Adam Bensman (The Roof Strategist) explains the concept of a "top buying motivator" — a single buyer-specific priority (a "magic lever") that, when discovered and addressed, makes the sale much more likely. He argues salespeople should avoid equally-timed, canned presentations and instead identify and focus on the customer’s top motivator(s). He illustrates motivators with a car example (cold-weather features) and roofing examples (install timeline for time-sensitive events). Method: discover motivators using open-ended questions — first assess where the prospect is in the process, then ask about biggest concerns (negative motivators) and most important/desired outcomes (positive motivators). He provides three practical questions to use on the next appointment and closes with CTAs to his training resources.
Chapters
What if I told you that every single customer had this secret lever, a magic lever, and if you found that lever and pulled it, you are nearly guaranteed to get the sale? You might think I'm crazy. You might think I'm about to teach you some coercive or manipulative sales tactic, but you're wrong. That's not what we're doing. What we're talking about is helping you to discover that magic lever, what I call the top buying motivator. This is the signal, the one thing in your sales presentation or your sales pitch that just lands with customers where they say basically in their mind, I am so glad you're here. You are exactly what I've been searching for and then you win the business. And that's exactly what I'm going to be teaching you right here in this video is how to discover that buying motivator, what to do, and then how to use this to start closing more deals. Now, before we get started, I just want to say a huge thank you to all of you for your support. As you may have seen from a video from last week, I was recently announced as the new official sales training partner for for Owens Corning. And the outpouring of support and direct messages and emails and comments in the video have just been so fulfilling. So it has been my honor and again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. So we turned around from that and said, hey, let's bring a jam packed video full of value that everyone can use and implement to really fine tune their sales skills in the very next home that you're in. So that's what we're going to get into today. And again, quick welcome or welcome back. My name is Adam Bensman, the roof strategist. Alright, let's talk about those top buying motivators. Again. Think of them like a lever to pull that secret lever that connects with that customer so they can't help but say yes again. Disclaimer. This is not coercive. This is nothing more than learning how to communicate effectively and find what is most important to someone. So let's give you an example. Let's talk cars for a minute. Imagine you live, let's say in Minnesota, cold climate. For some people, what's the deal breaker when they go car shopping? Heated seats and a heated steering wheel. Once you've gone that way, you can't go back. So one of the buying motivators might be a cold weather package. Meaning if I had someone walk into the shop and to them the most important thing is comfort in the winter. And I'm showing them all the perfect vehicles, but they don't have the one thing, heated seats and a heated steering wheel. Am I going to get that sale? No, the answer is not. My mission is to match that buying motivator with the perfect product or solution for the customer. And what we do in sales is instead of picking the right car out of the lot or the right shingle, is we customize the customer's experience, how we communicate and how we share how we can help with them. And we have that through alignment. Our sales dialogues are easy, they're faster and they result in more yeses. So as you are well aware in your sales presentation you cover a lot of topics. So this might be your start or your opener, and this might be your close and everywhere in between, you're going to talk about yourself, you're going to talk about the company, you're going to talk about the process, you're going to talk about your service, your warranty, your product, the installation timeline, yada yada yada. There's all these different touch points that come up, but going through all of them and spending equal time on each isn't really possible. So we just try this more canned approach, right? We're going to hit all these topics, which is important to do. But do they all warrant the same depth in each area? The answer is no. What we need to do is find those hot buttons or the top buying motivators in order to spend the most amount of time on the areas that are most relevant to the customer. So let's give you an example in the roofing world, maybe right about here in the sales process when we start talking about our install timelines and you've all had it, I'm sure you have the person who's selling the house, they're hosting a wedding in the backyard and need to have the roof done, the kids go back to school, they're going out of town, there's some sort of time sensitive nature. So for them, one of the most important considerations when selecting a contractor is the install timeline. So let me ask you this, if you knew this up front, where are you going to spend most of your time when it comes to the sales dialogue? Well, the answer is obvious, duh. I'm going to talk about how fast if you can get that project done or working around their schedule. Alright, so we know that these different buying motivators will warrant us focusing in and spending the time there. So the next obvious question is, well, how in the world and when do we Discover these from our customers and that's what we're going to talk about next. There are two ways to discover the top buying motivators. And again, this is that magic lever that we pull and that is by asking open ended questions. Okay, you've heard me talk about open ended questions before and if you haven't, we're going to do a quick summary. An open ended question requires thought. Example. Close ended question is yes or no. Did you enjoy your lunch today? Yes or no? Open ended question, what did you have for lunch today? Oh, I had to think back. Yeah, we went to Tommy's. I ended up getting a burger, a fries and a Coke. Okay, so we have to think about the answer to the question. So close ended versus open ended. Next is we want to get to those buying motivators which often come in a fear form or an excitement form or positive form. In a negative form. Okay, Positive, negative. Oops. I flipped the order on those as I matched them up. You get the idea. So what we want to do is ask the right question to focus on those things that they're afraid of, the obstacles or the concerns. On the other side, focus on the things that excite them. So let's give you an example. Early in my sales process that I teach using the car park formula. And by the way, if you are interested, I do have some details in the description below. On my sales training system, car park is the in home sales process. The in home sales system I teach everything from knock to close. Okay, so this, this a. Right here. The first a. Oops, we didn't change colors. Right there is assess. We're trying to find out where the customer is at in the roof replacement process, whether it's for storm or or retail. So we can focus in on these buying motivators. So easy start. Where are you in the process? This will indicate whether on a storm damage claim, the homeowners had no claim, partial payment denial, check in hand. On the retail side, whether they have an active leak or a problem, they're replacing the roof due to age, they have some life event or a remodel, or they're simply planning ahead. Because of course all those are going to be a different motivator. So step one is just deciding where are they in the process so we can kind of fine tune our approach. Because on the storm side, selling to someone who's already had their insurance out in a denial and they believe their insurance, even though you know it's damaged is very different than someone who's never filed a claim and the same for retail. So where are you in the process? Next we have two open ended questions to ask. Number one is to focus on learning their negative buying motivators, what are they afraid of? And the other one focused on the positive buying motivators, what are they excited about? And I'll give you an example. A negative motivator or concern on a vehicle would be reliability and the cost of ownership. And a positive would be comfort, luxury and status. See where I'm going with this? So on the negative side, I can ask a homeowner what are your biggest concerns about this project? Or what are your biggest concerns about choosing a contractor? And they're going to tell you all the things that they're afraid of and don't want to see happen. And again, you can speak to the positives, how you can help them avoid that pain. And then focusing on the positive or the pleasure, what they're most excited about. Here's an easy one. Hey, what is the most important thing to you when it comes to selecting a roofer for your home? So there you have it. With just three simple questions sprinkled throughout your sales process. Starting early on, assessing where the customer's at. Hey, where are you in the process? You now know exactly where the most powerful parts of your pitch to are going going to come in. Then hey, can I ask you what's your biggest concern when it comes to this project or choosing a contractor? They're going to tell you all the negatives and then what's the most important thing to you? They're going to tell you all the positives. And when you marry these together, what you end up getting is the perfect, most potent bullseye sales presentation that focuses in exclusively on what's most important and most fearful for that customer. Aligning your message and getting them to say, you are the perfect solution for me. I am so glad you're here. And there you have it. So now on your very next sales appointment, you can use this. Take a pause. And using these three simple questions is going to help you discover that magic lever or the top buying motivator so you can close more deals. Again, thank you all for all of your support. If you have any questions or comments, drop them in the comments below. And there's links in the video and podcast description with all the various ways that I can help you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. And if you haven't yet done it, hit subscribe to the channel and let's continue our journey together. If you haven't done it. Click right here to get a free copy of my pitch like a pro roofing sales training video library. Or continue watching videos with me right here on YouTube and click right here and jump into the next one. We'll see you soon.
