Roofing Business Cards
Question: How can you tell when a new roofing salesperson is about to quit?
Answer: The printer just delivered their roofing business cards.
There has to be a better way to use that big, beautiful stack of business cards than sticking one in every door you are too scared to knock…
…yes, that front door nobody uses anymore…
…same place where all the other roofers cram their stupid roofing business cards, brochures, and flyers.
Unrealistic Expectations
I can’t remember one, single time in my life when I’ve heard, “Hey, I got your business card on my door. Your design is superior to any I’ve seen before. The template is perfect. Of all the designs and images I’ve seen, your card stands out and speaks to me. You have the best creative slogan. I feel like I know you. I’ve already decided, you are exactly who I want to do my roof. When can I give you all my money?”
However, I have heard something like this on numerous occasions, “My buddy gave me your card. He said you do good work. Can you come out and give me an estimate?”
The original intent of the roofing business card, first known as a “calling card,” was to announce your arrival at the home, allow for a general first impression, and give the receiver a basic understanding as to why you were calling on them. Those days are long gone, but the business card can still be an effective tool for developing new relationships.
If you’ll read this entire article, I’ll share with you one simple strategy you can use starting tomorrow to help you sell more roofs with your business cards. That sounds fair, doesn’t it?
Crazy Friend Requests
Since the business card, as it was originally intended, is nothing more than an introduction to a social or business relationship, think of your roofing business card more like a Facebook friend request.
We all get those awkward alerts… a friend request that comes from out of the blue.
You don’t know them, and they don’t know you, but they’re wanting to be Facebook friends. You study their profile pic, read their wall, but still nothing. You don’t even have any friends in common. Weird, huh?
Is this a scam?
What do they want?
Why are they bothering me?
And yet, that’s exactly what you’re doing when you litter every door in the neighborhood with your roofing business card. They don’t know you. Weird, huh?
Path To A New Relationship
Every relationship starts somewhere…usually with an introduction.
If your business card is doing it’s job, the job it was originally intended to do, then it will serve as an introduction…an introduction to a possible new relationship.
Think of your business cards as “introduction cards.” There’s less pressure to pick the right slogans, use the best designs, or find perfect example card templates because prospects base their decision to do business with you on meeting you, not based on the instrument of your introduction.
In other words, you can meet a lot of people and sell a lot of roofs with a crappy business card because people buy roofs from people, not from business cards.
With the help of your roofing business card, and a few stealth sales strategies, you are introduced, or introduce yourself, to somebody new. When things go well, you start down the path to a new relationship. With the trust and credibility earned while developing your new relationship, you can then begin the sales process, but you aren’t guaranteed a sale!
Some people are better at building relationships, and better at making sales, than others, right?
Relationships Sell
If you have 500 business cards, you hold in your hand 500 “introduction cards” to 500 people, people with whom you could build 500 or more relationships with 500 or more potential roof buyers.
But, getting introduced to new people is hard work, isn’t it?
Building one new relationship from scratch is hard enough, but you’ll need to build several new relationships every month in order to sell more roofs.
There’s only two ways to effectively use your “introduction cards” to sell more roofs.
Sure, you can hand your cards out one at a time while out prospecting.
There’s nothing wrong with the one-at-a-time method. This is where we all start, but we don’t have to stay here. You can do better. I’m going to tell you how in a second.
Many talented sales people make good money walking the streets and handing out their business cards to every person they meet, but their effectiveness is limited by the total number of people they can see in a day.
They’re really good at turning those introductions into relationships and those new relationships into new business.
Or you could give a small stack of cards to every relationship you’ve already built and encourage them to prospect for you.
Business cards don’t sell roofs, people do!
If you want to sell more roofs with your roofing business cards, get them in the hands of people you already know, people who will then get them in the hands of the people you want to know.
Get your cards in the hands of people who already have relationships with other people – relationships you don’t have to build from scratch.
You’re more likely to accept a Facebook friend request if you have mutual friends, aren’t you? Having mutual friends cuts way down on the creepy weirdness factor.
You’re less likely to wonder if this is some kind of scam. Your trust and credibility dials are way up and you haven’t even met them, yet.
You could prospect all day long and not properly pass out as many cards in a month as the people you already know could pass out in a week when they’re properly motivated.
Roofing Business Card Magic
Kelly “Coach” Bonner has a rich background in network marketing…something he’s had to do over the years to help subsidize his public school teacher salary.
“Coach” is a legendary Texas High School football coach, but he’s also an amazing roofing salesman. He makes it a habit to leave a small stack of his business cards with every person who buys a new roof…and even some of the folks who don’t buy.
On the back of each card, he hand writes “$100,” “$150,” up to “$200,” depending on the neighborhood, and then tells his new client, “Give one of these cards to everybody you know. When they call me, I’ll pay you the amount written on the back if they buy their new roof from me.”
He takes it one step further and helps them imagine exactly how much money they could make in referrals from personally giving out his small stack of business cards.
If he’s left them 10 cards, he’ll say, “You have 10 of my cards with $100 written on the back. Give them to 10 people who will buy a roof from me. That’s $1,000 right there. What could you buy with an extra $1,000?” When they tell him what they would buy, they talk about how great it would be to have and “Coach” helps them imagine already owning what they want.
Does it work?
Of course it works. And when it does, he pays the referral fee immediately, and in-person, then asks if they need more of his roofing business cards.
The faster you pay them, the faster they’ll go back to work introducing you to even more people because roofing business cards don’t sell roofs, people do!
Peace,
Mike
P.S. Don’t get caught up in the design, slogan, image, or template of your card. The best business card is the one that gets you introduced to your next buyer. You can waste a lot of time getting creative instead of getting busy. Remember, roofing business cards don’t sell roofs, people do!
Mike Coday
Mike started selling roofs in '95 while working as a youth pastor at a small church in North Texas. A decade later he transitioned to speaking at industry conferences and training outside sales teams. Today, he works exclusively as the premier consultant to roofing company owners who are driven for growth.
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