Residential Metal Roofing Executive Report

Customer Relationships

Issue #121 | March 1, 2019 | Todd Miller

I am so excited to write to you today and announce our 2019 Metal Roofing Summit. We have held this annual event for residential metal roofing for over 20 years and this year’s event will be the best-ever. I am also writing to remind you of an upcoming Installation Training event we have and to talk about the cruciality of great customer relationships in your home improvement business but, first, here are details on the 2019 Summit.

This year’s Summit will be held April 15 – 17 in Piqua, Ohio. This event is the place to network with other professionals and to get energized and go home with countless ideas you can implement immediately in your businesses. We have listened to your feedback and changed things up a bit this year with More Speakers, More Networking Time, and More Vendors! Our Speakers this year include:

• Joe Talmon on “Maximizing Sales Success”
• Frank Farmer of Metal Roofing Consultants on “Out-Selling Competitors That Are 50% Less Than You”
• Tony Hoty on the “5 R-s Of Lead Generation”
• Sam Beiler of BoostPoint on Internet Marketing
• Erich Eggers and Christine Balsan on “Applying Design-Build Concepts to High-End Remodeling”
• William Hatch on “Riding Horses and Feeding Lions: Lessons in Leadership”
• And much, much, much more!

Please register soon! We have capped this year’s event at 150 attendees and we expect to close that out within the next couple of weeks. I can’t stress enough – register now! Free online registration is available along with full details at Metal Roofing Summit.

For the past several months, we have looked at “best practices” that hallmark leading home improvement and specialty metal roofing contractors. In previous issues, we have looked at Business Systemization, Professionalism, Commitment, Knowing Your Numbers, Marketing and Lead Generation, Referral Maximization, Gaining Local Expert Status, Total Industry Knowledge, Lead Qualification, Appointment Setting, Permission-Based Selling, Needs-Oriented Selling, Value-Added Selling, the In-Home Presentation, and Leadership. In this issue, we’re going to discuss Customer Relationships.

We have previously written a lot about the importance of a great first impressions, as well as how to develop a positive relationship with your prospects. However, with a high-ticket item like metal roofing, customer relationships must not end when the job is completed. Maximizing referrals from past customers is dependent upon maintaining ongoing relationships with past customers and maintaining your positive mindshare with them. Folks will not refer their friends and neighbors to you unless they are 100% delighted with the way in which you treated them!

The Rule of Referral Maximization says that one sale per year resulting from each past customer will double your sales each year – the numbers don’t lie! So, as a contractor, do not disappear after the project is completed or, even worse yet, after the sale is made. Nothing will cause buyer’s remorse faster than a homeowner feeling like all the contractor wanted was a sale and then to disappear. In fact, shifting some of your marketing budget from traditional advertising to Referral Maximization can be a huge plus!

Social media and e-newsletters are great ways to maintain relationships with past customers. Make sure that you post regularly on social media and make sure, too, that all of your clients are following your company. A monthly e-newsletter sent to prospects and past customers will keep you in front of them and help maintain that positive mindshare that leads to referrals.

Also, look for things like reaching out to customers after severe weather events, perhaps bringing them a spring flower, maybe even power washing their driveway on an “off” day – these are all great ways to maintain vibrant, living relationships with your customers.

If you have a customer who is sometimes in the news (for good things, of course!), create a Google Alert for them so that, whenever they’re in the news, you will know about it and you can send them a nice note of congratulations.

As always, let me know if you’d like to discuss any of these ideas in further detail. And don’t forget to register today for the 2019 Metal Roofing Summit. I can be reached at 1-800-543-8938 ext 201.

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