Residential Metal Roofing Executive Report

Should Salespeople Generate Their Own Leads? Here’s How!

Issue #156 | September 8, 2020 | Todd Miller

I hope this finds you well. It’s hard to believe but this is our 157th issue of the Residential Metal Roofing Executive Report. Approximately twice each month, we strive to bring you cutting-edge ideas to help you in the most critical areas of your home improvement business – Marketing, Lead Generation, Appointment Setting, in-Home Sales, Leadership, Installation Management, and more! Past issues are always readily available in our free online archive.

This issue we’re going to tackle a great subject and tell you step by step how salespeople can (and should!) generate their own leads! But, first, I want to share a very special free opportunity with you.

Several years ago, I had the privilege to work with best-selling author Michael Gerber and his E-Myth Academy. He teaches business owners how to grow a business that serves them rather than the other way around. What he teaches has been life-changing for business owners across the globe, including me! So, to help expose what he teaches to contractors across the country, I am starting a Book Club! Starting in October, we will host a free online study of “The E-Myth For Contractors” by Michael Gerber. We will go through the book step by step and help contractors understand the importance, value, and mechanics of building a business based on systems rather than on themselves or other individuals! We will be holding the study through free online Zoom meetings – please drop me a note today if you’d like to participate. Space is limited!

So, let’s talk about lead generation and salespeople.

Every contractor out there wishes that their salespeople would generate leads on their own, don’t they? Of course! And salespeople know that the leads they generate on their own sell easier and with greater profit than do “house leads”. But yet rarely do salespeople generate their own leads!

The problem is not that they don’t want to generate their own leads but rather that they do not know how to! So, in 6 Easy Steps, here’s a prescriptive way for metal roofing salespeople to successfully generate their own leads! (This can be easily adapted for other areas of home improvement as well!)

1. Do a bang-up job for your customers and make sure that they remember you!
2. If problems arise, ensure that they are handled swiftly, fully, and to the customer’s complete satisfaction.
3. Let your customers know during your sales presentation just how critical it is that you get referrals from them. This accomplishes your goal but also infers to them that you will work hard for their confidence.
4. Immediately after the project is completed, visit the home to review the project and collect final payment. Then, take a photo of yourself with the happy customer(s) in front of their home with the beautiful new roof behind them. (Actually, a photo taken in progress with workers on the roof for example is even better!)
5. Next, tell the customer “Remember how I told you how much I need referrals from great customers like you? Well I’d like to turn our photo into a social media post. Would you prefer that I just tag you in the post on my social media page or, you know what, it’s even better for me if I email you the post and you can post it on your profile and tag me! Which would work better for you?”
6. The meme then is made consisting of the photo and this text: “I just bought my beautiful new metal roof from John at ABC (Tel. 555-123-4567) and I couldn’t be happier! Tell him I sent you and he’ll give you $500 off!”

Then post the meme and also send it to the homeowner and invite them to post it as well (with appropriate verbiage recognizing what they told you earlier). This will be a great way to generate leads from your past customers – leads which will result in sales!

Some of the above ideas are being utilized by successful car salespeople across the country but not so much by home improvement salespeople. Why not? Well, often it’s because the salespeople do not want to waste time with customers after the job has been sold. How shortsighted that is! Let me ask you this – which of the following is a better way for salespeople to spend their time:

1. Running appointments with house leads and hoping for a 20% closing ration (2 out of 10); or
2. Spending some time following up with past customers and then running referral leads with a closing ratio of 50% (5 out of 10) or better?

You do the math and you will agree with me on which is the more productive use of a salesperson’s time.

REMEMBER – selling one referral job each year to each past customer will double your sales year after year after year.

Thanks so much. As always, please contact me at todd.miller@isaiahindustries.com whenever you’d like to discuss ways to take your business to even greater levels of success!

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