How to Sell Roofs 200% More Often (Helpful Tips for 2023)

Sales Management Techniques to Drive Revenue Growth

We have DOUBLED and EVEN TRIPLED Roofing company's Sales in 45 Days consistently!

Sales Management is the Key

We have an offer where we GUARANTEE our clients will double their sales in 45 days or we give them back all their money, plus 10%. That's right, it is a 110% money back, no risk promise that we will do things that will double their sales in only 45 days. Want to know how without having to buy our 2x SumoQuote build Package? Read on friends!

Too Long - Didn't Read?

Okay, here is the short version of what we do in our 2x Process that makes me willing to bet on your roofing company with my own money.

• Daily Objection Journal

• Strategic Secret Shop

• Weekly Sales Training that is Mandatory

• 1 on 1 Bucket Reviews

• Objection, Next Task, and a Note on Every Deal, every 48 hours.

• Presentation Excellence

• Product Knowledge Superiority

Now if you want the details, we need to get some "need to knows" out of the way and then get into the tactical behaviors that lead to guaranteed results to sell roofs at 2x Speed.

Sales Management is the Key to it All

When we take on this project, we are taking on a large volume of risk. In essence, I am gambling with my own money so that I can make miracles happen to help your team sell more roofs. I have done sales my entire adult life, starting from a teenager. I have sold:

1. Websites at age 14.
2. Custom Racing Quads exported from Canada to the USA.
3. Vacuum sales door to door.
4. Credit Cards over the phone.
5. Lawncare over the phone.
6. Tanning Lotion
7. Cars in person and online.
8. Software over the Internet
9. Advertising & Marketing
10. CRMs and Consulting

Through this, I have learned one thing from both being a top sales rep in the country in multiple products, as well as outperforming my peers. Sales Management is Key!

Amazing Sales People are the Worst!

If I was running a business, any business - I would rather have Average Sales people and Level 10 Sales Managers over Level 10 salespeople and average sales managers. Great Salesmen are a headache; here's why:

1. They have high expectations of themselves and can become frustrated when they don't meet them.
2. They often assume they know better than their manager and make decisions on their own.
3. They have difficulty taking direction and are not the best listeners.
4. Their ambitious behavior can sometimes make them come off as aggressive or intimidating to colleagues.
5. They are often too focused on reaching their goals, which means their attention is sometimes elsewhere regarding team dynamics and daily tasks.
6. It can be hard for managers to keep up with their workloads due to how quickly amazing salespeople get things done, leading to burnout for both parties.
7. They can be difficult to motivate when they are already successful in what they do as it's hard to keep challenging them with new tasks or goals that will help grow their career further down the line.
8. While pushing boundaries is a good quality in salespeople, it can also lead to an inability to follow rules or regulations in certain situations, which could create more problems than necessary for the manager trying to manage them properly.
9. They may have difficulty working within a team setting as they tend to prefer working independently and being able to take charge of the situation themselves instead of following someone else's lead - this could cause tension with other members of the team if not managed properly from the start/during the execution of projects/tasks etc..
10. They often have strong personalities, which can make it difficult for managers to control their behavior if things start going wrong, leading them into potential conflicts with other staff or customers alike - something a skilled manager needs to avoid at all costs!

What do Good Sales Managers Do?

They level the playing field! When you are in Roof Sales you are dealing with guys going door to door at the Customer's home or responding to leads in a "Store" that is 100 miles square in size. It can be very difficult to hold people accountable. Great Sales managers make it so these guys don't work in the dark without accountability while also giving the emotional support needed for the salespeople to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

Then when it comes to their time in the office - time has to be maximized! There has to be an intention and a high degree of energy behind every sales meeting or else they lose attention. Great Sales Managers host great sales meetings. Every sales rep should leave a sales meeting feeling energized and empowered, in zero doubt that it was the best use of their time that day.

Refine your sales pitch to sell more roofs

It should go without saying, but you would be amazed - or maybe you wouldn't at how often sales reps tell me that they have not been forced to demonstrate their sales presentation in front of their peers, EVER. This is lunacy! How do you hire people and expect them to sell roofing services at a satisfactory rate when they have not been put in the Gulag of ego-destroying gauntlets that is presenting your pitch that you intend to use on potential customers?

This is one thing we FORCE as part of our SumoQuote 2X sales experience. We force the guys to go through their pitch from A to Z in front of everyone and get everyone's critique. Everyone better be firm but fair because they will be in the hot seat soon enough.

When I was in the car industry this was called selling a chair, if you could sell a chair in the lunch room you could sell a car on the showroom. We would have to set up two chairs, and with a straight face - in front of a group of chiseled Jaw F-Boy Bearded high testosterone sales guys do a sales demo, including a FAKE TEST DRIVE sitting on two chairs. We would literally walk around the front, pretending to open the hood in front of our customers and talk about the 3.6 liter Pentastar engine's hot buttons, pointing out crumple zones, hitting the headlights, and showing them the fire blanket on the underside of the hood. From there, we would go around the driver's side door, and we had to practice this move of blocking the driver's seat to show the buttons on the door and close the door, moving on to the back seats. It's been proven time and time again that if you let them sit in the driver's seat you lose the value. You need to get them to experience the back seat, the trunk and ride in the driver's seat FIRST.

Value must always exceed price to create a Customer surplus - so practice drill and rehearse the sales presentation process repeatedly. Most homeowners will appreciate the effort, and you will cover every pain point. By going over the back seat, the truck box, the power sliding rear doors, or the safety features built into the back seats for kids you will enhance the value. The same can be done in roofing by relating the features of the roof system back to the original concerns that made the homeowner call your business in the first place.

Reflect Your Roofing Professionalism

One key to selling your roofing services has a choreographed sales process that reduces the wasted time for the Customer. This is called being a professional sales rep. Knowing how to identify the hot buttons of the Customer, the key features of the roofing system, and how they benefit the Customer specifically will enhance their ability to feel confident in their ability to make a decision.

The real power comes in subtraction, knowing when to eliminate the things that are not relevant to this particular Customer, and removing options that will only be a waste of time or add confusion to their buying experience. This has a benefit that is twofold, it simplifies the presentation process and also makes it easier for the Customer to make a decision. This is a sign of true roofing sales professionalism.

Learn About Roofing Material and Roof Systems

The cornerstone of any sales team is its ability to identify and present the best solutions for a customer's needs. Any good sales manager should include some product knowledge that can be explained to homeowners to get the deal. Any tips on how to sell more roofs based on the benefits of your favorite shingles will help the team hit its goals.

I like bringing youtube videos to the meetings and asking product knowledge questions in exchange for prizes! Things like $10 uber eats gift cards, and even energy drinks can be a good motivator in a small setting. Most people love to win things, and even if it's a small token the competitiveness of salespeople cannot be ignored. Roofers are not always known for being honest so the ability to speak to the product and explain their features and benefits in a way contextual to the customer is huge!

How to Build an Internet Presence

A great way to help a sales rep find success is to teach them how to get an online presences of their own. Joseph Hughes of Contractor Dynamics calls this being 5 mile famous. Back when RBP was a Facebook Ad agency, we used to try and relate it to being the Bob Vila of Roofing in your market. Not matter how you define it, the goal is to empower your teammates to generate their own leads by being in the public eye. They are on the front lines roof damage and house construction issues that can provide value to any prospective homeowner that is on social media. When you are known for giving good roofing tips on your Facebook or Instagram the local market will eventually pick up on it. Home owners will follow and share the videos with their friends, and this kind of guerilla marketing on the front lines benefits the reps get more opportunities in the long run. If you are looking for an example of what to do you can go check out the Sargeants Roofing youtube, or check out Dreamworx Exteriors on Facebook!

An Improved Way to Sell Roofing

There is a growing trend in digital roof sales. Using things like Roofle to price condition customers online is picking up steam but there are a lot of sales pundits who will argue there is no replacement for a pitch at the kitchen table.

What I think works is empowering an inside sales team with the ability to offer a hybrid buying experience, where yes there is a teammate that goes to the home and meets clients in person, of even knock a few doors. Then allowing the homeowner to schedule a meeting on Zoom to go over the proposal from the safety of their own computer without the high-pressure experience that some loathe. This allows you to get the sale in the manner that customers might feel most comfortable. This is why the websites like angie's list became popular. They made the buying experience an online one where the contractors don't get as much value because the customer in the end feels like they bought from Angies.

Have a Seamless Online and In-Person Presence

This brings up an important point; you want a very connected experience for your Customer. Having great tips on your website that can help you get the lead is great - what's better is when the people in person are speaking the same language. When the offer presented on the advertisement is not something the customer has to bring up in person but is offered with transparency makes a huge difference. Customers need to feel like you know what they are doing on your website.

This also brings up the subject of branding, your website, your ads, your proposal should all look and feel the same. We have seen so many roofing companies completely abandon this idea, the website looks one way but the proposal looks another. They rebrand the website - but not the trucks- making people doubt your company even if they can't identify that. If you want your services to be the obvious choice and win the job in person more often, ensure the experience is seamless.

Always make sure the last impression is a good one

Yes, EVEN when the customer picks another contractor. Some percentage of sales will come from after the Customer initially rejects you in favor of another company. Your homeowner might have initially liked someone else but maybe they failed to deliver on the expected job date. Maybe a sale wasn't very transparent, and after the signature, they point out that the cost is likely to change. Perhaps the customer was only sold because after a storm, someone knocked on their door and told them they could get the roof done for no deductible but once the sales is handed into the company the homeowners are surprised to hear they were lied to. Perhaps the rep that took your deal didn't have accurate measurements and the company backed out of the deal.

There are many reasons a deal could go backwards on the other roofer and you want to make sure that if that happens your customer would come back as a second choice.

Use drones as canvassing tools

When you are using a drone to get accurate measurements safely from the ground, many homeowners nearby will notice and you could give them a free inspection when you are finished helping your current customers. This also applies to when the job is underway, roofers are on the house and roofing work is being monitored by a drone visit. This is a great way to interact with a neighbor that might be interested in you selling them a roof too.

Know your prospects to build relationships with them

When I was in car sales, a manager gave me a sweet bonus tip in a training session about how to help sell a deal. Not everyone will fall for it, and it might even be borderline unethical but I think it demonstrates a great point.

He would look customers up on Facebook and look for things about them that they love. Think about the sales acronym "FROM";

• Family

• Recreation

• Occupation

• Motivation

He would try to find something he could "have in common" with them based on their social media. For example, if they had a lot of pictures of a Corgie dog, he would download some pictures of another Corgie. During his rapport-building phase of the sale, he would find a way to ask them if they have dogs, usually with regards to how they would use the rear compartment of an SUV or something. When they replied that they did, he would ask them what kind of dog. Of course, they would let him know that they have a Corgie, and he would immediately pull out his phone to show them pictures of his Corgie.

Again, sales is more about influencing a person - not manipulating them - BUT this does demonstrate the importance of taking an interest in who a customer is and building a relationship with them. Focus on your ability to make sure that you will be there for them if anything goes wrong. If a storm impacts their roof - you are the one they call. That you also know local reps for your manufacturer of choice and making them aware of your company's influence and ability to get their warranty work completed fast is key.

Offer something free

Marketing for a Roofing Company is typically terrible. At best, most companies offer a free inspection or helping with insurance claims. What we have found works well is to offer monthly incentives that create urgency, opportunity, and scarcity for customers to buy now. I don't mean the "30 day price" as some sales pundits push. I mean, something like this month is free metal valleys or free ventilation upgrades. We were selling roofs left and right just by offering free drip edge for a while. Typically you want to use roofing materials that cost less than 5% of the total job, but have a value far in excess of their cost in the roofing installation process. Even if you are planning to sell roofs door to door, this can be a great opener by letting potential customers know that there is an incentive to allow you to engage them in a conversation about a new roof NOW.

Can I Increase my Roofing Sales Using Technology?

Absolutely!! There are great tools a sales manager can routinely train on to empower reps both in home and remotely.

• SumoQuote - a beautiful build of the SumoQuote proposal can allow reps to price a new roof in 4 minutes flat and also give them a guided proposal to demonstrate on a mobile device.

• CompanyCam - Roofing Jobs are complicated. Using our CompanyCam Guide you can use the software to not only document job sites but get more leads, sell more roofs, and do roofing jobs more profitably. 80% of Roofing Companies we see are not using it all to its ability.

• Rilla - there is this new tool that will allow you to record yourself doing a presentation in the home, the output is a recorded and transcribed document that can help you identify where you are losing your prospects

• Loom/Vidyard - using a Video Screenshare tool to record and present for home owners that could not be met in person can drastically increase close rates

• ServiceBell - Live Chat 2.0. This is amazing, a video web chat that allows you to see who is on your website, and what they are doing, and engage with them live to let them know you are not a bot and even start a video call after they have hit a page that indicates maximum buying intention.

This is just a few simple things, being that this is what we do at RBP I think if this is something you want to do you need to book a call with us to discuss your options.

Offer Roofing Sales Pricing Options

When you go to Ford's website and pick an F-150 Limited, even then, with the top-of-the-line truck they will still have the option presented to pick from upgrades and additional warranties for the truck purchase before getting to the price and payments page.

This tells us something about the retail customer. They want to buy, but they also want to tell a story about themselves about what they bought and why. There are 34 upgrades I discuss in this video that will help you get creative and make your prices malleable.

Think about Financing Options

The market is changing, any good sales manager should be training staff how to identify customers who are considering financing and do so in a way that doesn't insult the customer. A good work track is;

"Most of my customers are buying a roof one of three ways:

1. They are lucky enough to be sitting on the cash, but view it as smart to keep their cash in their hands and use low-rate financing to keep their investments.

2. They could spare the money but would rather have it in their account for an emergency, and appreciate the fact that a roof purchase is a home improvement which is easily financed at a low rate.

3. They are like me and don't have the money laying around, and would prefer to be responsible with their home and get the job done right, now instead of letting their home stay vulnerable hoping to save up the money soon.

Which one are you?"

This is a great way to open the conversation about financing without implying your customer is broke and needs to borrow money to buy a roof, and also opens people up to the idea that financing a home improvement like a roof replacement is actually the smarter way to do it!

Buyer Hesitancy and Rejection During the Roofing Sales Process.

In the end, highly trained managers will show their reps that being successful in roofing sales depends on the ability to clearly communicate the roof installation process while also helping customers feel confident in their competence to make this decision. This is both a logical and emotional process! Emotion helps decrease the action threshold to make a move, but the logical mind is what keeps the deal together once buyer's remorse sets in.

If you want to succeed, whether there is a storm or not, your company needs to build a business that has a sales manager that will help your team dominate this industry through good coaching, skills, beliefs, and character traits commensurate with the best practices laid out in this blog.