What Do You Need in an Estimate?

By RoofSnap.

Good roofing estimates lead to signed contracts. 

We can all agree that the estimate is an important part of the sales process. (Whether you should charge for an estimate is a conversation for another time.) There’s a lot of skill when it comes to presenting an estimate to your customer, and a lot of dull math in putting it together. When you’re making a sale, you need estimates that contain all the information your customer needs to move forward with you, that clearly present your value to the customer, and you need to be able to put it together quickly and easily. We’ll show you how to cover those bases in this blog.

Communicate Value

One of the hardest parts of presenting an estimate to your customers is making sure they understand what they’re actually paying for. Some contractors will itemize every aspect of the job, and organize it so that the estimate reads more like a to-do list. (Ex. We’ll remove and dispose of your old shingles, and then we’ll remove your roof’s old decking and replace it with fresh decking… etc.) However you like to present the estimate, the important thing is that it contains all the information you need to sell and that your customer needs to buy. RoofSnap’s estimate documents can display the materials you add to the job, steep charges, and even services or materials that you add during your inspection. In the end, your estimate needs to communicate the value you’re bringing, without confusing your buyer, which brings us to our next point.

Avoid Clutter

Your estimate should always be the best assessment of the work necessary to complete your client’s project. That does not necessarily mean that a property owner needs to know what you’re charging them for nails. Depending on the type of customer you’re dealing with, you may want to display the line item pricing for all your materials. Some customers may want to see how their choice of shingle or manufacturer impacts the price of the bid. Others may just want to see the bottom line. Knowing what type of customer you’re dealing with is important when constructing your bid, as is having the flexibility to pivot when dealing with different customer personas. Our estimate document lets you choose to display your material quantities, their line item totals, your subtotals, your taxes, even whether items show up on the estimate at all!

We want to note that choosing not to display an item on the estimate is not a shady business practice. Whether you display your estimate items or not, the final price reflects your actual total.

Controlling what displays on your documents allows you to keep your customers focused on what they want to get out of their job: a new roof. They shouldn’t feel rushed, but they shouldn’t have a reason to drag their feet either.

Prepare to Pivot

But preparing for your customer is only the beginning, you need to be ready to adjust your bid to fit their needs. If you’ve worked retail sales in the roofing industry, you’ll know that those customers often suffer from the same indecision that comes with any major home renovation. If you’re still preparing estimates on paper or by compiling an excel sheet from your price list, you’ll know the frustration that comes with minor changes. We addressed that a long time ago by making estimating a point and click experience, where you can swipe and delete or change any item, and have another estimate ready in seconds. We want you to be prepared to accommodate changes to your customer’s plan, without another trip back to the office.

If you have any questions about how estimating works in RoofSnap, or how we can help simplify your sales process, let us know! We’ve just released a new estimate document that brings clear, professional formatting to your data, and we’re sure it will help you sell more jobs.

If you’d like to see the other solutions RoofSnap offers, schedule a demo with our team and we’ll walk you through all of our features, each of which is designed to help your business grow.

Thanks for reading!