Today’s topic: Roofing, roofers, and roofs (we’ll go into why it’s not spelled “rooves” some other time)
Talking to people about putting a new roof on the house is fun. You certainly learn a lot about roofs and salesmanship. We talked to someone yesterday who was very nice and did a good job of explaining things, but since he had a set product and a set sales pitch, it’s hard to tell what’s true and what he’s saying to try to convince you to hire them.
In college I had a communication class where I learned about a persuasive technique known as “Inoculation”. An example of inoculation is when you go to Shingles R Us and the salesperson says “Our product will last 30 years, and the other guy’s product will only last 15. The reason is our special blend of asphalt, super glue, old tires, and discarded chewing gum. If you ask The Other Guys, they’ll say the chewing gum raises the cost and isn’t any better than the recycled milk jugs and ground up chicken bones their shingle uses.” And sure enough, you talk to The Other Guys, and The Other Guys say exactly that. According to the Inoculation Theory, you won’t trust The Other Guys because they’re using that line on you, and you were ready for it. Of course, The Other Guys counter with their own comments on their competitor: “Shingles R Us buys their roofing nails from Osama Bin Laden’s cousin.”
We went through some similar salesmanship when we replaced some windows a few years ago. The guy from Renewal by Anderson came and told us how their product was so great and everything else was awful. We didn’t buy windows right away, we decided to think about it for a while. When I called the salesperson back to talk to him, he had left Renewal and was working for another Michigan-based window company that made vinyl replacement windows. He gave me a quote for those windows, which was similar to the Renewal quote, and proceeded to tell me that these windows were pretty much as good as the Renewals. But – how can that be? I was puzzled! (not really)
In the end, I have no idea who to believe, and I have to hope that the people who show up for work that day are honest about their work, care whether my roof leaks, won't fall on their heads, and won’t squash the holly bushes in the front with their ladders. I figure I’ll pick the two people I like the most, maybe they complimented me the most, or they are MSU graduates. Then I’ll have them arm wrestle. The winner gets the contract. I could flip a coin, but where’s the fun in that?
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