Rookie needs some help

Hello all. I wanted to see if anyone out there might have some good advice for a "rookie" starting out in the Commercial Roofing sales business. I recently was offered and accepted a position working for one of the top commercial roof companies in our state as a sales consultant and I do not have a background in the commercial roofing industry. Our company does service work/repairs, roof restorations, new construction , metal work, solar, and more. I have come to learn that there is no formal training process for this position but have been given plenty of material to read & study. Is there anyone out there that can give me some suggestions to help me get off the ground... I would love to hear some ideas on self education resources, best ways to approach potential customers/new accounts, and any other advice you may have to help me get started.. Thank you in advance.

Justin Tapley "commercial roof sales rookie"

What Roofers don't understand is that we also need Salesmen. Both are different breeds and are so different from one another. In commercial sales, depend alot on your wholesale salesman. Their are alot of Reps out there that will go with you to a jobsite and give you there expert advice for free. You buy from them and they should help you out! Now, I to have also started to head more into the commercial arena. I have done residential most of my life and that's what I am good at. From field worker, to sales, to project manager, to vice-president within the company. I have lived residential, now we are headed into the commercial field and I also have had to learn. I do hit the books, but ultimately depend on our field workers to get it right. We have our estimates done with what-if's involved in them. Repairs are done solely on a time and material basis only. (Just to many variables involved in that side of things). The forums are a great place to start, don't worry about the Roofers on here that may put you down or the company down. However, they should be helping you get accustomed to your job. It is in their best interest for you to have as much knowledge and leverage as possible, this will only help them in the long run.

Keep up you spirits and you will do fine. Blood, sweat will get you to glory!

fayetteroofing Said: I cant help but feel a little resentment to the posters who dont understand how a salesperson can relate to the job without ever having done the installations his or herself. I own my small, yet profitable company, and as its only salesperson, I hardly ever get on the roof. Thats what I hire actual roofers for. As long as we salespeople know as much as possible and strive to continually educate ourselves about product and installation, I dont think experience is truly necessary... While I would love to have some, Im scared to death of heights :laugh: Dont ask me why God put a passion for roofing in my blood.. But its there and I cant get rid of it. A long time ago I resolved that I may not ever be a roofer, but I am a damned good, honest salesperson. Those who are talented enough to be roofers AND powerhouse salespeople.. well, right on! But I dont come across too many of them. So weve got to divide and equally apply our talents.

and of course its harder to understand the technical aspects of the job without having ever installed a roof.. But where theres a will, theres a way. There has never been a question that one of my mentors or Roofers Coffee Shop has not been able to answer. Kudos to you Justin for jumping in so optimistically. I pray that God will bring a great mentor into your life. I think a lot of the others here will agree that working alongside an experienced maestro youll grow by leaps and bounds. Wish I could offer more insight, but I am a residential hound dog, whereas youre a commerical breed.

Sincerely, Charisse

Thanks for the positive feedback!! I'm remaining optimistic even though I get very overwhelmed at times... I'm praying for a good mentor because I know I will need one!!

---This kind of baffles me. I cannot see where Fayette is coming from. Commercial roofing is very complicated. How can one "sell" a job when they are so many variables to the work? I do repairs on commercial roofs on occasion and have been roofing for 40 years in residential. I wouldn't dream of bidding some of the roofs I have repaired. Those roofs have so many complicated issues any of which could raise the cost by tens of thousands of dollars. ---Since I do residential I know what the issues are that I have to deal with and what they are going to add to the job in terms of man-hours. Since I don't do commercial I could really get into trouble underbidding a job because I didn't see trouble. ---Whenever this comes up I call in a friend who does a lot of commercial and have him walk the jobsite pointing out all of the issues. Some commercial jobs are just a can of worms and are going to bite the contractor who takes the job unless he bids high enough to cover the problems. How can a salesman with little experience identify this? ---From what is written here this sounds like big trouble. Lanny

They should teach you how to do roof take offs, patch core samples.That's fairly easy.as far as service work goes things get a little more complicated because there are many ways how to maintain or fix a roof .In this branch of roofing the less you know the more confident you are. I'm assuming they don't expect you to have much technical expertise .If that was the case they wouldn't have hired you.they need somebody to be the face of the company to make a good impression and create confidence in the company. The way i've seen it works .the salesman makes the call .the customer asks for a price.the company sends an estimator or service manager to look at the roof.They come up with a price.The salesman put together a proposal and hands it to the customer.

They say knowledge is power,Especially with this topic,Knowledge is the be all to end all,in this situation,and others. You need practical knowledge/experience to see how things work,and why--This gives you the insights that allow you to provide a top quality service to your clients--knowing that metal is used to flash a chimney,but not how it`s used,in what situations,or in conjunction with what can lead to trouble--As we know architects are intelligent people,with usually a great book education,yet without grounding experience in the real world,the stuff that looks good on paper inevitably has to be fixed or modified to what will actually work in the real world-Best of luck---Stay around this is a good place to learn

I can't help but feel a little resentment to the posters who don't understand how a salesperson can relate to the job without ever having done the installations his or herself. I own my small, yet profitable company, and as its only salesperson, I hardly ever get on the roof. That's what I hire actual roofers for. As long as we salespeople know as much as possible and strive to continually educate ourselves about product and installation, I don't think experience is truly necessary... While I would love to have some, I'm scared to death of heights :laugh: Don't ask me why God put a passion for roofing in my blood.. But it's there and I can't get rid of it. A long time ago I resolved that I may not ever be a roofer, but I am a damned good, honest salesperson. Those who are talented enough to be roofers AND powerhouse salespeople.. well, right on! But I don't come across too many of them. So we've got to divide and equally apply our talents.

and of course it's harder to understand the technical aspects of the job without having ever installed a roof.. But where there's a will, there's a way. There has never been a question that one of my mentors or Roofer's Coffee Shop has not been able to answer. Kudos to you Justin for jumping in so optimistically. I pray that God will bring a great mentor into your life. I think a lot of the others here will agree that working alongside an experienced maestro you'll grow by leaps and bounds. Wish I could offer more insight, but I am a residential hound dog, whereas you're a commerical breed.

Sincerely, Charisse

You have an uphill road ahead. I'd say find a mentor who can help you if you can. And spend a few days on a few different types of roofs to see first hand what you are going to try to sell. Ask a lot of questions.

This is some great feedback and you really seem to have a great understanding on how to approach this. Our company has a very genuine "customer service" approach and it has done well for them. I have a significant amount of experience with professional sales and service, just hope I can crack this nut over time. My strengths are not at bullshitting but more so in being service oriented and knowledgeable. I just feel a little overwhelmed with the amount of material I need to learn before I feel like I will be comfortable being on the road bidding on jobs and doing estimates. Thanks again and I hope all is well with you and your's.

Respectfully,

Justin Tapley

wywoody Said: Justin, does your market have some kind of Construction Data, Dodge Reports or some listing of commercial projects to be bid and lists of lowest bids. I relied on a weekly magazine when I was focused on doing commercial.

Study the prices on bids awarded and then look up what system was used and how many squares. Study the spread of the losing bids. Know whats getting the work. One important thing to keep in mind when analysing this data; it doesnt show if the winning bidder made any money. Spend your study/learning time on the systems that are being used in your market.

** great feedback ** I will check with my management team and see if they get these types of reports and if so, I will follow your advice...

I wanted to say thank you for all of the feedback up to this point. I understand it will be a challenge to get up to speed and I expect it will take me some time. In all fairness to my employer, they are very understanding that it will take me some time before I am bringing in business they certainly haven't just sent me to the wolves. They have me going out working with the crews, going on inspections, working in the office, reviewing videos, etc. I didn't word that the best when I said "no formal training". I come from a corporate background where we had employees that there specific job function was to train new employees. I understood this wouldn't be the case and am just trying to learn as much as possible on my own. It is going well, just can't wait to be productive. I am excited about the opportunity and look forward to the challenge. All of your ideas and suggestions will help me with furthering my knowledge.... Thanks again and any other feedback is greatly appreciated.

Justin

Vaa Fakaosifolau Said: wywoody, I wish they had something like that here, we never know what the others bids were, the GCs keep it to themselves, and I likely wouldnt belive them anyway unless it was published publicly. The best we get is a letter saying we were unsuccessful, and even those are rare.

I kind of thought it was a universal thing. It was a little pricey, $1200 per year back when I last subscribed, about 88. There was actually as many as 4 competing services just in the Portland market (counting one that was Vancouver only).

Of course, the technology has changed everything in the plan center/contruction data market. Most of it is now delivered online. These places used to have plan centers with 50 or more stalls to do takeoffs. I recently went to one because I'll only use faxed or emailed plans for relatively straight-forward projects and want to see the actual plans on complex ones. The plan center only had two stalls.

The one I subscribed to had a list of all building permits with $ amount and square footage, upcoming projects in the pre-bid stage. Those that were being bid had a list of GC's bidding with their addresses and phone #. Then they printed the lowest 5 bids and said how many total bids. If the GC later submitted it, they'd print a list of the subs.

I found it very valuable and only quit using it because I was getting so much repeat business from homebuilders, cold bidding wasn't needed anymore.

I'm with the above. I personally cannot conceive of selling roofs without knowing your subject. I know the slick closer exists, but I'm more of the consultant type salesman. I take a lot of pride in knowing my way around low slope roof systems, and solving difficult problems. I can't relate to your situation. We are not the biggest game in town, but we're a pretty respectable size, and have never had a salesperson that was not a roofer at some point in their career.

Wow! Talk about throwing you under the bus! Do what Mike said and go out on the job for a week or two to see what the crew does and their attitudes. Then, try and sell one of those type products first. Branch out from there. good luck. Remember, a "big shot" is a little shot that kept on shooting!

Justin, does your market have some kind of Construction Data, Dodge Reports or some listing of commercial projects to be bid and lists of lowest bids. I relied on a weekly magazine when I was focused on doing commercial.

Study the prices on bids awarded and then look up what system was used and how many squares. Study the spread of the losing bids. Know what's getting the work. One important thing to keep in mind when analysing this data; it doesn't show if the winning bidder made any money. Spend your study/learning time on the systems that are being used in your market.

I am with the other guys on this one. Residential roofing is not near as complicated as commercial roofing and it takes time to learn the ropes in residential. I just can't see how a roofing company can bill themselves as one of the top roofing companies in the state and send someone out with no experience to sell roofing jobs, especially commercial roofing.. It just makes no sense at all. I commend you Justin for being willing to work, but I am sorry this is why all the trades are so screwed up these days. Take the time to visit jobs sites. The reading material really won't be of much help if you don't understand how the work is actually done.