Stop Getting Stonewalled by Hesitant Homeowners in D2D Roofing Sales

Stop getting stonewalled before the homeowner lets you up on the roof. If you're really good at starting conversations at the door, but you're struggling to take that conversation and get past the rebuttals where homeowners don't want you on the roof, then this video is for you. Because I'm about to teach you a wildly powerful and stupid simple way to be confident at the doors and overcome those rebuttals so you can get on more roofs, which means getting more sales. What you are about to watch is a private coaching session. I call it the Roofing Sales Rescue that I do exclusively for members of the Roofing and Solar Reform Alliance. And in this video, I did a coaching session with Bear, who's knocking doors in Houston, and he was struggling with this. We even jumped into some one on one role play. He put me on the spot, challenged me with objections. And you can see for yourself firsthand how I navigated the conversation. And at the end, I'm even going to break down the psychology of why I said what I said to give you a path forward to getting more inspections. Now let's get started. Bear, thanks for joining me, man. My dude. What's on your mind? What can we get into today?

Yeah, so you know a little bit of my backstory. Yeah, I've been doing windows for like six years prior to this. What you may not know is whenever we went to Denver last year, like, literally as I'm about to get on the flight to come up there, I get a job offer from Abbott, which is in medical device sales, and had that on my mind the whole time we're at the conference. And I was kind of like, should I do this? I don't know. I thought about, you know, everybody knows the, you know, lore behind medical device sales and what that's like. So I went after that wasn't what I thought it was going to be and was like, you know what? I know what I can do what I've done in the past. And so. But I hadn't done roofing. And that was part of what leaned into my decision with going that route was it's a new thing anyways. Like, maybe I should try med device sales and see if that works.

But I'm.

I'm obviously, I'm back and so I'm doing windows and we also do roofing, siding and gutters and stuff. So I guess my first, like, main question and like, what. Where I think I need to help the most is like, I know how to sell. I'VE been a successful sales guy for a few years now, so I've proven that I know what I'm doing. Yeah, I still have those moments of, like, am I a good sales guy? Right. But it's mainly with, like, roofing. I'm like, okay, how do I gain traction doing this? Because Houston's such an oversaturated market with. With roofers, like, differentiating myself at the door, overcoming kind of those rookie rebuttals that I think people kind of take for granted once you've been in it for a while, which I know takes time. And then also, just, like, once I get on a roof, like, being able to find the right kinds of damages to. To show people, like, the right selling points that people actually like that hit home for homeowners, they're like, oh, wow. Like, yeah, this is important. Like, I don't need to wait for a hail storm that may never come. Like, I need to get a roof now, because, yeah, we can do. We can do insurance claims all day long with the best of them. But, like, where I think you can differentiate yourself is in those retail, you know, moments. And so that's what I want to kind of hang my hat on.

Gotcha. So let's start at the top with one of them. So what I heard is differentiating yourself in the sea of competition is, number one, we also had. And actually, I'm going to grab a couple of notes on this. Give me one sec. So we've got differentiating ourselves. Differentiating. We have the question of common rebuttals. Mm. And then which pictures of damage to show homeowners specifically to get them to want to take action. Perfect. Cool. So let's start. Let's kind of chunk this into three different. Three different sections here. Number one, let's. Let's talk about differentiating yourself first. I want to hear what the struggle is. How do you know that you need to do something different than what you're already doing?

I guess because it feels like every time I go to someone's door, like, I've. I've knocked doors for six years now, so I know what that's like. With what I was doing. It was. It wasn't, like, quite door to door as what we're doing now with roofing. Like, it was. If I went into a neighborhood with, you know, 200 homes, I might talk to 20 or 30 people. Like, I'd select 20 or 30 homes versus, like, right talk knocking 300 doors and getting 23 people answer. And so getting over that, I don't know if it's just a mindset shift for me or if it's homeowners see me knocking a neighbor's door and I see them pull in, then I go over their house and knock their door and they're like, oh, here comes this guy knocking doors. Like, because I was able to get over it with how we used to do things, he was like, I really am not going door to door. But with this, like, that was kind of my big like icebreaker for most people was, hey, I'm not going door to door. Like, yeah, talk to your neighbors. I'm, I'm talking to you. So I think getting over that hump and then like getting them to like beyond just like the initial, like, hey, I'm a roofing guy, you know, so is everybody else cool?

I'm taking a couple notes here. So first, I'm glad you, I'm glad that we, we started with this approach of figuring out where in your mind says I need to do something different. And the first thing I heard is, is, is very common by the way, and I dealt with it myself is when I got into the business, the idea of being a door to door salesperson is, is generally not a career path with a tremendous amount of honor and pride. In fact, it's usually the opposite. People are like ashamed of it. I, I'm not a door to door salesperson or hey, I'm not here to sell you something. And when we look at like kids growing up and they're like, what do you want to be? I want to be a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist. You know, like, you'd wear that with honor. You go to out for drinks with strangers and they'd say, what do you do for a living? You're like, I'm a doctor. And then of course there's, there's this commanding respect. But if a door to door salesperson, the immediate response that people have to that is not generally one of pride and excitement. It's like, oh, you're one of those people. So I think a big shift is first internally is to realize that it is okay to do what you do and you're there to serve people. And what I've found is that somewhere between seven and nine out of ten people who buy a roof when you show up at their house had no idea that they even had a problem to begin with. So the only way that you're going to be able to help them is by way of showing up at their house and helping them become aware of that problem. Which brings us to what we'll talk about later on the damage side of things. So number one, and this came up today, actually I'm going to pull it up. This came up in the RSRA discussion board and there's a gentleman in there. Let me see if I can grab it because there's some good discussion points to hit. Yeah. And obviously due to the fact of confidentiality, I'm not going to share all the details. But a gentleman who's new and he says, you know, what's the big thing that's holding the app but holding it back. It's not sounding scripted or feeling like a shady salesperson. And one thing that was interesting to me, I read this part of Adam Grant's book, book called Hidden Potential. And he says, and I know it's not shyness isn't the same thing, but there's, there's some overlap here. Shyness, the definition is a fear of negative evaluation in social settings, a fear of negative evaluation. So I think a big thing that holds us back in door to door sales is a fear of being evaluated negatively as a human being when we show up at someone's house and later on he goes, you know, for us to conquer our fears, there's two ways that, that psychologists do this with patients. Let's say they have fear spiders. One is through moderate exposure. So someone who's afraid of spiders, first thing they'll do is draw a spider. Next thing they'll do, they'll like be in a room with a spider and then the other is called flooding. So flooding would be, you know, putting someone in a room filled with spiders. Like, is that going to help? Probably not. In certain cases it can. Maybe not a fear of spiders, I don't know. And adding, adding to that is the way that we conquer our fears or our own internal kind of dialogue that's self destructive is by way of repetition, facing it over and over again. And I heard a story of a gentleman who spoke something like 26 languages. And he said his secret to being successful was purposefully. He says, if I need to make 200 mistakes a day, he goes, why? Because learning a new language is learning a new skill and it's applied. You can't study language and be good at it. You have to learn by doing. And to learn by doing required making mistakes. He knew that if he made 200 mistakes a day, he was actually practicing. Which again dives into the whole concept of confidence. Like what creates a level of confidence is competence. And the only way to develop competence is by doing so it's like the chicken or the egg, right? How do I get confident? I become competent. How do I become competent? By doing the doing. And I think at the end of the day when I hear folks say, hey, I need to do something different, I need to stand out, I need to differentiate myself. I want to challenge you respectfully to say, I don't know if you need to do anything different other than tap into the confident ability that you have to serve the people that you're there to serve. And when you approach the door, knowing that ultimately there's a, there's the steps we're taking in sales is step number one, I need to show up and start a conversation and not get kicked off the doorstep. Number two, I need to ask an open ended question to get them talking as quick as I can. Ideally, feeding them, getting them to feed me the information about where they're at in the process or in their level of awareness of the problem. And then number three, addressing that problem directly. And then number four, creating the need for me to get on the roof so I can then show them what I found. And then number five is from, from those, from that roof inspection, getting invited in the house. So everybody, and I mean this, and maybe it's not everybody, but I would say it's almost damn near everybody feels the same way that you're feeling, especially in, in Texas and competitive markets like Houston or Dallas, I gotta do something different. But the truth is that homeowners haven't made a choice because the right person didn't, didn't show up. That resonated with them. And just like dating like, you know, you can go on a lot of dates and have fun with different people that you're dating, but the one that you, that you stick with, that becomes a serious partner or that you get married to, it's the right one that crosses your path. So just because there's a sea of options out there doesn't mean they're the right for everyone. As my, as my wife Sheena says, there's a lid for every pot. And I think that many of us overanalyze this need to be different as opposed to just identifying the problem that we solve and delivering a compelling message in a human way with confidence at the door that it doesn't matter. And then letting go of the fact that other people are doing the same thing and letting go of your own ideas of being a door to door salesperson, like you're there to help and you're in home services. And I used to Tell folks that, like, I am in home services. My job is to be out here serving people. Because most of the, like 8 out of 10 of the roofs we replaced, the homeowner had no idea that the roof was damaged until they saw the photos and videos that I took with their own eyes and they were their own judge. So that's why we're out here doing this today is of service.

Well, so let me ask you this, because I don't know if my problem is necessarily confidence or, or fear of going door to door. I've, I've gotten over that. I feel like it was, it was there six years ago, right. You go get your first door and I mean, I still get the butterflies. That's part of why I like it.

Yeah.

Because it's kind of, it's exciting. But I think maybe the confidence and like, knowing what I'm talking about, because I'm still pretty new to this and so, like, would you be willing to like, almost like role play a scenario where I hear the guy knocking doors and I'm the homeowner?

Because.

Yeah. Where I run into issues I think is whenever I'm talking to somebody, I'm like, hey, you know, I'm, I'm Daniel, I'm a Tynos. You know, talk to some of your neighbors. Already we're looking at people's roofs. I could tell your roof's getting really old. Like, I can see that even with my untrained eye. And then from there they're like, okay, so what? And I'm like, well, I want to go check it out, like, and show you what I'm, what I'm finding. But like, I guess the next steps beyond there, like, I've, I've got, I've had the opportunity to make contact with a few people and you know, get their contact information, get them say, hey, we want to get a roof inspection. Talk about it. But like, I feel like I can up that percentage a little bit more. Like my. Yeah, call it an appointment ratio or whatever inspection ratio of how many people I talk to that actually let me do an inspection. So like, when you do slap, you know, you show up, let them know why you're there, ask an open ended question, and then the present, that's the part that I'm like, okay, so like, how can I sharpen my presentation part to get them to like, open up a little bit more? Because I can show up, I can let them know why I'm there, I can ask them questions, I can talk to a wall for 30 minutes. You know what I mean? But it's the present part that I want to be confident where I can present it in a human way.

Yep, perfect. Let's do it. We'll jump into a role play and then we'll break it down. So I'll be the guy at the door, you'll be the homeowner, spit whatever rebuttals you're experiencing, and we'll go from there. So.

Sure.

Knock, knock, knock on the door. Hey, listen, my name's Adam. The reason I'm stopping by today. I'll cut right to it. I just left Peggy's house. We were looking at her roof, and as I was driving by, I couldn't help but notice that your roof is about the same age as hers. So I just want to ask, when was the last time you guys had your roof inspected or routine maintenance conducted?

I don't know. Quite a while, I guess.

Yeah, that's really common. In fact, Peggy, she said quite a while. And then she says, I have no idea. And then she told me, I have didn't even know that roofs needed routine maintenance. So that's why we're in the neighborhood today. Again, my name's Adam with Kainos. And listen, the reason I'm here is about 8 out of 10 of the roofs we end up replacing for folks. Folks had no idea the condition of the roof, and I have no idea the condition of yours. There's really no way for me to find out until we're up there. So what I'm Offering is a 100% complimentary inspection with both photos and videos. Take me about 15 minutes. Then I'll hop up there again, take those pictures for you, and then I'll show em to you to let you decide for yourself whether or not anything needs to happen. And my mission is to communicate your options whether you decide to either do nothing, work with me, or decide to work with someone else. So do you have any objection if I grab my ladder and hop up real quick?

I mean, I don't think we'd have any damages, man. And honestly, we're not looking to buy a roof or anything. We'll just wait for another hailstorm to come through and. And go. Insurance. We got a buddy of mine does some roofing too, so.

Yeah, hey, I completely understand. And by the way, no one wants to buy a roof. I'm just going to tell you now, buying a roof is the least exciting thing that anyone could ever possibly do. And I can respect the fact that you want to wait for a future hailstorm. Especially if insurance can cover it. And listen, I'm not implying that you even one, need to buy a roof or two should be doing anything. But what I can tell you is that many of the homes in this neighborhood, due to the age of the roof, there's been things that, with very simple preventative maintenance, can extend the life of your roof to maybe even get it to the end of the hailstorm or maybe not. So part of this inspection, which, by the way, normally is about 300 bucks, it's $297. We'll do some preventative maintenance for you. I got a tube of sealant in my truck, and I'll happily reseal anything to extend the life for your roof. So that way you've got two outcomes that you'll have. Option one is you spent $0, and in the next few minutes, you'll find out, hey, my roof is fine. If anyone like me shows up, be like, hey, get off my doorstep. I already had a look at it. Or number two, we. We find things. And again, I'll walk you through those options, whether you decide to work with me or someone else. So do you have any objection by grab my ladder, taking about 10, 15 minutes?

Uh, no, go ahead. That was great. Yeah. So, yeah, I can see that. I see the difference. I think it's just. I think it's. What I'm getting away with. This is like, I think I have to spend time, like, really thinking through, like, okay, kind of putting myself in the homeowner's shoes, imagining the possibilities of, like, what are they going to say? And then having, like. Because with. With what I was doing with windows, I had like, a Rolodex of rebuttals of, like, I know they're going to say one of these seven things. And then if they do, I can present, you know, my rebuttal in a way that feels natural. And it's just like, oh, yeah, of course. Like, I would advise you to do that and then tackle the issue. And so I think that's more of. It's just a matter of me, like, kind of getting out there and spending the time doing that. How much. How beneficial would that be?

And yes to all of that. And the other thing that makes it really easy is some things that I think salespeople overlook is they're afraid to address the obvious in the room. And when you know, you'll notice. When you said, hey, I don't want to be buying a roof, I added to that. I said, of course you don't. No one wants to buy a roof, which is true. And the more that we can tell people what they're already thinking, it builds trust. Of course you don't want to buy a roof. No one wants to buy a roof. I haven't sat with anyone that was excited to see me. Right. It's like when you have to get new tires for your car. You're not like, oh great, I get to go spend a bunch of money on tires. It's like, crap, I need to do this. So when you share with people what they're thinking or feeling, it disarms them and builds trust. So that's the first step is any time that you get an objection, even if you don't know what to see, use the classic improv technique. It's called yes. And yes is agree with them and add more of why they're thinking that way, letting em know it's normal. That's the r of reassure. And then to overcome especially these objections, when there's resistance to people from people that will allow you up on the roof, you can really focus on the two outcomes. So what I like to do is it's called future pacing, Getting them to see the two potential outcomes. Outcome one is you paid me zero, doll. Normally these inspections, if you were to call us out, is 297, by the way, use whatever is for your company. But if we were to go out for like a realtor or something, we're going to charge for the inspection. You're there now I can say, hey, it's 300 bucks. Normally. And by the way, that's why I fumbled in the role play as I should have had a number in mind and I didn't. So for those that are watching, you fumbled. Yeah, I'm making up a number on the spot. So having that number that I know my company would charge, say, hey, normally These inspections are 297. It'll take me about 15, 20 minutes to get up there and get everything documented for you. But the good news is just like a doctor's visit, like, you'll get a clean bill of health. And that way, you know, if anyone shows up, any, any, any other roofers show up, like option one, you're, you're good, you got, you have nothing you need to do and you saw it for yourself. And option two, again, don't imply or say that they're going to have damage or could have damage. You might have some, you'll see it for yourself. And I'm going to walk you through those options, whether you decide to Work with me or someone else, which again, is what you ultimately will do. And again, it further disarms them. So what we're. If we look at this psychologically, it's, number one, agree with them and, and tell them what they're thinking, which builds trust. Number two, paint the. The two options, clean bill of health or their stuff. And then three, it's called risk reversal. So risk reversal means you have nothing to lose. Right. Normally this is expensive. Today it's free. Right. You're not required to buy anything from me. You got nothing to lose. So by, by kind of following that framework, I believe you're going to have more success getting on, on roofs. And then we can talk about transitioning to the house here in just a minute.

Yeah. And actually talking through that, like, I think what I'm starting to realize is I think it's just going to take time and effort on my end. Like, I think I took for granted the experience I had with windows of like, you know, this is really easy. And so it's like I can just translate it right to roofs, and that's not the case or different industries. And so I think it's just me taking ownership of it of like learning the process, learning the rebuttals. And then once I'm on the roof, like, with the common rebuttals, that's just me. I need to put time in on that. With damages for retail, again, that's just me. I need to watch YouTube videos, watch your stuff, like, figure out. Okay. Or watch John Cenac stuff about what is damages, what's important to homeowners, and do that.