Roofing Business Builder Blog

you're listening to the roofing success podcast a show created to inspire roofing contractors to achieve optimal success in their Roofing businesses I'm

0:16

16 seconds

the host Jim Molen the co-author of the book internet marketing for roofing contractors how to Triple your sales and turn your Roofing website into an online

0:24

24 seconds

lead generation machine I'm also the co-founder of roofer marketers the digital marketing agency for the roofing industry on each episode I'll be sitting

0:33

33 seconds

down with industry leaders to talk about their processes the lessons they've learned and how to find success in

Roofing hey welcome to another episode of the roofing success podcast as always

0:50

50 seconds

please follow share subscribe comment uh you know as as we continue to put out this content that helps our content

0:59

59 seconds

reach more and more people so today we're gonna bust some myths we're gonna be MythBusters Daniel MythBusters yes

1:08

1 minute, 8 seconds

we're gonna be busting Commercial Roofing myths today with Daniel laskan of and and we're so excited to have him

1:16

1 minute, 16 seconds

on here roofing business Builder is his coaching program Daniel for for the audience please introduce yourself kind of tell us a little bit about your

1:24

1 minute, 24 seconds

background and and uh and what you guys do over there yeah uh Daniel laxton's and um been in the riffing industry for

1:32

1 minute, 32 seconds

over 32 years and of course um let me ask you this too uh Jim um how did you

1:40

1 minute, 40 seconds

get in the riffing industry by chance by chance by chance I always say the roofing industry

1:48

1 minute, 48 seconds

finds you so for my myself um my grandfather was a rofer uh trained my brother uh I took over the roofing IND

1:58

1 minute, 58 seconds

our Roofing family roofing business uh within about four years and then um when things got and there's um the economy

2:07

2 minutes, 7 seconds

kind of went to back in 2003 so we sold our uh business and then opened up a repping agency in Texas where we

2:16

2 minutes, 16 seconds

represented um you know one main manufacturer and then within three years we're doing close to two million in

2:23

2 minutes, 23 seconds

sales so then we had a former own uh LLC and then we um we we we were able to

2:31

2 minutes, 31 seconds

bring on other manufacturers so I would design commercial roofing systems for municipalities for Air Force bases and

2:39

2 minutes, 39 seconds

I'd put those things out to bid but and then I train other roofers so over the past 18 years I've been training roofers

2:48

2 minutes, 48 seconds

commercial roofers and sometimes residential roofers transitioning into commercial I would teach them how

2:54

2 minutes, 54 seconds

everything I knew and um throughout that period of time though there's a lot of things that you see see there's a lot of things that you see that work and

3:02

3 minutes, 2 seconds

there's a lot of things that you see that don't work and so and so I'd always help people I've always had a passion to help people I've always been an

3:09

3 minutes, 9 seconds

entrepreneur um you know the back in the day I used to be was a comedian I went to Radiology School uh love science um

3:18

3 minutes, 18 seconds

I'm still on the science we my wife and I own a couple of businesses so we also uh own AIT business couple businesses in

3:25

3 minutes, 25 seconds

the hemp industry uh helping the hemp Farmers because there who's going to buy the products so there's but but my passion

3:34

3 minutes, 34 seconds

you know for the roofing is still there and so we decided to after we got bought out of all of our contracts and that was

3:43

3 minutes, 43 seconds

an amazing thing you know so I got another exit we exited my roofing business um and so um now we exited uh

3:51

3 minutes, 51 seconds

the repping agency and so but with all this knowledge I I truly wanted to help my brothers and sisters out there that

3:59

3 minutes, 59 seconds

are roof and so we designed a program that would help them to truly uh navigate and speed up speed up the

4:08

4 minutes, 8 seconds

knowledge because you know some of the mistakes you make take three to five years to learn and sometimes it cost you

4:15

4 minutes, 15 seconds

tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in mistakes that you can make and to speed up that curve is is something I felt is my way of

4:24

4 minutes, 24 seconds

giving back and and uh that's that's where we are at with riffing business Builder we uh have a program where um

4:31

4 minutes, 31 seconds

our they spend hours of learning and then you can use this also for your employees too where they we give them up to four logins uh per company so you can

4:40

4 minutes, 40 seconds

log in with your employees can do training courses and and learn some of the tricks not tricks well I guess you

4:48

4 minutes, 48 seconds

can call them tricks but you know so but there's a lot of misunderstandings out there there's a lot of myths when it comes to Commercial Roofing yeah yeah

4:56

4 minutes, 56 seconds

and that's one of them one of the one of the one of the big myth that that we hear all the time is that it's a lot harder than residential yes that is a

5:05

5 minutes, 5 seconds

myth that's not true at all yeah so so what are your thoughts on that well so when it comes to residential I mean

5:14

5 minutes, 14 seconds

first of all you you have to talk to that one residential person to get that sell it's a very low amount of money

5:21

5 minutes, 21 seconds

compared to the same amount of time that you spend with that one person in the commercial industry uh you can

5:28

5 minutes, 28 seconds

literally um make you have to spend maybe uh time talking to 30 different households to

5:36

5 minutes, 36 seconds

just equal the the amount of gross gross receipts you'd receive from that one customer so that's the first thing but

5:43

5 minutes, 43 seconds

it's even easier when it comes to sniping out you know I I say don't bring a shotgun to your marketing bring a

5:51

5 minutes, 51 seconds

sniper so in commercial you want to snipe out specific type of clients that that resonate with you too you know if

6:00

6 minutes

you're resonating with that uh person that owns a building or let's say 100 buildings you know you want you want it

6:07

6 minutes, 7 seconds

someone that owns a lot of buildings so if you can snipe out that perfect person that you resonate with or they resonate

6:14

6 minutes, 14 seconds

with you then you can create a relationship uh that is long lasting so if you're if you're doing the residential you're uh one and done

6:23

6 minutes, 23 seconds

you're not going to see that roof for another 15 years in my Roofing IND my roofing business back in Indiana

6:30

6 minutes, 30 seconds

literally I did start re-roofing other homes that we had already previously roofed but that's a long cycle uh when

6:37

6 minutes, 37 seconds

it comes to commercial you can develop one two five relationships and next thing you know you're you're making $10

6:45

6 minutes, 45 seconds

million a year and or you know gross uh you're bringing in $10 million a year

6:52

6 minutes, 52 seconds

and it's it's great because you're you still have that relationship you're working with that person every year and

6:59

6 minutes, 59 seconds

so that's a lot easier um than you know trying to sell another residential roof

7:07

7 minutes, 7 seconds

yeah so there there's a a a it's more relationship based and and you're what you're saying and and you're going to get more business from that specific

7:15

7 minutes, 15 seconds

building owner um property management company or whatever you're working with but they have a budget though they actually have a budget so they they do

7:23

7 minutes, 23 seconds

have a budget they have money they understand Capital expenditures right they understand you look look you do

7:30

7 minutes, 30 seconds

their evaluation then you walk down with pictures of their roof pictures of how you're going to redo it and then um you

7:37

7 minutes, 37 seconds

you sit down you go through it and they're like okay here's a check it's a lot easier yeah it's so much better so let's talk a little bit about you had

7:46

7 minutes, 46 seconds

mentioned types of clients right there you know I don't think I don't I don't know if there's a lot of thought put into that uh a lot of times by

7:54

7 minutes, 54 seconds

contractors um types of clients so you don't you know Commercial Roofing is

8:02

8 minutes, 2 seconds

very Broad in itself right yeah like that's a very broad thing to say Commercial Roofing

8:10

8 minutes, 10 seconds

yeah right and so we've had conversations before and that it's like you were talking about like you know there's there's there's different niches

8:19

8 minutes, 19 seconds

almost within Commercial Roofing right and and soes yeah like the first two your first two niches is um new

8:28

8 minutes, 28 seconds

construction or reof that's the that's the top of the pyramid they split so then yeah so then

8:34

8 minutes, 34 seconds

from from there you have bid work you know which I I I teach everyone stay away from the bid work it's not yours if you're crossing over just don't worry

8:42

8 minutes, 42 seconds

you can get to bid work maybe down the road but uh you have to first get your your feet wet learn scrape your knees

8:50

8 minutes, 50 seconds

yeah but then there's uh so now over here though is negotiated work negotiated work is where the money is that's where the relationships are from

8:57

8 minutes, 57 seconds

them but from there uh in negotiate work you you have um hotels you have um self

9:06

9 minutes, 6 seconds

storage units uh you have so look at what kind of trade shows would you want to go to you know um you I'm an inventor

9:14

9 minutes, 14 seconds

too so you know I I invented a stroller which I I haven't done this one yet because but I I I got a little tube

9:22

9 minutes, 22 seconds

extender it's called the last squir it gets the last squir out of the bottle so I have a p i have a pat on that but I also have a stroller wheel wheel that

9:29

9 minutes, 29 seconds

will go across the sand on a beach so if you're taking your kids it just you know but but the thing is my wife says do you

9:36

9 minutes, 36 seconds

really want to go to Children you know baby shows I'm like hell no I don't so she said let's not let's let's not do

9:44

9 minutes, 44 seconds

the engineering on that one yet so but I got a list of things I want to do but so but in the riffin industry think about the kind of trade shows you don't want

9:52

9 minutes, 52 seconds

to do restaurants if don't do restaurants that's a if you're getting into this don't that's a really difficult one

9:59

9 minutes, 59 seconds

um plus there's a lot of people that do restaurant trade shows but try to find a trade show that's undersaturated so then you have a now you have a niche say um

10:09

10 minutes, 9 seconds

um but anyways but from this building you can micro you can Niche it down even more based on trade shows so that's just

10:16

10 minutes, 16 seconds

one idea for for the listeners yeah and that that's interesting to think about right and it's you don't go in trying to

10:26

10 minutes, 26 seconds

do everything no oh no that's you're spending all that's that's the shotgun approach you're peppering everything and

10:35

10 minutes, 35 seconds

you're not getting you're not dropping a deer so you a sniper rifle and just go after one small and we call them micro nites so you you Niche Niche and then

10:44

10 minutes, 44 seconds

Niche down and then find where no one else is because reduce your competition but once you reduced you're in an undersaturated Market well you're also

10:53

10 minutes, 53 seconds

not spending a lot of money on that marketing because you're specific in a specific area and you're getting a lot more benefit from that those marketing

11:02

11 minutes, 2 seconds

dollars yeah and and I think that you would be able to from a marketing perspective position yourself as an authority in that specific Niche a lot

11:10

11 minutes, 10 seconds

easier that's it join um everyone you know when you look at the trade show

11:17

11 minutes, 17 seconds

then say if you're doing say um uh Self Storage there are self- storage uh

11:25

11 minutes, 25 seconds

organizations or um you know non-for-profit certain what what do we call those things industry associations associations yeah and you want to get

11:34

11 minutes, 34 seconds

involved in that and eventually I mean there are roofers that sit on Boards of uh associations and that is their roofer

11:42

11 minutes, 42 seconds

that's their go-to whenever yeah if they're like well what do we do about this well we gotta talk to uh you know

11:49

11 minutes, 49 seconds

Jim you know Jim's ring you yeah and so that that kind of to to me that there's another myth that always comes up and

11:56

11 minutes, 56 seconds

that's that manufacturers won't authorize contract contractors well in in a sense that you know this is a mythb

12:04

12 minutes, 4 seconds

MythBusters here right right this is actually partially true so manufacturers will not authorize a contractor and a

12:13

12 minutes, 13 seconds

lot of guys that are crossing over they they're trying to get licensed and why would the manufacturer license you you know they already have a network of

12:22

12 minutes, 22 seconds

contractors that are bringing them money um so it it it does depend on your region uh

12:30

12 minutes, 30 seconds

but the the truth is is the reason why is because if you're you know because I came from the manufacturing side too is

12:39

12 minutes, 39 seconds

if I already have maybe three guys that are in one city and they're they're bringing me one to2 million you know and

12:47

12 minutes, 47 seconds

purchasing um and then these other three guys see one of my specifications they go I want that I want to try to bid on that hey I have I have the right to bid

12:55

12 minutes, 55 seconds

it and so they'll try to bid that job well if um these three guys if I license all three of these guys and spent time

13:03

13 minutes, 3 seconds

educating training their salesmen bringing out the uh Tech reps to train the roofing Cru it cost about $6,000

13:11

13 minutes, 11 seconds

sometimes to train a roofing contractor if you license them and the thing is is at the end of the year what happens is all these guys are going after these

13:20

13 minutes, 20 seconds

three guys are going after the same work that these three guys are going after so at the end of the year the manufacturer made nothing the rep made nothing he

13:28

13 minutes, 28 seconds

spent he spent the whole year training these other three companies and there's absolutely no extra money because the

13:36

13 minutes, 36 seconds

the the riffers don't know that when they come in they're they're just going after the same work that everyone else is going after so no one makes any extra

13:44

13 minutes, 44 seconds

money and even what happens is the the three guys that were licensed you know so you got three guys here you licensed

13:52

13 minutes, 52 seconds

there's three million here now everyone did 500,000 each so that means that these guys all lost your guys that were already you know part of your

14:00

14 minutes

organization they lost half half their income and then they they jump ship they they dropped this manufacturer and they look for another manufacturer that's

14:09

14 minutes, 9 seconds

going to work with them so these are the problems that that from the manufacturing perspective so having that in mind then if you're a roof for this

14:18

14 minutes, 18 seconds

crossing over into commercial how can you make yourself look attractive to that person and so that's the the whole

14:26

14 minutes, 26 seconds

thing so if you want to get licensed with a manufacturer bring value to them um you know you

14:33

14 minutes, 33 seconds

usually it takes five years of being in R the roofing industry to even qualify to work for one of the big five rofie

14:40

14 minutes, 40 seconds

manufacturers well the big five actually offer a really good warranty to the customers and so a lot of customers that

14:47

14 minutes, 47 seconds

are Savvy that own millions of dollars with the buildings they know what kind of warranty they want uh but until you get your feet wet you I mean until you

14:56

14 minutes, 56 seconds

learn you'll have to buy commodity products from a distributor and and learn make your mistakes there because

15:04

15 minutes, 4 seconds

you don't want to make your mistakes with a big manufacturer then lose that you know yeah and that was that that's interesting because that's you know that

15:12

15 minutes, 12 seconds

that's on that bid work side right and a lot of this is specked out so this product is specked out for this for this work so they're just going and bidding a

15:20

15 minutes, 20 seconds

you know having the contractors that are approved or licensed with that specific product bidding on that work and those

15:27

15 minutes, 27 seconds

people are also marketing uh so when they're when they're out there trying to find their own clients they're marketing for that

15:35

15 minutes, 35 seconds

manufacturer they're they're you know said and then but um yeah when it comes to spec work you don't want to do spec work because do you really want to be

15:44

15 minutes, 44 seconds

the riffer that makes the least amount of money on that job or chooses to make the least amount of money I mean I don't want to be that riffer I want to make

15:51

15 minutes, 51 seconds

more money you know that's right so what advice would you have for you know to to get

15:59

15 minutes, 59 seconds

authorized to get licensed with these uh with these manufacturers when you're not what we're talking about once you Niche

16:07

16 minutes, 7 seconds

down and you know what you're passionate about you also um e even your roofers different companies have different core

16:15

16 minutes, 15 seconds

competencies different skill sets you know you may if you only have one good welder and like 10 guys that are great at installing um you don't want to do

16:25

16 minutes, 25 seconds

restaurants but if you have six guys that are just great at welding and and and two install you know two guys that using the screw guns and stuff like that

16:32

16 minutes, 32 seconds

well that's that's great you can do you know but if you don't anyways you have to analyze what skill sets your company has then find out what your passion is

16:41

16 minutes, 41 seconds

if you're passionate about something uh it's like I'm passionate about horses so I do all of the uh racing facilities in

16:48

16 minutes, 48 seconds

Kentucky and you know over here you know but I mean you can be the uh uh Derby the horse racing roofer you know where

16:57

16 minutes, 57 seconds

you your reputation know everywhere well if you if you if you have something like that uh or if you or if you're the if

17:05

17 minutes, 5 seconds

you are the self- storage roofer if everyone knows you to be that Self Storage roofer and then you call up a manufacturer Say Hey I want to bring you

17:13

17 minutes, 13 seconds

some my my business um but I've done all my research on your manufacturing um I've looked at the way you guys go to

17:21

17 minutes, 21 seconds

market and I resonate with that you guys are like me and I'm my company uh and so I think that we're going to be a good match and I I'm bringing you all the I'm

17:30

17 minutes, 30 seconds

I'm bringing you a bunch of customers that I've created I've developed and then you're going to be very valuable to a manufacture you they're gonna like hey

17:38

17 minutes, 38 seconds

come here you know yeah that's interesting because what we were talking about earlier is is you know the the rep

17:46

17 minutes, 46 seconds

doesn't want to even bring you on and train you because you're competing against their other the other contractors in the in the area you're

17:53

17 minutes, 53 seconds

not bringing value no to that to that scenario that's it but if you become the

18:01

18 minutes, 1 second

self the storage the Self Storage roofer yeah and you go in now you're now you're bringing value to that relationship that

18:09

18 minutes, 9 seconds

makes a lot of sense and what happens is that rep that licenses you when the other three guys go well hey what are

18:17

18 minutes, 17 seconds

you licensing those guys they're going to come after my work it's like nope they're in their own Niche and that's what I would always do and you want to diversifi Niche and then what happens is

18:26

18 minutes, 26 seconds

then when you do have bids then after about a year or two um after you you're doing your own thing then you'll get

18:34

18 minutes, 34 seconds

invited to to bid on those extra projects that I created you know you didn't create that work I created that work so you're basically you're stealing

18:42

18 minutes, 42 seconds

from all my guys that are actually supporting my organization that's that's the way a manufacturer looks at it yeah and that's kind of another thing is is

18:50

18 minutes, 50 seconds

is a myth out there that like the manufacturers won't bring you any leads right that that they don't bring you know deals to you you're kind of out

18:58

18 minutes, 58 seconds

there doing all the leg actually that that is true the the manufacturer does not bring

19:05

19 minutes, 5 seconds

any what think about this though uh so this is MythBusters this one is actually part partially true too because

19:14

19 minutes, 14 seconds

manufacturers I mean um say if in one given State you have 60 licensed contractors 60 right so say uh that a

19:24

19 minutes, 24 seconds

manufacturer would love to give what maybe 20 leads to each of those 60 customers well 60 time 20 what is that

19:32

19 minutes, 32 seconds

that's 1,200 leads do you think a manufacturer really can come up with those kind of leads so manufacturers

19:39

19 minutes, 39 seconds

provide what we call a perception of leads because in reality um the the roofer has to Market and advertising

19:47

19 minutes, 47 seconds

there's a value though to be in license with a specific product because of the reputation of the manufacturer so uh but

19:55

19 minutes, 55 seconds

but when it comes to leads it's it's a perception um that that we we think and here's the thing is a lot of times in distri uh

20:03

20 minutes, 3 seconds

Distributors you have to be careful because Distributors are great but sometimes you you may have a sales rep

20:10

20 minutes, 10 seconds

uh within the the distribution and they they find out that you have a a call or you know it's like oh yeah I need a

20:17

20 minutes, 17 seconds

quote um on um on this project well where's the project they you know next you know you have three guys show up to

20:24

20 minutes, 24 seconds

that Pro your customer knocking on the door saying hey I'd like to give you a bid so got to watch out for things like that um because the reason why some

20:32

20 minutes, 32 seconds

people some reps can give away leads is because their Eaves dropping on their roofers they have maybe a 100 roofers

20:41

20 minutes, 41 seconds

and you got like six six of them that that tell you about next thing you know it's like wow my rep gives me all kinds of leads well those aren't his leads

20:49

20 minutes, 49 seconds

they're they're they're one of the other roofers so watch out for that there I'm not saying that that's big but it does happen in the industry and and I want to

20:57

20 minutes, 57 seconds

protect everyone from you know so I I never usually give an address I'll give a zip code I was just that that that was

21:04

21 minutes, 4 seconds

confusing to me because I was thinking you know you're these are specked out for the manufacturer and then there's like three or four you know people

21:11

21 minutes, 11 seconds

licensed in that area to do that that that would to me that sounded like leads right that you're kind of but but it's

21:19

21 minutes, 19 seconds

really a Spec's not a lead in my opinion that's right so it's that it's that the the the contractors in the area are generating that business and then the

21:27

21 minutes, 27 seconds

manufacturer is just speced on that job so that you have to be licensed with that manufacturer to bid that job kind

21:33

21 minutes, 33 seconds

of thing exactly and So like um there's um there there are several grocery store chains that read specific uh magazines

21:42

21 minutes, 42 seconds

that are about grocery how to grow your grocery store chain right and so um I that's a good place to Market too it's expensive but it's a good place to

21:49

21 minutes, 49 seconds

Market but um but the thing is is say if a manufacturer is dropping an advertisement in there and then gets

21:57

21 minutes, 57 seconds

leads from that uh then yeah you could be on the list to get one of those leads especially you know as a

22:04

22 minutes, 4 seconds

manufacturers we we know the skill set that um when I I had over 120 roofers that I had licensed over a period of 18

22:12

22 minutes, 12 seconds

years and helped them to grow but some were good at restaurants very few but I had a couple guys if a restaurant owner called me and says hey I want to get a

22:21

22 minutes, 21 seconds

then I would give i' I'd say hey there's only two guys I would trust these two and though but each one each roofing company has different skills sets and um

22:30

22 minutes, 30 seconds

and that's how you know some people can't do new construction they'll lose money because the other trades will poke holes in your roof but if you have a a

22:39

22 minutes, 39 seconds

strong personality and you're at the preconstruction meeting and you go around to each of those Trad say look one of your guys pokes a hole You you talk to me because you know otherwise

22:48

22 minutes, 48 seconds

I'm GNA charge you you know so you have to you have to learn certain things to protect your company and then you can get good at that other thing but keep it

22:56

22 minutes, 56 seconds

simple when you're in the beginning keep everything simple and go after your own um clientele but trade shows is one of the best ways it's

23:04

23 minutes, 4 seconds

it's exciting it's it's stimulating and you can also uh go to the trade show that you're most passionate about yeah that's interesting and and that's

23:12

23 minutes, 12 seconds

probably you know that's another another I mean saying that makes kind of there's this other it's kind of a myth but it's

23:20

23 minutes, 20 seconds

it's it's so difficult to find the decision maker yes um that's an interesting thing about what you're saying there going to these trade shows

23:29

23 minutes, 29 seconds

and like being involved in the their industry is unique is a unique

23:36

23 minutes, 36 seconds

perspective to me I don't you know yeah yeah because um yeah um is it difficult to find the decision maker no not not

23:44

23 minutes, 44 seconds

not especially not now with technology that we have because we have uh um there there's a couple of tools that you can

23:51

23 minutes, 51 seconds

use uh Romy and also seamless AI you know you've heard about both of those so yeah and like seamless I those guys used

23:59

23 minutes, 59 seconds

to work for Google and so I mean a lot of a lot of the software out there you can actually know what college that the

24:07

24 minutes, 7 seconds

guy that or girl that owns 150 buildings you can use some of the software it'll tell you what college they graduated

24:14

24 minutes, 14 seconds

from you show up to their office and you hand them a you know hand them a mug with their college you I wouldn't do that that's a little too cheesy but but

24:22

24 minutes, 22 seconds

but the thing is to have that knowledge yeah one one of these sites even said what the name of their dog was it was Maddie no they did that was

24:30

24 minutes, 30 seconds

decent Adam and I both have a dog our both of our dogs are named Maddie that's hilarious oh really so but but yeah but

24:38

24 minutes, 38 seconds

but the more information you have uh but don't be slimy um you wanna you wna just it's just like developing a relationship

24:47

24 minutes, 47 seconds

with a girl or if she's like you know with the opposite sex so um you you want to get in there and then just develop

24:55

24 minutes, 55 seconds

that relationship and maybe visit a few times take him out for a beer or drinks or dinner but and then and tell them I

25:03

25 minutes, 3 seconds

want you to be my you know I want to be your roofer and I you know do your homework on that person first and when

25:11

25 minutes, 11 seconds

you do your homework then if you resonate with that person you know then you're going to have a relationship that's going to last for millions of

25:18

25 minutes, 18 seconds

dollars I was going to say a lifetime bit Millions ofar milons what about what about like you know in in like llc's or

25:27

25 minutes, 27 seconds

you know things like that when the all the properties are held in you know in that is you know sometimes that you know the the owner's information is a little

25:36

25 minutes, 36 seconds

bit more hidden um yeah well I mean I'm I'm telling you even door knocking is not that difficult when you um you can

25:44

25 minutes, 44 seconds

walk into um a Industrial Park area that say you know a lot of hell hell Storm Chasers do this you just walk in knock

25:53

25 minutes, 53 seconds

on the door go in talk to the office girl and you say oh so who owns this place is she oh it's uh Mr Jones Mr

26:01

26 minutes, 1 second

Jones is a really nice guy so how many kids does he have oh he has three kids you know but I'm saying you can you can get a lot of information just by talking

26:10

26 minutes, 10 seconds

to the the person at the front Des talking to people yeah yeah if you're in a smaller town um shoot I used to just walk into the superintendent's office

26:19

26 minutes, 19 seconds

and schools I just walk right in and hey how's it going he's in overalls and hey come on in have a seat there yeah it's

26:27

26 minutes, 27 seconds

leaking all over here see see this little bucket I got right here beside my desk you say well hey I I'd love to be a roofer but you know maybe I can just get

26:34

26 minutes, 34 seconds

up there take a peek remember don't do not try to sell the job on the spot just get permission to get on that roof and

26:42

26 minutes, 42 seconds

then gather your information put together a beautiful booklet of of tons of information of how you're going to change their world and then sit down and

26:50

26 minutes, 50 seconds

then ask for that that that check so a lot of people do that a little bit ass backwards try to sell themselves first but just get permission to get on that

26:58

26 minutes, 58 seconds

roof and then develop the relationship so let's talk about a little bit about this booklet you know there's there are

27:07

27 minutes, 7 seconds

always you know when you're when you're speaking of you know when you define your perfect customer you always want to find their like their fears and their

27:16

27 minutes, 16 seconds

desires and things like that you know when you're bringing in a you know developing like some kind of literature about what you do and what you can you

27:24

27 minutes, 24 seconds

know what you can bring what kind of value you can bring to that building owner that you're you know I heard you say booklet it's through the booklet or

27:31

27 minutes, 31 seconds

through whatever kind of presentations in your language doing yeah booklet whatever whatever Mar it's actually proposal

27:40

27 minutes, 40 seconds

proposals what what I'm talking about is a proposal but it should be it should be between 15 and 32 Pages your proposal

27:48

27 minutes, 48 seconds

yeah you know it's like when you're doing residential well I'll just fax this over to you you know and that's a lot of people get in the commercial roofing they're like all this fact over

27:56

27 minutes, 56 seconds

my bed no no you don't if you're going to be charging 300,000 Plus or a million dollars for a roof you you you got to

28:05

28 minutes, 5 seconds

have a booklet a presentation something that's a stack full of information because you know I had a

28:12

28 minutes, 12 seconds

customer that owned several hotels he called me up and says uh I don't want that roofer that you sent me I go why not he goes because he just gave me a

28:21

28 minutes, 21 seconds

one page yeah one page proposal and he say I you know if I'm going to spend this much money I I want I want a Mercedes these bends of a proposal you

28:29

28 minutes, 29 seconds

know you got a $300,000 proposal that's it show them show them something that that's worth $300,000 so let's walk

28:38

28 minutes, 38 seconds

through some of this a little bit so in this booklet right you're that that you know in this proposal in the the information that you're putting out

28:46

28 minutes, 46 seconds

there to to these to these building owners and your perfect customer in that market in your Niche whatever you're doing there what are the what are some

28:55

28 minutes, 55 seconds

of the top things that you want to make sure that you're hitting on well it's just the same thing that You' I mean

29:02

29 minutes, 2 seconds

you'd tell the customer that you you want to do for them so that the the first thing and you can get uh you can

29:09

29 minutes, 9 seconds

get some um oh anyways let's just talk about the booklet though but yeah basically the front page is going to have a picture of their roof on there

29:17

29 minutes, 17 seconds

their building and you know then you say that this is a proposal for them and then you open it up and you're going to take as many

29:25

29 minutes, 25 seconds

pictures of every problem you have on there and take your little U tack claw and stick it or or a knife you'll see people use it or a pen I'll use a pen

29:34

29 minutes, 34 seconds

sometimes and find every little lift or every where there's trouble areas this is what your curb looks like and then

29:42

29 minutes, 42 seconds

drop in a picture of a curb that you've done say this is what it's going to look like and so you go through all the problems on that roof so it should be

29:50

29 minutes, 50 seconds

like uh 15 pages of all these terrible things look at your drain you just messed up look at um you have debris on

29:58

29 minutes, 58 seconds

the roof uh you know you we're going to have to redo your coping cap here's your coping cap here it's all disgusting it's

30:05

30 minutes, 5 seconds

leaking U the is all cracked and now it's coming through so we're going to redo all this we're going to encapsulate your walls um and so you put

30:14

30 minutes, 14 seconds

together a huge I mean when you sit down with them you're going to read this book with them together and they're going to fall in love with it's going to be like

30:22

30 minutes, 22 seconds

a childhood story about how you're changing their world into something amazing and then at the end of it you're going to have ask ask for the

30:30

30 minutes, 30 seconds

endorsement remember terminology is everything too you don't want to say can I get your signature you know that here's a contract you don't say contract

30:38

30 minutes, 38 seconds

you say um this is an agreement you know so yeah terminology you want to learn those things too but but then ask ask

30:44

30 minutes, 44 seconds

for the check you know ask for that 50% down if they don't go for that you can say well you want to write the check to

30:51

30 minutes, 51 seconds

the manufacturer they can so say if they don't trust you yeah but you say I need the I need the

31:00

31 minutes

money to pay for the materials can you just write the check to the manufacturer manufacturer will send you back the extra that you need to run the job so

31:07

31 minutes, 7 seconds

you get the man manufacturers will take care of you on that that's awesome what do you think some of those you know we're show you're showing them the problem areas and how you're going to

31:16

31 minutes, 16 seconds

solve it what are some other things that you know you know I know like building owners from a residential property to a

31:25

31 minutes, 25 seconds

commercial property there's a different mindset right there is a building owner is is an investor they're looking

31:35

31 minutes, 35 seconds

at the work that you're doing as how it can make or save them money right

31:43

31 minutes, 43 seconds

there's it's either gonna make my make me money or it's going to save me money which makes me money in commercial properties right when you're leasing out

31:51

31 minutes, 51 seconds

properties there's uh the the the the M if the if it's a lower maintenance cost for the year they're lowering their

31:59

31 minutes, 59 seconds

their cost for the year their profits go up on that property because that you know that as they're leasing the property out so what other B like kind

32:08

32 minutes, 8 seconds

of things do you hit on that that you found over the years that are like those hot buttons with those building owners

32:14

32 minutes, 14 seconds

not you know maybe beyond the hey this is where it's leaking and this is how we're going to solve it is there anything that you found along the way

32:22

32 minutes, 22 seconds

that is kind of like oh there's so many things yeah I mean um I mean I I don't suggest that you're getting involved uh in the beginning but uh but some of us

32:31

32 minutes, 31 seconds

may have a passion for um environmentally friendly or um energy efficient uh you can get into adding

32:40

32 minutes, 40 seconds

solar panels so you can find a niche in that area if you're passionate about it but there's a lot of it's a learning curve in that um but yeah there's um

32:48

32 minutes, 48 seconds

there's several ways that you can offer value to that customer but we really want to find out what they what what

32:55

32 minutes, 55 seconds

they're passionate about so um but if they're if they're a quotee unquote tree hugger or you know energy efficient but

33:02

33 minutes, 2 seconds

but you can use different techniques in that aspect too be most Roofing is white nowadays because it reflects and you want you want a reflective roof if you

33:11

33 minutes, 11 seconds

look at a bus a school bus they painted all the roofs white well why did they do that because those kids were sweating on

33:18

33 minutes, 18 seconds

the way home from school not because of school no but anyways but that's uh so reflectivity so you you can do a lot of

33:26

33 minutes, 26 seconds

your homework on this I always say that if you're crossing over into uh commercial and once you get the choose that manufacturer you need to

33:35

33 minutes, 35 seconds

be reading that spec book two hours a night two hours a night or or doing other programs like our programs right

33:42

33 minutes, 42 seconds

uh re you know study educate yourself until you are the expert and then when you go in there find out what their

33:49

33 minutes, 49 seconds

passion is you know ask them questions and it's hard for us as salesman because we we're talkers but we

33:56

33 minutes, 56 seconds

need them to tell us the information so that way when we do put that book that presentation together that it's going to be something that Wows them that

34:05

34 minutes, 5 seconds

resonates with them yeah that resonates with them and it's all I guess to just to to some it's in the questions that

34:12

34 minutes, 12 seconds

you ask them as you're building that relationship you get to learn a lot of these things yeah right and remember you want this relationship for a lifetime I

34:21

34 minutes, 21 seconds

mean you you so uh it's like you might as well ask as many questions about them and get to know them and what's makes it

34:29

34 minutes, 29 seconds

easier in the commercial is that you you know a lot of us are just scatterbrain I I'm I'm just my mind's all over the

34:35

34 minutes, 35 seconds

place but can you not learn about three people over the next three months just three just focus on those three those

34:43

34 minutes, 43 seconds

three people that's a lot easier than trying to talk to 30 people you know and we get overwhelmed when we do that I

34:50

34 minutes, 50 seconds

think that that that leads to procrastination a lot of times it is that's it you're right right like we we

34:57

34 minutes, 57 seconds

we build these tasks up hey I'm going to open a commercial division of my company so now I have to go after all of these

35:05

35 minutes, 5 seconds

all of these people so now I have to find thousands of building owners and that and it gets overwhelming I like

35:13

35 minutes, 13 seconds

that idea of think about it get down into a niche and find three building owners yeah I

35:21

35 minutes, 21 seconds

mean start with one but three not hard yeah one three however it is starts small and just start to start to move in

35:30

35 minutes, 30 seconds

that direction and as you start to move in that direction momentum can build and and pretty soon you you know you have a

35:38

35 minutes, 38 seconds

whole commercial division or a whole you know company that's doing the these very specific commercial roofs um another

35:46

35 minutes, 46 seconds

don't use your residential go ahead I'll let you go ahead because I know that's the next subject we're going to no go for it go for it what no no go ask the ask the

35:55

35 minutes, 55 seconds

mythbusting question yeah so like you know the other myth is that you know and and this is you know in I mean it's in

36:02

36 minutes, 2 seconds

Contracting in general but but specifically with Commercial Roofing is it cheaper that it's it using Subs is

36:10

36 minutes, 10 seconds

cheaper than actually having in-house employees to do not at all that's that's totally a myth that um as a matter of

36:17

36 minutes, 17 seconds

fact having your own crws is much cheaper um so say

36:25

36 minutes, 25 seconds

um the numbers I I have are or maybe a couple years old here but um usually you know a sub crew is going to cost you

36:33

36 minutes, 33 seconds

between 80 depending on the region you're in between 80 thou or 80 cents a square foot to upwards of a150 a square

36:41

36 minutes, 41 seconds

foot uh depending on the complication of the job and things like that um that sub crew may or may not have workman's comp

36:49

36 minutes, 49 seconds

may not may or may not have well they better have insurance you better get their and don't just get their insurance uh you need to request to be an in

36:58

36 minutes, 58 seconds

insurance certificate holder and that and if that person drops their insurance say they had their insurance when they're working for you and then they drop it um the insurance company will

37:07

37 minutes, 7 seconds

call you and say they dropped it or they'll send you a letter so you definitely want to make sure they have insurance because if you if you're if

37:15

37 minutes, 15 seconds

you're doing a $30,000 job and you lose 10% of your money that's that's bad that's $3,000 but if you're doing a

37:22

37 minutes, 22 seconds

$300,000 job and you lose 10% of your money and it's that roof sub crew you need to hit ding their insurance

37:30

37 minutes, 30 seconds

something bad happens you need to ding you got to you got to protect yourself your insurance is basically like having a lawyer on retainer because all

37:37

37 minutes, 37 seconds

insurance companies have lawyers that are going to fight in your behalf so but anyways but yeah um your sub crew um

37:45

37 minutes, 45 seconds

that's how much they're going to cost you if you have your own employees they it usually costs about 40 to 50 cents a

37:53

37 minutes, 53 seconds

square foot and then when you add your insurance and everything you might be to 60 to 70 cents so it's um it's much

38:01

38 minutes, 1 second

cheaper but the here's the problem though do you have enough work to keep your employees busy so in the beginning

38:10

38 minutes, 10 seconds

you have to use subs and and then um that's where there's a transition where you're going to slowly build your own

38:16

38 minutes, 16 seconds

crew and do not use do not use your residential guys because that's your machine that's making you money right now and you need that machine to run

38:25

38 minutes, 25 seconds

it's like oh I can do it no they can't I mean just don't just keep the machine over here working and then you hire this now if you love one of these employees

38:33

38 minutes, 33 seconds

and they're sincerely wanting a crossover then by all means you can do that but um it doesn't go well because once you start doing something over here

38:42

38 minutes, 42 seconds

there's a learning curve it takes time um but there there's a few mistakes that you have to watch out for as you're

38:49

38 minutes, 49 seconds

doing this transition and you can find a sub crew that will train your your new team that you're building but it's better to hire um

38:58

38 minutes, 58 seconds

roofers installers that are specifically good at that specific product and you you they'll lie sometimes like oh no I

39:07

39 minutes, 7 seconds

I'm licensed with that I install all the time no you don't you know do your homework double check everything um because you if you want a successful

39:15

39 minutes, 15 seconds

business Ju Just Be Be an ace ask the the the hard questions to ask and be

39:22

39 minutes, 22 seconds

firm but be be I mean you don't have to be mean but just be firm and say Hey look I'm just trying to protect myself you know and protect the company that's

39:30

39 minutes, 30 seconds

and and help you to grow into the best version of yourself that you could ever become for sure one of the things that I

39:37

39 minutes, 37 seconds

I've seen with uh some residential contractors that go into that that go into commercial and kind of get over

39:45

39 minutes, 45 seconds

their heads sometimes is is in relation to cash flow management and that kind of reminded me of that when you were talking about having employees and not

39:54

39 minutes, 54 seconds

enough work sometimes like it versus Subs when you're when you're kind of starting out um you know what how what

40:01

40 minutes, 1 second

what is a good way in the beginning to deal with that cash flow management you know when you're going and doing a $300,000 roof all of a sudden and you're

40:10

40 minutes, 10 seconds

not going to get paid on that for you know three months maybe yeah some some time right and there's and really to be

40:18

40 minutes, 18 seconds

honest with you depend on the product that you're using you can actually say um if you do have two types of products and one's quicker than the other then

40:26

40 minutes, 26 seconds

sometimes you can convert one of your jobs into something that you can get done in two weeks where it take you six weeks to do it with the other product um

40:33

40 minutes, 33 seconds

be careful about that because you don't want to be dishonest because that is kind of something that you're doing for yourself not for the customer so but but

40:40

40 minutes, 40 seconds

you can if you um uh cash flow is can't be a difficult thing that's the reason why you uh definitely want to uh when

40:48

40 minutes, 48 seconds

you you get your down payment you know usually it's a third your materials are going to cost a third of the job so if you're asking for

40:56

40 minutes, 56 seconds

half UPF front and and then you you so like I said a lot of customers if they trust you once you have that relationship they're going

41:04

41 minutes, 4 seconds

to drop you half they'll drop you half um but there's a lot of bad apples out there that actually took that money and ran off so yeah but they're going to do

41:12

41 minutes, 12 seconds

their homework on you so they're going to go to your website they're gonna see they're going to go to your social media so definitely don't want to have crazy

41:19

41 minutes, 19 seconds

crazy ass pictures of you doing crazy things on your social me personal social media but they should be doing their homework on you if they're going to drop

41:26

41 minutes, 26 seconds

you 50% that's right of $300,000 so I drop you 150,000 but W with that extra

41:33

41 minutes, 33 seconds

money so if you got a third then if you're getting half then that's your money that you're going to float some of that the the money on on that or you can

41:42

41 minutes, 42 seconds

do draws so if you just tell them hey look you know I mean this is a big job yeah I I don't necessarily have $150,000

41:49

41 minutes, 49 seconds

in the bank so if if um can we do a drawing system and then may you can do four or five draws and you put together

41:57

41 minutes, 57 seconds

drawing schedule and and uh they'll transfer the money to you that way so but you be transparent you know if you tell them that hey truthfully if you

42:05

42 minutes, 5 seconds

don't trust me uh just you can send that money to the manufacturer that you love that I love and then um and again then you call the

42:13

42 minutes, 13 seconds

manufacture talk to the csil receivables say hey look you know I still need money to float this job uh but they you know they I wanted them to trust me and I

42:21

42 minutes, 21 seconds

wanted you to be paid because you know a lot of these guys that you get in the commercial roofing and you get through and you're just like suffering and

42:29

42 minutes, 29 seconds

you're like oh I don't have cash flow and then next thing you know you get that final check and you don't pay the manufacturer you pay all your guys then

42:36

42 minutes, 36 seconds

you go out and jump on the Yacht for a week or two and then come back and then or go on vacation or something that's bad because if you don't pay that

42:45

42 minutes, 45 seconds

manufacturer your boat sunk I mean you're this is what the mistakes I see people make but pay everyone off first you you don't pay your

42:53

42 minutes, 53 seconds

employees you know you're not going to have the guys come out and install the next Ro so you got to pay your manufacturer got to pay your employees

43:01

43 minutes, 1 second

and then the last person you pay is yourself yeah so but but yeah you got to manage that money properly because

43:10

43 minutes, 10 seconds

otherwise a lot of these guy I one of my buddies one of my customers landed huge job collected hundreds of thousands of

43:19

43 minutes, 19 seconds

dollars and built a house and then six months later he's like oh I don't have I'm not I don't know what to do next I'm like

43:27

43 minutes, 27 seconds

buddy I told you do not spend that money that money is company money and then you want to invest in there get you may want to invest in a better office you got

43:36

43 minutes, 36 seconds

definitely want to hire employees well what's your burn rate for having an office Personnel at you know 30 to 60,000 a year what's your burn rate for

43:44

43 minutes, 44 seconds

all your employees so you got to consider that because if you're not good at doing the paperwork you got to hire someone that's good at that and so once

43:51

43 minutes, 51 seconds

you land some of this big money don't spend it pretend you're the same poor roofer that no not poor but you know what I'm saying yeah you know yeah but

44:01

44 minutes, 1 second

but until until you get to a certain point then you can start spending that money but but yeah yeah you gotta lay that Foundation First get the foundation

44:08

44 minutes, 8 seconds

laid make sure that the that you're on stable ground financially right and then and be able to reinvest in the company

44:16

44 minutes, 16 seconds

and keep building that up and invest in your education of your employees you know um are have you built uh training

44:24

44 minutes, 24 seconds

um training courses yet Sops standard operating procedures because if you're going to be I always say I want we want

44:31

44 minutes, 31 seconds

to spend less time on the roof and more time on the yacht so so and that's just a goal because I mean we all want to be

44:39

44 minutes, 39 seconds

millionaires so just keep that goal of the the yacht in your head because you don't have to buy a yacht you can rent one and have friends and stuff like that

44:47

44 minutes, 47 seconds

but that should be a good goal for all of us to jump on a yacht over the weekend sometime uh so how is your business going to run itself if you're

44:55

44 minutes, 55 seconds

not there so that's standard operating procedures and you need to start filming um every task every job everything

45:04

45 minutes, 4 seconds

doesn't matter if you're the secretary should have a video so if once you lose that secretary you hire a new one they watch the videos now they know what

45:11

45 minutes, 11 seconds

they're doing and if you're on vacation and they're um they're slacking you because you don't want anyone to have your cell phone

45:20

45 minutes, 20 seconds

number but they're slacking you they say watch that video or just run your question through slack because I already

45:28

45 minutes, 28 seconds

answered this six months ago with another person that I had hired so but there's a lot of things you got to automate your business um there's

45:35

45 minutes, 35 seconds

there's lots of things to learn but but these are just a few of the MythBusters right that's right so I mean you've been on a lot of different sides right you

45:44

45 minutes, 44 seconds

you were in grew up you you know family roofing business you ran the roofing business you exited the roofing business

45:51

45 minutes, 51 seconds

you got on the distribution side what is the greatest Insight that you could share with our a to help them find

45:58

45 minutes, 58 seconds

success in their roofing business find your passion you know um that

46:04

46 minutes, 4 seconds

it's what if you as the business owner what you if you feel passion that energy

46:12

46 minutes, 12 seconds

permeates every part of your your business it permeates through your customers and so uh what you're

46:18

46 minutes, 18 seconds

passionate about um then everyone will adopt that all your employees will fill your passion and they'll feel like

46:26

46 minutes, 26 seconds

they're buying in into things you know you can um you can actually donate some of your money towards something you're passionate about if if you're not as

46:32

46 minutes, 32 seconds

passionate about about Roofing say you I know this one uh friend and customer of mine that uh owns an orphanage because

46:42

46 minutes, 42 seconds

he's got a roofing business but donates his roofing money to the orphanage and so find what your passion is because if

46:49

46 minutes, 49 seconds

you're passionate you're G to jump up every day and be so excited and everyone around you is going to feel that excitement and then that they'll go out

46:58

46 minutes, 58 seconds

and when they talk to customers all your salesmen are excited because you're excited but if you walk in like this mopy like oh life's happening to me

47:08

47 minutes, 8 seconds

you're not the reason why is because you're not passionate you haven't found your passion so I think that that's the biggest thing find your passion and and

47:16

47 minutes, 16 seconds

and then just share that passion with everyone and your customers will feel it and they'll keep coming back to you because of that awesome man how can uh

47:24

47 minutes, 24 seconds

how can people find you outside of the podcast uh yeah roofing business builder.com uh you um I also do teach higher levels of

47:33

47 minutes, 33 seconds

Law of Attraction um which means that you can go to Daniel uh just Google Daniel laxton's Laxton is L A

47:43

47 minutes, 43 seconds

stess and um I've got a Year's worth of of higher levels of Law of Attraction type videos that if you've read thinking

47:50

47 minutes, 50 seconds

girl rich or if you've watched the secret and it work that first week it's like yay I made at that in I'm manifesting and all of a sudden what

47:59

47 minutes, 59 seconds

happens nothing it's something just goes away it's like oh it's not working I have all this negative thoughts about

48:06

48 minutes, 6 seconds

myself you know or whatever and so anyways why I help you tweak those things and it's all free on my YouTube channel so that's another thing yeah but

48:15

48 minutes, 15 seconds

uh but yeah because the mindsets everything if you have a million-dollar mindset then you can talk to someone that's worth $35 million so if you're crossing over into the the commercial

48:23

48 minutes, 23 seconds

roofing industry you have to think like a millionaire and how do you do that well a lot of Attraction is one of the quickest easiest way to get your mind to

48:32

48 minutes, 32 seconds

to think like a millionaire you know so I I highly advise it and rethink and Grow Rich but yeah so Daniel lax.com and

48:39

48 minutes, 39 seconds

you can check out all my we have riffing business Builder on Instagram I think uh on Facebook we're cool construction Concepts which is the parent company of

48:47

48 minutes, 47 seconds

roofing business Builder awesome this has been another episode of the roofing success podcast

48:54

48 minutes, 54 seconds

[Music]

49:00

49 minutes

if you would like to generate more sales through your digital marketing efforts please visit rofer markers.com and get a copy of the book internet marketing for

49:07

49 minutes, 7 seconds

roofing contractors how to Triple your sales and turn your Roofing website into an online lead generation machine also

49:14

49 minutes, 14 seconds

check the training section of the website for guides on everything from running effective payperclick ads to how to properly set up your Google my

49:22

49 minutes, 22 seconds

business listing this has been another episode of the roofing success podcast thanks for listening