How To Use ‘Hyper-Targeted’ Direct Mail To Get Cheap Qualified Leads

Want to Improve Your Team's Sales Performance?

We sat down with Adam Bensman to learn how he uses direct mail to get highly qualified and affordable leads.

Adam “The Roof Strategist” runs a 100% FREE Roofing Sales Training on YouTube. He focuses exclusively on self generating leads, marketing, and sales. He has personally sold, managed, or consulted on over $100MM in sales and has worked with companies across the US and Canada.

 

Where to find Adam and access his resources:

Website
YouTube
– Email: [email protected]

 

Video Transcription:

Trey (00:00):

Hey, it’s Trey Gibson, the founder and CEO at SPOTIO, our core purposes, we’re transforming field sales to achieve more with the coronavirus thing come in. As all y’all know, it’s basically wiping out the ability for field sales teams to even do their job. And our core purpose is kind of taken on a whole new meaning. So we’ve come together as a company and are focused on helping field sales teams to adapt to this new reality for the time being, by giving you resources to do what we’re calling virtual field sales, tactical and practical strategies on how you and your company can thrive through these times. So with me today, I have none other than Adam Benjamin from the roof strategist. I was really excited to have him on the show because I’ve known Adam for a long time. Not only has he done the job, but he’s a marketing expert and has brought some really cool tactics to getting leads.

Trey (00:52):

And our topic for today is how to use hyper-targeted direct mail to get cheap qualified leads. And maybe if we have time at the end, I can twist his arm to talking about his new cold call script. I don’t know. Adam, why don’t you introduce yourself, tell a little bit about your history and for those people that might not know about you.

Adam (01:11):

Yeah. Awesome. Trey Fe. First of all, thanks for reaching out. I’m super stoked to be on here with ya. So again, my name is Adam Murray strategist. I run 100% free roofing sales training channel on YouTube. I’m all my, I’m just doing things backwards. Every everyone charges for training. I do it free and a marketing and lead gen is my thing. So I do have options available for people who want to purchase my stuff. But the, the 32nd snapshot, I cut my teeth in door to door sales, getting into roofing sales.

Adam (01:38):

Quickly worked my way up to COO of about an $8 million a year company and ran ran sales teams. And then from there fell into the business management consulting and sales training side training teams across the U S and just this year surpassed 100 million in sales that I’ve personally either sold manager consultant on. So yeah, that’s my quick and dirty background. Nice. So the topic about hyper-targeted mailers, like how did you come up with that? So where did that, where did that come from? Cause I know you’ve probably done that before and you’re in your past, right? You know, I did, I learned it in the past through some very bright people in the marketing world, specifically for roofing. And after learning that I found out how important it is to have a very well crafted letter and the right strategy to make those letters effective.

Adam (02:34):

And the reason that we came to this targeted direct pieces, we used to use mass mailers and roofing, you know, where it’s like, here’s blasting a zip code. Well, one, the real expensive to mistakes are not cheap. You know, we somehow mailed, I forget how many tens of thousands of dollars worth of mailers out with the tracking phone number that was misprinted so didn’t even work. And you know, you get this thing in the mail [inaudible] it’s hyper glossy. It’s screams marketing material. Yeah. So step one of a letter is, is the right list getting in front the right people. So if it’s targeted, meaning you drive by, you know that that’s a home. And this applies if you’re doing solar, if you’re doing home security systems, if you’re doing roofing remodeling, it doesn’t matter. You know, what homes you want to hit. And it’s either driving by and pulling onesie, twosies or just blasting the whole street.

New Speaker (03:20):

But when you have the right data, that’s step one. Step two is getting that letter opened. So making it personal, right? Not putting it in an envelope, hand address, hand stamp, using blue ink, having crappy handwriting on purpose. And you know, people are curious like who is this? So that’s getting it open. And then two is getting the whole thing read. And, and I started to study some of the copywriter greats of our time Joseph Sugarman and, and him, specifically Dan Kennedy. And I’m looking at Michael Masterson, those guys figuring out what goes into a letter to get someone to read it, to get them to pick up the phone and call you right there. So played with the concept, tested it and have proven it to be super effective for roofers and now have just been modifying the approach with people that I work with to help them generate leads during the time when you can’t go knocking doors.

New Speaker (04:12):

So yeah. Yeah. So that’s right now we’re stuck inside you know, having to find new ways to generate leads for these guys that are used to banging on doors all day. Yeah. A letter might be a complete new concept. So let’s break it down, kind of, you know, the what, you know, give as much as you can on, on the, the nuts and bolts of what it’s going to say. And, and you know, maybe even like, okay, they called back, am I setting up a virtual appointment? Just your, your, your strategy behind that. Yeah. Awesome. Let’s do that. I’m actually pulling up on my end, just a letter so I can reference it. So the, the main thing with the strategy is first how to get the, get the data. And I, I’m looking over my whiteboard. I literally just filmed a live video on my YouTube channel.

New Speaker (04:56):

You want to start with past customers and working the areas around them. It is much easier if you think about the, these letters there, there’s cold, cold and then there’s warm and there’s hot. So cold cold is, no one’s ever heard of you. Warm as you’ve got a reason just to be reaching out. You can mention a neighbor by name, a street name, a recent project, something of a like and then that makes it not cold so they’re more curious to open it. Same things you have past customers and current customers, no matter where you’re at. And then specifically in progress. So any builds or installations, whatever it is that you’re doing, those are the ones to start with. Just to get your mind thinking about it. So element one is grabbing the addresses. There is no better time than to then during an install mailing, like just like you would go knocking doors around that the, the home you’re doing the install, if you can’t go knock the doors I highly recommend mailing around it and also layering in the cold calling, which we can talk about.

New Speaker (05:53):

So first, get your data, find which homes you want to do. I love what you’re doing with spotty so we can just literally be, you know, just cause you’re a stay at home owners. I mean you can’t like drive around, you know, don’t get out of your car, don’t break the rules, but you can drive through a neighborhood and say, Hey, that’s a, that’s an address, that’s an address. And the most efficient way to do it if you are in the field is just right down the street name and then just a bunch of numbers and get back to the office. You can reconcile it. Grab a standard envelope, you know, that’s going to print out regular old paper on your home printer and a hand address enhanced stamp it. And put the stamp on crooked. That’s totally fundamentally pod. Crooked dice. I haven’t heard that one.

New Speaker (06:32):

You’ll want to make it where no one will even think this was a mass mailing cause you don’t want it to go straight to the trash. Right. That’s the first decision tree when people sort mail garbage or not garbage. Yep. So we just want to get open. So I use either, if I can’t, worst case scenario, I hand write. By the way, this is information I got from my high school teacher that, and this was back when he used to write papers by hand. For those of you that might read was like that people who wrote essays in blue ink scored higher than those in black ink. I have no idea whether this is true. I have not found that study, but that still is with me. So I always use blue ink because it pops more contrast more so I always grab white envelope, blue ink and I’ll write dear homeowner on it or neighbor.

New Speaker (07:19):

Ideally now, you know with, with the app spotty or you can pop in and click it and be like, Oh, now I know their name so you’re not generic. So write their address and then my return address, I never ever use a company name. You can use whatever address you need, your home address or the business. But don’t put the company name because that again, someone’s like, why is this roofing company mailing me or solar company or whoever it is. So just leave that blank. The idea is to pique their curiosity enough to get it to open. So that’s step one. I’m opening that letter every single time. Every time. Yeah. Who wouldn’t? So fundamental in any questions on that before I breeze through, I have a tendency to talk a million miles. It makes complete sense. You know, it’s, it’s, I think the important thing that you said that the guys, it’s the list, right?

New Speaker (08:03):

And like every good marketer tells you that starts with the damn list. So for everybody that’s out there that’s used of knocking the 500 doors in an area, not caring, like you’re not going to hand a dress 500 envelopes maybe cause we do got a ton of time, but you know, pick, make sure your F your list is good, who you’re going to address this to counts because that’s when you get phone calls. You want it to be qualified. So I think just just reiterating that no, everything else is awesome. Makes complete sense. Awesome. And it’s the same way with any sales, right? So especially in door to door, you’re not, if you’re selling to homeowners, you’re not going to go to an apartment complex and knock on each door in the apartment. You’re wasting your time. Yeah. So it’s the same concept. Email, direct mail, whatever it is.

New Speaker (08:43):

So I’m hand address, hand stamped. Second. do not overproduce your letter. This is the one mistake that almost every company owner makes is they want to overproduce, sorry, let me explain what over-producing means. That means designing it, handing it off to your digital marketer, your graphic designer to spruce it up. Put it on letterhead, put your logo on it. All of that screams marketing. Okay. Lightning bolts. I do all the roofers like that. I know the light picture, a hail, you know, plain paper three. All of my stuff is rudimentary and simple and it works really well. I had a guy write me the other day, he says, Adam, one of your letters made me millions last year. And I was like, Oh cool. They work. And it was great. I know they work, they’ve done that. But one dude use these things and it works. So again, plain paper.

New Speaker (09:27):

So that’s the second thing. Third thing, big old, bold headline across the top. So first thing someone’s going to read, it needs to capture their attention. And I’ll read you the headline. I want just one of my, I have a, I have a five of these things that I use at different stages, at least for roofing. So this says, after leaving my [inaudible] quick adjustment, this is an edited one for the covert 19 specifically for use right now. So anyone that’s listening, this is to be used right now after leaving my customer’s house on and then type in the street name. Okay? And if, if that’s the street they live on or in proximity, that level of specificity is going to peak their curiosity and inside their mind are going to say, Hey, this is relevant to me. I live near that street. Okay? After leaving my customer’s house call it Lexington lane, I wanted to stop by comma, but I’m mailing you instead to practice social distancing dot, dot, dot.

New Speaker (10:18):

That’s it. So someone who reads that, they have no closure. They know that you’ve been in the neighborhood, you referenced the street and that you wanted to stop by, but didn’t. So what’s the natural thing that’s going through your head? Try just for fun. W w why were you going to stop by exactly. Great. Read my letter. Then it starts with dear homeowner. I want to stop buying the way back from visiting with my customer on the street, but realize how important it is for all of us. Practice social distancing. That’s why we have this brand new. No contact needed service, I’m writing to you about. And then you continue your pitch, whether it’s roofing, whether it’s solar, whether it’s window replacements, whatever industry you’re in, you can use that same kind of swipe, so to speak. Replay this, write a word for word, you know that is to get someone down the slope of every sentence is I want to know more what’s next, what’s next.

New Speaker (11:06):

And that’s the, what I love about the marketing piece is trying to get inside the customer’s head to figure out what are they thinking and how do I say one step ahead to just get them down all the way to the end where it says call me for your free whatever it is. That’s a, that’s gold. I love it. That’s great. So are you typing the letter or is this your handwriting? I typed the letter. So my letters that I provide, everything’s typed. And in formatting’s really important. Like you want to make it where people can quickly and easily read it. You know how if someone sends you an email and it’s like a giant block of text, the first thing I do is like read later. I don’t, I just don’t want to get into it cause it’s intimidating. If you take that same email and you break it up line by line, my spacing easy, not intimidating, you bold what needs to jump off the page.

New Speaker (11:56):

So I’ve typed them up in the beauty. So the beauty of having them typed is when you’re hitting a street, nothing changes. You literally type it up. You hit print 50 copies on your home computer, we’re computer, whatever, or excuse me, printer and a computer can sign them in blue ink at the bottom there where those space for the signature is slip your business carbon side. That’s it. And if you want to get real clever and don’t mind some postage, you can use some crafty tricks, which is like putting, don’t use confetti. Customers hate that stuff. Yeah. You know, you can, you can slip things in the envelope and call them 3d mailings. So it’s, it’s things that actually might be the name of a company. So, but I know that the concepts 3d stuff, male or when the color, it’s a surprise. You’re, you’re curious.

New Speaker (12:43):

It’s like a little thing in there. You know when people put in a trashcan or picture of one or sticker, your beer bottle cap, like it doesn’t matter what it is, gets people to open it. If you can tie into the story, you know, to be like a miniature shingle. I haven’t tried that one yet. I should maybe do that. But but any who, yeah, fill, fill them out, print them out. This is all rudimentary, low cost. I had our salesman doing it every night when they were sitting at home. You can be drinking a beer, watching TV, whatever it is you do to unwind at night. Like this mindless work. You can outsource it for stupid cheap and postage is, what is it, 55 cents a stamp now? Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. It’s cheap. It’s, it’s cheaper than going door to door. It’s cheaper than gas.

New Speaker (13:26):

If you think about your time, how many homes you can hit, the amount of time it would take to go knock 60 doors in between the dead time walking, like all that stuff. You can take those same exact concepts and apply them into two direct mail and just crush it, just crush it. How many loans are you sending that same letter multiple times or, or kind of, I know you said you have five, so I’m sure you have a sequence you send, but just concept wise, do we need to send multiple letters over a week period or two in the same week or do you kind of have a sequence in mind? That’s a very good question. As with anything, I always teach multi-touch marketing. So when you’re out canvassing, when things do return back to normal, which hopefully won’t be too long. I know it feels like eternity.

New Speaker (14:11):

Even if it’s two months, it’s two months. You know, this will be a blip on the radar. It’s frightening to think about, cause I know a lot of us have slowed down. But it’s literally going to be a blip on the radar. So when, if we take the concepts of what works in door to door canvasing, you don’t just go through a neighborhood and slam on doors one time and then be like, Oh, hit that one onto the next one. Right? I mean, I used to do that when I was a dummy, you know, but then you, what you, you knock on the door, you know who’s home and who’s not. You leave a letter. Again, same thing. I sell letters because if you hang a door hanger like everyone else, you’re just everyone else and it goes straight in the trash. So print it out, fold it up.

New Speaker (14:46):

People are curious, why is their piece of paper folded up? Yeah, that’s inside, right? Not on the outside, just piece of paper. Someone they’re going to want to know. So anyway, layer that on, then send a direct mail, then cold call. So there’s four touches on the same house and then go back again when you’re doing an install, right. Knock the neighborhood. So same concept applies. I have different letters for different scenarios. Personally, like I stopped by and you weren’t there. Are you sick of other people knocking on your door? That one’s not really relevant right now. We have a build in progress from a neighborhood notice and, and things like that. Let’s see. I also do them specific for the I just have a general one I use for cold if you’re doing larger lists, all the under the radar sales letter.

New Speaker (15:30):

So it’s just a general pitch that has less specifics in it. So yes, layer mine, but definitely call after, I mean, yeah, that way it’s not cold calling. You’re calling to say, Hey my name’s out on the roof strategist. I pop the letter in the mail the other day and just wanted to give you a friendly followup call and ask what your thoughts were after reading it. You know, and then you’re ending with that open ended question instead of did you get a no and then they hang up. So the main thing which I know we’ll, we’ll hopefully touch on in cold calling is 100% of the time have an open ended question. Never say, can I do this? That’s a yes or no. How are you doing? Good. Great. I’m not interested in how are you doing? Tic technically is an open ended question, but the way our society answers it is always the same.

New Speaker (16:16):

Yes. Right? Yup. Either good or something horrible happened. You say not so good. Yeah. Yeah. So but yeah, cold calling. Ha. I mean that open ended question. Did you get my letter? And I wanted to follow up to see what your thoughts were after reading it. You’re forcing them to think, who in the hell are you? What letter did you send? Did I read it right? And then if they don’t, they’re like, Oh, you know what? I didn’t read it. You’re like, who cares? You’re in a conversation. It just gave you a reply for you to start a conversation and talking. But the worst thing you can do is say, did you get my letter in the mail? And they’re like, no. Who are you? And then they hang up. Yeah. No, again, keep it simple. Just start a conversation. So I want to get into that.

New Speaker (16:56):

I have one last question before we get into cold call. It’s do you have an idea on response rates? I’m just curious like it’s hard to track this stuff. I know, but any idea on, I send out a hundred a thousand letters. How many calls should I get? That’s a really, really good question. So I have found a one to 5% response rate is typical and I have seen higher, I’ve seen people that have used this and gotten 50% callbacks. Wow. So I’m going to touch on a couple of things. One is what will dictate response rate is how well the letter is written and presented. Does it get open to is the list. So if you’re driving through a neighborhood and writing down all these homes, but they’re not the ideal market. If it’s roofing, let’s say the roof got done. If you’re working a hailstorm for any restoration contractors, if they’re already through the process like there, they’re already not qualified.

New Speaker (17:52):

So that’s going to impact your callback rate. The other is the intangibles is market recognition. If your Chuck in a truck roofing company who’s never been in a market before and no one’s ever heard of you and you drop this thing, could you get callbacks 100% absolutely, because you’re top of mind. But if your w let’s say have no presence online or have a horrible reviews on Google and someone wants to vet you first and they’re going to see who it’s signed by, may hop online and look for you, then they’re likely not going to call. Whereas if your website is set up to rank properly and they search for you by name and they see reviews and you look legit, you know there may be a vetting process and then there’s the obvious brand recognition. If you’ve done 10 homes in the neighborhood and someone’s like, Oh, I know this company, I know the neighbor, right?

New Speaker (18:39):

So that you’re top of mind. So there’s all these factors that that layer in, but typically on the low end, one to 5% so every hundred letters should get a lead. The leads that come off, these things are hot, highly qualified. And even at that, I’m, I suck at math, but let me get my calculator out. So if you send a hundred of these things on the fly math, let’s see, let’s see how it goes. Yeah, I’m watching my videos on YouTube. I do math. I have to like pause. I’d get my phone out. So my calculator going, so 50 that’s 55 bucks in postage for a hundred calculate. Even if it’s another $55 in envelopes in printer ink, that’s $100 for a high, high qualified lead on the worst end. On the best, that’s five. So that’s $25 for a lead for someone calling you specifically not off of a weird ad off of direct mail.

New Speaker (19:32):

I found the close rate on these things are through the roof. They’re exceptional. So qualifying. You know, the funny thing about, you know, me knowing the different home improvement type industries is that a storm restoration contractor values a lead at like, let’s say 25 or 50 bucks. But if you go to a solar company or a replacement, you know, a retail contractor, they’re paying 500 to seven 50. That’s why $100 to $780 for a qualified lead. So what you just said is like [inaudible] some change. Chump change. Yeah. Yeah. And, and you can even, if you wanted to factor in the time a hundred of these things, I would, I would, you can get done a hundred of them in less than an hour. Yeah. Well, if you’ve got a 15 year old like I do, that’s playing freaking Fortnite all day, I’d have him ride. I’d be, I’d have the whole damn town ribbon if these letters paying about 10 cents a one.

New Speaker (20:26):

So yeah, if y’all need your letters written, I’m sure I can farm out by my teenager. He, right. So, so it’s, it’s super cheap. It’s super cheap. It’s really effective in the folks that call from Amar are, you know, they’ve taken the time to read your pitch essentially. And again, you’re not asking for the sale. You’re doing nothing more than showing how you can help identify their purpose, your problem, and presenting a valuable free something inspection report. You know, free estimates aren’t sexy enough. You’ve got to spruce it up. What are you going to package in there, right? So when you, when you offer something, and I use intriguing stuff like for roofers in the hail side, just to give a an example, I say ask about my price lock guarantee. And that’s a a phrase I coined. That is designed to reposition the deductible as, Oh my price lock guarantee all means working through, through with, with me.

New Speaker (21:21):

You owe your deductible in the morning or less that there’s no surprises and it goes into positioning the contingency agreement, all that stuff. So again, ask about something, right? Ask about 0% financing or how you can have make no payments for three months. How you can win a free something or other, right? I’m trying to think of examples for all these types of industries, but leading with some value, making them feel like they’re going to get something out of it. So, and the other thing I wanted to touch on that I space is I had a guy who bought my stuff and he, he he sent me a message. He goes, Adam, your letters aren’t working. And I said, tell me how you’re using him. He says, why I don’t want to pay postage and I’m just leaving him on people’s doorsteps.

New Speaker (22:02):

And I said, dude, try him in the mail. Do this. So now I have a testimonial from them, unsolicited. This says, your letters are working now homie, and I got this question yesterday via email also. So these letters are designed to be mailed. Okay. There’s other things that I produce and there’s other times to leave things at the door, but when something is in a mailbox, it’s a very different story. And if it’s not, okay, well he’s always trying to cheat the system, you know, just it’s made of mail, just mail it, right. Everybody’s trying to get creative. So now we’re getting, let’s see, we got a few minutes left. I know people are gonna want to know about the cold call. You touch on a little bit. So they read the letter, super qualified lead, they call in and you’re saying, Oh good question. The idea here is to provide, right now we need to provide no context service.

New Speaker (22:53):

Everyone listening is in a different world, right? Security companies. I don’t know. Are security companies considered essential businesses right now? I think yeah. For insight with laces. They are, yeah, that would make sense to me. I know HVAC a lot of is a lot of them fall under the plumbing, you know the mechanical or plumbing. Gotcha. Yeah. So yeah, in in roofing is, so I’m going to share what I am teaching people to do for roofing and then we’ll, we’ll adapt to anyone that needs to get inside the home. Cause any contractors that are doing exterior remodeling, windows, roofing, siding, gutters, all that stuff. Restoration contractors. What you’ll want to do is say, Hey, we are offering a 100% no contact service plan and all that we’ll need to do is select a time for me to show up when I pull up. You don’t even need to answer the door.

New Speaker (23:41):

I’ll either call you or text you just as a real friendly reminder that I’m there and going to take photo and video of my inspection. I’m going to walk the perimeter of the home, set my ladder up and be on your roof so they know what to expect. Right? You don’t want to just like just show up and you’re tromping around on the roof while a kid’s trying to nap or something or because we’re all at home working like that has been their wife is on a video conference. It’s important. And the doctor. So courtesy call, I’m going to take photo video and then I’m going to share my findings with you over text or email, which do you prefer? Once they say it, collect it and say, great. Once I’m done we’re going to set up a phone call or video conference. And if it were me, I would push the video conference 100% of the time with sure and use the call as a fallback.

New Speaker (24:22):

But not everyone’s set up to be tech savvy customers specifically here. So once you do that, go through your presentation as you would if you were there. Honestly, do it from your truck sitting in the driveway. Who cares? Okay. So that’s how to handle the process. And then you have two options on paperwork. If you can get set up on some sort of electronic document signing, we’re in a great age. There’s plenty of options. If it’s too much for you guys to handle right now, then drop off your paperwork with a pre postage paid and addressed envelope. Make it easy. You’re right there, you get a little plastic baggy or a nice reusable grocery bag. That’s what would be my preference that we’d all hang onto your swag, hang it on the door. Say, listen, I’m going to put everything you need in an envelope for you.

New Speaker (25:11):

It’ll be on the door once I leave. You can grab it and just execute where you need on the dotted line. Pop it in the mail to us, your deposit checks, everything. But we got to keep cashflow coming in right now. So getting deposits in the queue, making sure customers know that as all this returned back to normal production is going to get backlogged. So we’re getting people into queue in priority. So to do that requires a deposit. So that’s another way just to keep cash coming in right now is to secure the right spot. We can go on on that, but I know, yeah. Let’s, so real quick the, the cold calls. So how, what’s your thoughts on that? So you send a letter and you’re following up with a cold call and then, and maybe just your framework on, on, on how that would go.

New Speaker (25:56):

Yeah, great question. So framework typically you want to reference something specific. So first if it were me, this is how I do it, I’d say, Hey, my name’s Adam. I just left Peggy’s house on Lexington and I wanted to stop by, but I’m calling you instead to practice social distancing and keep everyone safe. Okay. So there’s, there’s relevancy to their home. You’re written naming a name in a street. The reason I’m calling is I just help Peggy do whatever it is. Plug in your trade. You do this self series, this and blah blah blah. While I was there I I wanted to stop by and ask how was this going for you? Okay. Open ended question for roofing in storm restoration and say I wanted to stop by and ask how is the claims process going for you? Okay, that’s it. I want to start a conversation.

New Speaker (26:45):

It’s not, Hey, while I’m in the neighborhood I want to offer you an inspection. Can I give you an estimate like way too soon, just ask how it’s going adapt to your industry, right? Whatever it is needs to be an open ended question that makes them think because whatever they tell you will cater how you’re going to present the next round of information and the roofing side on the hail claim side, if they haven’t filed a claim yet, if they have filed a claim, if they’ve been denied or if there is a check that they already have, well we’ll dictate how I’m going to proceed if they have a check in hand. And I’m offering an inspection that’s useless and be like, why don’t I need that? Right? Yeah. So again, first is relevancy. Some name familiarity. Get them to say, Hey, that’s near me.

New Speaker (27:26):

Second, let them know you going to stop by, but you’re calling instead to respect the current situation. Call it coven. 19 coronavirus social distancing, whatever, right? Respect the stay at home orders and just acknowledgement to keep everybody safe. Okay? So that’s the second part of the formula. Third part is give the reason for your call. I’m calling because I helped so-and-so do this. Okay? And while I’m in the neighborhood, there’s your reason. And the fourth is that is to open or set the hook for conversation by using an open ended question. Whatever your industry is, ask a question that requires thought, not a yes or no answer. This is the hardest thing for salespeople to start doing because it’s so easy without writing it down to say, Hey can I stop by and offer you a free estimate? That’s yes or no. Nope. Click right?

New Speaker (28:13):

Yeah. Yeah. So even if it’s solar, you know, talk about the credits. Hey, I just want to stop by and ask, you know have you been curious about what these have you been curious as a yes or no? Anyway, talk about the incentives. I’m having a hard time coming to the solar, but I didn’t prepare for that one because they did it right. Like, you know, ask them an open end question about their energy, current credits, federal regulations, opportunities, deductions, anything like that that might pique their curiosity to say yes or no. Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah, that’s a man. We covered a ton right there. I have my quick fire questions for you. Just wrap up with a few. Sure. Ready for that. I’ll hit you with it. So if you, what, and maybe we’ll put you in the, in the frame, in the mindset of one of your clients, but w what’s, what should their mindset be going through this?

New Speaker (29:08):

I’m a, I’m a business owner. I own a company, you know, what should my mindset be as I’m battling through these crazy times? That’s a super good question. To customers first is the first thing. Right now it is crystal clear what companies are going to survive and who’s going to increase brand loyalty. This whole pandemic is helping us all connect on a human level in a way that we never have right hashtag in this together in this together, the companies that are stepping up to to provide service. I just went and got dog food the other day. I called up getting my credit card. They ran it outside. My veterinarian would pick up pills from a dog. Same thing. They literally ran it outside. People are, you know, they’ll pick the dogs up from your car. So people are adapting to keep everyone safe and to keep businesses going.

New Speaker (29:58):

So number one, customers first. Number two, rise to the occasion. I’m, I’m personally doing a live every single day, Monday through Friday as a way to give back. I’ve also updated all of my material for people who’ve already purchased for which you could very easily say, well, they bought my stuff. Like, that’s cool, but I’ve updated it for specific to be specific to the Kovac 19 pandemic and I’m giving it out for free to help people keep momentum up and it’s included if for anyone that does purchase, you know, moving forward. So just rise to the occasion and and, and know that we will get through this and keep your foot on the gas cause the minute you stop, you go out of mind and we’re all going to have a shorter selling season because of this, which means shorter install, which means busier. And if you’re not prepared to, to ramp it up, you’re going to be screwed.

New Speaker (30:48):

What permanent changes do you see happening in the business world because of the coronavirus situation? Good question. To spits to come to mind right out of the gate, remote work and the use of so remote work and video stuff. And just the, the human element of connecting with people. I th I think that it’s interesting. I agree. I agree with both of those and I’ve talked about with other people about the human now it’s like, I dunno, it just feels like it’s, we got so wrapped up in our devices and even though we’re separated, we’re somehow more together now. I don’t know. It’s hard to describe. Yeah. Weird. I like it. Yeah. It’s gonna people, people have always wanted to buy from people and not faceless corporations, but that and that trend was already on the rise. And I think that spiking to be, people want to buy from people that they know, like, and trust in a deeper way through all this.

New Speaker (31:44):

Yeah. And now this is normal. There are companies that never used to do remote stuff or video conferencing with clients or vendors and now it’s standard. So the human side is going to be going to be a big shift in my opinion. So where can people find you? I mean, God, we went through so much. People are going to have questions work in, they track you down to, to hit you up. Yeah. Good question. So I always welcome personal emails. That’s [email protected]. I’m adamant roof strategies that come and then you can find me on YouTube. If you just search the roof strategist or if you just search roof strategists, either one, they’ll both pop up but you’ll find my channel there. And I’m doing a bunch of lives in every single YouTube video I have. There’s links to all this stuff that I have available from my marketing battle pack, which is everything I described to some one-on-one work, hiring ads, things like that.

New Speaker (32:36):

Oh cool. I’m specific to roofing and I am, I do have a number of people just in general door to door sales that watch my videos on cold calling a senior pitch up the door and all that stuff cause the concepts still apply. So yeah, I welcome it all and I do respond to all my emails personally. May take me a bit, I’ve been a little busy, a lot of people reaching out, but I will always get back to you personally and I do take the time to respond with some thought. That’s awesome. Any, any final message to the field sales rep, the owners, managers out there, you want to leave them with? Yeah. One positive thing. Focus on what we can control and don’t lose sight of that. If you’re thinking that you’re stumped cause you can’t do this and you can’t do that, it’s gonna kill you.

New Speaker (33:18):

There’s a lot you can do and you put your time and the energy into adapting and being agile, shifting from going door to door to cold calling and using direct mail and working customers and building referral networks and relationships. Stay on the gas and you’re going to be in a really good spot once things start returning back to some semblance of normalcy. That’s great. Thanks so much for your time, Adam. I had a hell of a time. Perfect, amazing information in here. And you know, we’ll, we’ll get through this together. We’re, we’re, as you can tell, both Adam and I are focused on providing value to the marketplace at no cost. We’re here with y’all side by side pushing through. So good luck to everybody out there. Adam, we’ll talk later. Yeah. Thanks again for everything. We’ll see you soon. Tray.