Between You & The Other Contractor

We really like everything, but we’re in between choosing you and this other roofing company.

What do say when the homeowner says that to you?

That’s what I’m going to show you here. In fact, I’m going to teach you a very simple two-step process to help you close MORE DEALS confidently after you hear homeowners say this.

After all, today, roofing sales is more competitive than ever before, and:

• The level of professionalism is rising.
• There are far more people investing in professional training, instead of just winging it and figuring it out on their own (like many folks did in the past).
• It’s getting more cutthroat inside the house because more roofing sales reps are running proper appointments — and more are prepared to come in and win the business.

So, I’m hearing that it’s more and more common for sales reps to hear this objection at the end of their appointment:

Thanks for coming out.

We’re choosing between you and this other contractor.

When that happens, many people will literally pull the hand grenade. Instead of throwing the grenade:

1. They throw the pin.
2. They blow themselves up.
3. They blow up the sale by saying and doing all of the WRONG things.

Often, that ends up sounding like this:

Well, we are a great company, and we truly do care about our customers.

We have a better product, we provide a better service, and we put on a great roof. We also have a warranty that is just unmatched by anybody else.

All that usually falls on deaf ears. That’s because:

• The homeowner feels is like you are pushing them into a sale.
• We need to be pulling them or drawing them toward us, so they make the choice to work with us on their own.

That is what I’m going to teach you here, and it involves this very simple two-step process.

First, I want to say a quick welcome or welcome back. Adam Bensman, here, The Roof Strategist. Everything I do here is designed to help you and your team smash your income goals and give every customer an amazing experience.

So, if you’re looking to level up your game or empower your team to be even more powerful salespeople, I invite you to:

1. Join me inside my FREE roofing sales training center.
2. Text the word “FREE” to (303) 222-7133 for more roofing sales resources. There are tons of valuable strategies and materials in there for new hires, seasoned veterans, roofing company managers, and owners who want really powerful information to help them (or their teams) close more deals confidently.

Now, let’s dive in.

2 Steps to Win More Deals When Homeowners Are Deciding Between Roofers

When you hear, “Thanks, we’re choosing between you and the other contractor,” we need to take these two simple steps:

1. Take a “pulse check.” That’s a commitment on how that homeowner actually feels about working with you.
2. Ask the right questions, so we can sell the right thing to the homeowner. I’ll get into this a little more later, but I want to share one very, VERY important disclaimer upfront — you have to be able to follow through here because there’s NOTHING worse than a smooth-talking salesperson who says all the right things to win the business but then can’t deliver on the service side.

So, we have to do this the right way, with some heart, and we actually have to care about our customers.

Step 1: “Pulse Check” Homeowners.

We’re in between choosing you and the other contractor — when we hear this objection, first, we need to get that pulse check, so we can figure out the customer’s temperature and whether they’re hot, warm, or cold.

To do that, we want to ask a couple of things. Now, for this example, I’m going to assume that the husband and wife or the decision-making partners are both present. And I would say something like this:

 I completely understand. And I want to say thank you.

I’m truly honored to be selected in the running to earn your business. And I know it’s a really BIG deal to choose a contractor who you like and trust.

So, may I ask, how are you feeling about everything that I shared with you today?

How are you feeling about it?

When you’re selling to a couple, usually, there’s one person who’s generally spearheading the decision-making. So, I want to pinpoint that decision maker first and ask:

How are you feeling about everything?

Usually, they’re going to say something, like:

Everything was great. We really like you a bunch.

You know, we just have to decide.

So, I get this commitment that they like everything, and I want them to share with me how they felt, which usually leads to some compliments and validating their decision.

Next, I turn my attention to the other person in the party, asking the same thing and saying something like:

Well, I appreciate you sharing that, Tom.

Peggy, how are you feeling about everything?

I want to get the buy-in from BOTH Peggy and Tom. And when I ask Peggy, “How are you feeling about everything?” generally, Peggy’s going to reply with something like:

Hey, everything’s great! I really like it.

We really want to work with you, but we just have to make our decision.

So, the first step is to just get that pulse check by asking, “How are you feeling about everything, by the way?”

You can also add some humor and levity to the mix, phrasing it like this:

Hey, you know, quick pulse check. How are you feeling about everything?

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

With that, that homeowner can just give you a simple signal with their thumbs to let you know that they really liked you — or that they’re leaning in a different direction.

After that, here’s the next question to ask:

Now, I’d love to hear from each of you.

When it comes to selecting a contractor, what’s your biggest concern?

We want to focus on their biggest concern here because this will often reveal their biggest objection and we don’t always know what it is. In fact:

• We often think it’s ALL about price, but that’s just not the case all of the time.
• Their biggest concern may be working around their schedule at home because they’re both in home offices, running Zoom meetings and they can’t have interruptions.

Again, summing up step one, we want to:

1. Ask the decision maker, “How are you feeling about this?”
2. Let them share their answer.
3. Turn to the other partner and ask the very same question, so we speak to both people.
4. Ask, “Between both of you, what’s your biggest concern? “
5. Let them explain their concern(s), so we now know what we need to address.

Step 2: Ask the Right Follow-Up Questions.

These follow-up questions can be something like these three. And I would recommend writing these down. If you’re the note-taking type.

How will you, so I’m talking to Tom and Peggy.

Tom, how will you and Peggy decide which contractor is best for you?

Here, we’re asking about their decision-making process — What and how will they decide?

This is a relatively open-ended question, meaning you might get direct criteria, like homeowners telling you that the price and the warranty are factors. In that case, you may hear them say:

Well, we’re going to wait until the next person comes out, and we have one more estimate.

Then, we’re going to sit down and review everything side by side.

Second, we ask a deeper question about the decision-making process — what’s the MOST important thing to you when it comes to selecting a contractor?

So, I have now asked the homeowner:

1. What’s their biggest concern?
2. What is the most important thing to them when it comes to selecting a contractor?

Often, their answer to that second question will be something like:

The most important thing is a reputable company that stands behind their work, does the job at a fair value and, then, is going to be there for us if anything comes up. That’s a very common response.

The third question is my favorite question to ask, and it goes like this:

Hey, I understand this is a really BIG decision.

If we were to just play in fantasy land for a minute and remove price — if money was not an object — who would you be comfortable moving forward with?

Now, we have removed the financial component to help that customer make the emotional decision first. And if you did a great job in the home:

1. You WON by creating a better, stronger emotional experience.
2. You WON the comparison against how they’re looking at others.
3. You’ve likely done that work, and the one limiting factor is that financial component, that financial difference between you and the other contractors.

At this point, we can now speak to their answers, appealing to their deepest desires and their requests.

Recap: 2 Steps to Win the Business When Homeowners Are Choosing Between Roofers

Summing this all up, again, there are two simple steps you can follow when you hear homeowners tell you that they’re still trying to decide between you and other roofers.

First, take a pulse check. To that, you can say something like:

Thanks so much, Tom, for letting me know. Now, before I get going, I’d love to hear from you and just do a quick pulse check.

How are you feeling about everything I’ve shared with you?

His response may be something like, “Oh, it was great. Awesome.” Now, you do the same — take a pulse check — with any spouse who’s present:

And Peggy, how are you feeling about everything I share with you?

“Oh, so great,” she may say. Then, it’s time to ask this:

What would be your biggest concern when it comes to selecting a contractor?

That gives them the chance to share more, and they may say something like, “Well, our biggest concern is we just want to get a fair price.”

Now, you can address exactly what they’re hung up on — price. Before we get to that, however, it’s time for step two because I’m just fact gathering

Second, we ask this key question:

How will you and Peggy decide which contractor’s best for you?

Let Peggy and Tom share their answers. Next, we ask some follow-up questions:

1. What’s the most important thing to you when it comes to selecting a contractor? Let them share.
2. If money was no object whatsoever, which contractor would you feel most comfortable working with?

Let them share their answers and describe that contractor.

After they do, we will now know:

1. Their biggest concern
2. How they’re going to make the decision
3. What’s the most important thing to them
4. Who they’d be most comfortable going with if money was no object

At this point, we can reiterate their answers, repeating what they said back to them, and:

• Share how we fit the bill.
• Go in for the close
• Get that follow-up appointment set before I leave the house if I don’t close, so I can try to get the deal again when I return.

So, that, in my opinion, is the best way to respond when homeowners say, “We’re choosing between you and the other contractor.”

And, remember, that the other contractor is likely going to make that grenade-lie mistake and blow himself up by simply selling himself and making that homeowner feel pushed. You, on the other hand, are going to:

1. Ask intelligent questions.
2. Learn about what they want.
3. Provide them with the right information to pull them towards you, so they choose you of their own free will.
4. Close more deals confidently and more easily inside the house.

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Thanks for joining me, and I look forward to sharing more with you in the next blog.