Canvassing for Fun and Profit - Roofing Talk

dinkisdad · 11-27-2008, 11:25 AM

Since this is what I do I thought I'd share some ideas about this canvassing thing.

You really do have to be in a mindset to do it. I play mind games with myself to do this. You never know what or who is going to be behind the door. That's what makes this interesting.

I find most people to be receptive to what I'm doing and some others not so receptive. Fortunately there is way more people open, than not. If I run into 3 angry people in a week that is a lot. My record for not running into angry people is 23 days of knocking.

The key for this to work (for me at least) is to be really good at getting up on roofs. Somedays are better than others, obviously. But you also need to know what hail damage is or isn't and know how to play the insurance game. (which is all so verily easily learned)

If you are intimidated at all by knocking doors or dealing with insurance adjusters, hire people who aren't intimidated.

I have an approach that works extremely well for me. Other people do it differently and that's okay. There is no right or wrong way as long as you can make it profitable.

Let me know if you guys are interested in me setting up a blog that covers this entire topic. Also post your questions or pm me. If there is a good demand for this I will go into detail on a blog. Otherwise I'll just post here.

Dave

Ed the Roofer · 11-27-2008, 04:01 PM

I think it is an interesting and very low budget marketing method, which many contractors shun, because they like to proclaim that they get so many referrals.

Well, what better referral can you get than one the shows how you shine on a cold call prospecting campaign.

I receive an ongoing canvassing training program in the e-mail from one of the canvassing pro's out there.

Even though I have not implemented the marketing plan yet, I am going to start a radius canvassing program requirement for myself and the other estimator/salesman trainee.

Especially when you are either doing a job already, which just makes perfect sense.

The other limited basis method that makes sense is to knock on just 2 more doors when you are already on some block doing someone elses estimate.

Let's go for it and develop a written procedure manual of successful methods.

Ed

Ed the Roofer · 11-28-2008, 12:35 PM

Since you do a 4 pass method of knocking, How does the initial message start and then what do you say differently on the next 3 follow up visits?

Do you rehearse basic scripts?

Do you have standard replies for the comments that they might say?

How do you turn a "Not Interested", into a "Wel, Let's Hear What You Have To Say"?

Ed

Ed the Roofer · 11-29-2008, 08:26 PM

One point of major contention from the majority of contractors, not only roofing contractors, is that they feel the insurance funds are not enough to compensate them for their normal charges.

I presume that you use a standard contingency agreement form with a direction to pay clause.

I do not utilize Xactimate for my estimates, but for insurance jobs, I do line item as many specific tasks and daily required duties as I can.

That gets me up to my standard pricing, with an already signed contract agreement, contingent upon the insurance company agreeing with the scope of work, at which time, I present the signed contract to the adjuster, with the additional 10 + 10 added on top of for additionally required overhead and profit for the inevitable amount of paperwork and other documentation they will require.

Most home owners and contractors alike, never get it into their head, and believe it convincingly, that once a home owner has a signed contract with you for the agreed upon scope of work, that the insurance company is required by their own contractual language and the true legal definition of "Replacement Cost Coverage", to come up with the actual contract amount minus the home owners deductible.

Ed

Ed the Roofer · 12-05-2008, 12:29 AM

We got just enough snow to F' Up the schedule again.

Luckily, the one house I am in progress on right now already has the walk on pitches torn off and we only have the mansards remaining, so I can get the shingles started on them as soon as it get near 40*, which I hope will not take 4 more months like last year.

Ed

Grumpy · 12-09-2008, 10:20 AM

Canvassing for fun?

dinkisdad · 12-09-2008, 01:21 PM

Okay I didn't mean fun. Although that's what I said. A bit of sarcastic humor.

I have never met anybody who said that they love knocking on doors. Ever Ever. But the method works.

The profit part of the phrase is definately true though.

Grumpy · 12-15-2008, 08:34 AM

I've stayed away from insurance work. I've not gone after it after 2001 when all there was around was insurance work. That left a bad taste in my mouth for dealing with insurance companies. But I've been thinking long and hard and may try to find an "insurance specialit" who will be responsible to self generate and do all the insurance dealings. If they are willing to handle the paper work, then whys hould I care if isnurance is paying or not.

That brings up another problem. Insurance does not pay enough to properly install a roof even using exactimate figures. I'm not even the most expensive guy around, but a for example... On one job they were offering for labor, material, disposal, etc... it didn't even cover the material costs.

ATC1984 · 03-14-2009, 11:22 PM

Grumpy

At times I do enjoy canvassing and hate it. The days where I cant seem to knock a door without signing a deal are fantastic but the weeks where no matter what you do or say you cant get a signature are hell.

On the jobs I have sold through insurance I am making an average 35% net profit margin while properly installing roofs.

I use exactimate on every insurance job but I do not use the figures from the updates they send out. I typically will mark their numbers up by 10-15% to get where I want to be. Not all insurance companies will hit this number but it never hurts to shoot higher than where you actually need to be when it comes to dealing with adjusters.

I have worked with the adjusters in my area enough at this point that when they see my name on a claim they will have me write the report and get pictures to send in to them because they know I dont have homeowners call in a claim on B.S. damage. Funny thing is... most of the other sales people within my company dont have this luxury because they call in bogus claims.

Sure there can be huge head aches going this rout but it is well worth it in the end. Your helping a homeowner get what is rightfully theirs and putting a new roof on their home. To me it is much more fulfilling than just bidding jobs out.

I recently helped a homeowner get his 98 square 12/12 roof bought off after fighting the insurance company for over 3 months. This guy was so happy once he got the check in the mail he was calling me "hey man when you wanna come pick up this check you worked so hard for?" Funny thing is I only spent maybe 10 hours total dealing with the claim and Im going to make 8k on the job as the salesperson! Insurance is paying 52k for replacement not including 10&10 for Overhead and profit. The kicker is that because insurance took so long to approve his claim he actually incurred interior damage from leaks which will now give us the O and P on the claim!

Did I mention I only sell for insurance procedes?

pcplumber · 03-15-2009, 11:01 AM

But do you have to put it in a blog?

I believe in canvassing door-to-door and have been trying to get started for the past 6 weeks. I had one sales person work for only one day, he got 5 leads in about three hours, and we sold three small plumbing jobs for $1500. I was very excited, but I terminated the sales person the following day because he disappeared for part of the day and I am fairly sure he had a recent problem with drug use.

I am having a plumber work with my sales person so we do not have to play the appointment chasing game. We are getting into homes by offering a free furnace inspection and a free toilet leak test. When we arrive at the door we hand the customer a handful of ink pens, 5 x 7 magnet calendar, and dye tablets to test their toilet tank for leaks. Then we offer to show them how to use the tablets. We also drop off 500 letters the day before we canvass so the customers know we will be banging on their door. We tried dropping off letters in plastic bags and the customers would hang the bag on their door the following day if they wanted the free estimate. The test was horrible because we left the bags on the doors at about 3 pm in the pouring rain and we picked them up the following day at noon in the pouring rain. We did get two people who wanted a free inspection. Maybe we would have received more with more patience.

I also have a C39 California roofing license and am trying to get my roofing company back together. I am curious about your bidding with Exactimate because I always bid restoration work according to what I want and I tell the customer the insurance company pays too little and if they want a better job with more meticulous workers, they need to pay my price. I bid the jobs and tell the customers to haggle with their insurance company. I was reading an article last year saying the insurance companies were getting sued for price price fixing.

Anyway, I would like to hear everything you can possibly say about door-to-door. I am running two ads for sales people this week end and next week. I know of many businesses that do only door-to-door and I think we can a few million in business every year.

Thank you very much for your posts.

11-27-2008, 11:25 AM	#1
dinkisdad Sales Slug Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: denver Posts: 7	Canvassing for Fun and Profit Since this is what I do I thought I'd share some ideas about this canvassing thing. You really do have to be in a mindset to do it. I play mind games with myself to do this. You never know what or who is going to be behind the door. That's what makes this interesting. I find most people to be receptive to what I'm doing and some others not so receptive. Fortunately there is way more people open, than not. If I run into 3 angry people in a week that is a lot. My record for not running into angry people is 23 days of knocking. The key for this to work (for me at least) is to be really good at getting up on roofs. Somedays are better than others, obviously. But you also need to know what hail damage is or isn't and know how to play the insurance game. (which is all so verily easily learned) If you are intimidated at all by knocking doors or dealing with insurance adjusters, hire people who aren't intimidated. I have an approach that works extremely well for me. Other people do it differently and that's okay. There is no right or wrong way as long as you can make it profitable. Let me know if you guys are interested in me setting up a blog that covers this entire topic. Also post your questions or pm me. If there is a good demand for this I will go into detail on a blog. Otherwise I'll just post here. Dave

11-27-2008, 04:01 PM	#2
Ed the Roofer Super Moderator Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 584	I think it is an interesting and very low budget marketing method, which many contractors shun, because they like to proclaim that they get so many referrals. Well, what better referral can you get than one the shows how you shine on a cold call prospecting campaign. I receive an ongoing canvassing training program in the e-mail from one of the canvassing pro's out there. Even though I have not implemented the marketing plan yet, I am going to start a radius canvassing program requirement for myself and the other estimator/salesman trainee. Especially when you are either doing a job already, which just makes perfect sense. The other limited basis method that makes sense is to knock on just 2 more doors when you are already on some block doing someone elses estimate. Let's go for it and develop a written procedure manual of successful methods. Ed __________________ Just Wait A Minute, I Will Be Right Back With A Link For That. http://www.rightwayroofingcompany.com/ www.rightwayroofingcompany.com Roof Estimates, Roof Repairs, Roofers, Roof Leak Help, Elgin, Carpentersville, East Dundee, West Dundee, Sleepy Hollow, Algonquin, South Elgin, Huntley, Lake In The Hills, Illinois

11-28-2008, 12:35 PM	#3
Ed the Roofer Super Moderator Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 584	Since you do a 4 pass method of knocking, How does the initial message start and then what do you say differently on the next 3 follow up visits? Do you rehearse basic scripts? Do you have standard replies for the comments that they might say? How do you turn a "Not Interested", into a "Wel, Let's Hear What You Have To Say"? Ed __________________ Just Wait A Minute, I Will Be Right Back With A Link For That. http://www.rightwayroofingcompany.com/ www.rightwayroofingcompany.com Roof Estimates, Roof Repairs, Roofers, Roof Leak Help, Elgin, Carpentersville, East Dundee, West Dundee, Sleepy Hollow, Algonquin, South Elgin, Huntley, Lake In The Hills, Illinois

11-29-2008, 08:26 PM	#4
Ed the Roofer Super Moderator Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 584	One point of major contention from the majority of contractors, not only roofing contractors, is that they feel the insurance funds are not enough to compensate them for their normal charges. I presume that you use a standard contingency agreement form with a direction to pay clause. I do not utilize Xactimate for my estimates, but for insurance jobs, I do line item as many specific tasks and daily required duties as I can. That gets me up to my standard pricing, with an already signed contract agreement, contingent upon the insurance company agreeing with the scope of work, at which time, I present the signed contract to the adjuster, with the additional 10 + 10 added on top of for additionally required overhead and profit for the inevitable amount of paperwork and other documentation they will require. Most home owners and contractors alike, never get it into their head, and believe it convincingly, that once a home owner has a signed contract with you for the agreed upon scope of work, that the insurance company is required by their own contractual language and the true legal definition of "Replacement Cost Coverage", to come up with the actual contract amount minus the home owners deductible. Ed __________________ Just Wait A Minute, I Will Be Right Back With A Link For That. http://www.rightwayroofingcompany.com/ www.rightwayroofingcompany.com Roof Estimates, Roof Repairs, Roofers, Roof Leak Help, Elgin, Carpentersville, East Dundee, West Dundee, Sleepy Hollow, Algonquin, South Elgin, Huntley, Lake In The Hills, Illinois

12-05-2008, 12:29 AM	#5
Ed the Roofer Super Moderator Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 584	We got just enough snow to F' Up the schedule again. Luckily, the one house I am in progress on right now already has the walk on pitches torn off and we only have the mansards remaining, so I can get the shingles started on them as soon as it get near 40*, which I hope will not take 4 more months like last year. Ed __________________ Just Wait A Minute, I Will Be Right Back With A Link For That. http://www.rightwayroofingcompany.com/ www.rightwayroofingcompany.com Roof Estimates, Roof Repairs, Roofers, Roof Leak Help, Elgin, Carpentersville, East Dundee, West Dundee, Sleepy Hollow, Algonquin, South Elgin, Huntley, Lake In The Hills, Illinois

12-09-2008, 10:20 AM	#6
Grumpy Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 731	Canvassing for fun? __________________ -Grumpy Chicago Gutters Chicago Roofing

12-09-2008, 01:21 PM	#7
dinkisdad Sales Slug Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: denver Posts: 7	Okay I didn't mean fun. Although that's what I said. A bit of sarcastic humor. I have never met anybody who said that they love knocking on doors. Ever Ever. But the method works. The profit part of the phrase is definately true though.

12-15-2008, 08:34 AM	#8
Grumpy Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 731	I've stayed away from insurance work. I've not gone after it after 2001 when all there was around was insurance work. That left a bad taste in my mouth for dealing with insurance companies. But I've been thinking long and hard and may try to find an "insurance specialit" who will be responsible to self generate and do all the insurance dealings. If they are willing to handle the paper work, then whys hould I care if isnurance is paying or not. That brings up another problem. Insurance does not pay enough to properly install a roof even using exactimate figures. I'm not even the most expensive guy around, but a for example... On one job they were offering for labor, material, disposal, etc... it didn't even cover the material costs. __________________ -Grumpy Chicago Gutters Chicago Roofing

03-14-2009, 11:22 PM	#9
ATC1984 Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 6	Grumpy At times I do enjoy canvassing and hate it. The days where I cant seem to knock a door without signing a deal are fantastic but the weeks where no matter what you do or say you cant get a signature are hell. On the jobs I have sold through insurance I am making an average 35% net profit margin while properly installing roofs. I use exactimate on every insurance job but I do not use the figures from the updates they send out. I typically will mark their numbers up by 10-15% to get where I want to be. Not all insurance companies will hit this number but it never hurts to shoot higher than where you actually need to be when it comes to dealing with adjusters. I have worked with the adjusters in my area enough at this point that when they see my name on a claim they will have me write the report and get pictures to send in to them because they know I dont have homeowners call in a claim on B.S. damage. Funny thing is... most of the other sales people within my company dont have this luxury because they call in bogus claims. Sure there can be huge head aches going this rout but it is well worth it in the end. Your helping a homeowner get what is rightfully theirs and putting a new roof on their home. To me it is much more fulfilling than just bidding jobs out. I recently helped a homeowner get his 98 square 12/12 roof bought off after fighting the insurance company for over 3 months. This guy was so happy once he got the check in the mail he was calling me "hey man when you wanna come pick up this check you worked so hard for?" Funny thing is I only spent maybe 10 hours total dealing with the claim and Im going to make 8k on the job as the salesperson! Insurance is paying 52k for replacement not including 10&10 for Overhead and profit. The kicker is that because insurance took so long to approve his claim he actually incurred interior damage from leaks which will now give us the O and P on the claim! Did I mention I only sell for insurance procedes?

03-15-2009, 11:01 AM	#10
pcplumber Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 8	Sure! I am interested in how you canvas door to door But do you have to put it in a blog? I believe in canvassing door-to-door and have been trying to get started for the past 6 weeks. I had one sales person work for only one day, he got 5 leads in about three hours, and we sold three small plumbing jobs for $1500. I was very excited, but I terminated the sales person the following day because he disappeared for part of the day and I am fairly sure he had a recent problem with drug use. I am having a plumber work with my sales person so we do not have to play the appointment chasing game. We are getting into homes by offering a free furnace inspection and a free toilet leak test. When we arrive at the door we hand the customer a handful of ink pens, 5 x 7 magnet calendar, and dye tablets to test their toilet tank for leaks. Then we offer to show them how to use the tablets. We also drop off 500 letters the day before we canvass so the customers know we will be banging on their door. We tried dropping off letters in plastic bags and the customers would hang the bag on their door the following day if they wanted the free estimate. The test was horrible because we left the bags on the doors at about 3 pm in the pouring rain and we picked them up the following day at noon in the pouring rain. We did get two people who wanted a free inspection. Maybe we would have received more with more patience. I also have a C39 California roofing license and am trying to get my roofing company back together. I am curious about your bidding with Exactimate because I always bid restoration work according to what I want and I tell the customer the insurance company pays too little and if they want a better job with more meticulous workers, they need to pay my price. I bid the jobs and tell the customers to haggle with their insurance company. I was reading an article last year saying the insurance companies were getting sued for price price fixing. Anyway, I would like to hear everything you can possibly say about door-to-door. I am running two ads for sales people this week end and next week. I know of many businesses that do only door-to-door and I think we can a few million in business every year. Thank you very much for your posts.

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