the old school, come on in, uh, sit down at my kitchen table is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. Yeah.

So our call to action to you, go to your Google My Business listing, configure it. And I'm looking off at the instructions right now. All right. You're gonna click edit profile. You're gonna scroll down and where it says offers online estimates, you're gonna check the box. And same thing for online services. Check the box, get yourself set up. You heard it here first. It's what we do. Thank you to Mike for bringing this to our attention.

Keep paying attention. The world is changing quickly.

It is. And those that don't change with it will fall behind. Those that do will get a first mover advantage. And if you want to stay up to date on all the latest trends, then go to roofmarketreport.com right now or click the link in the description to get yourself a free copy.