In this solo YouTube video, Adam Bensman introduces and demonstrates the "elicitation" sales technique—a method of obtaining information without directly asking questions. He begins by announcing his new affiliation with TAMKO, the rebranding of his channel to "Strong Roofer with Adam Bensman," and the launch of the Roofing Strong Alliance community. Bensman then tells a personal anecdote about a disappointing boutique‑hotel vacation where staff concealed the truth about amenities, illustrating how people often hide information to protect themselves. He explains that the technique, learned from FBI agent Jack Shafer’s books (The Like Switch, The Truth Detector), relies on making an assumptive statement; the counterpart either validates the assumption or corrects it, instantly revealing key data. Bensman applies this to residential roofing sales, showing how to assume a homeowner’s tax‑refund amount to uncover budget constraints, and then tailor financing offers (zero‑down, zero‑payment, or longer‑term plans) accordingly. He emphasizes that elicitation lets salespeople serve customers better without appearing pushy. The video ends with a call to watch the next video for additional communication and closing tips.
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Here's how to find out nearly anything you need to know in a sales conversation without asking a single question. This powerful technique that I'm about to teach you by telling you a story so you can see it in real time. Well, I'm going to share with you at the end in a real life use case, how you can start using this in your next sales conversations in a natural and authentic way. This technique is wicked powerful. I learned it from an FBI agent named Jack Shafer, who wrote two books that I highly recommend, The Like Switch and The Truth Detector. So let's get into it. And before we do, welcome or welcome back. My name is Adam Bensman. If you didn't see the news, I am so excited to announce that I am joining the TAMKO family. The YouTube channel here is now the Strong Roofer with Adam Bensman because your company is only as strong as you are. And I'm continuing here as founder of the newly rebranded community known as the Roofing Strong Alliance by TAMKO, and membership is included at no additional cost to to the TAMCO EDGE Contractors. There's a link in the description to learn more. All right, so I'm going to show you this technique in real time that's going to help you get answers to questions without asking one to help you close even more sales. You ready? All right. So here's what happened. It's a true story, by the way. My wife and I, for our anniversary, found this gorgeous boutique hotel in the middle of nowhere that had all of these really cool amenities. They had a hot tub in the room. Well, some rooms, the one we chose. They had a classic car museum. Which I love classic cars. They had a trophy truck course where you could get in a trophy truck and like rip it around and go through jumps and all that stuff. Dream of mine, by the way. And they had helicopter tours. They had skeet shooting. They had like everything you could imagine on this like adventure vacation. So my wife and I drive hours to this resort and we pull up, we're looking around. This place is stunning. We go to check into our room. They say, ah, unfortunately the hot tub in your room isn't working. So we have to move you into a room without a hot tub, but we're going to do this room upgrade, yada, yada. I'm like, it's an upgrade, whatever. Well, as we get escorted, I'm looking around. I'm like, there's a lot of rooms here and a lot of rooms with hot tubs. So why couldn't you just move me into another room with a hot tub? Well, that's when things started to get fishy. So then we say, all right, listen, we're going to go into the hot tub, the public hot tub by the pool. I dipped my toe in that thing and I'm like, this might as well be a cold plunge. I'm being a little dramatic, by the way. So we didn't get into it. So then I'm like, hey, Sheena, let's go pop by the Adventure Center, which is where they had the trophy trucks. And we go in there, the guy laughed. He's like, the trophy truck? Those were gone like a year ago. I'm like, all right, well, there goes that. All the stuff that we were excited about isn't there. So I'm like, all right, we'll go to the classic car museum. This, I know it's sounding like a joke and it's not. There is no more classic car museum. There's a room that is empty with no classic cars. Now at this point, it's crystal clear. This resort is skating by on a shoestring budget and the staff had clearly been trained to keep everything light and exciting about how amazing this place is, but no one would share the truth of what's going on. Very similar to what can happen, by the way, when you're in-home presenting to a homeowner. It's not because homeowners are evil. It's It's self-preservation and it's protection. They just want to protect themselves. So sometimes homeowners can withhold information. Again, it's not— they're not bad people because of it. Just like this resort doesn't want their employees running around being like, yeah, this place is about to go under. So we sit down at lunch. I turn to Sheena, I'm like, I'm going to find out what's going on. Watch. And I use this technique that I learned by Jack Shafer in those two books. And I wait for the server to come over. No one's around. I look around, make sure it's private, and I just leaned in. And I said, man, it's got to be real tough liquidating the car museum to keep this place afloat. Just like that, he matches. He looks around, he leans in and tells me everything. And this technique is known as elicitation. It is the use of an assumptive statement, meaning I make an assumption, I assume something and I share it. And then what happens is a really fascinating human phenomenon. That without even thinking consciously, people have a tendency to respond in one of two ways. Number one is they validate your assumption, which is exactly what happened here. I made an assumption that was correct, and he's like, well, he already knows, so I will add more. Or number two, they will correct the assumption if you are wrong. And this happens on a knee-jerk basis for most people. So here's how we can use this in the home. Now imagine the homeowner says something to the effect of, you know what, I'd love to move forward, but I just want to wait till my tax return comes because we're expecting a refund. Well, I think we both agree, you and I, that asking a homeowner how much money they're going to get on their tax refund is not only inappropriate, it lacks tact and how pushy and invasive. So I could use elicitation and make an assumption. Remember, it doesn't matter if I'm right or if I'm wrong. And I could say, gosh, what a gift to have a tax refund with thousands right when you need a new roof. It's going to be a big help. And what will happen when I make this assumption that this tax refund for thousands of dollars will help towards this roof? Number one, they're going to say, yes, it is. How great is that? And bingo. Now you can serve them and provide better solutions that match what will meet their budgetary either requirements, needs, or desires. Or number 2, they will correct you when you make the assumption, gosh, what a gift to get a few thousand dollars back on your tax refund to help with your roof. And they might say, a few thousand dollars? Are you kidding me? I wish I'm getting like $200. So imagine what you could do with this information to better serve your homeowners. Let's just go through it as it pertains to Offering financing, for example, if a homeowner says, I'm going to receive thousands and they want to wait, well, I could close the deal today by offering zero down, zero payment, same as cash for 12 months as a financing offer. So we can get the roof done today. They owe no money. And then if the tax refund comes, they can pay it all off in one lump sum. Or if they say something to the effect of it's only a few hundred dollars, you might be able to offer a financing option that would spread it over, let's say, 5, 10, or 15 years. For the roof depending on the term length and what product you're offering the homeowner. And at that point you can say, oh, a few hundred bucks. Well, guess what? We actually have an option to meet that budget. We might be able to get you approved for this special financing offer. It could be as low as X dollars per month. And now we're using this really precious technique known as elicitation to provide better service by getting answers to questions. Without even having to ask one. If you like this technique and you want to learn more communication tips that'll help you close even more sales, jump into this next video to learn the easiest talk track to close more deals. We'll see you in the next one.
