Workplace

Many roofing contractors operate in reactive sales environments. Every project opportunity is based on responding to a request for bids. Inexperienced contractors tend to rely on low prices to win projects, but more experienced contractors realize price is only one of several elements necessary to win a job.

Beyond the quality of your bid, you should try to move from a reactive sales environment toward a more proactive position.

Products and services

As part of your sales management effort, you should ask yourself three important questions, the first being: Why do my customers choose my company?

Your objective is to wrap a quantitative value proposition around each of your offerings. Energy-efficiency offerings, for example, can be tied to reduced operating costs. Periodic inspections that increase a roof system's life reduce a customer's capital costs. And long-term proactive roof system maintenance can help avoid roof system failures—a clear example of mitigating risk. And you can calculate the effects of these offerings in finite dollars.

For core offerings, such as installing a roof system, a value proposition often is associated with delivery excellence—not price.

Although building owners grouse about project pricing, their greater concern is nonperformance. If a contractor wins a project based solely on low price but is unable to deliver a quality end product, the building owner faces huge risk. Surprisingly, the value proposition most associated with core roofing contractor offerings is mitigating customer risk.

Optimal revenue

Another question to ask yourself is: What is my optimal revenue per customer value?

Roofing contractors typically provide three types of offerings: roof system inspections; resolving outstanding issues found during roof system inspections or installing new roof systems; and maintenance. The combination of these services can be referred to as the AIM continuum (assessments, implementation and maintenance), which serves as the basis for destination selling.

Your AIM continuum's total value represents your optimal revenue per customer value—the revenue you would receive if your customer were to purchase all your offerings.

Destination selling is the first step toward a proactive sales environment. Once you have captured a customer, it is your objective to continue the customer relationship by offering logical services along your AIM continuum.

Consider this: Once a project is completed, who will maintain its infrastructure? Are periodic inspections of value to the customer? Is there an opportunity to maintain the roof system based on changing customer requirements? All these services presume a customer need before the customer requests it. This is the basis of destination selling.

Pricing

Now ask yourself: Have I ever lost a job based on price?

If you have, you should be congratulated. Inexperienced roofing contractors, anxious for work, flood the market with unrealistically low bids. Although many building owners will accept these offers to keep their project costs down, inexperienced contractors find out quickly that winning these jobs comes at a high price-the downfall of their businesses.

Sales success comes when you are able to elevate your bids from being price-dependent to a level that incorporates real competitive differentiation. Price only reduces the potential profit exposure-a short-term view that often is not realized as poor quality leads to expensive rework.

Change your focus

You can win the sales war. By changing your focus and moving toward a more proactive sales opportunity stance, you will achieve higher win rates, increased revenue-per-customer metrics and more control over your own business destiny.

Brad Dawson is managing director of LTV Dynamics, Catharpin, Va.