As we discussed a few months back at our South Florida Metal Roofing Conference, one of the big problems many contractors face is in their marketing and sales. To put it bluntly, they don’t really have them.
Obviously, you’re in the business of roofing, not marketing or selling your services—but you’ll get better results and more business if you learn how to pitch metal roofing properly.
How to Sell
Whether you’re trying to drum up new business or better satisfy your existing customers, knowing how to sell is a huge benefit. While we can’t teach you everything there is to know about sales, we can give you a few pointers:
1) Benefits, Not Features
Do you spend time talking about the features of your roofing material or the qualifications of your guys? These are features. They’re usually technical and boring for customers, because they don’t really care—they want to know why any of that matters to them!
That’s why marketing and selling is about benefits. Connect up how the features of your products and services will improve your customers’ lives. In the case of metal roofing, tout how it has a much longer lifespan and is nearly impervious to anything Mother Nature can throw at it. For most customers, focusing on the benefits will be a lot more persuasive than merely listing technical facts about metal roofing.
2) Sales Is Only 30 Percent Talking
There’s something to keep in mind when you’re talking to a customer or prospect about choosing you for a roofing job, and it’s this: only 30 percent of the interaction should be you talking! The rest should be you listening to the customer and his or her needs.
Think of the sales process as a conversation, rather than a spiel or script that you have to go through. You’re still trying to sell yourself as the best solution for a customer, but you’re showing it instead of telling. It’s a powerful way to get new business and impress current customers.
3) Be Patient
Perhaps the best tip to keep in mind for good sales is just to be patient. You want to cultivate a great relationship with each individual customer, while also building up a positive reputation in your community. Being patient and helpful will endear customers to you. Hard selling won’t, especially with a purchase as massive as a new roof.
It’s up to you to decide how you want to do it, but we think patience will be a benefit to your company long-term.
A Perk of Working with Us
While improving at sales will help you win more business from customers, when it comes to metal roofing, we often see customers who are nervous about spending a significant amount of money on it compared to cheaper alternatives.
As a contractor, you can send the homeowner to our office to learn the benefits of metal roofing, see some examples, and observe the installation process. The homeowner can always come to us as the metal fabricator, which means they’ll feel more protected and confident about going for the metal roof.
Stay tuned for our next conference, where you’ll learn even more tips about selling as a contractor!
~J.C.
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