TOUGH COMPETITION
“I’ve been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.” – Walt Disney
It looks like this year is going to be even more competitive than last year.
If you haven’t figured it out already, roofing is an extremely competitive game.
It takes a winning team (e.g. sales, roofers, owners, managers, office staff, banks, vendors, suppliers, etc.), all working together to make the game of roofing work successfully for you.
I personally believe, if roofing were a sport, the people on your team would fall into 1 of 5 different categories: you’d have your Cheaters, your Hustlers, your Role Players, your Stiffs, and then you’d have your Talent.
CHEATERS
Momma always said, “Cheaters never prosper.”
I’m not saying Mom was wrong, but I’ve known a lot of cheaters who’ve made some serious money in roofing.
Do you know any cheaters making money?
Yes, of course. They’re out there, but the thing about cheaters is they never stay at the top for long. They’ll be up, way up, one year and then they’ll be down, way down, the next. As fast as they cheat their way to the top, they crash & burn to the bottom even faster.
If you’ve been around roofing for a year or two, you know first-hand about the cheating. Maybe you’ve been cheated yourself.
It isn’t just the roofers dumping shingles, salespeople stealing jobs, or the owners not paying out commissions. You can find cheaters in every corner of roofing. I’ve even known a few cheating office managers through the years who were good at skimming cash.
If you have a cheater at any link in your organization’s chain, you are susceptible to a total and complete collapse at any moment.
Here’s a serious questions, “Do you have any cheaters in your organization?”
Cheaters live nervous lives because they know trouble could find them at any moment. I suppose that’s why nervous people in the roofing business have always made me suspicious. If you’re nervous, there’s usually a very good reason for you being nervous.
Bottom line, you can’t build a good business on bad morals…and cheating is just plain bad morals.
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Download the FREE Special ReportHUSTLERS
The term “hustler” sounds bad to some people. I’m using the word, “Hustler,” here in the best sense possible.
I LOVE HUSTLERS!
Hustlers will drive themselves to work at levels far above their natural talent. You need hustlers on your team because they make things happen even when it all looks impossible.
The guy who works the desk for our roofing supplier is a hustler. He can drop shingles 100 miles away with a few hours notice — if that’s what it takes to make it happen. He answers his cell phone at night. He takes orders by text. He handles returns quickly. Contractors love him. Our supplier would have to go out of business before his job would ever be in jeopardy. That man is a hustler.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, “If you’ve got to get something done, give it to the busiest person you know.”
Roofing company owners shouldn’t be fooled into giving work to a lazy person, thinking they have the time to get the work done. The only reason it looks like they have more time to help you is because they never do anything. Hustlers, on the other hand, are busy because they get work done.
As you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m a hustler.
There’s always been salespeople with more talent than me. I’ve seen the talented salespeople come and go. I’ve been hustling long enough to figure out the really cool sales and marketing stuff. I travel and train roofing companies, and their salespeople, to do what I’ve learned to do the hard way…by hustling.
I’ve hustled my way past more failure and frustration over the past two decades than most talented salespeople and company owners could withstand in a year.
“There are lessons learned in failure that reveal valuable insights you can only see while walking through the depths of despair.” – Mike Coday
Are you a hustler too? If you are, you’re my kind of people. We would probably work very well together.
ROLE PLAYERS
There’s nothing wrong with knowing your job, and doing your job very well.
You might not be the best salesperson, sales manager, or company owner, but at least you’re no cheater.
You show up, you work hard, and you do your job. You make a living because you stick to what you know.
I’m a big basketball fan. Of course, you remember Michael Jordan. You probably remember Scottie Pippen too, right? They were both extremely talented, but Michael had historical talent. He’s the first sports figure in history to be worth a BILLION dollars. Michael is legendary.
Here’s my point: The Chicago Bulls would have never won those championships without role players knowing their job, staying ready, and performing in the clutch. Many of their championship runs would have been cut short without the role players doing their job.
If you’re going to win, you need role players who will do their jobs because role players make champions possible. There’s nothing wrong with being a solid role player. I have a lot of respect for players who show up and do their job well. They may never be legendary, but they make being legendary possible. You need them on your team.
STIFFS
As long as were talking about roofing being a game, we may as well mention the stiffs.
Stiffs just stand there waiting for somebody else to do the work for them. The one thing they’re really good at is hanging around and getting paid for doing next to nothing. That’s what makes them stiffs.
The difference between stiffs and cheaters is that you can still sell, manage, and grow your roofing business with stiffs on your team, it’ll just cost you more money, take longer to get traction, and make it far less likely you’ll ever compete at a championship level against the big boys.
Stiffs are the dead weight that pull everybody else on your team down. They are the de-motivators. You purposely avoid depending on stiffs because they almost always let you down.
Hey, they might even be related to you, but they’re still a stiff, and they’re slowing you down. 😉
TALENT
Talent isn’t afraid of the competition.
Talent thrives on competition, relishes the challenge, and performs at their very best when the spotlight is on them.
If you’re fortunate enough to have talent on your team, or if you are that talent, you already know the game of roofing success comes down to talent. Specifically, talented at making money.
Nothing happens until somebody sells something. There are no pencils to sharpen, no spreadsheets to update, no materials to order, no roofers to hire, no lease space to pay, no commission checks to cut, no signs to make, no permits to pull, no nothing…until somebody sells something!
Talent sells stuff – lots of stuff.
Talent leaves the office with a bunch of blank contracts and shows up later with wet ink and checks.
Not only does talent make a lot of money, but they also keep the money in your marketplace away from your competition. Every job talent sells makes your company stronger, and your competition weaker…unless you have a bunch of stiffs on your team weighing you down…or cheaters sucking you dry.
But hey, you don’t have to be a salesperson to have money-making talent: Talent can secure the loan you need to grow your business. Talent recruits and manages salespeople. Talent finds the profit in the paperwork. Talent can even make money running production.
Talent makes more money because they’re talented at making more money. Simple enough, right?
I can’t fully explain it, and I don’t claim to understand it, but just like Michael Jordan, talent can do what nobody else is capable of doing. That’s what makes them the talent.
THE WINNING TEAM
If you find yourself in an extremely competitive market again this year, you’ll need the right team around you to be successful.
Get rid of the cheaters, reward the hustlers, love your role players, minimize the stiffs, and take extremely good care of your talent.
The easy days of making money in roofing, where you could throw anything up against the wall and have some of it stick, well, those days are long gone. If you’re weak in any area, you will be exposed by your competition. It’s up to you to put together the winning team.
Roofing is a competitive game.
You need every advantage you can get because having the right team around you is essential to winning.
STRATEGY SESSION
You can now request a strategy session to speak directly with Mike so you can explore how to grow your roofing company.
Fill out the form below to begin your application. After you complete the steps, you will get a confirmation for your strategy session.
Peace,
Mike
P.S. If you’re putting together a winning roofing sales team, take a look at my self-study program for the Sales Domination System. This is the sales system used by some of the nation’s absolute best roofing salespeople.
Mike Coday
Mike started selling roofs in '95 while working as a youth pastor at a small church in North Texas. A decade later he transitioned to speaking at industry conferences and training outside sales teams. Today, he works exclusively as the premier consultant to roofing company owners who are driven for growth.Download this FREE special report now to make more money selling roofs.
Download the FREE Special Report