Residential Metal Roofing Executive Report

Getting Personal To Create Customers

Issue #138 | November 12, 2019 | Todd Miller

I hope this finds you well. No doubt you’re very busy. This is that time of year when things get extraordinarily crazy for those in the home improvement business. However, it is also the time to not let up in terms of working on your business and looking for ways to grow and continue to prosper.

In this issue of the Residential Metal Roofing Executive Report, we want to provide some specific strategies for building positive relationships with prospects in ways that turn them into customers. This is an age when people crave authenticity and genuine care and concern. When you can show that to a prospect, rather than be the “slick sales type” they are fearing, you stand out from your competition and help to put the prospect’s mind at ease that you are a good person (and company!) to work with.

Here are some steps for helping your company and your sales people show true, personalized care to your prospects.

1. Maintain the mindset that your purpose is to benefit the prospect, not to benefit yourself. This simple mindset can change everything in regards to how you interact with prospects and customers. And, believe me, they notice!
2. Have your appointment setter do some recognizance on the prospect and pass anything they can learn along to the sales person. It’s great if the sales person enters the home knowing what the person cares about, what they do, what hobbies they have, and what motivates and inspires them. You do not want to appear to be a “stalker” but knowing a bit about them can really help build trust. As an example, you do not want to be the sales person who inadvertently says something disparaging about a particular career, just to find out that is the career your prospect holds!
3. Go to the home prepared with testimonials from homeowners and projects that look a lot like them and their project. Gain their confidence that you can meet their specific needs – that you’ve been to this exact rodeo before.
4. Walk around their home with them, get them to talk about their home, what it means to them, and what they’d like it to be in the future. You alone can be the one to help them realize their preferred future.
5. Produce a monthly e-newsletter that goes to all of your customers and prospects. And, don’t make it be a “sales piece”! Provide them tips for how to maintain their home, how to enhance their life, etc. You can even send them good recipes that they may enjoy!
6. Do not disappear. Both before, during, and after the project, make yourself available. This shows genuine concern and also generates referrals! Goodness knows we need those referrals these days!
7. Put different sections on your website that are targeted to specific socio-demographics, as well as to specific home styles. Be as personal as possible in reaching your prospects. If you’re not doing this, someone else will, and they will eat your lunch!
8. Listen more than you talk! No one feels less cared about than when the other person doesn’t let them talk. Likewise, no one feels more genuinely cared about than when the other person does listen to them. Listen to and hear your customers needs and wishes. In their mind, you can’t meet their needs if you never heard them!
9. Bring them ideas that are outside of the box. Maybe suggest special trim colors or certain add-ons such as ventilation to a roof package. Yes, these things cost more but they also show the prospect that doing business with you will benefit them in ways that no one else can.
10. Put a Live Chat on your website that is staffed by a knowledgeable team member. I hate to say it but consumers have grown weary of filling out online response and contact forms. Why? Because very often, they never hear back! They love Live Chat as a way to IMMEDIATELY connect with a company, and to know that they have been heard!

I hope these ideas help you. As always, drop me an email whenever I can be of help. I am always happy to talk with you as well about any particular challenges your business is facing – let’s figure them out together! I can be reached at 1-800-543-8938 ext. 201.

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