Top 3 ROOKIE MISTAKES in Roofing Sales

I want to share the top three BIGGEST rookie mistakes that I see made over and over and over again by new or inexperienced people in the roofing business.

Now, the hardest parts of these rookie mistakes are the facts that:

• They’re unintentional.
• They’re completely unconscious.
• They’re usually made by good people, who got into the roofing business with a good heart, a good soul, and true intentions to be of service to others, really helping them through this process.

Unfortunately, being a nice guy or gal just doesn’t win business in roofing sales. And these rookie mistakes can:

1. Cost you deals.
2. Keep you from being successful.

BUT by becoming aware of these mistakes, you CAN:

1. Make some really quick, easy adjustments.
2. Be really effective in the home.
3. Sell with confidence, delivering a strong message and moving people to say “yes” more.

Before we get to it, I just want to say welcome or welcome back. Adam Bensman here, The Roof Strategist. Thank you for spending your very valuable time with me. Everything I do here is designed to help you and your team smash your income goals and give every customer an amazing experience.

And, sometimes, trying to give people an amazing experience and having a good heart actually leads us in the opposite direction. That’s what this blog is all about.

So, if you are new in roofing sales and you want to jumpstart your journey, I invite you to join me inside my free training center. Click that link or text “FREE” to (303) 222-7133.

Now, let’s talk about the top three biggest rookie mistakes in roofing sales.

Rookie Roofing Sales Mistake #1: Talking Way Too Fast

The first mistake rookies tend to make in roofing sales is getting way too excited and pitching way too FAST.

If you’ve watched any of my videos, you’re probably thinking, Adam, that’s you! You talk way too fast!

And yes, I do. BUT in a sales appointment, I dial it back. The reason I keep my cadence up when I’m teaching is because:

• I need things fast, punchy, and to the point.
• I have the attention span of a gnat.

Still, in a roofing sales appointment, we need to:

1. Slow it down a bit.
2. Keep that energy and enthusiasm up.

If we speak too quickly, that’s usually because we’re nervous, excited, or eager to please. Those are the main reasons why we can end up spewing out that kind of word “vomit” all over our customers. And this can happen at the door when we’re knocking or at the kitchen table.

So, the first BIG mistake is:

1. Talking way too fast
2. Being way too wordy
3. Spewing out word “vomit” on homeowners

When you speak too quickly:

• People won’t feel like they’re in conversation.
• They can feel like they’re being shouted at, and that can make them really

So, whether or not you’re a rookie, slow down your pitch at the door and the kitchen table. And remember that:

1. It’s OK if it takes time to deliver your pitch.
2. You’re in a conversation.

Rookie Roofing Sales Mistake #2: Overselling the Positives

This is a counterintuitive mistake, and it can happen when nice guys or gals oversell the positives.

Now, overselling the positives means saying things like:

• We’re a great company.
• We have the BEST process in the WHOLE world.

Everything’s good, good, good, or great, great, great. And when we spend SO much time selling how great we are, we can set ourselves up for failure because:

• In sales, we need to focus on the pain, the problem, or the struggle AND the consequences of not taking action on their roof (and check out my video on Pain as the Missing Link in Roofing Sales).
• We need to keep people in an uncomfortable position to get them to make a buying decision. That’s not out of manipulation, coercion, or slimy tactics. It’s just understanding how people process information and make decisions.

So, if we oversell the positives:

1. They’ll say, “Great! So, there’s really no need for me to use you. Why do I need you to meet with my adjuster? Why should I choose your company over the other one when we’re talking about a retail estimate? They’re cheaper, right?”
2. We end up being really ineffective salespeople.

That’s why we need to focus on the consequences or the negative outcomes just as much as the positive outcomes. If we don’t, we won’t be able to close as many deals because we’re not getting into that pain.

Along with that, the other problem with staying too positive is that we often oversell how amazing everything will be. I did this a lot in the beginning as well.

And what I didn’t know at that time was that:

• It’s construction, and there are thousands of pounds of debris coming off that roof.
• No matter how good a job you do, things happen. The siding will get scuffed. The crew will park their truck in the driveway, and it’ll have an oil leak. The homeowner will find a nail or a crack that they didn’t before.
• The wind blows debris or a tree down, cracking a window.

It HAPPENS. So, when we oversell how great we are, we set their expectations really high, and the homeowner thinks:

• They should choose you because you’re with an amazing company.
• Nothing will ever go wrong with the project. It’ll go perfectly.
• You’re a LIAR if anything does go wrong because you didn’t fulfill your promise and you let them down.

Again, when we oversell the positive, we set ourselves up for failure from both a sales and a customer service standpoint.

So, set realistic expectations with that homeowner. You can do that by saying something like this:

Mr. Homeowner, we are removing thousands and thousands of pounds of debris off your roof and replacing it.

As we do this, we’ll do our absolute very BEST to protect your home. We’ll use plywood around your windows and your doors, and we’ll use tarps around all of your shrubs and your gardens.

We’re going to run these big cool magnets on rollers to pick up all the nails.

But with this being construction, things may happen. I just want you to know that and stay calm if anything does happen because we stand behind our installations.

If anything goes wrong, we will take care of you.

So, we set realistic expectations, and that way, if everything does go great, we’ve exceeded their expectations, and we’re the heroes.

Alternatively, if we’ve set the bar too high and we underdeliver, we risk getting those one-star reviews. So, don’t oversell the positive.

Rookie Roofing Sales Mistake #3: Not Asking for the Business

Now, this last rookie mistake in roofing sales is probably the most common one. In fact, over the last year, I’ve spoken in front of several thousands of people all across the U.S. As I have, I’ve asked this question:

Who here has been guilty of NOT asking for the business?

Hands will immediately shoot up after I ask this, with people saying, “Yeah, I didn’t ask for it because I wanted to be in nice guy mode.”

The truth is A LOT of us revert to nice guy or gal mode, hoping that the homeowner will just love us and say yes. But:

• It does NOT work like that.
• We need to guide the homeowner to yes.
• We need to use the “comfort” close, whether that’s an assumptive close or a negative-agreement close.
• We need to ask for the business.

After all, telling customers what to do is always going to be far more effective than just giving a great presentation, sitting back, and waiting (or hoping) for them to say “yes.”

And if you need help with this, jump into my free training center by clicking that link. When you do, look for my webinar called 10 Closing Techniques for Every Situation for Both Storm and Retail.

Technique number one in there is about The Comfort Close (and I recently had a gentleman reach out to me and tell me that he tried The Comfort Close, and it worked like a CHARM. He even sent me a picture of a retail contract he signed, saying he followed what I taught step by step and it helped him sign deals!).

Recap: Top 3 Rookie Mistakes in Roofing Sales (& How to Overcome Come Them)

Now, you know the 3 most common rookie mistakes in roofing sales. Quickly, they are:

1. Talking way too fast: This can happen at the door or the kitchen table, and I’ve been guilty of it (and still have to work through it sometimes). Remember, talking too fast can make people feel uncomfortable, like they’re being talked at, instead of talked with.
2. Overselling the positives: We fail from a sales standpoint with this mistake because we don’t get into the pain. When that happens, people won’t seek us as the solution. Or we set expectations too high, and we end up underdelivering.
3. Not asking for the business: This tends to be the most common rookie mistake in roofing sales. The main reason people don’t ask for the business is that they’re afraid of rejection and being too pushy. So, they don’t ask for the business because they want to avoid that rejection and discomfort.

In my system, I show you how to find a comfortable path to ask for the business and become more confident closers in the house, so:

1. You can bypass ALL of these rookie mistakes.
2. You can, again, smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience.

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