My Favorite “One-Liner” Pitch to Get on the Roof for Your Inspection

Hey guys, Adam, the roof strategist here. Today, I’m going to teach you my favorite one-liner to get invited onto the roof to do your inspection.

Once you learn this simple one-line script, you can adapt it however you want, so it matches your style, your cadence, where you live, and how you talk—so it fits you like a glove and works best for you.

It’s a subtle psychology trick to help soften the dialogue and make your customer feel like they’re not being sold. It’s really inviting. And it creates an opportunity for you to easily ask for the inspection—this makes it much easier than it’s ever been.

First Things First: How to Use this Roof Sales Pitch

Now, before I get into all the details, it’s important to remember this.

No matter where you get the scripts you learn, purchase, or use, you need to adapt slightly.

Keep the bones in but look at it more like a template.

Example:

If I were to give you blueprints to a house, everyone’s going to build the same house. What changes are the finishing touches. With blueprints, you could build the exact same house. But how you decide to finish it—the colors and the texture and the brick surrounding the windows—is all going to be personal to match your style.

Bringing it back to your scripts, you need to keep the bones as a blueprint and use your own flair to polish it up the way that’s going to work for you.

Here’s how it works.

Door-to-Door Roofing Sales Pitch: To Ask or Not Ask?

Now, wait, before I get into the pitch.

Sometimes, we show up at the door and we ask for the inspection, right?

Can I hop up on your roof?

Can I offer you a free inspection?

These are closing questions that I teach never to do. Instead, I am going to teach you a very powerful close-ended question that’s going to get to “yes” in a very creative way.

Still, so many people will say, “Hey, can I hop up on your roof?”

And we’re almost setting ourselves up. Like we’re expecting that rejection where we have one foot out the door. It’s subconscious. You’re trying to make it easier for yourself to get let down.

Here’s how we break all that.

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The Only One-Liner Roof Sales Pitch You Need

Here’s my magic phrase.

Hey, Mr. Homeowner, do you have any objection if I hop up on your roof for a quick inspection? I’d be happy to take some pictures and some videos and show you exactly what I find.

Do you have any objection?

Now, why?

It works. Here’s why.

Why It Works

Let’s talk about theory. When I say “Hey, can I hop up on your roof?”, what’s your knee-jerk reaction as a homeowner? To say “no,”, right? It’s easy to say no. Hey, do you have any objection if I have up on your roof or a quick inspection?

When they say no? What happens? They mean yes.

It’s what we call a negative agreement.

Do you have any objection? If they say no, that means, “no, I don’t have any objection to hop on up there.”

How to Finesse the One-Liner Roof Sales Pitch

Now, you need to finesse this the first time you use it. It’s natural to fumble it the first time you try it out. In fact, I’ve seen it happen.

I was training a canvassing team on the East Coast, shadowing a canvasser during door-to-door roofing sales training, and right out of the gate, he says:

Hey, Mr. homeowner, do you have an objection if I hop on your roof?

Then, he turns to me and says, “Adam, it didn’t work.”

What did he do wrong?

He needed to dial it back a little bit. Remember, this is a new craft to learn.

Instead, here’s how I use it. I start with a conversation.

Hey, Jim,

Super glad that we connected after I left Kelly’s house up the road here. Now, what I offer is a complimentary inspection where I provide photos and videos and walk you through everything I find.

Best case scenario: You do nothing, and you just got someone to hop up there for free, showing you exactly what’s going on.

Worst case scenario: You see any issues that might be there, any hail damage, leaks, pre-existing stuff, and it’ll save you from hopping up.

So, do you have any objection if I hop up for a quick inspection?

Now, wait. See how that all came together? I prefaced it. Do you have any objection if I hop up on your roof for a quick inspection?

Then, leave it at that. The shorter you keep it at the end, the better.

Do you have any objection If I hop up on your roof for a quick inspection?

End it there. That’s what they’re answering, “Do you have any objection?” They often don’t fumble, by the way, because they sometimes don’t even know how to answer it or object.

What If They Object?

If homeowners do object, of course, that’s okay.

Also, remember, anything you learn in sales isn’t like the end-all-be-all trick or the golden ticket.

“Adam, It Didn’t Work for Me…”

So many people tell me this didn’t work for them.

Guys, anything I tell you or someone else tells you in roofing sales training isn’t a 100% deal. You cannot go to every home and say, “Well, I learned the golden ticket to making sales.”

It doesn’t happen. Nothing’s 100%. This is sales. This is door-to-door sales.

And the one-liner pitch is this tool. “Do you have any objection if I hop up on your roof for a quick inspection?” is golden because they naturally want to say, “no.” So, we’re giving them the easiest path to say yes.

Most importantly, we’re making it so comfortable that you don’t feel like a sleazeball pushing yourself on someone. You’re offering a free inspection. Who’s going to hop on your roof and try to sell you something? That doesn’t happen. And that’s why this comes across as super natural. It’s a conversational way to make sales.

After the One-Liner Roof Sales Pitch: What to Do on the Roof

Once you get up on the roof, it is so important you take photos and videos (I go over this in detail in my 12-step sales process, which is part of my Marketing Battle Pack). Here’s what I recommend.

Start with areas like the soft metal, the gutters, or whatever it is that’s going to show that hail. Start there. The reason is that it will become crystal clear—it will bounce off the picture—that there’s hail here.
Move on to the shingles. You want to communicate to your homeowner that you’re going to not only just hop up there for the inspection, but that you’re going to hop up there and you’re going to come down with something of value, something they can see, touch, and feel.
Take advantage of your time. Personally, I get their name. And I’ve already have their address because I walked up. So, while I’m on the roof (my inspections don’t take that long), I don’t want to waste time measuring up the whole roof. I’ve got an Eagle view or another roof measurement tool for later.
Use your time on the roof as use that as sales preparation. Grab your photos. Take the photos that showcase what you need to showcase in a way that makes sense. When I fell into this industry, I’m like a roof gets replaced because of that? That was until I actually learned what that hail damage meant and how significant it was. To the naked or untrained eye, it doesn’t mean a lot. So, it’s our job to showcase what we see in a way that we can clearly communicate. We can educate our homeowners to feel comfortable about the decisions they need to make.
Fill out the top part of that contingency agreement while you’re up there. I always brought my clipboard and my pen up with me. I already knew their first name. I don’t know their last name, and that’s okay. I’ve got the first name, their address, and the date. So, when I come down and I sit down with them—which by the way, reference my 12-step process to the Marketing Battle Pack, along with other goodies—I’m going to sit down and show them everything.

The Contingency Agreement

When we talk about the contingency agreement, we want to ask for a “yes.” We want permission to show them the next steps first.

So, when I come down off the roof, I say Mr. Mrs. homeowner, here’s what I found. Here’s this picture. Here’s what it means. Here’s this picture, here’s what it means. I educate them on their options. Here’s what your options are, here’s how I can help. Then, we move into asking for the business.

Is this something you’d like to chat about?

How we can move forward with this on your behalf?

Are you interested in moving forward?

Would you like to talk about how this works?

Would you like to talk about how we work?

However you want to do it. Whatever is said, we want them to say, “Yes, tell me more.” Then, they say, “Yeah, I’d like to learn more.” Great. So, here’s how it works.

Boom.

I have my clipboard handy with the contingency or whatever folio you use handy, with the contingency already filled out so I can roll right into it.

Now, to supplement that, there are two things. Check out everything in my Marketing Battle Pack. What I’m showing you now—the 12-step process, from inspection to sale and getting invited to the house—it’s all in there. Plus, you’ll get:

Roofing sales tips on how to use the contingency agreement as a sales tool
A cheat sheet
A sample contingency agreement
Two free videos on my channel on the same topic.

Watch the video, How to Use the Contingency Agreement as a Sales Tool, and learn how to make that transition smooth and seamless by presenting the contingency as valuable to the homeowner.

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