Roofing 101: Closing the Sale

By IKO.  

How to make a convincing sales pitch, close the deal and walk away with thoughtful takeaways. 

The best part of selling is closing! Closing the sale takes strategy and tact, it is the moment of truth: are you going to make the sale or not? Reviewing closing strategies and honing in on your skill to make the sale is time well spent. Follow this guide from IKO, which walks you through the closing of a sale process and how to improve with every sale you make. 

Things to include in your roofing pitch 

Your pitch should be highly tuned to the specific prospect that you’re working with. You should be comfortable enough with it to drop certain parts, respond to your prospect’s thoughts and adjust it in other ways as you figure out what matters to them. However, you should still have an expansive script so that you can draw on any element that you’ll need. Here is a general list of things you could include in that pitch script: 

• How your company stands out from the competition. 

• The story of your company. 

• Your company values. 

• Before and after images of shingled roofs. 

• Multiple shingle options. 

• Warranty information. 

• Customer testimonials. 

• Online reviews of recent jobs. 

• Your quality standards. 

• Financing information. 

• Any roofing technology your company uses. 

• A prompt to set a time to follow up with them. 

Sometimes concise pitches can be better. It all depends on your unique style and the customer whom you’re dealing with. However, any of these elements can help you be more successful. 

Closing 

Closing is the lynchpin in the selling process. It is essentially asking the prospect if they are ready to buy from you, sign the contract or schedule their roofing work. As you would imagine, people have very different strategies for closing, even within just the roofing industry. Some roofing salespeople find that they need to schedule a second appointment or follow up with the homeowner to close. Others feel that second appointments aren’t necessary, and they can close during their first meeting. You might find one strategy or the other works better depending on your pitching strategy and the kind of prospect you’re talking to. Your best closing strategy will be unique to you. Still, there are plenty of closing strategies you can try before you find what works and some information you should know to make it easier. 

Body language 

You can tell that your prospect is ready for you to approach them with a closing offer with body language. CHEF is an acronym for body language coined by Zig Ziglar. Each letter represents a signal that indicates your prospect is ready for you to close. C stands for “chin or cheek”; H is for “hands”; E is for “eyes”; and F is for “friendly.” Acting friendly, making eye contact and touching their chin or cheek, or touching the palms of their hands together are very strong signs the person is ready for your closing line. 

Handling objections 

When you attempt to close on a prospect, they may bring up objections. When they do, remember LAER and try to help the prospect with the objection honestly. Of course, sometimes, the objection is not a real hurdle, but an excuse to say “no.” If you sense this, you should accept the objection because that helps the prospect feel respected, and it may turn into a sale later. 

If the objection is real, you should have a plan on how to address it and get back to closing. This has to be honest persuasion, where you really address the person’s objection in order to get the sale. Examples of common roofing objections and how to handle them include: 

• Finances: If a prospect says they do not have the money for their roofing repairs or replacement, point them to your financing options and even bank loans. It is true that getting a roof repaired will prevent more expensive damage down the road. 

• Partner: Prospects may say they need to confirm with their partner, and this may be honest or an excuse. You can ask them to call their partner now or schedule a time to speak with them both. 

• Time: Homeowners are busy and may say they don’t have the time to deal with their roof right now. You can express how your company makes it easy for them and saves them time. 

• Multiple quotes: Wise homeowners may want to get other quotes before they commit to your company. Make sure you submit your quote and then follow up. Some homeowners will give up on getting other quotes or will get them, but still choose your company. 

There are many more potential objections. When you hear an objection that you don’t have a strategy for, you could write it down and spend some time preparing to handle it next time. 

When closing fails 

What if it didn’t work? You can always talk to the prospect a bit more and then attempt to close again. Most salespeople will try multiple closing techniques before giving up or scheduling a time to speak to the prospect again. However, be sure not to harass them. 

You will fail to close most of the prospects you talk to unless they are very well-qualified by your company first. That’s perfectly normal, so try not to let it discourage you. In fact, getting to a “no” faster is good, as it gives you more time to spend on prospects who might say “yes.” 

Closing different kinds of people 

You may find that there is a closing strategy that works for one kind of person, but fails to work for others. Over time, you’ll need to develop multiple closing strategies. You’ll also need to learn which ones to try based on your prospect’s income, personality, gender and other characteristics. As a newcomer to the world of sales, you’ll likely be best at closing people who are like you. Talk to more experienced salespeople to learn about other strategies you can use for people who are not like you. 

Follow-up 

This is the last step in the sales process. While you’ve already made your sale at this point, you don’t want to gloss over this. You follow up with your customer after the roofing work has been done to ensure that they’re satisfied with the work. This helps you establish a long-term relationship with the customer and can help you generate more sales. A satisfied customer may review you positively, be more receptive to giving you referrals and call your company back when they need roofing work in the future. A follow-up is as simple as a call, email or text to ask the customer how it went. Just listen, accept feedback and thank them again for choosing you.  

How to improve as a salesperson 

Now you’re armed with techniques and strategies, but you may still find that your first few days or weeks as a roofing salesperson are less successful than you’d like. How do you improve? There are a few ways you can hone your sales strategy faster. 

Get a partner 

Many companies have a policy of assigning new salespeople to shadow experienced salespeople to show them the ropes. An experienced salesperson will have their strategies and will have honed them for the specific kinds of prospects that your company deals with most. Learning from their experience will help you be more successful at first, even if you need to develop your own techniques as you grow. 

Record your results 

Often, the best way to grow at anything is to keep a record of your successes and failures. We suggest keeping track of every single sales attempt, whether it was successful or not, and other information that might help you improve. You could track: 

• Where you think you lost the customer in your pitch. 

• Questions you were unprepared for. 

• Objections you didn’t have an answer for. 

• Basic demographic information to see if you perform better with a certain kind of prospect and neighborhood. 

• The pitch you used or where you changed your typical pitch. 

• The closing strategy you used. 

After you have tracked your results for a while, you can review them and analyze which strategies are most successful. Hopefully, you’ll have some important insights, like that a certain closing style works more often, or a certain change in your pitch does well. 

Seek support and education 

The company you work for probably has dozens of other salespeople who face the same challenges you do. Hopefully, there is a strong spirit of camaraderie in your company and a willingness to mentor and learn. Enroll in any additional training that your company offers you and participate in social events, as other more experienced salespeople will often talk about their strategies at these events. You may also wish to sign up for online sales courses offered by third parties. 

Becoming a great roofing salesperson 

It’ll take experience and effort to become a great roofing salesperson, but with these tips and an understanding of the overall roofing sales funnel, you’re off to a great start. You may also find that there are some roofing contractor apps that can help you make your sales process more successful. 

Learn more about IKO Industries in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.iko.com 

Original article source: IKO