Stephan Boehringer, Managing Partner, Get the Clicks
Don your battle armor. Rainy season is upon us and many of us haven’t even caught up from Irma. No need to worry though, there are lots of “roofing contractors” ready for the job. After all, every roofer is obviously created equal. I mean, there can’t possibly be a difference between the guy who shows up at your front door unsolicited at 7 pm and the 4.8-star roofer who is at the top of Google.
Sarcasm, Check! I’m laying it on pretty thick. It reminds me of the scene in Tommy Boy, where Richard (David Spade) is asking the gas station attendant for directions while Tommy (Chris Farley) is trying to gas up the car. The level of sarcasm delivered in that scene is epic.
Alright, back to the job at hand. The roof on my house needs to be replaced (no, don’t call me. A permit has already been pulled), 21-year 3-tab shingles - can’t complain about that.
So, I set out to get some roofing quotes just to see what information is going to get presented. I contacted a total of 11 contractors. Seven were found online; the other four were from postcards I had received or simply from walk-ups to my door. I contacted large and small companies, some I had heard of, others who were obviously just chasing the storm.
Over the course of three weeks, estimators came and went. Eight out of the 11 companies wouldn’t provide an estimate. They simply wanted me to sign an Assignment of Benefits (AOB) claim form. Two of the companies wanted my insurance claim documents before they even came out. Half of the folks who showed up called themselves roof inspectors, not estimators. Not a single one had any
decent marketing materials, and that included the Big Boy Brands. As a matter of fact, the two companies who have fairly good name recognition in our market had some of the worst marketing material of them all.
When everything was said and done, of the three estimates I received, two were sent via email and only one was provided to me at the time of the appointment.
The follow-up was even better. Ten out of the 11 companies followed-up with me once. Four out of the 11 followed up with me twice. One company followed up with me three times. All follow-ups were done over the phone. No one followed up via email. No one followed up via text.
The experience was obviously enlightening. It felt like no one really cared very much about getting my business. Everything seemed slapped together. Everyone wanted to hurry off to the next job. It was a storm chasing experience at its best.
If you are not a storm-chaser, you have to build your local brand. I’m a brand-building guy. I believe brands need to be well thought out and developed over time. The roofing companies we tend to work with all embrace this concept on one level or another. You fight the shady storm chasers with one core component; and that is an awesome brand. No, you don’t have to be big to have a great brand; you just need to be good at what you do. To out-perform them at their own game, your battle plan needs to look like this:
■ Have a quality website that works great on all devices, especially mobile.
■ Assure you always have an enticing offer on your website.
■ Lead with a quality guarantee. Say something like: “We are a better option because….”
■ Put a pdf copy of your license on your website, not just your license number.
■ Push your commercial work. Residential will always assume commercial contractors can easily handle residential work. Your commercial work should get as much attention on your website as your residential work.
■ Have the most reviews on Google. Second best is not good enough.
■ Rock your phones. Train, train, train. Quality phone people make all the difference.
■ Assure you have a solid intake process for any lead. Train your phone people to listen for pain points.
■ Record your phone calls. We recommend using Call Tracking Metrics.
■ DO NOT show up in your personal vehicle unless it is branded.
■ Present your sales pitch with a nice folder. Vista Print has amazing offers on pocket folders several times a year.
■ Print out your Google Reviews and put it in a folder.
■ Have a brochure. Seriously. Make one. No excuses. It should be about your company. Not the product.
■ Include a quality business card.
■ Have a product spec sheet. Write it based on solving customer pain points (by the way, your website should be written the same way).
■ Create a Transparency Document. This is a document that explains the process of replacing a roof. Spoon feed info to your customers. We barely understand roof, but we do speak “human.”
■ Educate your customer on AOBs. We all know this is a problem in the industry, especially during storm season. Create an AOB Education Document. Call it: Don’t be an AOB (Another Oblivious Buyer), then explain the AOB process and how it works. Educating customers on the AOB process will knock-out most of the fly-by-night storm chasers in one fell swoop.
■ Bring samples of roof tiles for me to look at. Grab some shingles, cut them into small pieces and leave them with your clients. Let a customer feel the quality.
■ Include a sample copy of your GAF, CertainTeed, Atlas (or whomever you use) roof warranty certificate.
■ Take photos of the roof, and then tell the customer you’ll email them. That’s an excuse for another touch point.
■ If you run a Magnet Sweeper in the grass after a job, put a photo of the Sweeper in the folder. Everyone appreciates a roofer who cares about the safety of their customers, especially if the home owner has kids or animals.
■ Wear a Polo or professional shirt with your logo on it. Embroider the logo, don’t screen-print it. Embroidery always presents higher quality.
■ Ask your customer how they want you to follow up. Phone? Email? Text?
■ When you follow-up, link to specific blogs on your website based on the pain points you heard from your customers. Yes, your website needs to have blog posts about every possible pain point your customer can have.
■ Reiterate to visit your website. You may even want to consider having a portal on your website where customers can download warranty documents, estimates, etc.
Hopefully some of this info is helpful to you. Trust me when I tell you, if you do even half of the items we mentioned in this article, you’ll clean house. I will leave you with a quote from our good friend Tom Callahan, "Of course, I can get a good look at a T-Bone steak by sticking my head up a bull’s a$$, but I’d rather take the butcher’s word for it." Take our word for it. This recipe works. We love roofing and helping our roofers get leads. If you have any questions about the items mentioned, give us a call or visit us at booth 1006 at FRSA’s Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Expo, June 28-29, at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee. We’d love to meet you.
Stephan Boehringer is managing partner of Get the Clicks, a digital marketing solutions company specializing in SEO services, pay per click management, website design and maintenance, consulting and expert branding. Stephan has also taught courses on social media, website design and marketing for FRSA.
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