The Roofing Sales Game: How to Plan Your Day Like a Boss & Destroy the Overwhelm, Stress, & Chaos

Overwhelmed, being disorganized, dropping the ball, losing sleep… YES, the roofing sales industry is tough. It takes its toll on us.

That’s why we have to have a plan and be prepared. Because without it, we get into a loop. It’s that loop of waking up in a cold sweat at night and thinking about scopes, payments, installs, customers, referrals, and assessments. We’ll keep looping and looping to try to remember everything.

We either get this busy mind, or we don’t have a busy mind.

We don’t have a plan, and we drop the ball.

This happened to me. I was at Roof Con, on the way to dinner with a client of mine, when he got a call. Instantly, I watched him go, “Shoot!” He had dropped the ball. The adjuster was out that morning, and he forgot to let the adjuster know that he was at the conference.

These things happen because we are so busy. We are in reactive mode, and so much is going on. In fact, when I was at Roof Con, tons of people walked up to me, and one of the most common questions they asked was this — How do I plan my day?

So, I’m going to teach you a very simple structure to help you:

1. Plan your day effectively and efficiently, so you can kill the overwhelm and stay calm, cool, and collected
2. Be incredibly organized very simply, even if it doesn’t come naturally to you, so you don’t drop the ball
3. Start sleeping well and through the night because, when everything’s on paper, you won’t forget it, and your mind won’t go on loop
4. Sell more, smash your income goals, and give every customer an amazing experience!

After all, that’s what we do here on at The Roof Strategist. Welcome back, I’m Adam Bensman.

So, let’s get to it. How do we plan our day?

Roofing Sales Tip #1: Plan the Night Before

For every one minute of planning, we save 10 minutes in execution. That’s what Brian Tracy says, and I think that is spot on (by the way, I recommend reading read every single thing Brian Tracy ever wrote; you will learn a lot).

So, I know it’s a little overwhelming, and we get busy. But the best habit is to plan the night before.

Now, you’ve probably heard me say this before, but I’m going to break down that plan in more detail. The night before is when we want to start our planning. This is going to help put our minds at ease.

It’s the last thing that I end my day with. And when I say end my day, I mean my workday. I literally still practice this today. I’ll finish and take 5 minutes to plan for tomorrow. It helps me sleep better, and when I wake up, I know exactly what I’m going to do. And I very seldom drop the ball.

So, the last thing you do as you end your day is to plan out the next day.

How do you make your plan for tomorrow? What’s the best way to plan your days?

With a workable Success List.

Roofing Sales Tip #2: Create Your 5-Point “Success List”

Before we dive in here, I want to share a quick side note on my Marketing Battle Pack. It has a daily planner you can use in the goal-setting and productivity section. It’s the exact one that I used when I was in roofing sales. I would literally print copies and fill them out.

Since then, I have evolved my own daily practice, and I’m going to be sharing that with you here. Because this is a moving, living, breathing organism adapting to what works (and part of this influence came from the book, The One Thing by Gary Keller, which really helped me get focused).

So, what I do is write out a Success List, not a To-Do List.

I jot down the date for the next day, and I leave out all the nitty-gritty details. Then, I get organized, and I list:

1. A daily goal at the top of the Success List: Your daily goal could be to get a roof approved, open up a new neighborhood, get a referral, or sell a roof. Whatever it is, having a single focus, a mission, will carry you through. You need that “why” to push through when things get tough. Plus, it’s fun. When you chase a goal and you get it, you get to pat yourself on the back. And that reward feels great.
2. The Must Do’s: These are the things you absolutely have to do, even if everything else has to wait (by the way, I got this from Gary Keller’s The One Thing). Generally, these are the appointments with adjusters and homeowners — anything that’s a commitment where someone is expecting something from you. Other things, like a follow-up or chasing down a scope or final payment, it’s not going to be the end of the world if a few hours or a day passes before those get done. So, make sure your appointments are on your Must Do list.
3. Sales activities: These sales activities could be following up, working your installation, asking for referrals, sending direct mail letters, cold calling, or whatever else is going to bring in more sales.
4. Admin work: This includes things like staying up to date with your CRM, doing paperwork, and other tasks.
5. Other general tasks: This is miscellaneous stuff you need to keep track of and get done, like an oil change or paying your car insurance bill.

By the way, I’ve done a few videos on this daily plan (including How to Turn Your Roofing Sales Goal into a Daily Action Plan and A Daily Schedule & Strategy to Maximize Roofing Sales). The reason why I’ve covered this topic before — and why I keep covering it — is because it’s evolving. I test these things. I play with them. As they change, I change them and bring them to you because they work well for me. And what worked well for me 10 years ago is different than what works today.

You’ll also see some updates in my Marketing Battle Pack because I miss stuff, and I love bringing those updates to all my existing customers for free. So, when you log in, you’ll see everything that’s new and how we’ve added the Spanish version, the Florida version, the retail version, and more. Now, it’s probably about 10 times the size it was when it was first released.

Roofing Sales Tip #3: Write Everything Down

Writing things down commits them to memory. We won’t forget the things we’ve written down. It’s a basic reminder system that works like a trusted vault.

So, write it all down. Then, you’ll be ready to go.

Personally, I like to write everything by hand, and I’ve used a digital tablet, a reMarkable (I’ve since gone from using that reMarkable to using pen and paper. I find that being able to touch, feel, and flip pages is just easier for me).

With the reMarkable, though, I could write out everything on my Success List. Then, with that digital tablet, I could erase what I needed to, and I just use the same page again. But I found that I started to procrastinate.

That’s why I follow the 5-point Success List (explained in detail above), and I literally write out — by hand — my:

1. Daily goal: You can’t hit a target that you can’t see. So, if you don’t know what your bullseye is, how are you going to hit it? You need to have that daily goal to chase.
2. Must do’s: If you’re called out of the office, what absolutely has to get done? Those are your must do’s.
3. Sales activities: This is anything that’s going to put money in your pocket.
4. Admin work: This is all the stuff outside of selling that you need to do, like paperwork.
5. General or personal tasks: These could be any of the little things that don’t really warrant your brainpower (like rotating your tires, paying the cellphone bill, and other little odds and ends).

Write everything down that you need to track in a place where you’re going to remember to look. Then, any items that weren’t done today can be carried over to your next Success List for tomorrow.

Why does that matter?

Because it means I need to feel that pain of the reminder that I didn’t get something done. So, those tasks have to be rewritten. With this new habit, you’ll find yourself thinking, Crap, I didn’t get this done! Crap, I didn’t get that done! And it’s a reminder for you as you you’re carrying it over to your next Success List for tomorrow.

Roofing Sales Tip #4: Batch Your Time

Here’s what I mean by batching your time. Let’s say you have follow-up phone calls to make. What’s going to be more efficient — doing one follow-up call right now, another one four hours later, and another one an hour later?

No. It’s more efficient to get them all done at once. In fact, there are plenty of “do-it-all-once” things that you can finish faster when you batch your time, like your admin stuff on your CRM or your follow-ups. So, shift into that mindset of getting things done.

You also want to batch your time when it comes to roofing sales activities. Now, I go into this in detail in my program, the Complete Sales Strategy, which is an optional add-on for my Marketing Battle Pack. It’s also included with the Roofing Sales Success Formula, which is the complete package of everything I offer, including a bonus section on time management. It’s used today by individual reps, who have become multi-million-dollar earners, as well as some of the top 100 roofing sales companies in America.

So, back to batching sales activities, I have a couple of questions for you:

1. What’s the most profitable time for you to be out knocking on doors?

A: It’s 4 p.m. to 6 or 7 p.m. on Saturdays.

2. From 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., should I be in the office doing admin work or should I be getting my oil changed?

A: No. I want to batch my time in the right areas. I want to do all of my sales activities during the BEST time to sell.

Personally, I’m an early riser. So, those little tasks or my admin, I’m going to do those in the morning, let’s say between 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. I can power through all that and knock those things out. Then, I’m in a really good spot where I haven’t taken away from my earning potential.

On rainy days, snow days, or during the evenings when it’s dark, I can catch up on these little tasks too. That’s how I batch my time.

Recap: 4 Roofing Sales Tips to Plan Your Days Like a Boss

Summing this all up, here are the key takeaways to remember, so you can plan your days with less stress and more success:

1. End every day by planning for the next one.
2. Follow the same 5-point planning structure daily. Include your daily goal, your must-do’s, your sales activities, admin tasks, and any general or miscellaneous tasks.
3. Write down everything. Transfer the things you didn’t get done today to tomorrow’s Success List.
4. Batch your time, so you can be as efficient as possible.

With this plan, you can really set yourself up for success in roofing sales.

Want More Roofing Sales Strategies, Tips & Videos?

Subscribe for the latest roofing sales training videos and get your copy of my Pitch Like a Pro roofing sales training video library. It includes every video I’ve ever done, organized by category, along with a bunch of tips, tricks, and more.

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.