How to Hire, Train, and Develop a Roofing Sales Team with Chris Barringer

As part of the leadership team for the Roofing and Solar Reform Alliance , I'm here to bring you the best from the industry . In each episode , I sit down with top industry leaders to dive into their strategies and valuable lessons to help you find success in roofing . Hey , welcome to another episode of the Roofing Success Podcast .

Today we have Chris Beringer from Myrtle Beach , south Carolina , md . Roofing and Solar . How's it going , man ? It's going well . I appreciate you having me on . Yeah , man , it's good to have you . How did you get into roofing , chris ?

That just came from playing sports as a young kid and a fascination with shoes , and there was no Nike outlets in the marketplace at that time when outlet malls were becoming a thing and I was in high school looking for a job . So I went to work at Reebok and little did I know it was going to turn into a career . But I was 15 and I turned around .

Next thing . I knew I was 36 and still working there and I had a fantastic experience there . But retail in the industry that we're in today versus 2000 , wasn't the same . You didn't know if your store was going to be open the next year . You didn't know what was going to be anticipated from it .

So at the end of the day I decided to start looking and I looked and I went into the telecommunications industry for about a year and it just wasn't for me . I was traveling around , I was a multi-unit manager and I left there with an opportunity to have some have some paychecks coming through .

My position was essentially eliminated and so I decided to take a chance . I'd always wanted to do tele or always wanted to do commission sales , but in Myrtle Beach , the thing to do commission sales was was timeshare . And there's a little part of me that has enough morals in me to not do timeshare but still do roofing , right , um ?

And so I just couldn't pull myself to do the timeshare thing and I started looking and I found md roofing on , indeed , and I said you know what it's commissioned sales , I'm gonna try it . But uh , I had to . I had to lie a little bit in my interview , right ?

They asked me about my fear of heights and everything else and I'm like , yeah , I can get on a roof . And then the next thing , you know , I'm on a roof and I look like Bambi on ice trying to figure out how to navigate it . But at the end of the day , man , it was something I tripped and fell into .

To be completely honest with you , I trusted the owners of MD Roofing , randy and Ryan , that you know I liked their vision . I trusted what they were saying was who they were and what this industry could be . And next thing , you know , I'm out in a truck with my trainer and he's saying go knock these doors . And here we go .

What I do know is I feel good I can talk to most people and understand what they're asking and then be able to translate that to what I have to offer . So that's what I took to a door . And you know , lo and behold , after a couple of weeks of knocking doors I get my first roof and I look at the paycheck from it and I'm like holy cow .

You know , I probably should have been doing this a long time ago . I love tennis shoes , but everybody needs a roof and I can sell these things Right . So down that path I sold roofs for about three years .

We continue to grow as a company here in MD Roofing and I just kind of went to Randy and Ryan , our owners here , and just said hey , look , you know , as we continue to grow , is there any value in a sales manager and we debated it back and forth for a little while and that kept selling and finally we got to a point where they were like you know what ?

It makes sense . And so I came on board again , transitioning from sales into a sales manager's role , where I still didn't know exactly what the heck I was doing and had to figure it out as we go , because it was a new position for us and as I watch in RSRA and other platforms , people when they transition into that role , it's a change .

One you're not making the money . You once thought you were right , because you're not selling every day , you don't necessarily control your own future , you're turning it over to your sales team , so there's a lot of pressure to make sure you're hiring and training right .

And so I transitioned into that role and again , the first six months I was a deer in headlights . I had no clue what I was doing . We were figuring it out as we went and as a company , we were partnered up with another and as a company , we were partnered up with another .

I don't know consultant possibly is the right word in Smash in John Paramore and meeting him face to face and talking to him for two , three days in St Louis . It really opened up what I was looking to do and kind of taking me down a path of how to translate what I learned at Reebok and Adidas .

Translate that into roofing , because really it's managing people and , let's face it , when you got sales teams , man , you're managing egos right . So how do you manage those things ? How do you work within those boundaries but also produce people that are there to be successful and be a part of a team ? So that's kind of where we're at now .

Now I tell you back , it started out as a sales manager . I just found out the other day . I got new business cards and it said director of sales . So I got a promotion . Didn't know about it , but I'm going to take it and I'm going to run with it .

about . It seems you've been very intentional about the hiring , training and development of salespeople and kind of what you just said there , what you took from the corporate world into roofing and developing yourself as a sales manager . Let's start with that how do you hire , train and develop a sales team in roofing ?

So it was real big in the March April timeframe of hiring , and then you try to hold on to a few people and then you're reaching out to friends and family to fill those gaps in the holiday season , so to speak . Right , biggest change from that to here is you got to always be recruiting .

You always have to be hiring , whether it be Indeed job postings website . If you get an opportunity to talk to somebody about a job with you , you need to take it , because you never know who that next all-star salesperson is going to be . We've seen a lot of great salespeople come . We've seen a lot of great salespeople go .

They're still in the industry and they're doing great things in other places , but how do we find the right people for us in the industry that we're in right now ? So the first and foremost thing is always be recruiting . No matter who you're talking to , that's a potential person to come work for you .

I also think it's extremely important to be very direct in your interview . This is not the easiest business to get into . There's a lull , so to speak , in the front end of this that you've got to be able to survive , and if you can survive those first 90 days with great intention , you tend to be successful . It's those people that get to 90 days .

They haven't been intentional with what they're trying to do and just think the sales are going to come . If you're not putting that legwork in , it's just not going to happen . So we've done a good job at MD Roofing , I think , of trying to set you up for those first 90 days of being successful .

You're with a trainer , your trainer is to be by your side until you sell $250,000 . If you're out there by yourself and your trainer's not with you at that point in time , I've set you up , for failure is how I look at it . So we've got to make sure that we've set you up for as much success as we possibly can . We talked about it last week .

I spent four or five months trying to put together a training manual and then we switched CRM systems .

Well , it was a great switch , but what I didn't realize was now I had to go redo four months worth of work because I had built a training manual based off of one CRM and in doing so I was like man , that's a lot of time and effort to restart all of that . What's another option ?

And so I met I believe her name was Kennedy over at RSRA , just through the website and everything , and talked to her a couple of different times and finally said let's pull the trigger on this thing , and took the roof strategist and what I found was every person I was hiring was watching the roof strategist on YouTube before they even came here .

So why not piggyback on that right ? Why not people that I had had here for two , three years that were great salespeople ? You know we would go to a conference and the first thing they would ask is is John Senac in this ?

Well , everybody wants that information , so why not give them the extended version of what you see on YouTube and Facebook and NTS and all these other things ? So that's how we end up in our RSRA and , at the end of the day , now we've got a platform to where somebody comes in . Not only do they have a digital means .

You know we're sitting here in the middle of a tropical storm right now . You know we can't go knock doors per se . You can , but you can't get up on the roofs . But at the end of the day , now's a great time to watch a couple of playbacks of John Cenac and finish your RSR training and go through those marketing battle passes that he has in there .

So that's really how we ended up in RSR in our training program . Now was I looked at it as why reinvent the wheel ? I loved my training program that I put together , but why not take that and mesh it with the people that have been doing it ? No need to start all over .

Is it like , what are you doing in the always be recruiting aspect ?

So our sales guys have a qr code for solar on the back of their business cards . Mine is direct to our application , right ? So at the end of the day , if I'm given a business card , I'm given a business card because of one of two things I either want your business or I want to do business with you , right ?

So if I'm passing out my business card , there's an intention behind it . I want people to scan that and I want them to see that , hey , you can make six figures here Living in Myrtle Beach . You got a couple of ways to make six figures .

You can go sell timeshare , but you got to leave your soul at the door and I got plenty of friends that sell it , and God bless them , but you can do that .

You can sell real estate , because it's a growing market right now and real estate agents are making a killing as people move to the Myrtle Beach area , which we love because the more people move here , the more roofs you got to do right .

But then at the end of the day , outside of going and being a doctor or something along those lines , roofing is the industry here in Myrtle Beach . If you look at just the population and the amount of companies that are here per capita , it's kind of crazy . We talk about it all the time and it's getting a slice of that pie .

But in terms of recruiting , I think for us we're looking for 10 , 15 guys in our marketplace that fit a culture . Understand that we're W2 , we're not 1099 . We're a little different than our competitors but at the same time we try to pull from what all our competitors are doing .

We've got some great examples in our marketplace of different avenues , of ways other roofing companies do really well . You know how do we stand out . Rsa is a great way for me to stand out to other people . My training program was completely different than everybody else's because I have the backing of Adam and John and those guys who you know .

I've met John probably twice . I've never met Adam in person , but at the end of the day they've got my back when it comes to training , which is a pretty cool thing to say when I'm talking to that person that's trying to decide why MD Roofing versus our competitors is the same people you're watching . That has got you interested in coming into our industry .

They've got our back because they're part of our training program .

Right , like , whatever kind of training you have at your , at , at your , at your shop , if they're a good , if they're , if they are looking to really progress in their careers , they're going to go and find other resources .

And these are , those are the other resources they're going to find , along with some others , but like they're going to , they're definitely going to be watching that . Adam Benzman , right , like , that's like and and so I love that you've done that . You've taken that and said , hey , we're just going to , we're going to make this part of it Like .

Like , we know you're going to go in and do this also , why not ? Why don't we open this up and have that training as a as as that ? You talked about the first 90 days . So you hire someone , what ? Let me go back to hiring for a second . So you're always recruiting . You're always just trying to find people . You got ads running .

You're talking to people , all of that . What attributes are you looking for in a person that makes you go ? Yeah , we want to give this person , like this person might have what it takes .

It doesn't have to be about roofing , I just want to be able to talk to you because at the end of the day and I say this to every person I hire , I say it to everybody we talk to that's in our program . Md Roofing doesn't sell anything different than every other roofing company out there . We all sell roofing systems .

I need somebody to be able to buy you , not me . I can go , stand in front of somebody and talk to them all day long . We've spoke for 30 minutes the other day on the phone . We've never met and it was just casual . It works . This is something that I can do . I know that . At the same time , too , I need people that can do that exact same thing .

Can you stand in front of a homeowner that you ? maybe don't have anything in common with , but talk to them for 20 minutes , 30 minutes . How do you interact with people ? Quite honestly , how do you show up for jobs ? I mean , I had a guy the other day that came in for a great interview , fantastic interview .

He stood up and I didn't realize it because he was put in a conference room before he showed up . He's in there in slides and socks and I'm like , if you're showing up for the job interview like that , how are you showing up for the homeowner ? Right , I want the right presence , I want us to be the professional roofer when we show up at the door .

So can you portray that in our interview ? How do you talk ? How do you act ? Can you feel relaxed ? You know , if you're showing up at the doorstep just reeking of I need the money , let me in , come on , this is how this is going to work . The money , let me in . Come on , this is how this is going to work .

That's probably not the right avenue , because that homeowner has to trust that when you're knocking on their door , that you're there for their best interests and not there because you need the commissions right .

So making sure that I'm hiring the right people who have the right mentality , have the ability to talk , and probably something that I learned a little bit from Adam and a little bit from my conversations with John Paramore as well , is every person has to have a why , and that why can't be to help people , because every time we say is to help people , those ,

those same people that you're trying to help are the first homeowners that take advantage of you , right , because they know you're there to help . And so how do you ? What is your why ? Why do you show up at work every day ? And is it a short-term goal ? Is it a long-term goal ? Is it sons and daughters ? Is it wives and fiances ?

Is it simply the fact that you have a desire to retire at 45 ?

I've seen a lot of people sell a lot of money and then they fall off because they can't attribute that why as to why they should keep going . They've made more money than they've ever seen and now it's like let's go enjoy life .

But at the same time , too , the people that have been so successful in this industry whether it be at MD Roofing or other companies now , or anything like that those guys that have that why or anything like that , those guys that have that why they continue to push forward at a rate that makes them better than everybody else . So , finding that why ?

So that when I do have to have a conversation with you , whether it's because you're being successful or because maybe you're struggling you know if you're being successful , how close are you to that why ? If you're struggling , hey , let me get you back on track . And here's your why , why you told me this . Let me work with you to get you there .

And so , having a why , if they can come in here and tell me a why and it'd be a legitimate why I can buy into you and give you a great opportunity to to reach that why

. If you don't know why you're here maybe you're not the right fit .

I started on the same day as a gentleman that works with us right now . Me and him are still here . We literally started the same day the first door he knocked . Guy answers lets him on the roof insurance claim . Called in . Three days later there's an inspection . A week later you got paperwork . I'm like holy cow , how did this happen ?

Meanwhile , it took me three weeks to get my first one Right , and so I know that that's not the norm . But as they find that toughness , I can dig into that . Why ? A little bit more , as long as I know what it is to poke two rental properties so that you can start having passive income Great . Now why do you want those two rental incomes ?

Why do you need that passive income ? What does that mean to you ? And as we start building you into your training , I poke and prod a little bit more into those things so that I understand how to keep those people motivated and on that track . Because what I don't want to be is hey , why haven't you sold anything ?

It's like , hey , you're not getting any closer to your two rental properties . What's going on ? How can we help you get those ? Let's not forget , that's why you're here . And then resetting those goals . I try once every three , four , six months , just depending on how much they're selling to reevaluate those things . Some people reach those goals in six months .

How do we sit back ? Ok , let's reevaluate . Now you've got your rental property , what do you want now ? What's the next thing ? And it can be anything from a truck to taking my kid to Disney World . So what is your next short term one ? And then , as we get them going in their short terms , we start building out those those long term goals .

Right , owning a house , building a house , whatever that might be . You know , my personal one is to never have to put a coat on . Right , my wife's from Brazil . I never want to have to put a coat on . I want to live there in the summer and here in the summer and enjoy the good life when it's time for me to stop working . How do I get there right ?

So there's my long-term why . And I mean , I just don't want to have to wear a coat , man , I want coconuts and uh and and drinks by the beach every day .

Look man , I'm an Atlanta Braves fan through and through , but if my guy's got a Yankees flag in his front yard , I can talk Yankee baseball all day long . You have to be able to adapt to your situations . We were talking , before we came on , about cars .

My dad was in the car industry for years before he passed away and at the end of the day , I don't know anything about cars because I would just go ask my dad and he had the answer for it . Right , I never learned that aspect of it .

But something I try to tell my guys is even if you're talking to a homeowner and you have no clue what they're talking about , pretend like you're learning something . Let them teach you something , and they're going to trust you . Our biggest hiccup in this industry sometimes is we're knocking on doors and people almost see us as a used car salesman at the door .

We've showed up at your doorstep , I've got a used car sales pitch . Let me on your roof . You've got to get them to trust you , and that trust can't come from giving the same pitch to Sally as you do to Jeremy , as you do to Jane and on down the street . It's got to be based off of .

You've got to have an intuition of who you're talking to very fast to make that connection , and the better that connection is is the quicker you can evolve yourself . In this industry . I've hired I don't know how many people and we talked about it since going from 1099 to W2 .

Part of our claim to fame per se was that we didn't have a lot of turnover when we were 1099 . We have a great structure , a great team . We didn't see a ton of turnover . We went to W2 and we started seeing turnover . Right , it's just a matter of it . Some of our competitors in the market are still 1099 . A lot of the guys .

You know I joked around with you a little bit . You know we lost a lot of tax accountants because everybody thought they had the way of beating the IRS , which is , you know , in the hundred and whatever years it's been around , is undefeated . That's right . But at the end of the day , we've seen a lot more turnover .

But what that does is it forces us to move through people and find people that want to be here , and what we've found is that it creates a better team environment .

We've got , you know , 10 , 12 guys that are really dialed into what we're trying to do and we try to find people that fit that culture with us and that's kind of allowed us to build into who we are and what we want to be . So we were at the door . They all kind of sound the same , but it's them themselves versus . Here's a script Go say this .

I want you to be natural at it , because that's how people trust you .

But I see that with kind of thinking of it in a different frame . With you as a sales manager , you're almost doing the same thing , right , like you're selling the dream of working for MD Roofing and Solar . Right , like you're on that ongoing basis . It's like a sitting down and going , hey , how can we help you get to your end goal ?

Right , and it's an amazing thing . How do you ? What does that first 90 days look like ?

Right , it's filling out paperwork and going through the handbook and all that stuff , and then your afternoon is nothing more than practicing your door pitch , and what we take that is is is okay , here's kind of what you want to say . Practice it . You're going to practice it on me ? I try .

I love to do training classes versus individual training , right , cause it saves me from having to say it , you know , 15 different times . Um , so I love to be able to do that now . I can't always , but we get in there and we talk a lot about what your door pitch should look like .

I personally believe you have a cold pitch , a warm pitch and a hot pitch . So how do we practice all three of those Cold being ? We're not doing any work in your neighborhood . You have no clue why .

I'm here , I'm knocking on your door and I'm trying to convince you that you need me on your roof , your door , and I'm trying to convince you that you need me on your roof . A warm pitch is a fresh storm just happened . I recently maybe put a roof on in your neighborhood . We've done some inspections in your neighborhood .

We've called some claims in your neighborhood . We've done something in your area that maybe you've seen our website , maybe you've seen the ad , maybe you've seen a yard sign . And then my favorite and really should be everybody's right is the hot lead where , hey , I'm putting your neighbor's roof on .

Their insurance company said we've got to replace their roof from the recent storms . Do you want me to take a look at yours ? So we got a cold , a warm and a hot and so we kind of practice what those all sound like , because they all sound different .

And for me I make sure we focus in on those three different pitches because I have never hired a single person that raised their hand in a sales meeting and said I love knocking doors . If anybody's got them out there , send them my way , because I've never found that person .

They all want to work referrals , they all want to work this and they all want to work that , but you've got to put the six , eight months of hard knocking in in order to get to that point . Now , a hot knock where I'm about to put a roof on your house is the best knock that you can possibly do .

When we went W-2 , I did a lot of research and I tell every person here you've got to knock 100 doors to get two jobs . That's the national average . If you take pest control people , you take lawn care roofers everybody besides a Jehovah Witness If they knock a door , it's 2% turns into a contract . So you need 100 doors for two contracts .

When you first get started , how fast do you want to get to 10 contracts ? That's a matter of how fast you want to knock 1,000 doors . Now , once you've got those 10 contracts , if you start knocking around those 10 builds , that number goes up to like 12 , 13 percent . Now guess what ? Now I don't have to work quite as hard .

I can still knock doors , but I'm knocking in a hot area where people see us , they know us , my percentages go up . The beautiful thing about this job and we talked about how I got into it . I stayed for three reasons . One , the paychecks were fantastic . Right , that's what we all stay for .

I don't think anybody got into roofing and was like , yeah , let me do this for the money . We're like we got into it . And then we saw the money and we're like holy cow , let me stay in this business . I got into it for that . I got into it because I worked retail . I was working nights , weekends , holidays . Into it because I worked retail .

I was working nights , weekends , holidays . Before my dad passed . I got to spend Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving with my parents , which I hadn't done since I was 15 years old because I was always working Black Fridays . And then eventually they started opening at like two , three o'clock in these outlet malls .

Right Roofing provided that to me and then , once I got a pipeline going , I was able to . You know , I was working 25 hours a week and if my owner was here he'd tell you he hated me because I got to a point where I stopped knocking doors and I was working just around my jobs , working off of flyers , working off of referrals and networking groups .

I'm selling 50 , 60 jobs a year and I didn't knock any doors .

And it's not so much living the dream as it is , that's a reality of this industry . But the thing I found is we can sell that and as I'm selling people , I've got to sell people . My job is still selling , but I'm selling people on YMD Roofing versus the 30 competitors in the Myrtle Beach market . This industry we all put the same roofs on .

Whether you're GAF , certainteed , we all put the same concept on . But do they buy you ? Do they buy us ? And I know that my owners are still very much involved in this , in this business Um , I see them or talk to them every day .

They're available for all of our sales guys , which is kind of a rarity when you get to a company that's that's at this size and and at the end of the day , they , they get the most satisfaction out of seeing our guys succeed .

You know some of the things that we enjoy the most is , uh , I give you a great example a gentleman that I've known for I've known him for years . I brought him into the industry . He runs all of our , our Lowe's leads for us Um , him and his wife just went and bought their first house .

And , as a newlywed couple in their , in their twenties just bought their first house , you know there's something to that , that when he's posting it on Instagram not that we're responsible for it , but it makes us feel good that we provide him with the opportunity to be able to do that .

Right when , when these guys go buy a brand new GMC Sierra , you know it's kind of fun to see them spending 60 , $70,000 on a truck and not have to think can they make the payment , because we know they can , because we know what they're selling , to think can they make the payment ?

Because we know they can , because we know what they're selling , those little things just it makes the industry a great thing .

You guys were really ahead of the game on the W2 side of of of of things and moving everyone over into W2 . And it sounds like you've had some ups and downs with that . Let's talk through that . What was the first like ? Why did you guys say we're going to make this change 1099 to W2 and we're going to commit to it ? What was that initial initial ?

Like hey , it's time .

So we sat through some meetings with him , we discussed it , we talked about it and really what it boiled down to was did we want to be ahead of the curve or did we start looking at it ? Look , if you really dig into it and by no means am I a tax accountant or an attorney or anything along those lines .

But if you tell me that you can only sell roofs for me , you have to put my logo on your truck , you have to wear my polo and sign my contract . When you really think about it , how are you an independent contractor ? There is nothing independent about you , right and that's .

But that's what we were doing at the end of the day , right , and that's what a lot of companies are still trying to ride2 . How do we set this up so people can still make great money but not have to worry about it ?

Look , the worst thing in the world for me was when you sell a million dollars and you make $130,000 , $40,000 off of that , and then next thing you know it's April and you got to pay the IRS 30 grand . Well , that sucks , but I don't care how you look at it . I don't care how much money you made .

Having to write a $30,000 check is no fun , right , and I don't care what accountant you got . You're still going to have to pay something . And so when you write that check , you know it's no fun . But now our guys get the checks and you know , last year I had guys getting refunds .

When was the last time a salesperson in roofing got a tax refund that was unheard of right Now .

Granted , you get to keep the money through the year , but at the end of the year we were given refund checks and so we got a head start on it and at the end of the day it was twofold One , let's go ahead and do it and let's get ahead of it , but two , we're ahead of it so that when everybody else has to make the change , we're further along .

Because we knew there was going to be growing pains in it . We knew we were going to have to tweak . We tweaked something a month ago and we're going to have to ever evolve it to make sure it is right , not only for us as a company , but us as a sales team and us for our employees .

But what we have found is we're finding not every Joe off the street wants to come work for us , and that's okay because we offer a 401k . When was the last 10 years ago , a roofing salesperson didn't know what a retirement plan was , you know . Now we've got a 401k with a matching program health benefits .

You know what were we as independent contractors five years ago ? What were we paying for health insurance if we were , if we didn't have it through our wives or our partners or whatever that might be . You know how are we affording health care ? What happened if you fell off that roof ? What happened if this has happened or that happened ?

And now it's all covered . So now , when you come to work for us , you have medical , dental , short-term , long-term life insurance . You've got a retirement plan that you can literally turn this into a career . We're based in Myrtle Beach , but if you want to go work in Georgia , give me a reason and let's figure it out .

You want to go work somewhere in North Carolina ? Give me a reason , let's go figure it out . We'll let you go work wherever you want to work , because there's always work to be had , but we can provide you with the opportunity to set you up , not only for today but for down the road .

So if you're maximizing your 401k program and we're matching a percentage of that , how much better off are you long-term in this industry versus where we were 10 , 15 years ago ? And so what that ?

What we found is we're really starting to attract more I don't want to say more professional , but people that have more of a career background in in their previous life before coming to roofing , similar to where I was right . I was working for more corporate right Reebok and Adidas are worldwide brands that you know again to this day I still have .

Some of my best friends are in that industry . Some of my best friends are still in the retail world .

The people that I've met at Reebok , which is where I really started Adidas just happened to buy them , but that I met at Reebok , which is where I really started Adidas just happened to buy them , but Reebok there's five , six people there that I owe a ton of who I am and what I do today .

To those guys , from John Mullins , who gave me my first job , to David Polsonella , who was my first mentor in my career version of Reebok , not just working there . Those guys they developed me into who I am today and to this day I can still call them because I can talk to them about how do I manage this employee ?

Because now we're managing employees , we're not just managing independent contractors , right ? So how do I set these people up for a long-term success versus just a short-term gain ? And that's kind of what we're trying to find , and there's a balance there , but , as we find it , we'll continue to grow .

Um lesson from from John , and I think if if my owners were here , they would probably echo this in my saying this , because I think we've learned this man there's a time to salvage a relationship and there's a time to move on from it .

It's okay to go work somewhere else and we can still be friends outside of work , but at the same time too , if you don't want to be here at MD Roofing with who we are , it's okay , it's fine , but let's go .

The longer you stay here , and it kind of I don't want to say poisons , but it infects the rest of the team the more damage it causes to all of us . And if you're not happy , that's okay . I feel like we've got a pretty . It infects the rest of the team , the more damage it causes to all of us . And if you're not happy , that's okay .

I feel like we've got a pretty open door . Man , we've all been cussed out by a homeowner . I've been cussed out by salespeople . It's okay , it's going to happen . We get emotional . We're roofers , right , we're going to get emotional fast . We go from zero to 100 about as fast as those TRX trucks that are out there . So at the end of the day , it's OK .

I brought four or five , six really good friends into this industry , none of which still work for MD Roofing , and that's OK . I wish them nothing but the best . I know they're having success somewhere else . But if you don't want to be here for whatever reason whether it be because we're W2 or something that we do , that's okay too .

There's more than enough roofs that go around . Our best year we ever had , we did 1,400 , 1,500 roofs . That's a lot of roofs . At the end of the day , You're cranking at that point in time . Dude , that's one neighborhood in Myrtle Beach , yeah , so there's plenty of them around , and so there's more than enough for all of us to eat .

You know my goal is to change people's lives . If I can help change somebody's life , whether it be from , you know , working in retail making you know , 15 , $20 an hour to . You know , having nights and weekends off so that you can live and work with your family and be at the soccer practices and be at the open houses and and enjoy the holidays .

And you're making six figures I I've I've been successful in that realm Then if I can get you from A to there , I'm successful because I'm giving you not only a lifestyle and a six figure income , but I'm giving you the time back to your family , and that's something that a lot of jobs just they steal it away from you , and this is one job that allows you

to have that that allows you to have that .

If you're driving your own vehicle , we as W2 companies have to kind of compensate you for those things and we have a way for that . And then the other avenue too , too , of it is and this sounds really bad maybe , but at the end of the day , we do not tell you to clock in and out . This is not a Monday through Friday job .

Our numbers , and whether you work at MD Roofing or not , it's not based on the number of hours you put in . It's based off the numbers that you put up . The number of hours you put in , it's based off the numbers that you put up . If you put up 50 , 60 , 70 , 80 , $100,000 in sales every month , nobody's asking you how many hours have you put in ?

How many doors have you knocked ? What have you done ? Your contracts are telling me what you've done . If you have $12,000 in contracts and I haven't seen you for three weeks now , there's questions as to what are you doing , where are you at and how are you producing ? So we still give you the freedom of a 1099 employee , with some check-ins .

The only thing we ask is right , hey , look , we have a sales meeting every Tuesday . Show up for it , be involved in it , be a part of it . But and yeah , hey , if I'm calling , answer right , but at the end of the day , it's strictly based off of numbers and what you're producing .

If you're producing and you can do , if you can produce a hundred grand in two weeks worth of work , hey , I'll take your hundred grand every month and I'll move on and go find the next person .

But at the end of the day , too , if you're selling $10,000 and you're sitting on my couch in my office telling me , hey , I can't make my bills , it's because you worked one day this month , because had you worked 30 days this month , you would have made a whole lot more .

I don't think anyone should be able to get away with that anyway .

Yeah , you almost have to beg them to become a 1099 employee because they're like whoa , what do you mean ? I don't get a paycheck every week . I don't understand . Like , how am I going to do this ? How am I going to ? You got to beg them to make the transition from W2 to 1099 .

But after about six months in it , and if they're successful and they're good at it , now they're tax accountants and they don't want to be a W-2 because they want to own their own business . We try to mirror the best of both worlds because we know that's the world we play in right now .

I think five years from now it looks completely different , as a lot of these businesses and industries have to make that transition out of what a 1099 is to a W-2 and what that really should look like and how it looks . And , like we said the IRS is undefeated when they start looking at something man , they're .

We said you know , the IRS is undefeated when they start looking at something man , they're going to look at it Right . Um , as that evolves over the next five years , I think that changes not only where we're at today as a W2 company is MD roofing , but where we're at in five years as an MD roofing W2 company . I think it evolves .

Um , and I think that is the number one thing that we as a company have to be make sure we're mindful of is not to be set in our ways , but understand that what we're doing right now we were ahead of the game and not making that transition right away .

They're going to feel the same growing pains and we're going to be 18 to 24 months ahead of them on those growing pains . And as long as we stay consistent and staying ahead and being open to that change , it should allow us to stay ahead of the curve . The great thing about it is we stayed ahead of the curve .

The great thing about it is we stayed ahead of the curve and I honestly think it made our business better long term because we went from one location to multiple locations . And how does that change us long term ?

What does that look like long term , and does it help us evolve from being reliant upon the all states and the state farms and the progressives of the world saying yes , and upon the all states and the state farms and the progressives of the world saying yes , and allows us to say okay , how do we focus in on just being a roofing company as well as a roofing

restoration company as ?

So for me , in trying to how we build this out over the next couple of years , is you know how does that look as a company and what tools do we provide ? We do a lot with GAF , solar Energy and the solar shingles that they have , and our rep is fantastic . Ellsworth is a character , but at the same time , too , man .

If you listen to what he has to say , he's got some great knowledge , and so he said something to us the other week when he was here about how solar is nothing more than another tool in your belt . You know Batman doesn't fight the same villain the same way , which is ironic , because one of our owners literally has a full on Batman outfit .

So I think that's why he picked that one right , custom made and everything , but at the end of the day , you know it's having different tools in our belt . So retail is a great tool , as we see in our marketplace , myrtle Beach for what it is .

Let's call it 200,000 people resident wise in Myrtle Beach , horry County , a lot of roofing companies , a lot of roofers , because they've seen very successful people . There's seven or eight guys in our marketplace that are selling two , three million dollars a year . I think last year our top salesperson last year was right at four million dollars .

So at the end of the day , there's a lot of money to be made in this industry . But how do we , how do we vary that ? Because in Myrtle Beach we haven't seen that that great storm the last two years . So for us it was expanding into other markets . What does that look like ? There's been a lot of trial , a lot of tribulation , a lot of oops .

We messed that one up and and , oops , we got that one right . So how do we take those things and mirror them and build them into other opportunities ? Um , you know we talked a little bit about it . You know to be a $50 million roofing company .

There's one of those in our marketplace and that's Monarch and I think most people in our in our industry has has heard of Monarch roofing and and what they they bring to the table , and I'd be lying if I sat here and said that they don't do a fantastic job of marketing and stuff along those lines . Now we do a fairly good job too .

If you go in front of Monarch's building , you see MD Roofing signs . So like we own the billboards in front of Monarch he doesn't like it , but at the end of the day we own them it is what it is . We joke around . They're always up for sale but it's a high price tag , right , but at the end of the day , they do a fantastic job of that .

They really do . How do I mirror that ? And that's what I'm looking at is , how do I take the best of all of our competitors in our market and implement it into us ? And one of the things they do really good is marketing . We've updated our website . One of the things they do a great job of is social media .

How do I take social media with us to the next level ? We're looking into that . How do I do better in the in-home presentation ? We have a partner of ours I don't want to say a partner , but a colleague that we met at a GAF conference that's up in the North Carolina market . That man , their in-home presentation is fantastic .

How do I take something of that and make it for us to be able to use ? And that's kind of something I'm working on . Number one thing I'm working on right now , though , as I build all those other things out , is we talk about it in every conference I've been to in the last little bit is financing .

Financing is going to be a huge part of who we are Our marketplace . I don't want to . I'm not on the insurance side , but I feel like it's been flagged right Because we do so much roofing in this marketplace for the per capita and everything . Insurance companies know where Myrtle Beach is at .

I get a lot of phone calls that say Myrtle Beach , that's down in Florida . Nope , a single insurance company hasn't mistaken where Myrtle Beach is at . They know it's in South Carolina because of the claims that we call in and everything that we do , right . But we see those deductibles .

When I first started , man , it was five hundred to a thousand dollars and today it's it's two percent of the home value and the home value has gone up . So now they're talking four or five , six thousand dollars . Well , how do we help homeowners offset that ? How do we help homeowners in these times where , look , man , a roof is ?

Roof is not only a want sometimes , but it's a necessity a lot of times . And how do we help you achieve that ? And that's through offering different options , whether it be through finance , through insurance . No longer do my guys go to the door and say , hey , your insurance company is going to pay for your roof .

They go to the door and say , hey , your insurance company is going to help pay for your roof . Let me see if you qualify for that help . It's kind of like FASFA , or when you go to college or FEMA whenever your house floods . When the hurricanes come through right , they're there to help .

They ain't paying for it all , but they're going to help , and that's what financing is .

For us in this industry right now , financing is help , and so making sure that we're on the cusp of being able to offer that to our customers , I think is going to hopefully help us separate a little bit but also , at the same time , just do the right thing by our homeowners .

And if you can solve the problem , if you don't have a tool in your tool belt to solve the problem that they're having Right , you won't be able to get that sale Right Like it's just not the right just you're not the right person for them . You're not the right person .

So if you are a roof and we'll make it real simple here If you are a uh , an asphalt shingle roofing company and someone wants a metal roof , you can't sell . You know what I mean . Like you're , you're not . You don't have that product available to them .

If you have a customer that needs to finance their roof and you don't have financing options , you just don't have the tool in your tool belt to solve that person's problem . And so I think it all comes down to that , right , a lot of it just comes down to that . It's you know , we're just . We're just here to solve problems .

One of the things you're hearing a lot about is how solar and solar energy whether it be panels or shingles can alleviate some of that burden off of a homeowner based off of the rebates . Especially here in South Carolina , there's some great rebates when it comes to that Rebates and financing options . Financing options that go in there .

Those are great options for people . One of the things I think that I've found , not only from the sales guys I have now , but maybe some that I've had in the past and even some that I talked to that are with other companies we can't be afraid to offer those things . I'll never forget one of the first things I learned when I worked in retail .

Supposedly it could be true or not true , so I'm going to qualify it like that , but my manager gave it to me . His name was John Mullins . Great guy taught me a lot , not only life , but at the end of the day , was a great , great first person to teach me how to work , taught me a work ethic to a certain extent , Right .

He told me American Express did a , did a little contest with people and they said look , here's an American Express card . You can spend whatever you want on this card . You'll never have to pay for it . But they have to sell you whatever it is . You can't just want to buy it . The person has to sell it to you .

And these people would go into retail stores as a retail like experiment and you had to sell them this product . Well , most companies had a quota right . We want you to sell two , two and a half three items and or sell 60 , 70 dollars worth of a transaction , $70 worth of a transaction .

We want you to sell a UPT or IPT based off of your company and an average dollar ticket , average dollar price per transaction . They had that and what they found was most people , when they hit that average , stopped . They stopped selling .

And so I take that with me today because , at the end of the day , when we walk in there , whether you're a first day roofer or a 10 year roofer , don't shop with your pocketbook .

You never know what that person has in their bank account , their 401k , how much money they have invested in their home , what value it brings to them to make sure that their family , their home and everything they've ever purchased is safe . Don't shop with your pocket book .

Offer them everything you have in the toolbox and let them decide , because you never know . One of the people I know outside of roofing he has no clue about roofing is a gentleman that worked for me when I worked at Reebok . I would say he's a good friend of mine .

I won't go as far as saying an idol , but he's a really good friend of mine that I lean on to talk to , about stuff that we go through on a regular basis . That's outside . They have an outside perspective .

He owned his own business in California , grew up in Southport North Carolina , moved to California , built a life for him and came back here and was able to retire at the age of 55 . So I look up to him because I'm 45 and I'd be damned if I wouldn't love to be retired at 55 . Right , and I talked to him probably once a week , if not twice .

So you know , once , 15 , 20 years ago and he just he's dumbfounded at the opportunities that people have through this , this industry , and in talking to him it kind of brings me back down to life and a little bit of realization that , man , we really are lucky .

And I try to pass that on to these guys when I'm telling them hey , offer these things in the tool belt .

The bigger your tool belt , the better off you are in solving people's problems . The more problems you solve , the better you become and the more referrals you get . The best salespeople in this industry do two things .

They take advantage of every opportunity , whether it be financing , solar , asphalt , shingles , metal roofs , euroshield , whatever it is , you're going to find a way to put that on that homeowner's house to make them happy and it's going to lead to referrals . They have a plan , they know how to execute it and they have a why .

If you have those three things a plan , a way to execute it and a why you can become unstoppable in this industry . Yeah man , that's awesome . I think if we do a good job of making sure you have all the avenues to fulfill those plans . I think we do a fantastic job of that . We've done the solar shingles , we've done the timber steel .

We're getting ready to put on our first EuroShield roof , which might be the first one in South Carolina . I'm not 100% sure , but it is darn close . We give all of our guys the opportunity to do those things . At the end of the day , can we take full advantage of that , and I think the more we do that , the better .

We put our guys in the position with all those products and financing and the ability to make life-changing money and life-changing experiences . Picking up your kid from the school bus every day at three o'clock is a life-changing experience . If that's , if that's important to you , we can provide that and that's something that roofing provides across the country .

Not just that's not something specific to MD roofing , but , man , this is an industry that gives you that and that's something that I think sometimes we get lost because we take it for granted once we've become to you know it's our everyday Like we forget . Oh , my God man , what would it be like to have to go back .

If you asked me today to go back to Reebok , to this day , lifetime discount at Reebok and Adidas . I still wear the shoes all day , every day . If you ask me to go back to work for them , I'd tell you to kick sand . There ain't no chance .

If you were , if I took you now and placed you back in your shoes when you started , what would you do different ?

One to get your adjuster's license in the state of South Carolina is as simple as taking the test Study for it . Take the test . So I went and took the test . So now I have an adjuster's license . So that helps me with my homeowners because now I can talk policy because I have an adjuster's license .

So being able to talk to my homeowner about what their policy says and how to how that affects what they're trying to do . They have code upgrade how long do they have to do that ? I can read and interpret an 87 page homeowners insurance thing which most people can't .

Most people just say , hey , man , give me the best price I want to , I want out of this thing , let me do what I can do . And the next thing you know you've got to file a claim and you got $10,000 deductible and you're like what just happened ? Most people don't know that . So I did that .

So I would say invest your time not only in figuring out what you are as a sales pitch . My sales pitch has to be me , my sales pitch can't be you , it can't be Adam . Adam is fantastic and I love the fact that people look him up online , but Adam has a personality that doesn't match every person Right .

That doesn't match every person right , and if you can't match that energy and say those things with the confidence , you have to adjust your pitch , understanding that you have to be an individual in this industry . The number one thing I would change , though , if I started over today in this industry forget the whole door knocking thing . Yes , I would do that .

Number one thing I would say we could all do better at and I'm talking about my sales guys and probably every sale guy follow up with your customers .

Better Follow up is the number one reason why we lose a lot of our sales , whether it be to another roofer , a lot of our sales , whether it be to another roofer , whether it be because they just lose interest . A better follow-up schedule is absolutely vital to being successful in here , because it does a bunch of different things .

It gets you paid quicker at the end of your jobs . If you're following up , it definitely helps with your referrals . And , like I said , nobody comes into this industry saying let me knock as many doors as you've got . They want to knock as few as they possibly can . Right . Follow up A lot of people in our industry .

The reason why a lot of us in this industry get I don't want to say a bad name , but a bad rap , is because I show up , I knock on your door , I tell you you've got issues on your door . Insurance comes out and says no , it's not , and then you never see or hear from me again . That doesn't do you good as the salesperson .

It doesn't do me good as your competitor , because now I'm associated with you even though I have nothing to do with you . I'm associated with you even though I have nothing to do with you . Follow up with your customers , whether it be a denial and you've got to flip them to a retail job .

Whether it be a denial , then you need to figure out how to fight for that customer .

If you showed up and you built that trust at the door by saying I'm going to fight for you , you damn sure better go fight for that customer , because if you don't , you've lost all credibility in that neighborhood that you spent a lot of time trying to get into , and so , at the end of the day , I would say following up is probably the one thing I would

love , not only for myself when I first started , but every person that starts now . What are you doing to follow up with those people ? Up with those people ? The best year I ever had in sales came when I had a really good track of who I had talked to and couldn't file a claim for various different reasons . They couldn't file a claim .

A hailstorm hit and I guarantee you my competitors were out there in the hail knocking doors . I'm sitting on my couch making phone calls . I had 19 , 20 people to phone call . I'm sitting on my couch making phone calls . I had 19 , 20 people to phone call . Hey , you see what's happening right now . Yep , this is what we were waiting on .

Can I come out tomorrow ? Take a look , we file those claims . I walked out the day after a week after a hailstorm and filed 18 , 19 claims , not from knocking doors , but from making phone calls to people that I had just kind of sat on the back burner . I followed up with those people . They called the claim in . Well , guess what ?

Now their neighbors want me Because why I called them back nine months after making first contact ? How many roofers contact somebody nine months after they talked to them initially ? My guess is it's limited , but I hated knocking doors so much that I'd keep your name for nine months to call you when a hailstorm hit .

. It's been another episode of the roofing success podcast . Thank you for tuning into the Roofing Success Podcast . For more valuable content , visit roofingsuccesspodcastcom While there , check out our sponsors for exclusive offers , shop for merchandise and sign up for our newsletter for industry updates and tips .

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