Shame, Pride, and Belonging: Mindset Fix in Roofing Sales

Have you ever felt ashamed of what you do? So much so that you like kind of change when people say, what do you do for a living? Instead of saying roofing sales or door to door sales, you say something like, I'm in, in home sales or home services. I did that a lot because I didn't feel like I belonged. I didn't feel like I was part of this industry. And in fact, I didn't want to be because I didn't want homeowners to categorize me in the same way that they do door to door salespeople. And I didn't want to be categorized in the same group of snake contractors that they saw about on the news. And if you want to know what that looks like, just open Google and Google the words roofer news and you'll see all the articles. People going to jail, injuries, OSHA violations, scams and arrests. And this is what homeowners think of when they think of roofers. And then there was other roofers and I didn't feel like I fit in with them either. Like I was, I'm a small statured, gentle man that really geeks out on sales. But also giving people like making sales through a. We experience a togetherness through a really powerful engagement, through guiding someone through the natural process that I know that they're going to go through psychologically to create an enjoyable experience that earns the sale as opposed to like winning it or closing, which is like this aggressive taking thing. So I felt lost, I felt lonely, and I didn't feel a sense of pride. And what I later began to learn is that this negative self talk about, like, hey, you're not, you don't fit in, you don't belong, you're not proud of what you do. It truly was a ceiling to my income. And to date, now that I've had the opportunity to work with tens of thousands of roofing salespeople, all of the top earners, which I'll categorize at 300,000 of income or more, all of them, all of them are proud of what they do and they scream it from the mountaintops. And I wasn't there. So this video is not for them. It's for the folks who are on that journey. And believe me, I've gone through this many times and I do hope it helps. That's what I want to break down on today's episode of Sales Talk over coffee. Except today we're drinking tea because it's after lunch and I've already had four espressos. So let's get to it quick. Welcome, welcome back. My name is Adam Bensman, the roof strategist. And everything I do here is designed to help you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. And if you're not already in my new free training center, click the link you can get in there or text the word free to 303-222-7133. All right, I want to talk about this from Three Angles. I want to talk about the real experiences that we go through in roofing sales from three perspectives. Number one is our self talk. So I got a wonky pinky, broke it in a mountain bike accident, and it's still all messed up. Number two is what we say to our customers. And then number three is how we fit into the industry at large. So let's hit with number one. Number one is our self talk and our narrative. And if we in one shoulder, we flip flop. And I'm going to just do like the devil and the angel for a minute. The devil's like, you're a scumbag. You're in roofing sales. Why are you doing this? You should go get another job. And the angel's like, but I'm a good guy. I do everything right. I help homeowners through the process. And the devil's like, you're a scumbag. They all think you are. You really got to prove yourself. Oh, man. I don't want to be categorized into those guys. Do I really want to be doing this? And this little thing goes back and forth. The devil, the angel, the devil, the angel. I started to side more and more with the devil because I started to view myself, like, out of fear, which is funny. I literally, it was like the metaphorical I'm on a sheet of ice, car is spinning out of control. I'm going straight towards a tree. And the first thing you're supposed to do is look to where you want to go, not where you're going. And I was, you're staring right at that tree like it's happening. It's happening. Slow motion, slow motion, slow motion. And you crash into it. And that same thing started happening with my own internal narrative. Would start to shy away when people say, what do you do? I'm in. In home sales. What do you do? I'm in home services. I never said what I actually do. I never said with pride, hey, what do you do for a living? You know what? I help homeowners through one of the most painful, boring processes of their entire life. That they absolutely need to go through. And I brought humor to it. And they're like, well, what's that say? Replace the roof? Or when they say, hey, what do you do for a living? Hey, help homeowners replace the roof after storm damage. And I make the process incredibly easy, painful, and, quite frankly, fun. And anytime people would ask, I started to learn how to just communicate with passion and excitement. And the mindset shift that I want to share with you is to go from this mindset, the devil mindset of looking at it how other people do and being afraid of being judged from that perspective to instead looking at it through my lens and just sharing my experience. So not having to, from the devil's perspective, communicate, hey, I know that roofers have a horrible reputation, and. And I'm like a light in the darkness. I used to do all this garbage and just try to, like, tell everyone that everything's horrible and I'm a golden child, and it was kind of pathetic. And instead, I didn't address the other stuff. I just let my actions show it, and I was proud. Hey, what do you do for a living? I help homeowners get their roof replaced after storm damage. What do you do for a living? I help homeowners go through the most expensive and boring process they're ever going to have to go with go through on their home. And people say, what's that? Replace the roof. Because it brings humor. We have some fun, and it's true. So again, that mindset shift is to not listen to what that narrative is out of fear of how you're being perceived, and instead share with people how you wish to be perceived. That is where that confidence comes from. So that is, number one, is your internal dialogue. You have to get this right before. Number two, you communicate it to customers, which I started to share with before. And I encourage you to write your elevator pitch. You don't tell people. What do you do? I'm in roofing sales. You need to share the who, what, and why. Who are you, what do you do, and why do you do it? Hey, my name's Adam Who. What do you do? I help homeowners replace their roof. Why? Because the experience is miserable and I make it fun. Right? You can run with that in a variety of different perspectives. Who are you? Hey, my name is Adam. What do you do? I help homeowners navigate the insurance process to get their roof replaced. Why do you do it? Because that process is overwhelming, confusing, and I make sure folks get taken care of the right way. And again, there's a million ways that you can spin that. So grab a piece of paper, write it down. Alright, so we covered your internal dialogue and we covered how you communicate. But now I want to talk about the third one is the sense of belonging and fitting in the roofing industry. Now, first it doesn't matter, but I know it does because that's what keeps us driven and happy. Now, whether you agree with it or not, the author of the book the Courage to Be Disliked highly recommend you read that one, by the way. Loved it. Get it on audible if you can. The narration of the philosopher and the youth is what the characters are. They have this philosophy, conversation and it's really powerful. The author says that happiness is linked to one's sense of being useful or community feeling in quotes. Community feeling is feeling part of something. And someone's happiness level, according to this Adlerian psychology perspective, is being of use to someone. Being of use is helping them through the process. So every single customer that you've helped through the process, you're of use to. So that's one piece, that sense of belonging because you're part of a community. We are providing an essential service. I mean, our own government called it an essential service during the whole stuff. In 2020, when everything shut down, we could continue to operate. So I want to highlight the analytical part. We are of use to other people, which means we belong. But I know that it's not. The buck doesn't stop there. You might feel like an odd duck, an outcast, different from others. I did another video. Are you too blank for roofing sales? Old, young, black, white skin color. This, that tall, short, fat, skinny, ex con, felon. Doesn't matter. The belonging sense in roofing sales. And this has been the fun part. This has been like a really big privilege that I've had in this role. The roof strategist, speaking at events and communicating with thousands and thousands and thousands of folks is realizing that like everybody is going through the same thing. Everybody is dealing with the same inner battles and demons. Even the folks that don't want to talk about it, they deal with rejection, they are afraid of rejection. They have difficult days. They wake up at three in the morning with their mind racing also about all the stuff they need to do. We just talked about this on an episode, excuse me, in a session of the Pitch Pro movement. And during that live session, one of our members said, hey, you know, I'm really struggling. I wake up at 4 in the morning. I said, drop in the chat. The number one, if this happens to You. And the chat was filled and the person in the movement said, wow, I'm really glad I'm not alone. I'm like, I knew that. But you needed to hear that for yourself. You needed to see that you, my friend, are not alone. The waking up in the middle of the night with your mind racing, completely normal. The challenge of wanting to quit, kind of on the regular, very normal. The struggle with your personal life. You know, you're going through a breakup or a divorce or something horrible at the family and you have to turn and put a smile on for a customer. Well, you just got a phone call that a crew left a bottle of pee at the job site and then this customer called yelling because something went wrong. And you're like, I just want this day to be done. How's everything? Great. And you just got to put a smile on. Totally normal. There is something that unites us collectively through this experience. And it's almost like we've all been in the trenches together. And that sense of belonging extends beyond every type of person. Your background, like this is the, this is the part that I love. It doesn't matter what your background is, your education, where you went to school, if you went to school, how much money you made before, how much money you didn't make before. Roofing sales is like this equal level playing field of opportunity and we talk about belonging to. That's the best part is like there's no rules tattooed up casual to the guy dressed up in slacks and a button up. And we're all out doing the same thing. We're all out in the trenches and all of us have come to this roofing space with the shared vision of I didn't need any, virtually any training, no experience needed, and I can change my life while helping people along the way and earn life changing money. And that right there is that sense of camaraderie in community. We're all facing the same challenges in the home and sometimes we say, well, they're coming up, this is coming up and they're not my competitors. Aren't having it. Nah. Let me tell you, from working with companies that are just starting, mid sized companies, to quite a few of the top 100 and even a few of the top 10 roofing companies in America, everybody is going through the same thing. So I wanted to share this particular video with you so you can share it with anyone on your team who's questioned their pride and their confidence in sharing what they do, who hasn't wanted to feel grouped in and categorized as door to door salespeople or roofing salespeople and for folks who just haven't felt like they fit or belong. Because at the end of the day, you do belong. Because you are of use to someone. You have skill sets that can help someone through a situation or scenario that they don't necessarily want to go through. And you, my friend, are their guide. And I hope this video helps you change your mindset of how you talk to yourself about being worthy by being of use to someone and how you communicate with your customers. Not by trying to tell them what's going on and make yourself look good, but by just showing them with pride and confidence your commitment to doing what's right and giving them an amazing experience and giving them an experience that they've probably not had with any other contractor. And in doing so, what I really hope happens is two things. I hope that your confidence goes up and what follows is the second that your income follows. So that's all for this video and thank you for tuning in. Listen, if you liked this video, give it a thumbs up or if you hated it, give it a thumbs down. This helps me as I look through the data to say, hey, we got to do more of this or more of that. And I do have one more ask if you can drop a comment if this resonated with you or if it didn't. If there's things that you've dealt with or not dealt with, maybe you have some advice. What could I tell someone if I was nurturing my own little sales team, what advice would I give them? When it comes to feeling proud about what you do, that's the most beautiful part about this channel is the community and the people like you who are willing to share, collaborate and air out the real stuff that folks just don't talk about. So thanks again for joining me today in this video and I hope this leaves you feeling inspired, motivated, confident and with the ability and mental mindset to earn even more so you can smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. So if you haven't already done it yet, click into our free training center and get access right now right here or text free to 303-222-7133. There's a link in the description or YouTube thinks you're really going to like this video and I'll see you in the next one.