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The 5 crazy types of homeowners and what they do. Here's how to deal with them in roofing sales.
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“Because your company is only as STRONG as you are.”
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5) Build the roofing company of tomorrow.
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.
Customers are absolutely crazy.
And when they're inside their own
home, they do even crazier things.
And as roofing sales professionals,
we experience the inner crazy of
every customer who would never
even reveal how crazy they are.
If they had to go into public
to communicate with others.
But these experiences fall on our plate.
They make for good stories or they
make for the absolute worst or hardest
dates, you know, the type, the customer
that calls and the minute you see
them on caller ID, your heart sinks.
And you're like, Hey, Peggy.
Thanks for calling.
And you gotta just put the smile on
and, and, and go through the act.
But at the end of the day, you know,
man, they're really beat me down.
So in this video, which you inspired,
we're gonna take a little bit of a
break from our normally scheduled
programming going through sales.
Strategies and sales tactics, and we're
gonna have some fun as we break down
the five crazy things that customers do
with a story and a persona that matches
a customer I'm guessing you've had, but
the real takeaway here, besides some
entertainment as to learn how to cope
with these weird scenarios, so you can
maintain really incredibly high service.
Create an amazing experience or
transform bad experiences into great
experiences because at the end of
the day, we are truly in the service
business and it's up to how you treat
your customers, the experience they
have with you, that's gonna make or
break whether or not you get referrals.
So let's get started.
Shall we first quick,
welcome or welcome back?
My name is Adam.
Besman the roof strategist and
everything I do here on this channel
and on my podcast is designed
to help you and your team smash
your income goal and give every.
An amazing experience.
There's links to the various
products and programs.
I have available along with some
freebies in the description below.
Now let's get to it.
The first persona.
Have you heard of one,
a lawn chair, Larry?
I first met Lawnchair Larry, back in
about my third year of roofing sales,
it was a phone call inbound lead to the
office tree falls on this guy's house.
It was a mobile home park.
And when I pulled out, I was bummed that I
drove two hours for a really tiny project
that I didn't even know if we could take.
And we worked our magic.
We turned this tree claim into a
full roof replacement, and I thought
this customer was gonna love us, but
Lawnchair Larry showed up on install.
The owner of the house who decided
that it was his responsibility to
park his lawn chair out front park,
his butt in it, and then become the
foreman as the construction expert,
managing and observing his own project.
Have you had a customer like this?
Yeah, well, you know what?
At the end of the day lawn chair, Larry
just really wants to feel important.
He wants to feel special and he wants
you to know that he knows what he knows.
So you do a good job.
And the best way to deal with lawn
chair, Larry is to simply reinforce his
desire to get a quality project done.
And let him know that if anything
comes up to give you a buzz.
And you put lawn chair, Larry
at ease, and believe me, it'll
make your whole job easier.
Even if he doesn't leave the lawn
chair next, we have the, uh, one
of my least favorite customers.
And this is the nervous
Nellie, the nervous Nellie.
I first met the nervous
Nellie on a project.
I didn't even want when
nervous Nell called in for a
reinspect on the roof that got.
I even told the adjuster
there's nothing here.
Well, guess what?
The adjuster needed to get this
roof approved, paid for it.
And I got stuck working with
nervous, Nelly nervous, Nelly called
me about every one to two hours
on the day of install, nervous.
Nelly would ring and I'd hear the phone
or I'd answer the phone and he'd say,
Hey Adam, the crew is loading the roof
with material as they're tearing it off
don't they need it all torn off first.
And I.
Nervous Nelly, no need to worry.
The crew knows what they're doing.
We're bringing material up as
we're tearing it off so we can
do parts of your house in order,
in case any severe weather comes.
We wanna work through those sections
one at a time, leave this with us.
We do this every day and then nervous
Nelly calls back because of the
debris falling into a certain area
and then nervous Nelly calls back.
And every time that phone would
ring, I was like, It's nervous,
Nellie again, what am I gonna do?
And as bill SSO told me, the gentleman I
interviewed on the channel, by the way,
who did 2.2 million in one neighborhood,
his very first year in roofing sales
using the sales system, he says to me,
Adam, you gotta check up from the neck up.
I know it's a saying in the cars, in
the, excuse me, in the auto industry,
in the sales business in general, check
up from the neck up before you pick up.
And I would always do that and kill him.
Kill nervous, Nelly with
kindness to ease it over.
All right, then number three,
we have delusional Dan.
Have you ever worked with the
delusional Dan delusional?
Dan?
I met.
In court, after delusional, Dan told
us that we damaged his gutter, but what
delusional Dan didn't realize is we
had a before picture of his property
with a description of the gutter damage
that he in fact autographed saying,
yes, this is the condition of my home.
But after the fact delusional, Dan.
Slee ball.
Attorney said those pictures are doctored.
So the delusional Dan that you
maybe dealt with or soon will is the
person that notices something that
quote unquote, wasn't there, the
classic, you touched it last syndrome.
You know, my roof duck didn't sway
until you put those new shingles on.
Well, that's not how it works.
That crack wasn't there in
my driveway until your cruise
trailer was there was it.
I don't know, delusional.
Dan seems to find something
because they think you touched
it last and you broke it.
You know the type now with these folks, I
gotta tell you, there's really not an easy
way to deal with this when they generally
believe that you messed up their home.
So my best advice for you is to document
the condition of the house before
the project, including photos of the
driveway for any cracks or oil stains,
take pictures of every elevation.
So you have your file and what I call
the U-Haul inspection, where you'll
walk the property with the homeowner
and indicate what's already damaged
on the home and positioning it in a
way saying, Hey, that way, if we mess.
We take responsibility and get it fixed.
All right on to number four, number
four might be a familiar name to you.
We have pissed Peggy pissed.
Peggy is the one that calls
not with questions, not with
concerns, but just downright angry.
She could also be called the negative
Nancy of the G of the bunch, the
person who no matter what you
do has something wrong with it.
So my most memorable experience
with pissed Peggy was the woman
who we got her very margin.
Damage roof approved when she
desperately needed a new, a new roof.
And once we got into it
realized it required red deck.
We invoiced, the insurance carrier
got everything covered and this lovely
woman just received a brand new roof.
We went to bat for her to flip this retail
opportunity into an insurance deal and
save her thousands and thousands and
thousands of dollars until one day pissed.
Peggy calls me and she says, Adam, I
am looking at the insurance paperwork.
And on the estimate,
it says half inch CDX.
But what I see in my driveway, Uh,
three eights, uh, uh, OSB and I called
Lowe's and the price difference.
And she had the dollar for
dollar difference between
OSB and a half inch CDX.
She calculated the difference
and wanted me to write her a
check because of the difference.
Can you believe that now I
laughed with her a little bit.
Okay.
That's a lie.
I didn't laugh.
I wanted to laugh.
And in fact, they didn't
wanna laugh with her.
I wanted to laugh at her because
what I said is, Hey, listen, I'm
happy to, to cut the difference.
If you'd like to, I can return this.
If you'd like to go to, to home
Depot and pick up, you know,
the 60 sheets that we're gonna
need does home Depot de deliver?
No.
And I had to explain the fact
that our supplier carries OS.
And that it's delivered to the
property because the reality is home.
Depot's not delivering those sheets.
And that's just how it works
in the roofing business.
You and I both know we don't pay less
when we're getting from our supplier.
All right.
So that's piss Peggy the person,
no matter how good a job you do.
They're upset about something.
And, you know, with these folks, I
have found the one thing to ease them.
And it's not a popular opinion, but
you just gotta use logic and help them
to understand the situation as it is,
and then take the emotional component
of your connection and desire to make
it right to say, Hey, you know, we
really wanna make this right for you.
How can we do it?
All right.
This leads us to number five is talkative.
Terry.
Talkative Terry is the customer
that won't do business with you
until you have a beer with him.
I had a gentleman like this and when I
tried to peel away from that conversation,
I heard about what his cousin was doing
that day, where his daughter went to
school, what his hobby was in high school.
I learned about the car in his garage
and the bad experience he had in the
return center at Walmart talkative.
Terry, won't let you go.
So my last tip to wrap.
Talkative Terry.
And what you can do to deal
with these kinds of people is to
simply acknowledge, to find that
one moment in the conversation.
And then it was at Walmart and
the checkout line was wild.
And then, and then when you have
that moment to jump in and say, man,
that sounds like a total nightmare.
I'm glad you got that taken care of.
Hey, I don't want to keep you all day.
I have an appointment
coming up and I got a scoot.
And again, giving yourself that
little interject, acknowledging what's
been going on to give it a wrap.
Mentioning something specific about
what they're doing and then making
it that you don't want to keep them.
Hey, I'm sure I could
chat with you all day.
I don't wanna keep you and I've got
this appointment coming up and again,
you offload, instead of saying, I wanna
get the heck outta this conversation.
You're burning my time.
We make it all about them.
So there you have it, the five
crazy things that customers do.
Launch hair, Larry nervous, Nelly
delusional, Dan piss, Peggy and
talkative Terry, and how you can
overcome these situations and still
give an amazing customer experience.
Hey, listen, this was a new video.
If you liked it, give it a thumbs up.
If you didn't give it
a thumbs down that way.
I know whether you like to
see this content or not.
And if I missed one of the crazy
things, customers do think up a
name, drop it in the comment section
below, we'll all have a chuckle.
I'm sure.
Hey, thanks for joining me today.
And if you want more video.
Pop in right here to download your free
copy and my pitch like a pro roofing
sales training, video library, or click
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We'll see us soon.