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It's soul crushing when this happens. After the roof gets approved and the homeowner says, "When can you give me your estimate?" Anger boils over. How did this miscommunication happen? Are they taking advantage of me? Am I about to lose this sale?
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Hosted by Adam Bensman
- Started in D2D roofing sales in 2011
- Former Roofing Company COO (multi-state)
- Creator of the Roof Strategist Sales System (used nationwide for retail + storm)
- Founder of The Roofing STRONG Alliance by TAMKO™ (formerly known as the Roofing & Solar Reform Alliance)
- Author of the #1 Best-Selling Book: The Roofing Sales Survival Guide: Beat the Odds, Overcome Yourself, and Win Big
Content produced on or before 5/13/26 was previously produced by The Roof Strategist, TAMKO makes no representations or warranties regarding the content.
You do all of the work to meet
the customer, help them find
out their roof is damaged.
Get them to sign the contingency
agreement, meet with their
adjuster, get their roof approved
only to have them turn on you.
Right like that.
And then they say, well,
what's your estimate?
and you look around and
you're like, what the heck?
And you start thinking
they're an evil person.
They're a horrible person.
They're taking advantage of you
and you get really angry and
believe me, I've been there.
In fact, I worked on this project where I
landed a deal in a neighborhood that I was
just opening up and I had no competition.
I'd done three or four roofs in the
neighborhood and I get this one roof.
It was the biggest roof
in the neighborhood.
It a giant U-shaped house.
And I was so pumped.
I got the contingency agreement
signed, find out when the
adjuster was gonna be there.
And I showed.
But then I see checking the time
checking the time, 20 minutes,
late, 30 minutes, late 40 an hour.
It's 95 degrees out in Wisconsin summer
with like a hundred percent humidity.
And I am roasting two hours
in the adjuster rolls up and
this gentleman was so large.
He couldn't even get on the roof.
He hands me, his chalk, he hands me
his camera and tells me to go up,
mark up the roof and come on down.
So I do.
And you know, that feeling right?
The total overjoyed glee, cuz
you know this one's in the bag.
He just gave me the chalk.
He gave me the camera.
We're on it.
So I'm up there.
I do the work.
I bring it down.
We go through the photos.
He goes, yep.
I'm I'm buying the roof.
He didn't even go up to
talk to the homeowner I did.
And as I'm telling the homeowner,
I am overjoyed cuz I, I love
making my customers happy.
So here I.
All jazzed up, coming down off the roof,
ring that doorbell with pride, give him
the news that I got his roof approved.
And then he turns on me like that.
And from the joy, the connection shooting,
the breeze, I get the arms cross.
Great.
I'll wait for your estimate.
And he closes the door in my.
And I never got that deal.
This stuff sucks.
And the reason I'm doing this video
right now is because Jared reached
out to our Facebook page and was
struggling with the same thing.
Jarrett, thank you, man.
You, you inspired this video and I
know we exchanged the messages and
we got you a set before this video.
So.
what ended up happening there is
I got to learn one of the most
valuable lessons of my life because
communication became the problem.
I realized that I was at fault.
I realized that I did not
set clear expectations.
I realized that in my head, I had
said everything right, but I didn't,
I just thought everything right.
And the way I communicated it, didn't.
With my customer, which is
why he never became one.
So in this video, I'm gonna help you
diagnose or pinpoint the exact reason
that this has happened or will happen.
And then I'm gonna show you a
very simple way to keep this
from happening ever again.
First wanna say, thank you.
For joining me today,
welcome or welcome back.
My name is Adam Benson, the roof
strategist, and everything I do here on
my channel is designed to help you and
your team smash your income goal and give
every customer an amazing experience.
And if you haven't done this
yet, I do have a free before you.
It's my pitch look pro roofing sales
training, video library, all the videos
I've ever done organized by category.
And it's a perfect starter track for
new sales reps, teams, owners, or
managers looking for more training.
When you want to binge on certain
topics, this is where you want to turn.
Go to the roof, strategist.com
right now, or click the link
in the video description.
And I will send you a copy,
a hundred percent free.
All right, now let's get to today's video.
After you get them approved,
where is your estimate?
Let's break down why this happens
first, the communication gap, the
communication gap goes as follows.
And by the way, this took me a
really long time to kind of crack
the code to, but there's you, right?
So here's you, by the way, I'm sure
you're way prettier than I'm drawing
you, but, uh, we'll roll with this then.
There's what you're thinking.
Okay.
And then there's, you have to
process these thoughts into words,
and then there's what you say.
And then here's your customer and
they are going to be hearing and
processing something different.
Think, say here a lot of different steps.
How often have you said something
and someone like corrects you?
And you're like, no, that's what I meant.
Right point.
Exactly.
That is exactly what happens.
You think you said it
perfectly, but you mixed it up.
Like on my videos, she and I were
filming the other day and she goes,
you've always mixed up the saying,
you always say there's a pot for every
lid, but no one starts with a lid.
They start with a pot.
There's a lid for every pot.
But in my mind, it's the same thing.
Right?
So there's a disconnect between what
I was thinking and what I was saying.
And I ended up sounding silly.
So if you've seen that on my other
videos, I apologize, Sheena caught it.
All right.
So this disconnect breaks down.
Expectations.
Okay.
So expectations are unclear
and when expectations are
unclear, we have problems.
So what this likely means is this simple.
And I hate to say it, but it's probably
with rare exception, your fault.
Now I know that's bold, right?
I don't.
I, how can I say it's your fault?
It's only because I've served thousands.
Of sales reps.
And I've gone through this process
countless times that I see each
and every time where I was on the
phone, trying to recover a deal.
It was all due to expectations.
I don't care if the paperwork's right.
It is almost always due to expectations.
So there's two corrective
action plans here.
And then I have a fallback option
for the, the, the five to 10% that
aren't an expectations problem.
It's a slimy person problem.
All right.
Let's face it.
It's a.
Or a friend that has someone chattering
in their ear, put a bug in their ear.
So to speak saying, Hey, you could get
this done cheaper and pocket some money.
Or I got a roofer to eat my deductible.
And when that stuff happens yeah.
That can throw a monkey wrench.
So I do want to acknowledge
the fact that that can happen.
And if that is happening to you, I
highly recommend you watch the video.
We're gonna put the card right up here.
It's getting past the,
give me an estimate.
Objection.
And I'll, I'll break down how to
overcome that if it does come up,
but for the sake of this video,
since it's about 90% expect.
Let's start there.
All right.
Number one.
This is what the most powerful fix is.
Are you ready?
Role play.
All right.
Why do I say role play?
Because owners managers out there,
I know you you're tuning in as well
and you and I both know, you don't
know what's happening in the home.
And there are so many times where
you're gonna be communicating,
talking to a rep where they say, oh,
I'm, that's exactly what I'm saying.
Tell me what you're saying.
Oh, that's exactly what I'm
saying, but then you do role.
And you pinpoint exactly.
What's not being said, it's only
through live action role play that we
can truly figure out what's going on.
So if this does keep happen, To you.
What I want you to do is get with
a buddy on your team, the owner,
or a manager, and do some role
play going through the contingency
agreement and how you set expectations
for how the process will unfold.
Cause I know there are people
that don't use the contingency
agreement by the way, I am a big fan.
And if you're on the fence on using
them, I highly recommend you watch my.
We'll put a card up here
on contingency agreement.
Yes or no.
And I weigh out kind
of those pros and cons.
So whether you use a contingency
or not either way, it is
about those expectations.
So role play is the far and away
best way to get better at this.
But now this again is to
highlight where that problem is.
Uh, one little pro tip.
If you don't have someone to role play,
film yourself, grab your smartphone, pull
it out, film yourself, going through it.
There's something magical about
watching yourself from a third party.
It's a perspective.
That's really weird.
It's new, but you see yourself in
truly a totally different light and
you might even be able to pinpoint
feeling like holy smokes when I
was in it and talking about it.
Like everything seemed to make sense,
but when I watched it back, mm-hmm.
Didn't , that's where I messed up.
So again, film yourself.
All right.
Now let's break down the key action
item for you to do in the home.
So here's the fix.
Okay.
The fix before signing a contingency
is to summarize your next steps.
and your expectations.
Okay.
So always, always, always
repetition is okay.
People don't always hear everything.
So for me, and what I teach in my
closing formula is how to go through
that contingency agreement to set clear
expectations of what the contingency
agreement means and how it applies.
To the homeowner and
what's gonna happen next.
And if you want help, I have an entire
playlist on using the contingency
agreement as a closing tool.
And I highly recommend you pop into there.
If you're using my roofing sales
success formula and, and access to
my closing strategy, I guide you
through it in even more detail inside,
and that's what teams are using.
So if you have it hop back in, if
you're interested, there's a link in
the video description below and you can
contact our team with any questions.
All right.
So we have to summarize those next steps.
So once we get the contingency agreement,
Before we leave the home, we wanna
spell out exactly what's gonna happen
and it'll go something like this.
Mr.
Homeowner, I am so excited to serve you.
So here's, what's gonna happen next first.
We're gonna have you contact your
insurance carrier to file the claim.
Next.
As soon as you find out the adjuster's
name and phone number, you're
gonna call me with, with their name
and number and the date that he
or she will be arriving at your.
Then I'm gonna meet them here at
your property to make sure that I can
assess everything and work with them
to get this approved by identifying
all the damage on your behalf.
Once we do that, we
move on to the fun part.
As we just went through in our
contingency agreement, the insurance
adjuster is gonna put together their
loss summary or their scope of loss.
Some people call it an estimate and
then we'll go through that together
and do everything that's listed.
As the contractor, a choice to
do the work and all you have to
do is the fun part pick colors.
So there you have it by setting the
expectations summarizing what's happened.
Excuse me, summarizing what
you've agreed to in, in pacing.
What will happen next?
That homeowner it leaves no
room for misinterpretation.
Say it again.
After you get the deal
signed, even if you said it.
Because we want everybody
to be on the same page.
And if you wanna pour a little bit
of gasoline on this fire, one tactic
is you can use tie down questions
at the end to make sure they get it.
You understand that I'll be working with
your insurance company on your behalf
to identify damage with the adjuster.
Yes.
You understand that if we get
this approved, we will become the
contractor choice to do the work.
Yes.
Excellent.
And you understand that the most
challenging thing you're gonna
need to do is pick colors, right?
If you wanna have some fun with it.
So when we use those tiedowns, which.
Again, pouring gas on the fire.
If you, if you really have a
problem with this coming up,
that's the best way to fix it.
All right.
So now, now you.
practice role, play practice going
through your contingency agreement, set
clear expectations, and immediately after
the autograph, go through it again, and
be sure if you have this problem a lot
to use those tie downs to get verbal
agreements to all of those expectations.
So there is absolutely no
question about what happens next.
So that's all for now.
And thank you for joining
me in today's video.
Just cuz our time here
is about to wrap up.
Doesn't mean our time needs
to, so if you haven't done.
Download a free copy.
My pitch.
Look at pro roofing sales
training, video library.
I have a playlist in there, by
the way, on closing, I have one on
the contingency agreement and an
objections category and all that will
pair really nicely with this video.
But if you have trouble still, let's
say on getting past the, give me an
estimate from those few percent of slim
balls, then hop right into this video
and we'll show you how to do that.
Hey, thanks again.
And I will see you on the next one.