Do’s and Don’ts of Writing Proposals

Will, Rich and Jonathan share their best tips. This is the final step to landing a new project and it’s very critical!

 

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Key points:

  • Make sure everything is easy to understand.
  • Believe in your product, abilities and the crew – this should shine through the proposal and with what you say when you hand it to your lead.
  • Show them what you can do with great excitement!
  • Your lead is not a roofer – explain what you’re doing as visually as possible.
  • Your lead doesn’t know who to trust and by educating them well, they will trust you the most and will almost always give you the business.

General guidelines:

  • Show an aerial picture of their building on the cover using Google Earth or a drone
  • Provide details of the roof they have and all its problems (including a picture of the core sample)
  • Show the worse photos and a couple roof overview photos – board members and even owners often don’t go on their own roofs
  • Mention project-specific details like gutters or replacing rotted wood
  • Show pictures of the system going down – especially with coatings and spray foam
  • List of references – as long as possible and keep commercial as much as possible
  • Add a personalized letter that connects with them on a personal level (why you got in roofing, how you specialize in commercial, what you do to ensure great results, etc.)
  • Take the opportunity to add a maintenance plan that can double the life of their roof and extend their warranty

Exclusions for your warranty:

  • There are plenty of warranty examples (including the one we give out as reference material), but these things are often missed: Condensation isn’t covered unless you spray foam, leaks around A/C units, and the attachment of the underlying substrate you’re spraying foam and/or coatings on.