Commercial Roofing Leads

Hi there,

It would seem to me that this type of service would really only be at the top of someone's mind after a tree fell on the roof or a storm hit or something like that.

You could partner with an insurance broker/agent on the local level and once you had a working model for that you could expand it.

The sky's the limit (sorry - couldn't help myself).

All the best,

Sasha.

I'd start with commercial insurance agents/brokers. Also, insurance claim adjustors will know who deals with building maintenance or internal audits and inspections. They might see "complimentary" roof inspections as a great service to decrease potential claims.

You got to know though that those adjustors are being targeted by many commercial roofing contractors and sales people. You must develop a strategy... like hiring a young, sharp and good looking lady to be your front man (woman). In other words, she will be meeting with prospects in person and she will find out who the right person is and they will be calling you. :-)

How about a drone fly-by taking pictures of their roofs and pointing out any areas that would need attention.

You might even find other non-roof related problems also like chimneys needing brick-pointing work, broken sky lights, faulty gutters, etc, etc and find an outlet for those leads as well.

They might even remember you later for when they do need work because they have a photo of their roof and your contact info somewhere with it.

Of course keeping mind of legal issues involved, if any.

Find maintenance men and buy them a pizza to get them to inspect the roof and to let you know who they would report a problem with the roof to.

Google Earth if not drones. You can cover more ground that way.
(no pun iintended.) I doubt it can get close enough to reveal anything other
than major damage, but the use of the images would be different enough from everybody
else to be memorable.

Commercial real estate agents and property managers.
Disaster Restoration companies that don't do roofing.
Contractors/remodelers who don't do roofing.

Dan

Trying some ads on Facebook is a good place to start. With their targeting you can hit market pretty well ... and it can be done quite inexpensively.

A few different things to consider.

First off the reason you state for doing this is so that roofers will buy more from your distributors.
This is a basic build their business so that it builds yours approach. One question that is important to ask then is how much of the work are they already capturing without your help.

In the area you serve how much of the market share do you estimate you currently have?
Also what percentage of roofers that do commercial roofing in your area invariably buy from your distributors?

The reason I ask is because you can either help build the business of roofers that currently buy from your distributors (if there is even business there to build) OR you can focus your efforts to on board a few successful commercial roofers that currently do not buy your products.

I like to consider all the alternatives because to be honest there is a significant cost and time investment required to generate commercial roofing leads and even more to turn those leads into work. If it was easy and inexpensive roofing companies would not be willing to pay a small fortune for them. Once the costs are considered you may find it cheaper to seriously bribe that ideal roofing company that is not buying from you yet to on board them.

Also logistically though it sounds like a great idea you may find that the end result does not happen often or turn out the way you want. So for example you figure out a way to give out free inspections. Some go for it. Most of the free inspections lead to nothing. You send out your customers (roofers) to a bunch of appointments that yield no results. They end up feeling like their wasting their time and doing you a favor for going to inspect.

I would also consider any liability issues with the hand off of the lead/work to the roofer.

All some food for thought.

I agree with Peter. Giving leads could backfire....leads with no sale....lead that is a problem customer...your leads may not fit their "parameters"
and you might give some good leads but the company gets a better deal on products from another company and thanks so much but sorry....

I think you could keep in close contact with your existing customers, offer them some deals etc..
and yes, find some new clients...larger ones...maybe go a bit further away

I guess roofers are always busy after disasters sad to say. I know where I live they were much in demand after H. Wilma - lots of blue tarps.

I would start with property management companies. It's in their best interest to catch small issues before they turn in to something big. I'm sure many would take you up on this, especially since you are with the supplier and not with an actual roofing company.

Since all commercial buildings have to comply with fire and building safety regulations, there are certain supplies that they have to buy.

These are as basic as fire extinguishers and related equipments.

You might want to get in touch with the vendors of such products in your area and piggyback on their marketing efforts.

For example, if they are selling their fire extinguisher product, buyers get a free roof inspection.

Also, if they refer other people, they get a free roof inspection.

In this way, you are leveraging on somebody else's sales activity, while at the same time adding perceived value to their product.

It is a win-win situation.

We already know how the end user would benefit.

They are getting, as a freebie, a roof inspection.

I like your idea of inbound marketing.

So, this is actually very easy for you to benefit from because your fire safety product partners can put a sticker with a website address on the products that they are giving out.

Think in terms of co-promotion.

That is my best advice.

It is all about piggy backing off somebody's existing marketing efforts.

They are already spending money on their marketing, why not benefit from that by adding perceived value?

Forget about finding commercial roofing leads and instead find more roofer that will use your product. If you are not able to get more roofers on board to utilize your product line or get your current roofers using them more...then I would say it is a problem on yours and the distributors end.

Roofers are listed all over the net in directories, social media, websites etc and they are extremely easy to find hundreds of them. Find the ones that are doing a lot of business and get them to start using your stuff or get them using it on more jobs. Find the new start ups that you could get on board easy with incentives. Find the ones that do niche commercial jobs and figure out how to service them better with your products.....

This will be much easier of a task than trying to generate commercial roofing leads, especially if you want them to come to you. I know because I have to commercial roofing clients....