Best Practices for Better Roofing Sales
Many roofing companies share similar sales goals—generating more leads, selling more jobs, and increasing profits. But a disorganized or inefficient process can result in missed opportunities and prohibit you from reaching your full potential.
As the number one software for roofers, we work with thousands of contractors and want to share the best practices for increasing roofing sales that we have learned over the years. From finding leads to closing a deal, you’ll learn how to be more productive and profitable throughout every step of the sales process.
An Overview of the Roofing Sales Process
The roofing sales process can vary from company to company, but generally consists of:
- Identifying and qualifying leads
- Evaluating the scope and estimating the cost of a roofing job
- Pitching your services and getting a contract signed
It’s not uncommon to struggle with at least one part of the process from time to time. Maybe you’re having difficulties finding enough high-quality leads to fill your pipeline. Or you’re hearing a lot of objections from potential customers regarding the cost of work and losing out to competitors on pricing.
Whatever challenges you may be facing when it comes to sales, technology can help put your business on the path to greater growth.
Generating Leads
Without a robust pipeline of qualified leads, it can be difficult to sustain growth. When you pursue both quantity and quality, you’ll have an easier time turning your leads into profitable roofing jobs. While there’s no way to guarantee that every lead will close, improving your lead generation process will help you reach more qualified leads.
Use Data to Help Target New Leads
There are many different types of data that can be leveraged to help you focus your lead generation efforts. Most importantly, historical lead and sales data can help you understand
what types of leads to pursue.
To start, take a look at your most profitable roofing jobs from the past year and see what they have in common. You should also evaluate which sources produce the best leads. When you use business management or CRM software, every user has direct access to the real-time data they need, making it easy to generate reports so you can identify these trends. This information will help you prioritize leads, focusing on the ones
that have the greatest chance of becoming profitable customers.
Follow up with Leads Promptly
Timely follow-up is essential for turning qualified leads into customers. But without a system to keep leads organized, follow-up becomes much more difficult. Storing leads in a centralized database and entering new leads into the system as they come in ensures nothing falls through the
cracks.
CRM software creates a centralized lead database, bringing together information about your customers, activities, and pipeline. This makes it easier to prioritize leads and track
follow-up. You can capture important information like the address, job type and lead priority, as well as notes and documents, so you have everything you need to reach out to leads and sell your services.
Estimating
A long, drawn-out estimating process leaves less time for pursuing other leads. Likewise, over- or under-estimating can drive up overhead and negatively impact your profits. In order to maximize sales growth, it’s crucial to improve the efficiency and accuracy of your estimates.
Use Aerial Measurement Services
Climbing onto a roof to take measurements by hand for every job is not only time consuming but also error-prone. However, aerial measurement services, such as Eagleview or SkyMeasure, can help you produce an estimate faster and more accurately.
These services use drones to capture images of properties and generate precise roof measurements. Instead of measuring a roof by hand, you can order an aerial measurement report to get the data you need for an estimate such as length, area, pitch, waste calculations, and 3D images. This will not only save you time, but also eliminate measurement and data entry errors. CRM software that integrates with aerial measurement services simplifies the process even further, allowing you to order a report directly from the system and automatically populate an estimate with measurement data.
Create Estimates from Templates
You can get your estimates in front of prospects quicker if you don’t have to create them from scratch every time. Software can help speed up this process, allowing you to easily set up digital templates for each of your trades and common types of roofs that you service. This way, when you estimate a new project, you can simply select the relevant template and fill in the unique job information.
CRM software that can automatically populate a template with job information and materials allows you to create an estimate with just a few clicks.
Getting a contract signed
Salespeople frequently encounter objections from prospects that stand in the way of getting a contract signed. To increase sales, it’s important to anticipate possible objections and have plans in place to overcome them.
Offer Flexible Payment Options
Issues with cost and payment are some of the most frequent objections salespeople hear. One way to overcome cost or payment-related objections is to offer flexible payment options.
Having the capacity to process credit cards and ACH transactions makes it easier for homeowners to pay you. You can also offer financing options during the sales process. For projects with significant cost, offering a loan can be the difference between getting a contract signed and hearing a prospect say they can’t afford your services.
Some CRM software offers payment processing and financing features, so you can manage everything from one system.
Use Annotated Photos to Educate Prospects
Homeowners may hesitate to sign a contract because they don’t understand the scope of damage to their roof. Educating them on the repairs that are needed and the work involved will go a long way towards helping you close a deal.
Annotated photos make it easy for homeowners to see damage to their roof up close. You can review photos with them as you discuss the scope of the job. Plus, your annotated photos will come in handy if the homeowner plans to submit a claim to their insurance company, since you’ll need to provide clear documentation of the damage in order for the claim to be approved.
CRM software lets you store your photos alongside the rest of the job information, including the estimate, insurance claim, and related notes or communications. With all of your job information together in one place, you can quickly respond to homeowners or adjusters and move the sale along.
Finding the Right Software to Help you Accelerate Sales
CRM software improves business management, helping salespeople work more efficiently, close more deals, and increase profits. But every system is different—and with so many choices, how do you know which one is right for you?
Look to Software Designed for Roofing
Some CRM software provides general sales capabilities to a variety of industries. These solutions may lack essential features that roofing contractors need—like the ability to
track insurance claims—and require significant customization.
CRM software designed for roofing contractors is easier and faster to implement since it doesn’t require significant customization or changes to your existing processes. Every feature a roofing contractor needs is built in so it integrates seamlessly with the way you already work.
Make Sure Everyone on the Team Can Use It
CRM software can only benefit sales teams if it’s used consistently. If the learning curve is too steep, sales teams will stick to their old processes instead.
Finding a CRM that’s simple and intuitive will help everyone adopt it. Look for one that’s easy to learn and incorporate into your day-to-day work so you don’t have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to navigate it, and instead can get up and running quickly.
AccuLynx: The roofing CRM system that helps you grow
As the leading CRM for roofing contractors, AccuLynx has helped roofing businesses of all sizes work more efficiently, improve communication, and provide better service to customers. Our easy-to-use software brings together the different aspects of your business in one system, streamlining your routine tasks and simplifying the way you work. With AccuLynx, you have a single source of truth for your job information that can be accessed from anywhere. The result is more time to focus on selling—and ultimately, greater growth.
In addition to helping you manage your sales pipeline and track your roofing jobs, our system also allows you to:
- Take the power of our software anywhere with a mobile app. The AccuLynx Field App enables you to update job information, take and annotate photos, get directions to the job site, and more, no matter where you are.
- Order aerial measurement reports. AccuLynx integrates with Eagleview and SkyMeasure so you can order reports right from the platform and input the measurements directly into your estimates.
- Create electronic estimates, contracts and more. You can populate these electronic documents with customer information in just a few clicks and capture legally binding digital signatures.
- Process electronic payments and offer financing. Your business can process credit, debit, and ACH transactions right from AccuLynx. We also partner with GreenSky®, a trusted consumer loan provider, so you can offer financing to customers through AccuLynx.
- See real-time reports on business performance. Our built-in reports spotlight key trends in sales, revenue, and more, and can be delivered to your inbox on a regular basis.
The Ultimate Tool for Roofing Sales
These are just a few of the many ways AccuLynx can equip your sales team to be more productive and profitable. For a more in-depth look at how AccuLynx can benefit your business, schedule a custom demo.