Help or Hindrance

Roofing Business Talk
#1

Just curious here…while I have been involved in selling and marketing for a long time, I have had limited experience in the roofing industry. However, one thing has always helped drive my sales in whatever industry I have beenin and that has been the ability to establish differentiation.

I’ve been browsing all the posts here and have concluded that this site is powered by a bunch of professionals. It is obvious that everyone here has a passion for, not only *what *they do, but helping *others *as well. Even though some of you may even compete and play on the same grounds, at the end of the day, you all seem to share a certain level of comradery.

I’ve also been browsing web sites from roofing organizations all over the country and have seen a lot of good stuff. However, something I have not seen much of is any reference to the NARI, or The Qualified Remodeler. Affiliation with both, as I see it, can appear to be a big deal to a prospective customer. Especially when working an area where competition could be plentiful. Or am I wrong? Since the Qualified Remodeler Top 500 list is based soley upon a company’s SALES, I can see how many professionals here can benefit from being on that list. Remember, it’s all in *how *it is presented. And affiliation with the NARI pretty much speaks for itself. Again…differentiation.

And now, founded in 2010, there’s a new comer to the industry with buyer beware videos plastered all over YouTube, Verified Service Reports. They seem to have a hard-on for the roofing and remodeling industry, especially those involved in storm chasing. They have targeted storm-prone St. Charles, St. Louis and Phoenix, canvasing them with their special “Home Services Directory”. For any of you here that may work those areas, it may very well be worth your time looking into and perhaps seeing what you need to get on their good side? I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before they grow into all other areas of the country.

Again, I do not own a business. I look at this industry from a salesman’s and marketing pro’s point of view. From what I have learned, anything you can do to establish more *documentable credibility *does nothing but increase that bottom line we are all working toward. Right or wrong?

Since I am a new user here, I was unable to include URL’s here. NARI is easy to find, but add ORG and not COM.
The Qualified Remodeler Top 500 List can be found using Google.
To see the host of videos from Verified Service Reports, just go to YouTube and search their name. Their URL is their name.

Make it a great day!

#2

It is my opinion that most of these acronym organizations do very little to “vet” a company. The problem begins with most municipalities and states. Instead of establishing common sense registration and licensing requirements, and enforcing them, they would rather pass stupid legislation that prevents contractors from “negotiating” with insurance companies and collect permit fees. I struggle to understand why any state doesn’t require any and all contractors, who perform work above the handy man or minimum dollar amount level, to be registered in their trade and pass testing along with financial review prior to being allowed to do work in that state. Take Alabama for example. Any multi trade residential job over $10,000 requires the work to be done by a licensed Home Builder. Before you are even allowed to take the test, you must submit an application which includes a financial statement. Once that is approved, you then register for the test, you must pass the test and then there is some period of time (a few weeks) before the license is issued. In order to pull a permit, most municipalities require that you show a copy of the contract and provide your builder’s license. That’s not to say that many contractors don’t abuse this and work around it but the penalty if they’re caught can be rather stiff.

Let’s just suppose though the Homeowners knew the contractor must have these requirements. They’d hopefully require the Sales Rep of the company soliciting their business to provide them with the appropriate licensing information. They should then in turn demand to see the certificates for GL and WC. They should then check the BBB, Angie’s List and more importantly, check with 3 to 5 local references that have had work done by this Contractor in the past 2 months. That means 100 times as much as being a member of some letter organization most of which accept membership by filling out an application and submitting a membership fee. Unless those organizations have some teeth in them that provides them some level of authority to police their membership, they’re essentially worthless.

#3

I agree with AD, every group or org. that sounds reasonable to a roofer probably doesn’t mean jack shit to a homeowner who gets a new roof maybe 3 or 4 times in their life. I work in an area where hail storms happen often, and homeowners are “educated” on the re-roof process and when I start talking about NRCA or other groups I see them tune out, in my opinion manufacturer certs ( as ridiculous as we in the industry know they truly are ) BBB, AL, TRACK RECORD, etc… I could hardly imagine loosing a roofing job to someone based on the fact I was not on the top 500 remodelers list.

That being said, tomorrow I will prob have a sales presentation to some family who’s third cousin does the website for NARI and is only considering members of said org. :-X

“And now, founded in 2010, there’s a new comer to the industry with buyer beware videos plastered all over YouTube, Verified Service Reports. They seem to have a hard-on for the roofing and remodeling industry, especially those involved in storm chasing. They have targeted storm-prone St. Charles, St. Louis and Phoenix, canvasing them with their special “Home Services Directory”. For any of you here that may work those areas, it may very well be worth your time looking into and perhaps seeing what you need to get on their good side? I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before they grow into all other areas of the country.”

^^ Probably wont have to worry about them if their business plan is target “storm prone areas” and Phoenix was on the list