Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
“Because your company is only as STRONG as you are.”
Forward-thinking roofers tune in to get help building STRONG companies, sales teams, leaders, systems, marketing, relationships, culture, and financials.
Whether you own a own a roofing company, manage one, or sell roofs - subscribe to the channel for content that will help you:
1) Close even more roofing sales.
2) Adapt to new roofing industry trends and changes.
3) Take control of your roofing marketing and lead generation.
4) Improve D2D roofing sales.
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.
Nothing is worse than a homeowner
canceling on you after you sign the deal.
And this happens for both retail
and storm damage roofs, and
especially with storm damage roofs.
After you'd put in all this work, getting
the homeowner approved, working with
the adjuster, maybe even supplementing,
and then they put $30,000 in their
pocket and they say, Hey, we're gonna
shop around, or they ghost to you.
Or they say someone could do it cheaper,
or they even turn back to you and say,
Hey, I want, I want your estimate now.
These deals go south
and it is infuriating.
So in today's video, which by
the way was inspired by Ryan M.
Ryan, thank you, man.
Uh, Ryan messaged me, it's why
I'm at my office right now.
He messaged me saying, dude, I
just had another customer cancel.
I don't know what's going on.
I need your help.
Uh, it was after I got literally
$30,000 put in their pocket.
So, uh, in today's video, I
wanna break down why people
cancel and what you can do.
To protect your jobs so they
don't cancel in the future.
And one thing that I just wanna be
crystal clear that we are not doing
is talking about those forceful
techniques that people do use to keep
people from, uh, canceling, like,
you know, roof loading material.
So they literally are like locked in.
I, I, I don't agree with that technique.
I'm gonna go a little
deeper on the sales side.
So before we do, welcome, welcome
back, Adam Mesman here, the roof
strategist and everything that I
do is designed to help you and your
team smash your income goal and give
every customer an amazing experience.
And if you like what I'm putting out
here, uh, you're gonna love what's
inside my free training center.
There's a link in the
description and there's no catch.
So hop in there right now.
Go check it out.
I got training for new sales reps,
season sales reps, even information
for owners, leaders, uh, you name it.
And so I'll wait for you inside.
Alright, let's hit cancellations first.
I want to.
Do a, a, a bit of a dedication
to my storm damage trends selling
tailwind or hurricane claims.
Number one question that I asked Ryan was,
are you using a contingency agreement?
And I know this is a can of worms.
Some people are way against it.
I'm gonna spoiler alert, I'm way for it.
If you wanna learn more about why, go
watch the video that I've linked up
at the top of this, uh, with a card
that says, uh, contingency agreements.
Yes or no.
And I break down, I weigh the pros
and cons of both sides because
some people are so pro contingency,
you gotta use 'em, gotta use 'em.
Which I'm that person by the way, and
the others that say, no, I refuse to.
And I address both.
And you'll see at the end I'm
like, you gotta do what works.
But when I see lots of cancellations,
if you're getting a lot of them,
There's usually two symptom,
excuse me, two reasons for this.
Uh, reason number one is that they're
not using a contingency agreement or
reason number two is they're not using
it appropriately, meaning they're not
going through and setting the right
expectations with the homeowner.
You see, when we're dealing in a storm
damage claim, homeowners don't realize
how much time, how much energy expertise.
And man hours are going
into serving that customer.
Whereas if it was a retail deal, we get
called out, we show up, we do an estimate,
they, they say, yay, we want to do it.
Great.
And then the job's done.
But on the storm side, we show up,
we give them that same presentation,
we go through everything and then
we have to meet with the adjuster,
review the paperwork, supplement.
Invoice chase receivables.
There's so much more work that
goes into serving the customer
and getting them made whole.
And I think it's fair to say that
if contractors like us were not
involved, there'd be a lot of folks
that would've been shortchanged.
It's just how it goes.
So, With that contingency, what's
often missing is is going through
what I call the three key points.
And if you want more on this, I don't
want to make this video go too long, so
jump into my playlist called using the
contingency Agreement as a closing tool.
And if you wanna just follow my
system for yourself or for your team,
you can check out my sales system.
There's a link to the Roofing Sales
Success Formula beneath this video.
Or you can text the word
demo, D E M O 2 3 0 3.
2, 2, 2 71 33.
Well tour you around.
You can see and decide for yourself.
So again, those three bullet points in
the contingency agreement are designed
to get the homeowner acknowledging
that there's, they're not being billed
for the time, energy, and expertise.
And we say, we're not billing you
for, they're like, wait a minute.
There's, there's energy involved.
Yeah.
Okay.
When they understand that their
contribution is their deductible,
no more, no less, we remove all
their risk that they're not gonna
be locked in, and that we become the
contractor of choice if those, if
those key points are not drilled in.
Yeah.
Then the homeowner leaves just thinking
that they were forced to sign some piece
of paper or not, or a handshake deal,
and they didn't realize it was formal.
They don't acknowledge
how much work is involved.
Okay, so again, the
contingency is a big piece.
Number two, fix is to set crystal clear
expectations, and what do I mean by that?
People need to know what happens next.
I'm gonna ask you a question.
When was the last time
you watched a movie?
Do you remember partway through
the movie that you predicted?
I'm gonna guess how it ended.
Yeah, that's human nature.
We predict how things are gonna end and.
If we don't write that narrative for
our homeowners, telling them how the
movie's gonna end or working with us,
they start writing it on their own.
So if I don't end every single
visit, letting them know what's
going to happen next, they start
writing their own narrative.
And I don't want that because more
often than not, they're not right, and
they're doing themselves a disservice.
So I'm gonna let them know what's gonna
happen, both on my side, how we're
gonna service that customer, as well
as what could happen from competitors.
Specifically, again, I, I know I'm giving
a lot of nods to the storm, uh, my storm
friends here because cancellations are
much higher in that world than in retail.
Retail.
It's usually the same thing.
I found someone to do it cheaper,
but which is why collecting a
deposit and kick-starting that
project right away is so important.
And the same thing on the storm
side as we initiate, Hey, this is
what our team's gonna be doing.
They want, we're gonna be waiting for you
to give us a buzz when the adjuster's,
uh, coming out with the time and date,
yada yada, and then lay the groundwork.
And then if you're in, involved
in the project after that, start
saying, Hey, we're reviewing the
scope, preparing the supplement.
We're doing this stuff.
You're gonna be expecting this.
This is how the install's gonna go.
You have to lay it out all of the steps
and then alert them of what could happen.
Say unfortunately, many
unscrupulous contractors are
gonna try to snake business away.
They're offering things that are, that
are unethical, quite frankly, illegal.
If anyone shows up, just let them
know you're working with someone.
'cause you do not wanna get
wrapped up in that stuff.
Okay?
So again, letting them know
what's gonna happen next.
Tip number three is we wanna e excite
the homeowner afterwards to with a,
what's called purchase validation.
So yeah, you did a great job deciding to
work with us as opposed to them having
buyer's remorse, which is the opposite.
So one thing that salespeople often
forget to do is to excite their customers.
Hey Peggy, congratulations.
I am so excited to be working with you.
And you made an excellent choice working
with me and the team over at the roof
strategist or your company name, we
are dedicated to making things right
and doing an incredible job for you.
Next steps.
Behind the scenes, the team is high
fiving for the opportunity to serve
another amazing human being like yourself.
Uh, I'm gonna be working on an X, Y, and
z I need you to do this for me when, when
you hear from the adjuster, and we're
gonna be off to the races ready to go.
And again, when, when people see that
you've put even more into it, you
have the clear expectations, you get
them excited right after, and you
stay in touch with your customers.
Things your, your cancellations will
drastically, drastically reduce.
And my fourth and final
tip for you is this.
You need to move things along quickly and
stay in communication with your customers.
So move things along and
stay in communication.
And I believe that you should
stay in communication at least
weekly, even if there is no update.
Because if, if things sit,
people wonder, are they on it?
Did they forget what's happening next?
So when you stay in touch with
people, even if there's no update,
hey, just want you to know I'm on it.
No update yet.
Still waiting on blank.
Hey, just wanted you to know
we ordered your material.
There's a slight backlog,
blah, blah, blah.
Delivery is expected here.
Just want you to know, uh, I'm
getting, working, getting working on.
Your scope of loss.
So I have all my notes prepared
to meet with your adjuster.
Again, they see that you have
skin in the game and that you've
already begun working on on things.
So when you do all of this together,
present the contingency agreement
by using it, present it the right
way, set clear expectations about
what's gonna happen when you.
Use purchase validation and you
excite the snot out of people from
working with you, and then you move
things along really quickly so it
feels as if the project is in motion.
You are gonna watch your cancellation
rates plummet and hopefully go away.
I know every once in a while you'll
get one, but this is gonna help a ton.
Now, I hope this video helps you
secure more deals by delivering an
amazing experience for your customers,
because at the end of the day,
That's, that's what it's all about.
And when we can do that and
get paid via thank you notes.
Hey, thank you so much for the
opportunity or for helping us through
this project that homeowner's literally
handing you a check as they say.
Thank you.
And that is the ultimate compliment,
and my mission is to collect as
many thank you notes as possible.
How about you?
Alright, that's all for this video.
Just 'cause our time
here is about to wrap up.
Doesn't mean your, my time has to.
So if you wanna stay on this topic
and learn more, jump into the,
using the contingency agreement
as a, as a closing tool playlist.
I'm gonna put a link
to that one right here.
And if you haven't yet done
it, I'd love to have you
inside my free training center.
You can get a, get a taste for what
we do here and seeing aside for
yourself if maybe what I've got
might be good for you or your team.
And there's a link right here.
And of course, if you're interested
in working with me at all, uh,
there's links in the description.
Thanks for joining me in today's video.
Can't wait to see you on the next one.
See ya.