Minnesota roofer lets MRA educate — and sell — customers
In a perfect world, every lead would end up becoming a one-visit sale and a profitable job for you with a happy customer. Unfortunately, most sales take longer than the actual install. It seems when the “sale” is the easy part of a job, it’s a good job.
Travis Peterson of Vertex Roofing in Ely, Minn., recalls a project that required just one visit to sell know-ledgeable homeowners on a new metal roof for their lake home. The lead came from the Metal Roofing Alliance, through Gerard Roofing Technologies, a manufacturer of stone-coated steel roofing. As a member of the MRA, Gerard and other member manufacturers receive customer leads gathered at the MRA website, www.metalroofing.com. The manufacturers get those leads out to their customers who are MRA Contractor Members.
Homeowners are becoming wiser all the time. They don’t just flip to the Yellow Pages and look for a roofer. Homeowners do research online. Invariably, they will end up at the MRA site, where they will learn about the benefits of metal and discover the wide array of metal roofing options.
So a chunk of the selling is actually done by the MRA site — that’s when contractor members reap the benefits! On the site, homeowners are asked to fill out a form for more information from a metal roofing installer. This information is distributed to MRA member contractors in the vicinity of the leads. These are the kind of leads you should be willing to stand in line for, but they are e-mailed directly to you!
Peterson believes MRA leads are valuable because the customers were savvy enough to be online doing some research, so they don’t require extensive education about metal roofing — that saves time when you get an appointment with these potential customers. That’s why Vertex Roofing was able to land this lake home job with one sales visit.
“They were already sold on metal,” Peterson says. “And that’s the way a lot of MRA leads are. The tipping point for this customer was we were able to design a system for their vaulted ceilings. We installed the Canyon Shake (from Gerard Roofing Technologies) on battens and that ventilation was the difference.”
The customers was considering a painted metal roofing system for their steep roof (10:12), but were sold on the ventilation benefits of installing the metal shingles on battens to allow air flow between the deck and roofing material. The customers chose to go with 4,700 square feet of Gerard Canyon Shake in Terra Cotta.
Peterson says Vertex Roofing gets about three leads per week from MRA. “If we haven’t sold an MRA lead, generally it’s because they haven’t made a decision yet,” he says.
Vertex Roofing was an asphalt roofing installer before getting into metal in 2005. Peterson says it was obvious metal was a better product and more profitable. “It’s really a better value,” he says.
In late 2008, Vertex made the move to offering only metal roofing, “make it our niche,” says Peterson.
Since this roof was completed a year ago, Vertex has sold three more metal jobs in the area on references from the original customer.
One MRA lead, four roofs — that’s not bad.
