Conservatory Roof Replacement Sales Tips From Someone Who Still Sells Them

It's November. You're stood in a conservatory with your coat still on, because it's colder in there than it is on the drive. There's a clothes airer in the corner and a dehumidifier humming away. The kitchen door behind you is shut tight to keep the heat in the house. Nobody's sat in this room since September.

That room is what you're selling.

I still sell every job at my own conservatory roof business. My best conservatory roof replacement sales tips come down to one idea: hardly talk about the roof at all. Get the customer to tell you how they use the room, how it lets them down and what that's doing to the family, then sell them the room they'll have afterwards. Do that properly and the price stops being the whole argument.

The roof's the roof

Most reps walk in, glance up at the polycarbonate and start explaining. Insulation, tiles, plaster. All true. None of it is why anybody buys.

When I have a conservatory roof conversation, I'm not interested in the roof. The roof's the roof. What I'm selling is the change from a room they can't use for half the year to a room they use every day of it. Christmas dinner out there next year, the whole family round the table, in the middle of winter. That's what they're paying for.

I call it the flight and the destination. The roof's the flight. Nobody books a holiday because they fancy the plane.

Make them say it

You already know what's wrong with their conservatory. Too hot in summer, freezing in winter, so noisy when it rains they can't hear the telly, spiders in every corner. So the temptation is to say it for them.

Don't. Picture a cosmetic surgeon who lists everything he doesn't like about your face. You'd show him the door. The good one asks what you'd like to change, and you tell him. Customers have to diagnose themselves. If you say "I bet it's freezing in winter", that's your opinion. When they say it, it's their reason, and they'll hang on to it when the price comes out.

So turn your statements into questions. "What's making you want to do something with the conservatory?" Then stop talking.

And go one step further, which is where most reps stop. "Talk to me about how you use it." Nine times out of ten you'll hear the same story. Once summer's over, the door gets shut and it turns into a dumping room. Then it warms up again, gets so hot they open every window, close the door to the house and hope for the best. Put that to them as a question, "Is it a bit like that for you?", and you'll get "That's exactly how it is." Then: "How does that affect you?" And: "Describe what it's like in there in January."

They're dropping little bits of gold all over the floor while they talk. Pick up every one.

Ask why now, and ask it early

Plenty of conservatory roof enquiries are people getting a feel for prices for next year. You want to know that before you spend two hours measuring up.

"Why this year? Why not last year, or next year? What's brought it to the front now?" One question. If the answer is "We're just seeing what it costs for when we've got the money", you've learnt something. I won't sit pricing a job that isn't happening just so someone has a number to compare. I'll put them in the diary and ring them when they're ready.

If the answer is "My mum's moving in after Christmas and we need the space", that's a very different appointment.

Build the room before you price it

Once you've got their reasons, paint the picture. This is where you earn your margin.

Try something like: "What if we brought the ceiling in here level with the ceilings in the rest of the house, so when you walk through from the kitchen it all matches? It'd feel like an extension rather than a conservatory. What do you think of that?" You've gone from selling them a roof to selling them a new room. And you've given them a reason you're not the cheapest before the price has even come up.

Give them a choice too. I'll show them a finished job with one ceiling, then another with a different finish, and ask which they prefer. Then I wait. He who speaks first loses. Sit through it, however long it feels.

Answer the worries before the number

Conservatory roof customers carry a few worries they hardly ever say out loud. Will the frames take the weight? Do we need planning? Is building control involved? What happens to the house while the roof's off? Leave those unanswered and every one of them comes back at the end dressed up as "We need to think about it".

So bring them up yourself, early. Tell them what you check on the existing frames and why. Explain whether their job needs building control sign-off and who sorts it out. And tell them before, not after, about the little extras you'll do on the day at no charge. Extras only help the decision if they know about them while they're deciding.

That's the Objections step in the 7 Steps to Sales Mastery, and it sits before the price for a reason.

A rep I coach sold 4 of his 6 presentations in one week, £19k, after we worked on finding the emotional reason behind the purchase and getting agreement up front to make a decision on the day.

That's one person's result, not a promise. He was selling the same thing he sold the week before. What changed was the conversation.

Where most conservatory roof sales go wrong

Reps treat it as a product with a price per square metre, so the customer does the same. Then you're a line on their spreadsheet next to two other firms, and the cheapest line usually wins.

People move away from pain faster than they move towards pleasure. A room they can't sit in for six months of the year is pain they feel every time they walk past that shut door. Let them tell you about it. Let them describe next Christmas in there. Then show them how you'll get them there, and ask.

If you'd like to find out where your conservatory roof sales are leaking, take the free 2-minute Sales Leak Assessment and book a free 30-minute discovery call.