If you are selling roofing services these are four basic principles you should apply that will help you win more bids at higher margins and dominate your market.
Have you ever tried to reach a contractor to get a price for home project? Chances are you called several contractors just to get one to return your call. It’s terribly frustrating but that exact scenario presents a huge opportunity for a perceptive roofing sales person (quite often it’s the owner of the roofing company).
Here are some tips that will help you land more business than your competition just because homeowners will see you as the more professional and caring roofing contractor.
- Always return customer calls within 30 minutes. Very few other contractors will respond promptly. This is so unusual in the home services industry that you will stand out like a shining knight. Even if you can’t call the customer right away because you are working on the roof of a customer’s home, you can respond to the customer via text (which can be automated) and let them know you’ll be getting back to them shortly. This alone will help you stand out as a responsive roofer.
- When you do speak with them, get some basic information about the project so you are prepared at your first meeting to show them different options and more importantly, educate them about shingle quality differences, color choices, installation methods, warranties and how methodically your company is at protecting their home and cleaning up after the roofing project is completed.
- Show up several minutes early for your appointment. Can you imagine how this makes an impact on your prospective customer? If you find that you are running late for an appointment, call or text the customer as early in advance as possible before the meeting. Nothing will set the stage for a tense and unproductive meeting like a contractor who shows that they don’t value the customers time by showing up a half hour late for an appointment.
- Always try to make a point of getting back to the prospect within 4 hours or sooner of when they called you. Often the customer will not get any other quotes if they like you and you do a good job showing them that they can trust you to give them a quality roof at a reasonable price. Educating them about roofing products, systems, costs and benefits will go a long way toward winning you their business.
Whether you are a residential or commercial roofer, by diligently and consistently applying the above mentioned principals to your sales efforts you will find that you’ll win more roofing project bids at higher price margins than you ever did prior to applying them.