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Ensure You’re Ordering Accurate Amounts of Roofing Materials With These Tips

jer — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 15:24:06 +0000

Being a roofer is expensive. From the costs associated with spending much of the day driving around to buying and replacing tools, boots, safety equipment, and staff, finding ways to maximize profits can be tricky, especially since simple errors in measurement can result in extra costs that quickly add up.

For roofing contractors interested in increasing their profits and growing their businesses, one of the essential factors in making more money comes from being able to order accurate roofing material quantities for every job. Here’s how to reduce your risks of ordering too few or too many roofing materials for the job at hand.

What Happens if I Don’t Order Accurate Roofing Material Quantities?

In today’s economy, over-ordering anything can hit a business hard. Not only are you finishing up a job with extra material that you then have to find somewhere to store, but you also have to hope that you can find a way to make use of it later, or else you’re essentially losing all the money you invested in that specific roofing job.

On the flip-side, under-ordering materials can leave your company and team in a bind where they have to then wait to finish up the job. This can cause delays and create a scheduling nightmare for your team and the client, leaving everyone unhappy with the job at hand.

Not to mention the fact that nowadays, shipping and manufacturing delays are extremely common, meaning that your wait for a new shipment can take anywhere from a day or two to a few months. This is why getting the right amount of materials for every roofing project today is crucial.

Three Ways to Ensure Accurate Amounts of Roofing Materials

Here are three essential tips to ensure you’re not throwing out any cash when it comes to getting accurate amounts of roofing materials for your next job.

Account for Waste

It’s important to ensure you have enough materials to complete the job, but if you order too much, it’ll be a waste of time and money. Generally speaking, 10% – 15% of the total amount of materials that you order should be considered waste. This should be enough to account for the amount of material that overlaps, as well as the amounts that might need to be trimmed and cut to fit any given roof style.

Of course, if you want to get even more specific, this number can change depending on the type of roofing your company installs and the average roof size/style you work on. Still, you’re the expert at working for your own company, so make any adjustments you feel you need in order to get the most accurate number for your roofing business and needs.

2) Digitize Your Roofing Material Orders

While you can buy your supplies and materials locally, ordering roofing materials online allows you to shop around to always find the best price and availability. Even if you have a trusted local provider, check that you can place orders online for pick-up instead of driving out to grab what you need. Keeping an eye out for sales and stock will save you a lot of travel time and give you the opportunity to price-match before you buy.

Many of the major construction material suppliers offer services, tools, and apps that allow you to upload your roof measurements or BOM in order to quickly pull up the correct amounts or materials needed for a given job, reducing the space for human errors which could lead to ordering too much or too little.

3) Ensure your Initial Roof Measurements are Accurate

When the roofing season starts to pick up, many roofing contractors find themselves in a non-stop “go, go, go!” situation where there’s little time and room for error in their day-to-day workflow.

Because of the seasonality of the roofing business, it could be difficult to balance measuring roofs for new jobs and working on already signed contracts. This leads to a lot of rushing that could result in some pretty costly mistakes.

One of the easiest ways to ensure you’re ordering accurate amounts of roofing materials for your new jobs is to make sure that no matter what, your initial roof measurements are accurate.

By choosing to measure roofs and send proposals with a roof measurement software like Roofgraf, you can be sure that Liz, our A.I. assistant, is working hard to quickly and easily get you the accurate roof measurements you need, identify the pitch and line types, and generate a full roof report and BOM for every job you run through the software.

Not only is this method much faster than driving out to measure each roof, but it’s also safer and much more affordable than paying for gas.

In Conclusion

When it comes to ordering the correct quantities of roofing materials, it’s important to account for waste while also reducing the margin or error that comes with manually measuring roofs and only buying from one supplier on-site. That said, following these three tips should put you in a great place to only order the roofing materials you need in order to save you as much money as possible.

Want accurate roof measurements without heading out to the job site? Try Roofgraf’s free trial and learn more about how we can support your business and help you increase your sales, and ensure accurate material orders today.

The post Ensure You’re Ordering Accurate Amounts of Roofing Materials With These Tips first appeared on Roofgraf.

10 Roofing Sales Tips You Can Start Implementing Today

jer — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 15:40:05 +0000

The roofing industry is more competitive than ever these days. With all the new companies, tools, and sales strategies popping up seemingly every day, it can be hard to cut through all the noise and find the tips that are actionable and actually work. Here are 10 roofing sales tips that you can start implementing today to successfully grow your roofing business without wasting precious time or money.

Top Roofing Sales Strategies

Use these 10 roofing sales tips to maximize your sales and increase your profits on every job.

1 – Ask for reviews and referrals

An easy way to grow your business without too much effort is to ask for reviews and referrals for a job well done. Including a word-of-mouth marketing strategy as part of your roofing sales process ensures that your client base can keep growing without having to spend too much time generating leads for yourself.

People trust the reviews they see online and will be more likely to book with your company if you have a long list of happy customers providing social proof for your roofing business. As an added tip, mention any referral bonuses or deals upfront during your sales pitch as a way to sweeten the deal for new potential customers and help nudge them into signing your contract over anyone else’s.

2 – Diversify your roofing services and offerings

Sure, installing and replacing roofs is really all your business needs to do to be successful, but offering other related services opens up a whole new clientele in your local area for your roofing company and also provides you with the opportunity to upsell on every job you get a call for.

Some popular and easy add-ons for your roofing business could be:

Snow removal
Roof cleaning
Hurricane/storm prep
Chimney cleaning
Christmas light installation
Roof inspection

Offering any of these additional services at a fair price can easily maximize your profits on every roofing job, as well as generate some extra leads for your business without too much extra effort.

3 – Follow up with leads immediately

Nowadays, software like Roofgraf enables roofing companies to generate and send quotes to homeowners in minutes, rather than sending a sales rep or contractor out to the home to measure the roof manually.

With the internet, and all the new technologies available for people to do any kind of work faster than ever, people expect results instantly. This means that taking any more time than your competitors need to create and send a roofing proposal can cost you the sale.

Make sure that as soon as a quote request comes through, you’re using a software to quickly measure and quote the home so that you can get back to the potential client as soon as possible and grab the sale. You don’t want to have to work even harder to revive any ‘dead’ roofing leads, after all.

4 – Play hard to get, but not TOO hard to get

Evoking a little scarcity can be a good thing! Make it known how busy and booked you are to build trust in your abilities as a roofer. If they see that you’re high in demand, homeowners will likely assume that you’re running a popular and trusted business, and they’ll be more likely to want to book an empty spot in your calendar before it fills up and you become out of reach.

A good roofing sales strategy for when you’re just getting started here could be scheduling blocks in your calendar that make you look busy but that you can easily cancel for your “star” clients if your other available spots don’t match their calendars. Making people feel special while also making yourself look as good as you are is a surefire way to make the roofing sale.

5 – Do a good job

In the same vein as our point to ask for review and referrals comes “do a good job” to begin with. This might seem like a no-brainer, but it should always be something that you keep in the back of your mind and base your business decisions and roofing sales strategies off of.

Providing a high-quality service naturally makes people happy with your work and, therefore, more likely to review your company and refer you to their friends and family. This will easily generate more leads and roofing sales for you without putting much work in besides doing what you know best in the best way possible.

While you should go into every sales call or meeting with a pitch in mind, you shouldn’t adopt a “one-size-fits-all” mindset. Above all, listen to what the person in front of you or at the end of the line is telling you and modify your pitch to accommodate their needs. Work on building trust, listening to the homeowner’s needs, and then move towards educating them on what the best solution for their home might be.

This will not only build confidence in your abilities as a roofing contractor but will also give your potential clients more control over their decision to choose your company over a competitor since they’ll feel like they know enough about the job at hand to make an educated decision about their roofing project.

6 – Try value selling

Value selling is definitely an underused roofing sales strategy, but it shouldn’t be. Instead of selling based on the cost of a roofing service, sell the value this service will bring your roofing leads.

To get started with value selling, work on increasing the perceived value of the roofing services you offer in your sales presentations. If your leads perceive the value of a roof replacement, for example, to be high, they’ll have less trouble paying the price for the service itself since they anticipate an improvement in their quality of life and an increase in the value of their home.

Ensure that your sales team knows how to pitch your roofing business’s services and offerings based on the value they provide to potential clients, and watch as they start closing sales left and right.

7 – Present multiple options and offers

Use a feature like Roofgraf’s good, better, best to become your own competition and offer up to three separate quotes in one. This will effectively eliminate other roofers bidding for the job from the equation since your potential customer can choose from anything from a bargain offer to something pricier with all the bells and whistles, all from the same proposal.

8 – Know your clients

In the same way that you’d use a proposal with good, better, best options available to choose from, you should also know your clients and what their needs and budgets are.

Do you operate in a well-off neighborhood where people can afford the highest quality work and materials, or are your clients more of the middle-class type who appreciates good work but doesn’t necessarily want to pay a fortune for their roof? Is this job for an essential roof repair where someone might not have much money in the budget for home improvement, or is this a vanity project for someone looking to increase the curb appeal and value of their home?

Knowing your clients, budgets, and needs will help you build better proposals and offer only what you know they’re interested in and can afford. Close the deal by only selling what your clients are willing and able to buy, and make sure to offer premium services and upsell where appropriate.

9 – Don’t be pushy

While you should know how to handle objections properly, there will always come a time when you’ll need to know when “no” means “no.” You might think your roofing company is the best in the area, and the homeowner should agree, but people might have other needs and opinions, and it’s important to respect that.

Don’t waste time trying to convince someone who isn’t interested when you can be focusing on other roofing jobs and warmer leads that are more likely to close.

10 – Get your quote right the first time

Use a roof measurement software like Roofgraf to ensure you’re properly measuring the roof and quoting homeowners the right price with fewer revisions. There’s nothing more frustrating for homeowners and roofers alike than spending hours or days going back and forth to get a roofing estimate right.

Trust a tool that offers A.I.-powered roof measurement and automatic pitch and line type detection along with the ability to generate beautiful proposals like Roofgraf to do the heavy lifting for you so that you can focus less on the preparation phase and more on getting the roof installation done right.

In Conclusion

Increasing your sales and growing your roofing business doesn’t have to be difficult, time-consuming, or expensive. Implementing these 10 roofing sales tips and strategies will get you the results you need in no time.

Try Roofgraf’s free trial and learn more about how we can support your business and help you increase your sales today.

The post 10 Roofing Sales Tips You Can Start Implementing Today first appeared on Roofgraf.

How to Increase your Roofing Company’s Profits Without Sacrificing Job Quality

jer — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 16:20:22 +0000

Inflation and supply chain delays have hit many industries hard over the last year or two, the construction industry included. If your roofing company can’t get the materials it needs when needed, and every scheduled job needs to run smoothly to ensure that you stay in business, it’s crucial to increase your roofing company’s profits as much as possible.

One of the most critical factors involved in running a successful roofing business is how well you’re maximizing your company’s profits without sacrificing the job quality that you’re known for. Here are three ways to ensure that you’re getting the most bang for your buck while still ensuring that you’re providing the high-quality work that your clients expect.

1) Save Money on Gas by Going Digital

One of the most significant holes your hard-earned cash can disappear into is gas. With gas prices at an all-time high and showing no signs of decreasing any time soon, hopping into the truck and heading out to job sites and homes multiple times a day or week simply won’t cut it anymore if you want to increase your roofing company’s profits.

An easy way to cut out excessive car trips and cut roofing costs while on the job is to “digitize” some of the work you’d normally head to the property to get done and use software instead. Two easy tasks you can accomplish faster with roofing software off-site are:

Roof measurement
Creating proposals and quoting homeowners

Roofgraf’s roof measurement software allows roofing contractors to measure entire roofs in minutes and generate beautiful, easy-to-understand proposals for homeowners to e-sign straight from their emails.

Instead of heading out to the home to meet the client, hop on the phone, measure the roof, and generate a quote and roof report alongside them through screen share. Not only are you saving gas money, but you’re also reducing the risks that come with climbing the ladder, and your clients don’t even need to plan to be home to meet you either!

2) Cut Roofing Costs: Don’t Overbuy Materials

These days, we’re living in a world where any amount of waste could mean taking a huge hit to your bottom line, and one of the biggest forms of waste when it comes to roofing projects is in overbuying the raw materials needed to complete a roofing job.

Roofing material prices have been affected by the supply chain issues and inflation we’ve been seeing since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, so oversupply issues could really eat into the profits your roofing business needs to make to stay successful. Not to mention that shortages can also affect your orders if you overbuy and then need to wait longer for shipments.

Avoid overbuying materials by avoiding the mistakes that come with measuring roofs, to begin with. With Roofgraf’s A.I. assistant Liz and HD aerial imagery powered by Nearmap, you can trust that your roof measurements and pitch calculations will be accurate. Only order the materials you need to complete the job and improve profitability by never letting anything go to waste again.

3) Cut out Redundant Software and Paper Documents

Reducing paperwork might not seem like it could increase your roofing company’s profits, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. With the number of paper roof reports, contracts, material order forms, paycheques, proposals, etc. that a roofing company can generate in a given year, these things can really add up quickly.

According to a report by Record Nations, the average paper-dependent business spends around $8,000 a year on paper alone. Cutting out these paper documents and switching to roofing software, digital storage services, and email to store and send all your important paperwork can cut roofing costs pretty dramatically.

In the same vein, you should also consider cutting out any redundant software from your roofing tech stack to save additional money on unneeded subscriptions. For example, if you use a CRM to manage your roofing leads and track job status, while you’re using a second software to measure your roofs, generate your quotes, and send over your contracts, consider finding a tool that can consolidate everything, such as Roofgraf.

This will not only save you money but will also make sure everyone at your company knows where to find important information and stay on the same page, reducing the chances of things getting lost or falling through the cracks.

In Conclusion

Increasing your roofing company’s profits starts with cutting roofing costs without sacrificing any of the quality you’re known for as a contractor. What’s the easiest way to do this? Get rid of extra costs hidden in the places you’d least expect them, such as in paperwork or unneeded software subscriptions, while also finding ways to cut down on the biggest offenders, such as gas.

Using Roofgraf, roofing contractors can accurately measure roofs, generate roof reports and BOMs, send beautiful proposals, manage their leads, and more. Try Roofgraf for free today to see why it’s your competitor’s best-kept secret.

The post How to Increase your Roofing Company’s Profits Without Sacrificing Job Quality first appeared on Roofgraf.

How to Breathe New Life into ‘Dead’ Roofing Leads

jer — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 17:27:39 +0000

You might have heard that leads retain their “hot” status and freshness for a maximum of 48 – 72 hours after they reach your inbox or CRM before they start to go “warm,” then “cold,” and eventually “die” in the dark abyss of your database, never to be contacted again.

To some roofers, this loss of leads doesn’t really matter since they’re overloaded with roofing jobs for a good portion of the year and don’t necessarily have time to contact, quote, and book everyone interested in their work.

That said, lost leads are also lost revenue and lost reviews and referrals for your roofing business as well. Just because you’re overloaded with leads and contracts doesn’t mean you can’t optimize your workflows to accommodate more roofing jobs.

Here are three ways to save time and revive dead leads so you can grow your roofing business and increase your revenue with less friction.

Let Automation Do The Work For You

One of the easiest ways to keep your hot leads from cooling down and revive the older ones is by setting up some automation to keep them interested and keep your company’s name at the front of their minds.

If you’ve been following our marketing advice, you’ll already know about the importance of building and maintaining an email list and using email automation features to touch base with clients and leads. Email workflows can be implemented to ensure that your leads hear from you with the information they need at precisely the right time.

The majority of your new leads will either:

Request a quote, receive it, and book your company for the job.
Request a quote, receive it, and book a competitor for the job.
Request a quote, receive it, and go silent. Never to be heard from again.

Your goal is to make sure that everyone who doesn’t get back to you after receiving their quote is sorted into one of two buckets:

Closed with another roofing contractor.
Warm lead, follow up later.

The easiest way to learn this information is through automating an email send to trigger a week or two after your roofing business sends them a quote for their job.

This email could include a question asking whether or not they’ve completed their roofing project or could be more detailed and invite them to get back in touch with their feedback on your roofing proposal to allow you to provide them with an updated proposal or special offer.

Still haven’t heard back? Don’t lose hope! Create another quick email flow that sends emails at set intervals to keep your cold leads aware of your products or services. Offer a discount three months down the line, or highlight a few of the shingles your roofing company installs.

You can also send informational emails to get homeowners thinking about work other than a roof replacement, such as signs they may need roof repairs, or if you do business in a hurricane-prone area, send tips on protecting their roofs from storm damage. Even if they’re not interested today, they may need your services later on.

The goal here is to ensure that every potential customer that reaches out to you is occasionally reminded of your roofing business without feeling like they’re being bombarded with emails and calls so that when the time comes, they’ll know who to get in touch with.

Give Your Cold and Dead Leads a Call

Having email automation running 24/7 is an excellent way to revive dead leads while still being able to go on with your day-to-day, but it’s important to remember that we’re all human beings and that sometimes a good old-fashioned phone call might be just what you need to close the deal.

Chances are, if you can set up email automations in your CRM, you can also sort, tag, and filter all the leads in your database based on any factors you might want to keep an eye on. Set up a filter that can sort your leads by “last contacted” date (let’s say, leads that you haven’t spoken to in the last 90 days), and set aside some time daily to give this list a quick phone call.

Even if you don’t manage to close anyone that day, doing this regularly will make sure that you keep your cold and dead roofing lead lists short since you’ll be able to remove anyone who tells you that they’re not interested, as well as delete anyone who’s phone number has since been disconnected.

As a roofing contractor, you already know that half of the job is talking to and getting along with people, and you’re clearly in this business because you’re skilled in the art of the phone call. Put those skills to work and ensure you’re maximizing your profits at every turn by minimizing the number of leads that fall through the cracks.

Find Ways to Save Time In Your Day-To-Day So You Can Contact More People

Roofing season can quickly get overwhelming, especially if your company’s service area is in a region that’s cold and snowy for half of the year where everyone only has a few months to get their outdoor home improvement projects done. In this crunch, it’s easy to accidentally let some qualified leads fall through the cracks and go cold.

The trick here is to be as organized and efficient as possible to ensure everyone who needs a call or email gets one. The best way to do so is by using software tools to save you as much time as possible daily.

For example, Roofgraf’s roof measurement software gives roofing contractor’s the ability to quickly and accurately measure any roof from anywhere with powerful A.I. tools, eliminating the need for roofers to head out to every single property to get homeowners the quote they’re looking for.

Additionally, our SmartQuote and FastQuote templates make creating roofing proposals a breeze by cutting the process down from hours to minutes while also giving roofers the freedom to be as detailed in their quotes as they want or need to be at whichever stage of the sales process they’re currently in.

Cutting down on travel time, as well as time spent on roofing proposal creation, opens up hours of extra time during the day to not only schedule roofing jobs but to contact as many interested leads as possible, as well as work on reaching out to your cold and dead leads to increase sales and keep your contact lists as clean and organized as possible.

In Conclusion

Many people will say that the best way to manage dead roofing leads is not to let them go cold and die in the first place, but as any roofing contractor will tell you, that’s easier said than done. Implementing these three tips is the best way to ensure that you keep your cold lead list as short as possible while increasing your sales and saving you precious time.

With accurate roof measurements, roof reports in seconds, and beautiful proposals with Good, Better, Best options, Roofgraf’s roofing software is the key to fast and easy quotes. Give it a try, risk-free today, and see why it’s your competitor’s best-kept secret.

The post How to Breathe New Life into ‘Dead’ Roofing Leads first appeared on Roofgraf.

The Best Roofing Materials to Offer Your Clients in 2022

jer — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 19:37:27 +0000

As a roofing contractor, you know that the list of roof materials available on the market right now is almost endless. While you can always order your materials on a job-by-job basis, it’s important to keep an eye on what your target market is most interested in so that you can have a pricing structure in place and be able to anticipate their needs when the request for a quote comes around.

Here are the types of roofing materials that are trending with homeowners in 2022.

Asphalt Shingles

A tried and true roofing material, asphalt shingles are a mainstay in any roofing contractor’s catalogue. Affordable and available in a wide range of colors, homeowners love the versatility of these roof shingles and will continue to ask for them for years to come.

Top Asphalt Options:

IKO Crowne Slate
Owens Corning 3-Tab Supreme
GAF Timberline Ultra HD
Certainteed XT 30 IR

Metal Roofs

Depending on where your roofing company operates, certain types of metal roofs might be better suited for your catalogue than others. For example, copper roofs look great and last a long time but aren’t well suited for areas with large changes in temperature, while aluminium is a great choice for coastal regions but can easily be damaged by high winds or hail.

Top Metal Options:

Boral Steel Stone Coated
Zappone Copper Shingles
AL-CO Country Manor Shake
Met-Tile Metal Tile Panels

Clay and Concrete Tile Roofs

Homeowners love clay and concrete roofs for their Mediterranean or Spanish-style homes and are often not deterred by the roof material’s large price tag if it means achieving the vision and theme they have for their home. While they can be quite heavy and might require additional framing to get the job done right, it’s well worth the effort due to the material’s long lifespan.

Top Clay and Concrete Options:

Boral Duralite España 600
Crown Roof Tiles Toledo
Redland Baja Mission
Eagle Roofing Products Double Eagle Ponderosa

Wood Shingles and Shake

A tried and true roofing material for hundreds of years, wood shingles and shake are still a popular choice for homeowners looking to give their home a rustic look while not breaking the bank. While not recommended for very wet/damp areas as they can mold or split, this material is still highly requested by homeowners all over North America, even though it only has a life expectancy of around 30 years.

Top Wood Shakes and Shingle Options:

Cedar Valley Shingles
Bear Creek Lumber Shingles and Sakes
Shakertown Cedar Cove
Dow’s White Cedar Shakes

Synthetic Roofing Products

The newest addition to the roofing material market, synthetic roofing products have been popping up left and right as a cheap and durable product and roofing businesses everywhere have begun to offer them to clients and an alternative to many of the other materials on this list. Made out of polymer, rubber or plastic, these roof materials are made to look like other options like wood or slate without the heavy price tag.

Top Synthetic Roofing Options

StoneCrest Slate Shingles
Ecostar Roofing
Enviroshake rubber shingles
Brava Cedar Shake

In Conclusion

Whether you’re a new roofing contractor looking to grow your business by offering the most trendy and highly-requested roofing materials on the market, or you’re a seasoned roofer trying to keep up with the times, it’s important to stay up-to-date on what homeowners what when it comes to their roofing job.

With such a large amount of materials, shapes and colors available on the market today, it’s important to have an easy way to measure roofs and quote prices on whatever your clients desire. Using a roofing software like Roofgraf will help you set up a full catalogue and templates for any material and pricing structure you choose in a few easy clicks, allowing you to quickly give anyone a price for their roofing job on the spot.

With accurate roof measurements, roof reports in seconds and beautiful proposals with Good, Better, Best options, Roofgraf’s roofing software is the key to fast and easy quotes. Give it a try, risk free today and see why it’s your competitor’s best-kept secret.

The post The Best Roofing Materials to Offer Your Clients in 2022 first appeared on Roofgraf.

The Roofing Contractor’s Guide to Word-of-Mouth Marketing

jer — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 18:24:29 +0000

As a society, we’re all living and working alongside technology and the internet. Oftentimes, this means that we tend to look to tech to solve every problem we have and forget that there may be other solutions at our disposal that may work just as well, or better to reach a goal we need to hit.

Last year, we put together a list of digital marketing strategies for roofers looking for social media marketing tips, help with building and maintaining email lists, and creating social media and search engine ads for their roofing businesses.

This time around, we’re here to help you build a word-of-mouth advertising strategy to help you grow your roofing business in a passive way, and fill in any gaps in your current digital marketing strategy that you may have.

Set Up a Referral Program

While many people have no problem spreading the word about a job well done, others might need some sort of incentive to do so. Remember – people are busy and might not have the time or energy to just sing the praises of your company to friends and family for free. This is where having a referral program in place for your roofing company comes in handy.

Your first step in setting up a referral program is to make sure you have a place set up for your clients to let you know of anyone who might be interested in your roofing services.

People talk, and they may simply send their friends to your website or give them your phone number to reach you directly. You should also consider setting up a form on your website, or opening up your roofing company’s Facebook page’s direct messages for anyone looking to let you know about a person in need of your work.

The next step in your word-of-mouth marketing strategy is to decide what you will offer to clients in exchange for a review or referral. Do you want to offer an upgrade to your client’s roofing job? A discount on future work, or inspections? Do you think your client base would appreciate something simple, such as a gift card? Or would you like to set up a list of rewards and give them the choice? Whatever you choose, make sure that it’s worth the hassle of the recommendation for friends and family.

Know When to Ask for Reviews

If you want to take the time to set up a word-of-mouth marketing strategy, you’ll want to make sure that it’s successful and generates the most amount of new jobs for your roofing business as possible. This is why timing is everything when it comes to actually making your clients aware of the options you offer.

The best time to let your clients know of your referral and word-of-mouth strategy is as soon as possible. Make it part of your initial sales pitch with the homeowner, and then regularly bring it up throughout each stage of the sales, teardown, and installation process.

Once the job is complete, and you’re sure that the client is happy with the product and service you provided to them, send them an email reminding them of your referral and review program, and include links to make it easy for them to access the form you set up, and your social media pages where they can write your roofing business a review.

You’ll also want to remind them that they can and should pass along your info to anyone who may be interested. As a roofing contractor, your work speaks for itself and luckily enough, it is also visible from the street, after all!

Earn Your Review and Referral

Everyone knows that the best way to grow your roofing business through word-of-mouth marketing is to do a good job in the first place. Using Roofgraf, you can set a great first impression of yourself as a roofing contractor by providing your potential customers with a beautiful, high-quality proposal for their roofing job minutes after they contact you for a quote.

Include good, better, best options to give them the opportunity to view multiple quotes on the same proposal, and take advantage of our FastQuote and SmartQuote templates to quickly swap between additional configurations based on how your conversation is going.

You can also use Roofgraf’s project status options to stay on top of all the roofing jobs in your pipeline to plan your order of operations in a way that ensures everyone gets served as quickly as possible, and use our map feature to show off all the work you’ve completed for other customers during the first stage of the sales process to build trust with your prospect.

In Conclusion

Setting up a word-of-mouth marketing strategy doesn’t need to be complicated, and the right amount of prep work can serve your roofing business for a long time. With a little bit of time and effort getting things set up, growing your relationships with your clients, and a roofing software like Roofgraf built to help make your sales seamless, you’ll be growing your roofing business in no time.

Try Roofgraf for free today, and learn more about why it’s the only roof measurement tool your roofing business needs to get the job done quickly and accurately.

The post The Roofing Contractor’s Guide to Word-of-Mouth Marketing first appeared on Roofgraf.

How to Measure a Complex Roof

jer — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 15:18:17 +0000

As roofers, we know that not every roof is an easy job. Whether it’s gathering your roof measurements, tearing down the old roof, or installing the new one, not every roofing job is going to be a quick and easy endeavor.

While the teardown and installation process might be harder to simplify from a technical standpoint, measuring complicated roofs doesn’t have to be difficult or dangerous. This is because new improvements to roof measurement software have made the process much easier than it has ever been before.

In this article, we’ll outline what exactly makes a complex roof so complicated, why roofing software is the key to measuring difficult jobs, and how to use it successfully.

What is a Complex Roof?

A complex roof could be anything that differs from your average flat roof, mansard roof, hipped roof, or gabled roof. Often, the larger or more expensive the home is, the more complicated the roof tends to be, especially if it was designed by an architect with a great eye for the overall aesthetics of the property.

Complex roofs tend to have tons of different roof sections and slopes, with features such as dormers and skylights, chimneys, towers, or overhangs. All of which makes getting accurate measurements both time-consuming and often dangerous for the roofing contractor tasked with the job.

Complex roof measurements are often very involved, have many opportunities for errors, and could pose to be an overall challenge for even the most seasoned roofing contractor. On the upside, though, due to the complicated nature of the job, complex roofs can be very profitable roofing jobs and should never be passed on.

Roof Measurement Software and Complicated Roofs

Roofing software is the key to measuring even the most complex, multi-sloped roofs without ever having to drive out to the property and climb a ladder. Not only can you get your roof report generated in minutes rather than in the time it takes to measure the roof yourself, but you don’t even need to wait for a roof report order to be returned to you in your inbox as you would if you were ordering your reports from a third-party service.

Quickly get the roof pitch, identify roof line types such as hips and valleys, and get your squares for any roof type from the comfort of your desk, saving you the headache of manually measuring out each part of the roof, and leaving you extra time in your day to spend growing your business.

Choose from measuring off of HD aerial imagery, satellite imagery, drone photos, or blueprints to make sure that you get the best possible view of the home, and therefore the most accurate roof measurements possible.

You can also use roof measurement software at the site to impress your clients with the speed at which you can generate an accurate roofing proposal for their property, getting them the numbers they need to make a decision much faster than your competitors.

Tips for Measuring Complex Roofs with Roofgraf

View the roof from every angle possible

Not only does Roofgraf offers you the ability to select from a wide range of imagery of the home, but you can also open the address up in Google Maps straight from the drawing page to view the property at any angle possible, as well as toggle Street View on and off to make sure you take a mental snapshot of the roof in 3D in your mind to help with your measurements.

Take Advantage of Roofgraf’s A.I. Capabilities

Roofgraf’s proprietary A.I. technology, Liz is here to help you with even the most complex roof configurations. Liz is capable of determining pitch and line types in a single click. Just draw out the internal lines in the drawing tool and let Liz do the rest of the heavy lifting for you.

Check Your Work with a 3D Model

With the ability to generate a 3D model out of the drawing of the roof you have put together in Roofgraf, you can double-check for any mistakes or roof lines and features you may have missed by cross-referencing it against the imagery of the home you have selected for your roofing job. This ensures that your work is accurate and ready to send over to your client.

Outsource the Measurement Job to our Team

Have an extra-complicated job to quote, a busy day on the roof ahead of you, or you would simply prefer to have someone else handle the roof measurement process? Order a roof report directly from our highly-skilled and responsive team to get your full report back in one business day or less. This service will help to shave the extra few minutes off of the job so you can spend it growing your roofing business with measurements that your roofing company can trust.

In Conclusion

Measuring complex roofs doesn’t have to be as difficult as it has been in the past. With the use of a good roof measurement software like Roofgraf, you can get your measurements done for any roof in a matter of minutes, shaving hours off of your workday which is time you can easily reallocate to making more sales and growing your roofing business.

Have a complicated roof in your sales pipeline today? Start your free trial of Roofgraf to learn more about all our other features such as SmartQuote and FastQuote templates, proposals with Good, Better, Best options, automatic e-signature capabilities, and let our software show you how quick and easy the job can actually be.

The post How to Measure a Complex Roof first appeared on Roofgraf.

How Roof Measurement Software Can Help Contractors Quote New Constructions

jer — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 16:42:12 +0000

Putting together roofing proposals for new constructions can sometimes be tricky, especially if all you have to work with is a blueprint of the home and a description of the homeowner’s vision.

Nowadays, however, putting together roofing estimates for new constructions has never been easier with the help of roof measurement software. In this article, we’ll outline three ways roofing software can help roofing businesses quote new home constructions in much less time than you might think.

Enable homeowners to better understand their costs and visualize their new home

Building a new home can be very expensive, and it also requires a lot of organization and planning. Roofing contractors can help reduce some of the stress that comes with new constructions by using roof measurement software that not only provides the homeowner with a roofing proposal, but that also can get them additional documents for their records that they can store for themselves both for the task at hand, and also for future reference.

Using Roofgraf, roofing companies can provide their clients with an estimate, a full roof report, and a bill of materials for their new construction project. Not only will this help illustrate where their money is going, but also provides them with the measurement reports and list of all the materials and their quantities your roofing company used on their job, which could be extremely helpful to them down the road.

All these documents can be downloaded by the roofing contractor and attached to their Roofgraf project for easy reference when they need it. Roofers can also use Roofgraf to generate a 3D model of the yet-to-be-built home, and attach a screenshot to their proposal as well, giving them a full view of their new home before it’s completed.

Provide a speedy, accurate estimate regardless of construction status

The biggest advantage of using software to quote for a roof installation on a new construction home is that roofing contractors can get a quote sent out in minutes rather than the hours it might take to input every roof measurement into a proposal and do the material and pricing calculations manually.

With Roofgraf, all you need to do is import an image of the home’s blueprint, enter one measurement for scale, and let the software calculate every other dimension, identify pitch, and line types automatically. From there, you can simply generate your roofing proposal as you would for any other roofing job where you have satellite or aerial imagery of the home.

This, paired with Roofgraf’s digital signature capabilities means that you can have your roofing job measured, quoted for, and e-signed by the client in less time than ever before, without needing to make any additional trips to the build site, and with less margin for error.

Upsell with Good, Better, Best options

People who are in the process of building a brand new home are prime candidates for an upsell on higher quality products and additional services. A person building their dream home is likely someone who is much more open to buying the “best of the best” for their new house, rather than someone who may just be replacing an old or damaged roof out of necessity.

While new construction roofing jobs are also likely constrained by the builder’s budget, it doesn’t mean that you can’t highlight and offer more on your roofing proposal. Use Roofgraf’s Good, Better, Best options to provide a range of roofing materials and services for the homeowner to click through on their own, without any pressure, and select what both fit into their budget and what would work best for their new construction home.

Combine the Good, Better, Best option with Roofgraf’s SmartQuote templates to quickly swap out selections in front of the client, or based on their comments on your original roofing estimate to always make sure you can offer the best deal and a wide range of different roofing services and materials, ensuring that you always have the best possible selection for their roof project.

In Conclusion

Preparing a roofing proposal for a new home construction should never be difficult if you’re using a roof measurement software that enables you to put together the best possible estimate for your client. Get your quote out to the homeowner with all the information that they need to make an informed decision about their new build in minutes with Roofgraf. Try it for free today to see the difference.

The post How Roof Measurement Software Can Help Contractors Quote New Constructions first appeared on Roofgraf.

How to Become a High-Tech Roofer

jer — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 15:50:52 +0000

The roofing and construction industries are some of the oldest industries in the world, but throughout their history have stayed largely the same in terms of how the job gets done until recently. With the advent of the internet, software, and the tools at their disposal, roofers are now faced with more options to get their projects completed than ever before.

From something as simple as improvements to roofing tools and materials, to huge advancements in how roofs get measured and quoted for, the roofing industry is seeing huge improvements to how it handles what used to be only manual work. Here are three ways you can upgrade your roofing business and become a high-tech roofer.

Stay On Top Of Innovative Roofing Technology and Materials

While asphalt or wood shingles will always be a great option for homeowners looking for a tried-and-true, classic look for their home with great durability at a good price, there are tons of other types of roofing materials available now to take any roofing job to the next level.

Homeowners nowadays expect their roofs to not only protect their homes and have nice curb appeal, but they often require other additional benefits from their roofing job. Be it to withstand high winds, or storm damage caused by hurricanes or climate change, or to help keep the heat out (or in) their homes, you should have options available for any request that comes through the pipeline.

Roofers should always have an eye on new roofing technology and materials created for homeowners who like to be early adopters in tech or are environmentally conscious. This includes paying attention to solar roof tile technology and availability, knowing how to best install a green roof, or being aware of what kinds of shingles and materials are preferred to install traditional solar panels on.

Being aware of the trends and new options available in roofing will help to future-proof your roofing business and help you to attract the highest paying, and most interesting clients your company can deal with.

Drones and HD Imagery

Consumer drones have made a huge impact on the film industry since they hit the market, but they can also be used for many different applications in the roofing and construction industries as well. With technology improving and prices decreasing, many high-tech roofing companies have taken to using drones for roof inspections.

In an industry where a certain level of danger is expected every time you or a team member needs to pull out a ladder and climb a roof, adding a drone to your toolbox to fly over the home in question and gather HD imagery and video of your client’s roof not only saves tons of time, but also helps to keep you safe on the ground as much as possible.

With cameras that capture video at 4k and up, drones allow you to see even the smallest issues and imperfections on the roof at a distance and without much effort. Many drones nowadays even come with their own roof inspection software pre-installed to better guide you on the job, and allow you to save your images to add to your proposals or even measure from in your roofing software.

Roof Measurement Software

Of all the roofing technology improvements that have come out in the last few years, roof measurement software takes the cake as one of the most groundbreaking advancements for the industry.

With the use of technology found inside a roof measurement software like Roofgraf, roofers can now track and manage their leads, measure roofs with A.I.-powered accuracy, and generate roof reports, BOMs and proposals for their clients to sign on the spot, without ever having to head out to climb a ladder. This saves contractors hours of time a week, and helps to make sure that you get your estimate out to the homeowner as quickly as possible, and ultimately before your competition does.

Homeowners still expect, to a degree, that their roofer will hand over a quick penciled-in quote to them on a piece of paper to decipher, so receiving a beautiful, polished proposal which allows them to view up to three separate Good, Better, Best options, select their roofing material and color, and e-sign straight on the quote already paints you as the professional that you are and will be sure to keep your proposal on the top of their pile.

In Conclusion

Even though roofing is, and always will be a manual job, there are many technologies and advancements available to not only help you work smarter, but also set you apart from the competition by making you a high-tech roofer.

From new roof materials to drone technology and roof measurement software built to make your daily life easier, it’s important to always be aware of what options are available, and what roofing technology is capable of if you want to stay ahead in this industry.

With SmartQuote and FastQuote templates, accurate roof measurements, roof reports in seconds, and beautiful proposals with Good, Better, Best options, Roofgraf’s roof measurement software has all you need to close more sales, grow your business, and save valuable time. Give it a try, risk-free today to learn why roofing software can set you apart from the competition.

The post How to Become a High-Tech Roofer first appeared on Roofgraf.

4 Reasons Why Roofing Companies Fail

jer — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 16:28:28 +0000

According to Roofing Insights, 80% of roofing contractors will fail, often in less than two years and an even bigger amount (95%) of roofing companies will be out of business within five years. When it comes to growing a small business, it’s important to get things right on the first try, especially when it comes to operating in such a high-turnover sector as the roofing industry.

Here are the top 4 reasons why roofing businesses fail and how to prevent your roofing company from falling into the same traps as those who came before you.

1) Disorganization and lack of processes

Everything you and your roofing company does needs to have a proper process in place behind it so that everyone stays on the same page and nothing falls through the cracks. Make sure you have a sales process established that everyone on your team must follow to ensure each roofing project starts off on the right foot and, if necessary, you can have anyone on your team take over anyone else’s work if team member quits or calls out sick.

Have a template for every roofing job you and your team work on and stick to it, and keep a proper labeling system in place for everything that you’re working on such as tagging jobs as won, closed, completed, etc.

Proper processes go beyond sales and project organization, however. Many roofing companies fail due to a simple lack of organization in their paperwork, files, and documents. Try to get away from paper documents and work towards keeping a digital copy of everything stored in a well-organized and centralized location where you can quickly access all your files when you need them, and share them with the team when necessary.

2) Skipping out on using proper marketing strategies

A roofing company without a steady flow of leads and customers is bound to fail, and fast. While word-of-mouth and referrals are great ways to generate new leads and grow your business, you’ll need more than that to really spread the word about your roofing services and company.

Marketing a roofing business doesn’t need to require hiring an agency or spending tons of time and money on a complicated marketing strategy. Start with a website set up to explain what kind of roofing services you offer, show off your team and business, and leave a short contact form for curious homeowners to reach out to you for more information or an estimate.

Build up a presence on social media by creating pages for your roofing company that then link to your website, and then invest a little cash in some ads to run on those pages and some search engines like Google and Bing to target some interested homeowners in your service area. This ensures that the right people are hearing about your roofing company and you have a steady flow of leads in the pipeline at all times.

3) Failure to plan and strategize

Another reason that roofing companies fail is simply that they haven’t properly planned for what’s ahead. If your roofing business operates in an area where the roofing industry works on a seasonal basis, it’s important that you’re all set and ready to go well before that year’s season begins.

Put together a roofing business plan at the end of the current season and update it with everything that worked for you this year. Keep this as up-to-date as possible and make sure it’s easy to update with any new information you may gain after each new job.

Be aware of the average number of jobs you work on on a monthly basis, how many supplies you go through, how many quotes you send on average, etc. so that you can put together a team that can handle the workload without over-hiring and spending money where you don’t need to be.

4) Not keeping up with roofing technology trends and improvements

One of the biggest reasons that roofing companies fail is having a fear of change and technology. At Roofgraf, we often hear from roofers who are hesitant to try out our roofing software because they believe that since they’ve gotten by with a pencil and paper since they started in the industry, that they don’t have any need for our roof measurement software.

What they’re missing, however, is that for the most part, roofing technology has grown out of a need to make life easier by saving time, stress, money, and most importantly, make your day as a roofer safer.

When drones hit the market for the general public, roofers open to change quickly adopted the tech for their roof inspections to save a trip up the ladder, making the job safer and faster to get done.

Today, with Roofgraf, roofing contractors can upload those same drone images to the roofing software (or use HD satellite imagery), measure the roof, generate a roof report/BOM and proposal for their client in a few minutes without ever having to step on a ladder before the job is closed, eliminating a huge safety risk from their day-to-day.

If you’re a roofing contractor who isn’t interested in failure, keep an eye out for new tech and improvements to roofing software so that you can stay ahead of the competition and rise to the top while the hesitant sink to the bottom.

In Conclusion

When it comes to maintaining and growing a healthy roofing business, organization, marketing, planning, and adopting new technology are great ways to make sure that you find yourself on top while your competitors get left in the dust.

With accurate roof measurements, roof reports in seconds, smart templates, and beautiful proposals with Good, Better, Best options, Roofgraf has all you need to close more sales, grow your business, and save valuable time. Give it a try, risk-free today to see why it’s the only roofing software that you need to stay ahead in this tricky industry.

The post 4 Reasons Why Roofing Companies Fail first appeared on Roofgraf.