Good Question!
I get a lot of email and comments from people thinking about getting into the roofing sales business. They almost always sound something like this…
Mike
I’m looking to get into selling roofs door to door…..what advice would you give a rookie starting out?
This website is loaded with good articles to help you get started in roofing sales. If you only have time to read one, start with this one: Before You Take That Roofing Sales Job
3 Quick Rookie Roofing Sales Tips
#1 Leverage the 80/20 Rule
Also known as the “Pareto principle”… states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
What does this mean to you?
80% of the contracts signed in any roofing company are brought in by 20% of the sales people. If there’s 10 sales people in your office, 2 of them will bring 80% of the contracts. The other 8 sales people will only bring in 20% of the contracts.
Who brings in the most contracts? Learn everything you can from them.
What are they doing to get new business? Learn all their tips and tricks.
Why do they make more money? Copy what they do.
Where do they work? Figure it out. There’s a reason they pick those neighborhoods.
When do they work? Know when to push and know when to rest. Get that wrong and you’ll join the losers.
How do they work? They’ve got a system of organization. Learn it.
#2 Work with Honest People
Cheaters make money quick, but they lose it even faster. If the people in leadership at your new company like to talk about how they’ve taken advantage of people, chances are they’ll take advantage of you.
Find an honest roofing company. A good company will do their due diligence before taking you on as an independent contractor. They’ll want to know that you can be trusted.
If the only thing they talk about is how rich you can get and how fast you can make it, you might want to keep looking.
If they offer you a job on the spot without an interview, that might be a good warning sign.
#3 Get Paid
Sounds simple, but let me explain…
One of the most difficult things for any roofing company is to balance their cash flow.
If they have 20 or 30 jobs going on at once while waiting for the insurance company or mortgage company to release funds, they’ll need cash flow. They could easily need $100k of funding to keep everything moving.
When people stop getting paid and jobs quit getting produced, that could be a sign of slow cash flow. It happens to the best companies… but, if it goes on for very long, you may want to think about finding a different roofing company before it goes on for very long.
Many roofing companies will pay a draw when you bring in a new contract along with the insurance papers and/or a check. When your customer has paid in full, the file should be closed as soon as all the receipts come in… maybe a few weeks at most before you get paid your back-end… unless you’ve been given advances.
If you are getting advances, your advances will usually be paid out of your earned profits when the back-end checks are collected.
It can be hard to walk away when you’re waiting to get paid, but there’s no sense missing thousands of dollars in new work while you’re waiting on hundreds.
Here’s a few more articles you may want to read…
The Secret of Making Prospects Like You
A Little Mistake That Cost A Door To Door Salesman $1,000 A Week
Peace,
Mike
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.
Download this FREE special report now to make more money selling roofs.
Download the FREE Special Report