Close More by NOT Caring If They Buy! How to “Sell Like a Doctor”

What if I told you that one of the secrets of closing more sales was to not care?

Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

Well, there IS a power to selling when you just don’t care what the outcome is. And I know you’re thinking — How do I not care? I WANT to win the job. I WANT to earn the commission.

If you’re in the position I was in when I got started in roofing sales (I was literally broke, living below the poverty line), I really needed the commission. I needed the deal.

Unfortunately, our customers sense when we’re desperate. This smell of desperation, this desperate energy, can just exude from us. And it can make our customers feel like they have a bullseye on their backs. They can feel like we’re ready to pounce. They can sense when we want the sale too much.

So, I’m going to explain how to sell more by not caring even when you actually do.

Welcome or welcome back, by the way. My name is Adam Bensman, The Roof Strategist. I’m here (and on my YouTube channel and my podcast, on Apple and Spotify) to help you and your team smash your income goals and give every customer an amazing experience.

When you don’t care about winning the sale and you do it in the way I’m about to teach you, it actually creates an even better customer experience. That means they like you, which, in turn, means you close even more deals.

And if you like this style of selling, I highly recommend you take a peek at my Closing Strategy. The best way for you to get that for yourself or for your team is to get the Roofing Sales Success Formula, my ground-up roofing sales training and strategies for both companies and individual sales reps.

There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee, you own it for life, and it’s priced at an affordable rate that a company or rep will make back in just one sale. Call or text my team at 303-222-7133 if you have questions about any of my products or programs.

Now, let’s dive in.

Roofing Sales Closing Strategy: Why Sell Like a Doctor?

Not caring — I don’t care. That’s how we make more sales. We call this “non-attachment.” That means you have no emotional attachment to the outcome.

And how do we do this in roofing sales?

We sell like a doctor.

I got this saying from a gentleman named Sabri Suby, who wrote a book called Sell Like Crazy. It’s mostly focused on digital marketing, but there are some sales psychology gems in it. Sabri Suby says you have to sell like a doctor. I’m going to paraphrase what this means.

To sell like a doctor, think about what happens when you visit a doctor’s office. The doctor doesn’t say, “Oh, guess what, I got a brand-new antibiotic. And now I’m going to write your script.” They’re not just slinging prescriptions.

Doctors are prescribing things without knowing what’s going on, and they’re facilitating the process.

How a Doctor Sells: An Example

Let’s look at this, pretending we have a blown-out knee. Then, we’re going to relate it to roofing sales. When you see your doctor with a blown-out knee, the doctor says:

I got bad news for you. It looks like you blew out your knee — your ACL, MCL, the works. The reality is you’re not going to have a functioning knee unless you undergo surgery.

The fact is we’re going to have to do surgery, and we could use a cadaver part on you. You’re going to go under the knife, and it’s going to be pretty painful, no matter how you do it.

After surgery, you’re going to be in a cast, and we’re going to put you into physical therapy. It’ll be about 8 to 12 weeks before you’re out and functional again. And it’s going to be about 16 weeks until you’re as good as gold.

By the way, if you do want to do the surgery, we can get you in next week.

What did the doctor do here?

Let’s break it down.

A Step-by-Step Breakdown of How to Sell Like a Doctor

First, the doctor explains what’s going on. He lays out the facts. He does NOT talk about himself, where he went to school, his surgical skills, or his surgical equipment.

None of that. He just says, “Here’s what’s going on. Here are the facts. This is what you will face.”

We want to mirror this in roofing sales. We want to:

1. Diagnose the situation
2. Explain the facts

Then, we want to tell stories. The doctor may tell stories by saying something like:

Hey, don’t you worry. I know it sounds like a lot. But I’ve done this 15 times.

In fact, I had a patient in this morning, and he just went through this. He’s bouncing back at a record rate. His pain level was really low, and he’s going to be fully active and running and playing football again in no time.

After telling stories, next, it’s time to prescribe the solution. The doctor may say, “you need this” or “here’s the pill for your aches and pains.” Again, before prescribing the solution, the doctor diagnoses, explains the facts, and tells stories.

How to Sell Like a Doctor in Roofing Sales: Develop Trust, Create the Need

When selling like a doctor in roofing sales, we don’t want to talk about ourselves or the company. Like the doctor, we explain the situation. We remove ourselves from it to:

1. Create non-attachment
2. Provide an educational sales experience
3. Build a tremendous amount of trust

When we do this, we’re not inserting ourselves into the situation, and we don’t come across as forceful. We’re not trying to push better products, better service, or a better warranty. We’re not selling them a roof without guiding them through the process to need a roof.

We have to develop trust, and we have to create the need.

And the need has to be established because no one buys things they don’t need. Once we do that, then comes the money, the deductible, or the retail estimate (the price).

Remember, trust, need, and money are basically the three categories of objections in roofing sales. So, to sell, we have to hit these in order.

When we sell like a doctor, we develop a tremendous amount of trust. Through the facts and the stories, we create all the need. The money comes in when we start selling.

That’s why I teach to overcome the deductible or price objection straight out of the gate using a level of non-attachment. This is what I teach in my Closing Strategy. Non-attachment means sticking to the facts — the facts about:

• The deductible
• Why your customer can choose any roofer
• Shopping for roofing company estimates, understanding why one might be lower, and knowing what to look for

Again, at this point, we have built trust to showcase the need, and we move on to the money by using facts, stories, and diagnosing their current situation.

Language: What to Say When Selling Like a Doctor in Roofing Sales

With this level of non-attachment, we can use very powerful language, like:

You’d be the judge.

Whether you work with me or someone else…

Then, when a homeowner pushes back because of deductibles (and I hear this a lot from roofing sales reps in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and beyond), you just say:

Listen, I’m not willing to earn your business by becoming your cellmate. It’s simply not how we do business. I’m not willing to participate in insurance fraud, period.

If you say that — and then you turn and walk away — you will be amazed at the response you get from that level of non-attachment and sticking to your values and principles.

You know what needs to happen to give them an amazing experience. And to do business, aboveboard, that customer realizes something, and your confidence speaks to them. They know that you are committed to doing things right. It’s amazing.

And, usually, one of two things is going to happen next:

1. The customer lets you walk out the door: Guess what? Good for you. You did your very best. Don’t waste any more of your breath. That’s what we call the “Walmart customer.” They don’t care about anything other than the lowest price. That’s it. They’re not your customer. You could talk until you’re blue in the face, but the folks who only buy the cheapest items at Walmart care more about price than value. Don’t waste your time.
2. The customer reaches out: They want to talk again because your honesty, confidence, and values have started to create a sense to trust.

Final Roofing Sales Strategy to Sell Like a Doctor: Know When to Walk

Now, it’s time for me to tell you a story, after giving you some facts. A gentleman I helped, Neil, signed the contingency agreement. I get the deal, and everything’s all set. About 20 to 30 minutes after I leave, Neil calls me, and he starts chewing me out. He calls me a con artist and rants about the contingency agreement. Then he says:

I don’t want anything to do with you. We’re done. We’re done. We’re done. We’re done. We’re done. We’re done.

I kid you not — he kept going. So, I said:

Neil. Sorry. I respect your wishes. Consider the agreement canceled.

I don’t want to work with a customer like that. He just treated me like garbage. So, what did I do then? I get on my computer and just to save face (because he called me a con artist and a scammer), I went through the contingency agreement again with him. He read and understood it. Yet, he had painted me in this horrible light. So, I explained everything to him and wished him the best.

Minutes later, my phone rings. It’s Neil again. My non-attachment drew him back. When I pick up, Neil says:

Adam, I am so sorry. I misunderstood. I misread things. I realize that what you’re doing is right. And I really appreciate all the service you’ve given us. And you know what, I’d really like you to do our roof.

You know what I said to Neil?

Sorry, Neil. We’ve already canceled your agreement. And I think you’d be better off served by working with someone else.

My point is that he came back. I didn’t want to work with him because I don’t work with people who don’t respect me. It’s that simple. I don’t care about the check. I care about is working with good people, having fun with what I do, and creating an amazing experience. Neil created a miserable experience.

There’s a psychological principle in selling that people want what they can’t have. It’s the idea of scarcity. If you go to pull something away, they want more. And it’s not a tactic to be manipulated. I’m explaining the facts, just like a doctor.

I want to share that final point with you because when you are very committed to upholding your own values, your honor, your integrity — and when you’re doing things right — the right people will want you back, and it’s amazing.

Recap: How to Sell Like a Doctor & Close More in Roofing Sales

So, the next time you’re in a sales appointment, I want you to tell yourself to sell like a doctor. Remember to:

1. Diagnose their situation
2. Explain where they are at
3. Tell them some stories

Then and only then, do we move on to selling and talking about us.

Now, you can use non-attachment by NOT caring what the outcome is to:

Get More Roofing Sales Strategies, Tips & Videos

If you want the entire deep dive on how I run a sales appointment from start to finish, check out the Closing Strategy, which is part of my full-access Roofing Sales Success Formula for reps and teams.

You can also subscribe for the latest roofing sales training videos and get a copy of my Pitch Like a Pro roofing sales training video library. It includes a ton of videos on roofing sales, as well as every video I’ve ever done, organized by category, along with a bunch of tips, tricks, and more. It’s great for new people and seasoned veterans, and it’s updated all the time to help you and your team smash your income goals and give every customer an amazing experience.

Also, check out my Marketing Battle Pack for instant access to 70+ pieces of my proven, turnkey roofing sales and marketing materials. It’s an entire suite, specially designed for sales teams, managers, and owners, providing:

It’s affordably priced and comes with a 100% money-back guarantee. There’s also a playlist of instructional videos in there, explaining every single thing. So, you can watch the videos, and you’ll know exactly what to do.

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