Get More Customers!
This is probably going to sound crazy, but bear with me a minute…
Suppose you were to visit your friendly neighborhood Target or Wal-Mart tonight. That’s not unusual. Something most of us do a few times a week.
However, tonight a friendly greeter meets you at the front door with a cart full of groceries and household items already packed. Some of the items in the cart you recognize as brands you buy.
Although there are a lot of things in that cart that you might buy, you don’t necessarily need it all tonight. Not to mention, you can’t see everything and some of the items you can see, you would never consider wasting your money on.
Here’s where things get interesting:
As the greeter puts the cart firmly in your hands, she gives you the total bill for the cart and asks for your credit card. Slightly confused, you manage to say, “I just came in for a gallon of milk and some bread.” She then demands, “you either buy what I have ready for you now or we can’t serve you.”
Now you’re starting to get frustrated. Trying one last time to sound reasonable, you ask, “You mean I can’t just go back and grab some milk and bread?” She says, “I’m sorry. You’ll either buy this cart full of groceries now or we’ll have to ask you to leave.”
I told you this was going to sound crazy, right?
Obviously, if this were to happen to you tonight, you would probably turn around and leave… and never walk through their front door again. You might even tell a few people about your crazy experience, wouldn’t you?
This would never happen though (at least I hope not).
Learn From The Best
The reason why a store offers a wide variety of items for sale is because people have different tastes, styles, values, and opinions.
Target and Wal-Mart are probably the best big box retail stores in the nation. There’s a few lessons we can learn from studying what they do and then applying it to roofing sales.
Target would never assume to tell you what you are going to buy… even though they probably already have a good idea based on your current purchases and past buying behaviors.
Have you ever really looked at the offers on the instant coupon Target prints out after you complete the sale? Scary how targeted those offers can be, isn’t it?
Wal-Mart knows that you want to come in and look around… compare prices and make your own selections. They don’t even put a time limit on your shopping. Some stores are open 24 hours a day. Come in early and stay all day long if you like.
This doesn’t mean that stores don’t try and highly influence the brands you’ll buy because they certainly do. They’ll put it in the main isle, on an end-cap, in their sales circular, pass out samples in the aisles… they want to influence you. They also get to pick and choose the brands they’ll carry based on their own profitability goals. You can buy whatever you want from them as long as they sell it.
So, what’s the lesson here?
Roofing Sales Frustration
Let’s draw a parallel with roofing sales…
Some of you are already way ahead of me, but allow me to hit you with it anyway…
One of the reasons why you’re so frustrated selling roofs door-to-door is because you’re handing your prospects a cart full of groceries (i.e. Your Sales Pitch) as soon as they open the door. Before they know what’s happening, you’re asking for their payment information (i.e. Their Insurance Company).
Your prospects are getting frustrated too because they have some interest (i.e. Milk and Bread), but you aren’t even giving them the option to come in and look around while you persuade them to buy more (i.e. listen longer, consider your products, compare service, etc.)
Your prospects tune you out and keep your business card or flyer as a reminder to never do business with “that” company. You walk away lying to yourself, “oh yeah, they’re definitely going to call me back.” Ain’t never gonna happen!
Get Them In The Front Door
Obviously, you’re standing at their front door knocking. They didn’t invite you, aren’t expecting you, don’t know you and probably don’t want to know you. They have better things to do with their time then get slammed with your canned sales pitch.
If you’re going to be like Target and Wal-Mart, you just want to get them in the proverbial front door.
YOU ARE THE FRONT DOOR
The product they’ll eventually be buying, if they buy anything at all, is you.
Give your prospects a little time to shop, talk, poke, and prod you. If you can get them interested in you, you’ve got them in the front door. From there you’ll have a much easier time suggesting what they’ll buy, how they’ll buy it, and how much you’ll get paid.
Prospect Types
Some of your prospects are impulse buyers — if they like you, they’ll buy almost immediately.
Some of your prospects are value buyers — prove your value and you’ll land the sale.
Some of your prospects are comparison shoppers — better figure out what they’re comparing quickly.
Some of your prospects are price shoppers — tell them your price and ask for the sale.
Some of your prospects are jerks — let your competition waste their time and money on them.
There’s so many different types of prospects. It would be impossible to specify every single variation. The point is that you aren’t going to try to sell them anything until they get in the front door and get comfortable with you.
Save your big sales pitch until later in the conversation. Rather than give it to them all at one time, give them a little at a time… or better yet, ask questions until you find out who, what, why, where, when and how they would like to buy and then arrange your sales presentation to meet their needs.
Peace,
Mike
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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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