Filing Claims is Not Sales

Mission Control Podcast

In this episode, Mike talks about the biggest mistake that companies who focus predominantly on insurance claims make when trying to enter the retail market. When making this transition, instead of just relying on the traditional forms of generating business like door knocking, it's important to increase marketing and advertising efforts through tools like Google search. These types of sales require different methods, and proper training is crucial.

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00;00;00;01 - 00;00;18;28 Michael Stearns So today we're going to talk about the biggest mistake that companies that focus predominantly on insurance claims and restoration make when trying to get into the retail market. As we all know, things are changing in the insurance industry. This is what I'm told by, you know, you roofers and a lot of more people are trying to transition into a retail model.

00;00;18;28 - 00;00;46;13 Michael Stearns And what that requires is as opposed to just door knocking or relying on traditional means that are generating opportunities for insurance claims, doing things that are more aligned with generating leads from marketing and advertising. So things like Google Search. One of the biggest pitfalls that I see when companies are making this transition is that they put somebody who is very, very adept and very productive on the insurance claims side of things.

00;00;46;15 - 00;01;18;20 Michael Stearns And they're their top performer, their top sales rep, if you will, into a position without the proper training to sell retail roofing contracts. And it is nowhere near the same. Think of it, there's an art form. And I'm not dismissing how challenging it is to doorknock and to get claims filed, etc., but you're going into a situation where you're selling them the homeowner, something that's ten, 20, $30,000 in value for 500, a thousand, 1500 and $3,000.

00;01;18;23 - 00;01;39;23 Michael Stearns So you're giving them a massive discount, an incentive to purchase the roof from you as a result of their insurance claim. Let's be honest, it's not the same type of sales, Right. Versus in a retail environment, you've got let's say a homeowner goes on Google and they're looking for best roofing contractor near me. They're going through the results.

00;01;39;26 - 00;01;59;29 Michael Stearns They pick you, they call you. There's several there's several different components of this journey that are super, super important. One, what is it they see when they're exposed to you online? Once they reach out to you, what is that intake process like? What is their experience when they're dealing with whoever it is that's answering the phone? What questions are being asked?

00;02;00;04 - 00;02;34;02 Michael Stearns How are we positioning that sales rep? And then ultimately when that sales rep gets there, what does that conversation look like? Do you have a bullet proof sales process that's going to do things like isolate their different pain points, magnify these pain points systematically, get there by and then trial closed throughout that sales process to where you're proactively pulling out the objections, answering questions that they have, and getting that customer to acknowledge that in fact you would be a good fit because this is how you would solve that issue.

00;02;34;04 - 00;02;55;25 Michael Stearns Because then when you get to the end of the conversation and inevitably the I've got to think about it or I've got to talk it over with, my wife comes about, you're now equipped to circle back into the point of the conversation where you've already addressed it and have that conversation. Like those are the type of objections that are not going to be present in the insurance claims process.

00;02;55;29 - 00;03;17;12 Michael Stearns Like if we're door knocking, getting inspections that route, it's a completely different sale. And so if you treat your leads that are coming from Google or advertising the same way that you do from the leads that you're generating through insurance claims, door knocking, you know, and that type of marketing, you're going to be very disappointed with the outcome.

00;03;17;15 - 00;03;42;22 Michael Stearns I had a client a couple of years back. They were making this transition into more retail and they wanted to cancel after a few months. And when I asked why, it was simply because it just wasn't working the way they thought it would. So the primary vehicle that we use to deliver opportunities to this customers, Google local services or Google guaranteed if you're not doing it, regardless of the type of roofing company you are, you should do it.

00;03;42;24 - 00;04;11;21 Michael Stearns Click the link down below and you can get enrolled today. But this is a fixed cost per lead platform and typically it's significantly cheaper than, let's say, Google ads or other alternatives. So it's very, very nice and can be very productive. This particular client had 200 leads over the course of three or four months. And what I wanted to do is I wanted to listen to these calls like what is happening that we're not getting sales because 200 leads is a lot of leads not to feel as if this campaign is productive.

00;04;11;24 - 00;04;29;17 Michael Stearns So we monitor the calls and they receive calls. One of them I remember vividly was, you know, the homeowner called and said, we had this fix last year, but the wall is still leaking. So the issue was obviously still there. We know it's going to cost more, but we want to make sure that we get it done the right way.

00;04;29;20 - 00;04;52;18 Michael Stearns Now, the salesperson that was in charge of this lead was historically the best closer and the highest producer for that company, you know. So I asked them, like, what happened with this lead, right? Because for me, that's a golden opportunity. They're confessing. They went that she brought. So they're they're explicitly saying they're okay with paying more. So what more could you ask for out of the situation?

00;04;52;20 - 00;05;14;21 Michael Stearns When I asked the sales rep about it, you know, he couldn't recall. So I said, okay, let's pull up your CRM. Let's see what happened with the lead. There was no record of it in the CRM, so there was never an opportunity for this. This prospect, this high quality prospect to actually become a paying customer. And because of that, and that wasn't an isolated instance, they saw no value in the leads that were coming in.

00;05;14;21 - 00;05;40;17 Michael Stearns So we have to be intentional about creating systems and processes around how we're generating leads, and that can change from each marketing medium, right? So it could be Facebook, it could be Google, it could be home advisor. But understanding contextually where we're bringing in the customers from what our process is for that marketing medium to make sure that we're consistently optimizing that process to get the most out of every dollar that we're putting out for advertising.

00;05;40;17 - 00;05;46;15 Michael Stearns So I'm sure there'll be some comments. Drop them below. Share this with somebody that would help. And we look forward to talking to you again soon.