Tech-Forward Roofing: Build a Smarter, Faster Sales Experience

Is your roofing sales process built for today’s customer? Or is it stuck and buried under unorganized piles of paperwork and outdated manual processes that only breed inefficiency?

In this episode of the Mastering ServiceTitan podcast, we chat with Sue Drummond, Solutions Delivery Manager at ServiceTitan, about how roofing contractors can modernize their sales workflows with technology and close more deals with less effort. 

We’ll show you how to move from manual measurements and paper quotes to streamlined, tech-powered estimates that impress customers. From real-time supplier pricing to customizable proposals delivered before you leave the home, Drummond shares insights to help roofing contractors save time, boost accuracy, and sell with confidence.

Drummond gained years of experience working in the roofing industry as the office administrator at a small, family-owned residential roofing company before moving to a larger new construction and commercial roofing business.

“The level of efficiency in roofing, and in construction in general, was very paper-based and very minimal. And as a Millennial, I was banging my head against the wall with the lack of use of technology,” Drummond says.

Using her knowledge of the roofing industry and her love of technology, she co-founded a construction safety software company to help roofers do their jobs with fewer risks. She then joined ServiceTitan to focus on developing even more software features for residential exteriors.

“I feel passionately about it because I love roofers,” Drummond says. “I love working in that space. And there are easier ways. It doesn't have to be so hard.”

Today’s consumers want speed and accuracy 

Consumer expectations for roofing services are evolving — much like everything else these days, from scheduling doctor appointments online to tracking the driver who delivers our food. 

“We want things fast. We want our questions answered without having to ask them,” Drummond says. “The experience a homeowner is looking for today needs to be delivered with speed and accuracy.”

As a roofing contractor, it’s your job to get to the customer’s home as soon as possible and deliver an accurate estimate. And, most importantly, the accurate estimate should provide tiered options for the customer to choose from.

“Consumers want choices. If they're not provided with choices from your company in the form of different materials, different warranties, different products, then they're going to look outside your company for other options,” Drummond says.

You can utilize software technology to provide those options, but train your salespeople to present them in the most professional manner while building connections and rapport with customers. While they may want speedy service, customers still want to meet with you face-to-face to know who they’re hiring to replace their roof.

“Because that's important. It's a lot of money. They want to make sure they're feeling confident in your capabilities,” she says.

Create quick, polished proposals with ServiceTitan right on-site

Typically, the manual process of creating a roofing estimate can take up to an hour, with the salesperson climbing around the roof, taking measurements, and recording notes. This time-consuming process also leaves your customers wondering what’s going on and why it’s taking so long.

ServiceTitan helps to automate this process by partnering with some of the leading measurement companies in the industry, like GAF QuickMeasure, Hover, and EagleView. 

“What we're able to do now with our partnerships means that as soon as that lead comes in, as soon as you've booked that appointment for the sales team to go out, you can order a measurement report from one of these companies right from your ServiceTitan account,” Drummond says.

Using advanced aerial imagery and property measurement technology, these measurement tools produce reports that connect directly to the customer’s job in ServiceTitan and provide the data you need to create the estimate.

“It means you're arriving at the door with almost all of the information you need in order to create that quote,” she explains.

If you still prefer to measure manually, you can use ServiceTitan’s free roofing calculators to collect key measurements, such as the linear feet of the eaves, the rake, the hips, and ridges.

“All of these are roof measurements that you have to capture in order to run a calculation and determine how many pieces of material you're going to need in order to complete this reroofing project,” Drummond explains. “When you enter that into the form in ServiceTitan, we have preset calculations that in the background do all the math for you, so the salesperson never has to use that calculator.”

You can set up the estimate template to capture whatever calculations you need, then the system will consistently generate the good, better, and best proposals no matter the condition of the customer’s roof or salesperson involved.

“It's consistent across the board, but it also means that it's easier to train,” Drummond says, whether you have a very skilled salesperson with no roofing experience or a very skilled roofer with no sales experience.

The partnership measurement tools and roofing calculators are specifically designed to help roofing contractors calculate the precise materials needed on every job so they know their real costs for every estimate and can work to protect their profit margins.

Roofers can customize the estimates however they see fit, whether it’s providing details for every line item or providing a high-level overview with the total price. And once you’re happy with the way the form works and the way measurements are calculated, you can customize how the estimates are presented to customers without flipping through a cumbersome pitch book.

“Obviously, the goal is to sign the deal at the table every time,” Drummond says. “We want you to increase the number of sales that you're making with one visit.”

Realistically, however, we know not all customers are ready to approve your estimate on the first visit. By emailing them an electronic proposal through ServiceTitan, you can answer all of their questions, provide a certificate of insurance, include customer testimonials, and so much more — before you even leave their kitchen table.

“We package it into this professional presentation tool and then leave that with them as the lasting impression of your company,” Drummond says.

“So, you're saying people no longer have to climb on roofs, they no longer have to flip through books, and basically, it sounds like roofing contractors can save a lot of time when they're actually on-site,” Podcast Host Josh Lu says. “They can invest that time building rapport and building that relationship with the customer versus having to do the necessary ‘old world’ things of all that manual work where the customer's just sitting there by themselves waiting around.”

Yes, Drummond says. This approach means less time in the truck and more time at the table building connections with the customer.

“You can still spend that hour with the customer. You're not shortening it by any means. But now, you can get to three, four, or five more appointments in a day. You're delivering faster. Your turnaround time from leads to sales visits is much shorter,” she adds.

What happens after a customer approves your estimate? 

Once the customer approves your estimate, a bonus integration feature in ServiceTitan allows you to obtain real-time pricing on materials from a number of key roofing suppliers with direct connections to your account. That way, you don’t need to worry about whether your pricebook is completely up to date at the time of the estimate. 

“A lot of contractors don't go off of the basic stock pricing. They have deals worked out with a supplier that we connect to your account and we get your real-time pricing,” Drummond says. “This is huge, because it means your costs are accurate as of today.”

It also means you gain more value from the procurement list that you generated to create your estimate.

“Your back shop manager, your production manager, whoever's ordering the materials, they already have that list,” she says. “They don't have to sit and work it out. All they have to decide is, are you pulling this from your back shop or are you sending this PO straight through to the supplier to be delivered to the site?”

If your account is integrated with a roofing supplier, ServiceTitan can easily identify the most common materials you’ve ordered in the past six months, then import those materials and costs directly into your pricebook. You can also purchase the add-on Pricebook Pro to automate much of this process, see a list of industry averages for standard materials and costs, and apply them.

“If you know your costs, then you can know your gross margins and know your markups,” Drummond says. “Knowing your costs, that’s where the foundation of the data begins.”

While ServiceTitan’s Pro suite of features can help take your roofing business to the next level, the core features also provide many benefits.

“Just taking advantage of our core features and the roofing specific features in regards to sales is going to boost your close ratios and average ticket prices immediately without a ton of effort,” Drummond says. “So, get up and running first.”

>>Ready to boost your roofing sales? Book a demo with ServiceTitan today!

You can find this interview and many more by subscribing to Mastering ServiceTitan on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here. 

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