Good Marketing Can Overcome Customer Concerns

I travel a lot for work and occasionally I eat alone.  The other night while eating by myself I wondered how the family at the next table would react if I asked to sit down with them and join in their meal.  After chuckling to myself as I considered the consequences it dawned on me that most of the time a roofing contractor is just as much an unknown stranger to the homeowner as I am to the family at the next table.

So what?  Sometimes as roofing contractors, or roofing salespersons, you can get so comfortable going into total strangers homes that you can forget how unusual and uncomfortable it can be for the homeowner. This is especially true if the homeowner has not previously been exposed to you or your company.  Imagine all the thoughts going through their mind as you pull up.

“Will he (or she) be honest?” “Will he try to rip me off or will he give me a fair deal?” “Can I trust the recommendations he makes?” “Should I even let him into my home?”

How can your marketing help put the homeowner at ease before you arrive?  How can your marketing connect you with your customer?

First, we must give marketing a broad definition.  It includes a lot more than your yellow page ad.  Have you ever had a customer tell you that they see your trucks all over town, even though you only have one truck?  That is the power of marketing with vehicle lettering.  In a small service area this can be a very powerful tool to get potential customers comfortable and familiar with your company.  Yard signs can also be very effective at accomplishing this in your target neighborhood.  You are no longer a complete stranger because, if their neighbor trusted you, you must be o.k.

Second, your marketing can soothe customer concerns by featuring testimonials.  You can tell your potential customers how great and honest you are, but it really means nothing when it comes from you.  However, if someone likes you enough to give you a testimonial, it can go a long way to building trust.  What is the best form of testimonial?  A video testimonial with your customer singing your praises is far and away the best and most powerful testimonial that you can provide.  Outside of that, a testimonial with a picture of the people and their names (not initials) can be effective, though not nearly as effective as a video testimonial.

Finally, look at places where you can incorporate a list of Frequently Asked Questions (or something similar) that address common questions and concerns that your potential customers may have.  This can show your prospect that you recognize, and have thought through, their concerns.  Combine this with a testimonial of a customer describing how you overcame their concerns and you are miles ahead of your competition.

If you use your marketing as a tool to connect with your prospects, before you ever meet them, it can make a big difference in the way they feel when you arrive to give them an estimate or sales presentation.  Be a welcome and trusted adviser, instead of an unknown stranger.

How Much Money Does Each New Customer Cost Your Roofing Company?

In November’s newsletter I wrote an article entitled “5 ways to beat your competition without spending a dime”.  The first item was to show up and be on time for your appointments.  When I wrote that I thought it was so obvious that I almost did not put it in.  But then I had the following experience.

A friend of mine called and told me he needed a new roof on his duplex.  I told him that I knew a great roofer in his area and that I would have them contact him right away.  I called the roofer and told him that my friend was expecting a call from him.  He did call and set up an appointment to check out the roof.  I later contacted my friend to see how things had gone.  He said that the roofer I recommended had called but them never showed up for their appointment and that he ended up getting someone else to do the job.  They did not even show up for a pre-qualified referral lead. Needless to say I was embarrassed and will probably not recommend that roofing contractor again.  But, the experience led me to write this post.

How much money did that roofer waste by not following up on that lead? I am not talking about his potential profit, I am talking about his cost of acquisition for a new customer.  I know that this roofing contractor actively markets his roofing company including yellow pages, a web site, and direct mailing.  That amounts to a lot of money each year to acquire new customers.

Let’s look at how you can figure what each new customer costs you to acquire in terms of marketing dollars.

First - take your total marketing spend for the year.  Add up all that you spend on your yellow pages, web sites, direct mailing, and other marketing.

Second - divide that number by the total number of jobs you closed in that same year.

Here is an example:

Total of all Marketing expenditures for the year
Yellow Pages – $1200 per month = 14,400.00
Web Site – $50.00 per month = $600.00
Direct mailing – $300.00 per month = $3,600.00
Newspaper Ad – $300.00 per month = $3,600.00

Total Marketing spend for the year = $22,200.00

I know that there are some roofing contractors who spend that much just on their yellow page ads!

Now lets figure the total number of customers acquired in that same time period
1.5 re-roofs per week = 78
Total repair jobs = 50

Total customers acquired = 128

Total Marketing Spend = 22,200.00 divided by number of customers 128 = $173.43 per customer.

So in this example it costs $173.43 to acquire a new customer.  If that were the case for the roofer I mentioned above he wasted $173.43 by not showing up in addition to the amount of profit he could have made.

This is an important number for all roofing contractors to know.  This is an important number for all of your employees to know as well.  Every time someone does something that costs you a new customer you just wasted that much money in your marketing expenses.

This is also a good number to know when you are analyzing new marketing opportunities.  You can take the cost of the marketing item and divide it by the total number of customers you expect it to bring and find out if it is a good spend.

Marketing is a major expense for roofing contractors.  Knowing the exact value of a new customer can go a long way to helping you to bring those costs down.

How do you handle your calls?

What does a well rounded marketing campaign for a roofing contractor include?  Beyond your web site or yellow page ad, your marketing includes every aspect of your business that your potential customer comes in contact with.

In a previous post we looked at how the way your crews act on a job site can affect how others perceive your company.  But, there are many other factors that can influence whether or not a person wants to do business with your company.

Before you spend money attracting customers make sure you have these aspects of your business dialed in.

1 - The appearance of your trucks and how you and your workers drive in those trucks.  That person you just cut-off may need a new roof!

2 - The condition of your office/showroom.  This can make a big impression on potential customers.

3 - The way you or others answer the phone.  Are they courteous and professional?  Do they really care if the person on the other end chooses your company?  Are callers treated as an interruption or vital source of business?  Do you quickly return phone calls?  Is your voice mail message friendly and professional?

4 - Your employees, are they enthusiastic or are they just going through the motions?

5 - Your current marketing materials.  When you give a bid for a new roof is your quote thorough, clean, neat and professional?

These 5 items all seem obvious.  However, if just one is off you may find that customers choose not to use you even though they can’t really put their finger on why.

If you make sure that the basic items are covered you may find that your marketing efforts become more effective and your close rate improves.

Hold those selling you marketing accountable for the results

When you agree to install a new roof you know that you will be held accountable for providing the results your customer expects.  Shouldn’t the same be true of those who sell marketing to your roofing company?

All too often we just take the salesperson’s word that their marketing program will be the best money we’ve ever spent.  Then months and thousands later when we are getting no results there is no way to hold them accountable.

What can a roofing contractor do?  Here are 5 Questions to ask your marketing salesperson (especially yellow page ads) before you spend the money.

1 - How much growth can my company expect to see as a result of this marketing campaign?  Get this number either in a percentage of increase or number of jobs.

2 - What system do you have to show me how much business your program is bringing me?

3 - How long will it take to reach these increase goals?

4 - What will you do if this program does not achieve these goals?

5 – What do you mean there is no way for you to answer these questions?

If a company wants you to spend your hard earned money on a sure fire program, but will not back it up with a way to measure results and provide some guarantee that their program will work, you may want to think twice before buying.

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do”

- Thomas Jefferson

Stand Out from other Roofers with Simple Messages - that Really Say Something.

I like that quote.  This is an important principle to keep in mind when developing marketing messages for your roofing services.  Roofing contractor marketing does not need to be complicated or lengthy.

“Great, I will just put a bunch of simple bullet points in my ads and people will surely read them”  Not true.  Along with being busy we have also become immune to most advertising.  I was looking at an ad for an electrician in my area.  His bullet points were:

Clean professional service – Experienced, friendly electricians – Free quotes

If you were looking for an electrician what would go through your mind as you read those bullet points?

My thoughts are: “Really?  Wow, I’ll hire this guy because the other electrician advertises ‘dirty unprofessional service done by grumpy guys with no experience’!”  Or in other words – “What else would I expect?  Everybody says those things!”

Keeping it simple does not mean saying the same old thing that everyone else says. You could have taken the ad for that electrician and inserted his competitor’ name and the ad would have been fine.  You could have taken his ad and inserted a plumber or a roofer and the ad would have been fine.  This is not a good ad.

Keeping it simple is hard work.  It means really taking the time to figure out what makes you different from other roofing contractors (saying something they cannot say) and then finding a way to say it quickly and convincingly in language the customer will understand.

TAKE ACTION:

1 - Review your ads and see if your are saying things that make the reader say “Of course, everyone says that!”  If you have them, change them.

2 - Take time to review what makes you different from other roofing contractors and  find a way to explain these differences in two or three sentences.  Then replace your old generic points with these.

In future posts we will discuss how to develop these statements often called your “USP” or Unique Selling Proposition.  Please share your thoughts.

How should what you spend on marketing change with the economy?

There is a lot of talk that we are coming out of the recession.  Unfortunately, I still see a lot of roofing contractors struggling with a lack of business.

Some have reacted to the downturn by cutting all “unnecessary expenses” (marketing) and some have increased their spending on advertising in hopes of getting more work.  Which strategy is best?

Neither.  Now more than ever roofers need to be marketing, however they must also be very careful to control costs.

First let me make the case for why you should continue to spend some portion of your income on marketing.  Notice these comments from Harvard Professor John A. Quelch. You can read his full post here.

“This is not the time to cut advertising. It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times.”

He makes the point that right now marketing is cheaper and there are fewer of your competitors advertising, so your marketing dollar goes farther now.  If you spend that marketing dollar wisely.

I met with a roofing contractor today who said that he cut all his yellow page ads this year.  The salesmen tried to strike fear into his heart when he cancelled, his business would surely fail without the $20,000 per year he was spending on big yellow page ads.

I asked how his business was affected.  “Not at all” he stated.  I congratulated him for having the courage to break from the norm and cut some major costs.  Did that mean he stopped marketing?  No.  He has continued to market his roofing business in other ways.  He has gone back to the basics, yard signs, truck lettering, direct mailing to target markets and other proven methods of marketing that are much less expensive yet still very effective.

That brings us to the point.  Roofers need to be marketing but in more cost effective and creative ways.  Make sure you are tapping your distributor and your preferred roofing manufacturer as well.  Many of these will provide you with these tools for free or a greatly reduced cost.

How much should you spend on marketing?  It is different for every market and company.  However, I personally think that it should be a consistent formula based on your revenue.  I believe you should set a marketing budget that is in the 4-7% of gross sales range (this is just a suggestion, not a rule).  This way as sales increase so does your marketing spend and as sales decrease so do your expenses. This will also ensure that you have money available for marketing.  You need to add it to every sale as part of your expenses.  Don’t make the mistake of spending your profits on marketing.  Budget for it and treat it as a business expense.

In future posts we will look at creative and inexpensive ways to market your roofing company.

TAKE ACTION:

1 - Make sure marketing is counted into your costs for every job and set aside that money for that specific reason.

2 - Look for ways you can control your costs by cutting marketing that is overpriced or is not returning good results.

3 - Look for new and inexpensive ways to promote your business and ask for help from distributors and manufacturers.

Please post your ideas and comments!

Targeted Marketing Can Launch Your Roofing Business

How would you answer the question “Who are your target customers?” The common answer to that question is “everyone”.  However, it would be very expensive and time consuming to try to advertise your roofing services to everyone.

Even though it may seem that “everyone” needs a new roof, not everyone needs one right now, and not everyone is your target customer.  If you take the time to really identify the type of customer that matches up with your roofing companies style you can target your marketing towards your most receptive audience and dramatically increase the effectiveness of your marketing.

Start Here.

1 - Ask yourself: “Who are my customers?” Take a look at your last 10-20 roofing customers and see what traits they have in common.  Do they all live in a similar type neighborhood?  Do they all have similar economic profiles?  Did they all have similar types of roofing problems leading them to call you in the first place?  If you can’t get a clear picture looking at your last 10-20 customers go farther back in your records and you will begin to see some patterns.

2 - Once you have some patterns identified ask yourself what is the best way to reach these people.  Have you been successful in attracting younger tech savvy clients searching for roofing on the web, or does your niche seem to be older non-tech users?  The answers to these questions will help you begin to see what advertising methods could be the most effective for you and keep you from advertising in places your best customers are not looking.

You may find that you have a few distinct groups of customers that you have been successful with. This means that you have  a great opportunity to develop different marketing pieces tailored to that specific group.  Now you can send out a few targeted marketing pieces to customers that you can be confident you can have good results with instead of sending out one generic message to the masses that may or may not have the results you were hoping for.

For example if you find that you are having good success in re-roofing mid-level housing with asphalt shingles would it be as effective if your ad featured pictures of large homes with tile roofs?  The opposite would be true as well.

This is just scratching the surface of how you can use your past customer data to help you fine tune your marketing campaigns.  If you do you will be able to save a lot of time and money, things we could all use a little more of!

Take Action:

Identify patterns in your existing customer base and use this information to tailor your marketing to better appeal to customers like them.

Hit the target with your marketing!

Marketing goals?  I want to make money!  Ultimately that is the goal, however, there are a number of questions you should ask before laying down your hard earned money on an advertising campaign that does not really accomplish what you hope it will.

1 - What is the goal of this marketing piece?  Is it to build brand awareness in my community or is it to bring an immediate rush of business.  Your answer to this question should really affect the look, feel and message of your ad.

2 - How can I measure the results of this ad to see if it meets my goals?

3 – How much business am I expecting to gain in order to consider this ad successful?

4 - If it doesn’t work what changes will I make?

5 - Does this ad harmonize with other marketing pieces you have done in the past to help build name brand recognition?

6 - Do I need to change the way my business is seen in my market, is my image outdated?

7 - Do I have a consistent message to the market that people will remember?

8 - Have I completed a marketing plan and set specific sales and profit goals that will help me measure the effectiveness of my marketing efforts?

Remember:
- “The only gauge of success we have is profit – honest profit”  REX BEACH

Setting marketing goals can help your roofing business succeed.