Shed Geek Podcast

Selling Sheds With Heart

• Shed Geek Podcast • Season 6 • Episode 20

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Some sales advice hits like a fresh breeze on a hot lot. Meet Jerri Hayes—82 years young, razor-sharp, and the kind of pro who sells with heart, product knowledge, and a closer’s calm. We’re at Iguana Sheds in Florida with Peter Miller, unpacking how a relationship-first approach outperforms scripts, how rent-to-own opens doors for everyday buyers, and why knowing trusses, floor systems, and wind ratings turns skepticism into trust.

Jerri walks us through her simple, strong process: greet with warmth, ask what they’ll store, show more than they requested, and teach without jargon. We dig into the details that matter in Florida—southern yellow pine framing, 3/4-inch tongue-and-groove floors, hurricane strapping, and permitting that keeps getting tougher. Delivery is its own craft, so site checks, fence policies, and avoiding septic fields keep haulers happy and installs smooth. And when it’s time to close, Jerri’s line is clean and confident: “Cash, check, or card?” Then she lets silence work.

We also explore the tension between CRMs and real human memory. Jerri’s “original CRM” is names, stories, and consistent follow-up—“till they buy or die.” It’s not bravado; it’s service. For buyers who need a practical path to ownership, RTO offers flexibility and dignity, while sales teams who explain terms and limits clearly avoid headaches later. Add smart lot signage—RTO, financing, free delivery and setup—and keep inventory fresh and colors neutral to lower friction. Respect competitors, sell your strengths, and focus on fit.

If you want actionable shed sales strategies, this conversation is packed: qualifying questions that reveal true needs, product specs that build credibility, clean delivery planning, and a fearless but friendly close. Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a review with your favorite Jerri-ism—what line will you use on your next lot walk?

For more information or to know more about the Shed Geek Podcast visit us at our website.

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This episodes Sponsors:
Studio Sponsor: Shed Pro

Three Oaks Trading Co.
Shed Challenger
LuxGuard
Making Sales Simple

INTRO:

Hello and welcome back to the Shed Geek Podcast. Here's a message from our studio sponsor. Let's be real. Running a shed business today isn't just about building great sheds. The industry is changing fast. We're all feeling the squeeze, competing for fewer buyers, while expectations keep climbing. And yet, I hear from many of you that you are still juggling spreadsheets, clunky software, or disconnected systems. You're spending more time managing chaos than actually growing your business. That's why I want to talk to you about our studio sponsor, ShedPro. If you're not already using them, I really think you should check them out. ShedPro combines your 3D configurator, point of sale, RTO contracts, inventory, deliveries, and dealer tools all in one platform. They even integrate cleanly into our Shed Geek marketing solutions. From website lead to final delivery, you can quote, contract, collect payment, and schedule delivery in one clean workflow. No more double entries, no more back and forth chaos. Quoting is faster, orders are cleaner. And instead of chasing down paperwork, you're actually running your business. And if you mention Shed Geek, you'll get 25% off all setup fees. Check it out at shedpro.co forward slash shed geek. Thank you, Shed Pro, for being our studio sponsor and honestly for building something that helps the industry.

Shannon:

Welcome back to another episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. And we are here today at Iguana Sheds in Florida with Peter Miller again joining us for this podcast. Thank you so much, Peter, for joining us. I want to remind everybody if you just want to stay plugged into the Shed Geek Podcast, go check out our newsletter. You can find that by going to our website and subscribing, or just reach out to us at info@ shedgeek.com. Encourage you guys to go to the Shed Sales Professionals page and engage and be part of the Shed community. And we want to welcome to the podcast today, Miss Jerri. Jerri, do you care to introduce yourself and just kind of tell us a little bit about how you know the shed industry?

Jerri Hayes:

Well, my name is Jerri Hayes. Uh I have been in sales most of my adult life, selling either myself as a furniture refinisher. I had my own business, and then I got sick of smelling lacquer, and I went to sell uh cars and trucks when I was 43 years old. And the guy asked me, What makes you think you can sell cars? And I said, What makes you think I can't? He said, Good answer. And then I was off, I retired when I was 59, and then I went my husband died and I wanted something to do, so I put my resume online, but nobody would hire me for even though I had 15 years of car sales experience and truck sales specialists because I was 80 years old. But Peter Boyle saw my resume online and he called me up and he said, You want to sell sheds? I said, I guess, I don't know. So, I came over and I interviewed, and uh then I looked at the sheds and I saw the quality of them and the price, and I said, Yes, I can sell these all day long. They're well built and everybody can use them in their backyard or whatever, you know. And I sold two sheds the first day on the job and four the second day.

Shannon:

So, I guess he kept me worked out pretty good for him and you and you both. That worked so now you're here now, you're in Florida, but you're not native to Florida.

Jerri Hayes:

You moved down here from Buffalo, New York.

Shannon:

Okay, yeah, go Bills.

Jerri Hayes:

I know they just had a rough heartbreak of a of a call. It wasn't his fault.

Shannon:

Yeah, well, the truth is that they're a good team and they got a great quarterback and they deserve a win, but man, they have just been plagued, yeah. Uh especially by Kansas City, and that has just been a sore spot for them for but not this year. This year, ref's got them, as it looked like. Anyway, moving on. We'll get away from that.

Peter Miller:

Um controversial subjects.

Shannon:

Yeah, sports always fires people up. So Peter, you work with you work with Jerri here at iguana. You own the location or you know, owner of some sort. Uh, I have some affiliation here.

Peter Miller:

Yes.

Shannon:

What do you think? She seems she seems spitfire. I like her a lot already.

Peter Miller:

Absolutely. You know, I met Jerri. I can't tell you the I think Peter Boyle had hired her, and then I come over because you know, we're not we're not here all the time, but uh stop by and make sure she's got what she needs as best we can. And um she she's the type of person you walk in the room and you know she's there and she makes uh uh an impact on you. And she's kind of been like that, uh I would say kind of like a mom figure, you know. I uh her birthday's actually the same day as my mom's, but uh she's been one of those people that's just been a joy to know and uh work with and she's just done a phenomenal job here. And I think one of the things that she was saying there is you know, she had a resume online because she just wanted to get out and do something and people didn't give her a chance. And uh I'm so glad that that we came across that and she was willing to come here. And you know, she's taught me uh she's taught me a lot in just how she's approached sales and such. And um, you know, she you can't somebody walks in this this door, it doesn't matter if it's the post office or the mail person, maybe it's somebody working on the lights out at the corner here, and she says, You want to buy a shed? And it's like she's always selling, and that's something that a good salesperson is doing.

Shannon:

I feel like uh I feel like immediately from just meeting you, if you'd have said uh sit down and shut up, I'd have just said yes, ma'am, and uh just followed right along. Uh uh I instantly knew my place, it felt like uh uh and I love it that it just goes to show that like uh age, you know, um I mean we get so caught up on like it being a definitely uh is a male dominated industry in the sense that like it's construction and that men usually find their way into it. But let's just be honest, like ladies typically sell better than guys do because they're just more attention uh and detail oriented and things like that. And uh so I immediately knew after 26, 25, almost 26 years of marriage, to say yes, ma'am, and uh just to follow and listen. But uh, you know, there's so much that we can be learned uh from each other and age is experience, and we've already found out in the short time you said you were born in 1943, which is when my dad was born, so you guys would be the same age. And I immediately began to think about like what 82 years like looks like in sales and different work environments and just the way the world's changed in general from the way technology is taking off now. Um, you know, this is something that you have to uh adapt to.

Jerri Hayes:

You have to learn.

Shannon:

You have to learn. Yeah, what's your what's your experience been like in the couple years that you've been selling here with Peter?

Jerri Hayes:

Well, I uh have learned how to use a computer, which they were very, very nervous about. But I said, you know, I didn't know anything about selling trucks when I first started selling, but I became a truck specialist and I was the only one in a dealership for 10 years. I outsold the men. So, you know, it's not hard. It's just a matter of learning, that's all. And uh when my customers walk in the door, I ask them where did they work? And if they were a farmer, I put my farmer's hat on, you know, if they were a scientist or rocket scientist or whatever, you you know, you just gotta go with the flow. And I did the same thing when I sold cars and trucks. You get to know your customer and ask them what are they gonna use the shed for, you know? And then you've got to show them the right door. Do you want a garage door? You're gonna be driving your lawnmower in, or do you want just a regular door? Do you want windows? Do you want people to see what's inside your shed? You know, there's a lot of questions you gotta ask, and you get to know your customer. That's the that's a big thing I always do. Is I like TJ, remember he was flirting with me when I sold He was from Pakistan.

Shannon:

And he came in flirting.

Jerri Hayes:

Oh, yes, yeah, they were here when he was doing it.

Peter Miller:

Yeah, I think she's sold uh quite a few sheds to him.

Jerri Hayes:

He's got two so far, and he got three more to buy from me. He said he's gonna buy five. So far we got two sold. I gotta give him a call.

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Shannon:

Very nice. Excuse me. It's really neat to be able to like, I've sold sheds before, actually quit selling before COVID. We're looking at opening up another lot just locally to just um not be so like I don't know, distant with the actual experience. After five or six years, you feel like you lose your edge a little bit. I'm like, what's going on? And while we have all these great opportunities in the industry, you know, we're just excited to be able to like open up a lot and talk to other people, learn from other people, figure out what their experiences are. And you're what you're talking about here today are the things that excite people, like at the Shed Sales Summit to meet and greet and like uh uh network with other people and say, How did you do this? How do you overcome this? What do you see in this area? Um, how's it different than selling? We get a lot of folks who have sewed cars in the shed industry. What's the difference in selling cars and selling sheds?

Jerri Hayes:

Well, selling sheds, you got rent to own, for one thing. That's a very, very big advantage, you know, where if you go through all the process of trying to sell somebody when you sell them a car and then they don't get financed and you lose the sale. And when you're on commission, that really sucks.

Shannon:

Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. Um do you feel like it's a different customer, same customers?

Jerri Hayes:

Um a little different, you know. Yeah, yeah. They're you're talking a much lower price. You know, I was selling fifty thousand dollar trucks. I used to sell Silverados.

Shannon:

Okay.

Jerri Hayes:

I was a Silverado specialist. I went to Silver Auto University in Michigan.

Shannon:

Oh goodness, I drove up in a Ford today.

Peter Miller:

Well, you see my trucks at Silverado. I used to sell Fords too.

Jerri Hayes:

That's what I started. I first started selling Fords.

Shannon:

We just bought our first Ford. We traded in a GMC and like just bought our first Ford ever. Uh, but like the plan is to have uh like a long-term vehicle, and we'll just kind of see where that goes. But we enjoy it so far, it's been good.

Jerri Hayes:

Yeah.

Peter Miller:

Um, um one of the things if I can on Yeah, go for it. So I know you said, you know, the customer is a little different and stuff, and one of the things tying back into it, and this is just when you mentioned shed sales summit, you know, I enjoy getting into a shed lot and being able to sell because there's those relationships that you get to build with people individually. And one of the things I get a c occasion to do that, like today I'm here in you know Auburndale, Florida, and tomorrow I'll be up in Dalton, Georgia. Um and so it's gonna be going to different areas, you kind of get a little different demographic, you know. Um but one of the things that my I guess career path has kind of shifted a little. I still get those opportunities, but then when you go into like the shed sales summit and different things, now we're talking to those people that are day-to-day in those in those shed lots and how we're able to say, Hey, how's it affecting you and your location? And I feel like we have a little bit of a little bit of a litness test because we have our own lots to be able to see what we experience. But then I want to build those relationships with those people to find out what their experience is. And uh, I was talking to somebody on the phone this morning and I said constructive criticism is what I want. You know, there's criticism is gonna make you get better at it if it's as long as it's constructive. You know, you can be demeaning and such. And so that's one of the things that I will say. Uh listening to Jerri and the advice that she's given to me, you know, it's not just, hey, what was your name? She'll ask the person's their name, what's their wife's name, what's their daughter's name, and then she'll grill you and be like, all right, that customer just left. What was their wife's name? And I I'm sorry, I'm not as good as she is at this, but that's important because you're building that relationship. And so I've now taken that to say, okay, you're building a relationship with that customer in that sale. And if you can invest into them and not just be worried about the money, the money is a byproduct. Yes, we want to sell the building, that's why we're here in business. But you invest in that relationship, you create, I think we've used the term raving fans before. People come in here and give Ms. Jerri hugs when they see her. You know, they bought it, and it's just she's got her own fan base. Um, and I'm just it's a pleasure to have her here with us. Thank you, Peter.

Shannon:

Give uh give us uh well, I mean, you can see why we're excited to have Peter on as a as a consultant and being able to use his expertise to help others in the industry, is because uh that sound bite that you just did there, beautiful. You know what I mean? Not just for your customer, but I mean your uh employee or your coworker, you know, but even just like your overall thought about how you approach business, and that that's exciting for us to have. Uh, you know, we want to be around and work with people like that. We don't think of ourselves as like even maybe like a team member, I guess you can call it that. It's just a group of people who collectively want to move the needle, do good, like help others. Uh and through that, you help yourself. Uh the Zig Ziglar quote, you know, help others get what they want so you can get what you want.

Jerri Hayes:

It's exactly right. And treat everyone like you want to be treated yourself. The golden rule. I've always done that, you know.

Shannon:

Do you how do you feel like whenever you go shop somewhere as a customer, it's different from where when you sell?

Jerri Hayes:

I'm I critique them, you know. Uh I went into uh I think it was T-Mobile or one of those. I need needed to buy a plug for my iPhone. And I questioned her on what she sold me. She says, Trust me, I know what I'm doing. I said, Oh, okay. You know. She was very, very aggressive. Yeah. You don't need to be aggressive. You need to be knowledgeable and want to know that person. When they come in the door, I say, Hi, my name's Jerri Hayes. Welcome to iguana sheds. How can I help you today? You know, that's what I say. And I shake their hand and I smile at them, and I even if they don't want to see the sheds, I show them every shed on the lot because if they come in and ask for an eight by ten, they wanted to put it in a ten by thirty or something. You just never know. So, show them everything. And I show everybody our new building out there. And they love it, you know. And I've got a customer, Melanie, is be wants to buy that building. But the problem is her parents are both in the hospital right now, so I gotta call her today again to keep track of her. I got her on my cell phone.

Peter Miller:

Um and see, that's another thing that, you know, in today's world of CRMs, which I'm not opposed to CRMs at all, but she writes down notes and she has she's the original CRM. Well, uh, yes.

Jerri Hayes:

What's a CRM?

Peter Miller:

Uh a customer. Well, now you can cut me up.

Shannon:

Customer relationship management tool. So it's a it's a can it's a computerized way of keeping up with all your post-it notes.

Jerri Hayes:

I just write it down.

Shannon:

Yeah. And it works. And this is the beauty of like all I feel like this is this is one of my favorite interviews already because this is the this is the moment where we talk about, you know, good old boy or good old girl that just sells sheds, retired typically. We've had this conversation a couple of times, and you're like the epitome of this. Good person, lovely, trustworthy, straightforward, tells it like it is, hey, I'm gonna shoot you straight. I'm not gonna also be uh overbearing to try, I'm gonna help you. And then you mix that with some of the technology that exists that's possible today to help reach people or organize and things like that. And you kind of see the real conversation of like, I don't need no CRM. You know, like I've got my own system and my process. And when you can actually blend the two, it works really good for you and it works really good for the customer, works really good for Peter because the more you can take care of leads, you want to you want to serve people, is what I get. I want to do what you want to serve people, you want to help your customer. When they come in, you're not thinking about the paycheck, you're thinking about how to help them.

Jerri Hayes:

That's right.

Shannon:

If you get a sale, good, but you're gonna help them regardless. So, like, it's the business owners that often work on their business instead of in their business. And they're thinking about ways to try and like make it uh better for you, better for them, better for the customer. But it's so easy to get out of touch with exactly what you're talking about. It's like, hey, I know this lady Melody, I know that her parents are in the hospital. I thought about that. She's a customer of mine, potential customer of mine, and like that's on my conscious. And for you, it just comes across, and I'm not trying to make it like not meaningful to you, but it comes across as a sale. You don't have that relationship, but your salesperson does.

Peter Miller:

She's in the day-to-day, she understands that. And you know, when you're and this is kind of back to what you were talking about, getting your own shed lot and getting kind of back in that that that groove of things. When you when you talk to the individual customers and then you get that relationship, all right. I was on the phone with Jerri earlier today because she was up in Buffalo a couple of days over the weekend and uh was here at the lot and was able to meet one of our potential clients and basically relay that information over to her so now she's able to take that and run and continue that sale and follow up with it. And that's uh I think that's probably the biggest problem with most salespeople is they don't follow up. Or they follow up once, maybe twice, and then they consider it a lost cause.

Jerri Hayes:

I follow till they buy or die.

Shannon:

Yeah, I was gonna ask her, how long do you follow up? And I love that. Until they buy or die needs to be on a bumper sticker somewhere, it needs to be your new Shed Sales Summit theme.

Peter Miller:

I like it. I might consider that. It might be a little morbid, but hey, it's still pretty straightforward.

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Shannon:

Yeah, well, that's the that's the beauty of like uh growing up in a generation that's different. We all, you know, even my kids' generation treats things differently, the way they embrace technology. To like search out things or look for things or even like a shed person. But like you come from that generation that's just very straightforward, tells it like it is, uh, shakes your hand, looks you in the eye when you show up, and follows up. You don't need a CRM to follow up because you are the CRM. You're going to follow up.

Jerri Hayes:

Got it up here.

Shannon:

Yeah. You're going to take the time. Uh uh and now the hope would be that you know you get so many leads that you have to have a CRM at some point. But I'll tell you what, you would overwhelm Miss Jerri here because she would have such a appreciation for every potential customer who came in that if she had a hundred people to keep up with, I don't know, she would be like, this becomes a lot. Uh but I bet you'd have to put me on commission now.

Peter Miller:

Well, I'll tell you this. You know, we we've been working with some different marketing companies and different things. And one of the things that we like to do is we like to test some things in our market to see how it's going. Um and we've we started with one location, we've moved it up to two locations. Now we're starting to move those into different locations. And so maybe we'll be talking commission and structure here to Jerri.

Shannon:

I'll tell you what, she's gonna get in there and show those CRM guys how to figure it out. I promise you that. Because she is gonna be a hawk and she's gonna be attention to detail. And guess what? She's gonna be your best asset because she's gonna tell you what's right and what's wrong, and she's not gonna pull any punches, and that's what we all need, to be honest with you, from time to time. We just need somebody who tells it like it is, because we live in a generation that, you know, I subscribe to it myself. We walk around it uh afraid to like talk about anything directly because of the onslaught of like garbage that you have to deal with. So you just don't address it. But what I love is like, I don't know, I always heard people say, you know, that older generation just tells it like it is, and I miss that.

Peter Miller:

I miss that about we've become too political in our responses that we can't just get the straightforward truth across because we might hurt somebody's feelings.

Jerri Hayes:

I'm not afraid to flirt with my customers. They love it, like Glenn, you know. He came back after a year and bought that 11 by 24. A year ago, he was on it, and he came back and I said, Well, finally the handsome black man finally bought the shed from me and he's smiling as he laughed. His wife is laughing. But the always one thing I always do is I always address the wife. Yeah, she's gonna make the ultimate decision as far as the color. And I always come across as a salesperson, not a sales lady, because you don't want to offend the wife flirting with her husband. I tell I tell the lady I love her nails, I love her hair. Yeah, you know, you compliment them. Yeah, and then they tell me how they were they got their nails done, and you know, the lady and the guy will tell me what he whatever, you know, and it's it works for me.

Shannon:

Just finding a level of interest to, you know, this is not uh I'm not gonna say this is the best sales advice I ever got. I think this was from the little red book of sales, uh Jeffrey Gitter. You know, Jeffrey Gittermer. And uh, but he says, you know, we were talking about Chevy and Ford earlier. Of course, you've got this experience selling that, but he would say customer shows up in a brand new Chevy Silver Auto, like Peter's got here, and you walk out and you say, Well, I'll tell you what, you must be here to buy a good quality shed, because I can tell you drive a good quality truck in a Chevy, and you find a way to connect with that customer. Not to be disingenuous, not suggesting this, but if somebody pulls up in a Ford, you say, Well, I can tell that you're here to buy a good quality shed because you pulled up in a good quality vehicle, that Ford F-150.

Jerri Hayes:

Yeah.

Shannon:

Yes.

Jerri Hayes:

Well, years ago, I was at the uh uh convention center for the car show, and there the shed the Ford people were over here and the Chevy people over here. And I just walked over to look at the Ford to see what my competition was. And he says, Oh, your Chevy's no good, and everything. I said, you know what? I said, if I have a customer and I tell them that their car was their Ford was no good, I just insulted them because they probably pulled up in a Ford. And you don't ever want to dish the competition like that. Everybody builds a good vehicle, just whether you like it or not.

Shannon:

You know, yeah. Well, and all and all of them are you know have a lot of like really good points about them, and all of them also have some problems at times, and that's just natural, and that's probably the same way with sheds, you know, there's features and benefits to all.

Peter Miller:

Yeah. I think every single shed that's built here in Florida, we sell multiple different manufacturers. Every single shed has a certain wind rating that it's gonna withstand. Now, I have a personal preference that I personally have, but I don't want to put my personal preference on that particular customer. We're there to inform that customer of what we have in front of them. So, when they walk in here, Miss Jerri's gonna walk out there and show them this particular building. She's gonna show these highlight the features, don't dish, you know, dish on the competition. Now, well, they down the road, they do this or whatever. It's no, this is what we have, this is the quality that we have.

Jerri Hayes:

That's exactly how I do it.

Peter Miller:

And then that that customer then has that that opportunity to look at the positives of it, you know, who wants to be around a negative person all the time? I mean, you want to be around somebody that's you know, gonna uplift you and make you feel better at that point, and uh that's what we try to do at all of our locations, and we want to make sure that we're mindful of the customer that we have.

Shannon:

You you've been selling sheds for just a little while, but you've been selling in general for a long time.

Jerri Hayes:

Long time, yeah.

Shannon:

Um just in terms of sales, not shed specific, but what are the changes that you've seen in sales like as a whole? Like what do you think customers have gotten like?

Jerri Hayes:

People shop around more.

Shannon:

Okay.

Jerri Hayes:

And it's used to be you came in, you had a product they liked, you know, they bought it, you know, but now they have the opportunity to shop around and you have to let them. You have to let them do that and have the confidence that what you showed them.

Shannon:

They're coming to get you, Jerri. The sirens. I finally found you. Sorry, go ahead.

Jerri Hayes:

You have to show them that what you have is what they want. You know, you have to sell them in that particular you know, like I always point out, when I get inside, I showed them inside the shed, it's made out of southern yellow pine. It's one of the sturdiest soft hardwoods that there is. And also it has three-quarter inch tongue and groove pressure treated plywood on the floor of every one of our sheds, has aluminum siding on the outside, all of that, you know. It makes it I show them the truss like construction. I show them a dado construction on it. And they're happy, you know. Okay, where do I sign?

Shannon:

Did you know anything about that two years ago, three years ago before you started selling sheds?

Jerri Hayes:

Well, I had construction and sp experience because I helped my husband build our 1800 square foot house up in Gasport, New York, and uh that had a 52 foot wraparound porch on it, and I was on always on one end of the wall or one end of the siding or whatever, you know. I so I knew construction from that. And also when I used to refinish furniture, I had to rebuild legs and you know, and use tools. And I've always been a hands-on person type of thing.

Shannon:

So the as far as like the learning the product, that that was fairly simple, fairly straightforward.

Jerri Hayes:

Yeah.

Shannon:

But would you say that's harder than learning like a sales approach? Or do you feel like mastering your like techniques and is more important than like product knowledge?

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Jerri Hayes:

I think product knowledge is very important. It was when I sold cars and trucks. I could tell you the wheelbase, I could tell you the size of the gas tank, I could tell you the size of the tires, everything, all about the truck from the bottom up. And I do the same thing with the shed. You know, you want to know what's underneath it. I tell them it's got a wiring package in it, it's got a pigtail on it. You've got to have a qualified electrician hook it up so you can have lights and everything. You know, you go out there in the five o'clock in at night in the winter time, it's gonna be dark in there. You might want lights in there.

Shannon:

So you sp you spend a lot of time like on the customer side. Uh do you spend much time in the industry side looking at different sheds, learning from different uh people, the way they've done things, or the way other products are made.

Jerri Hayes:

No.

Shannon:

You stay in your lane.

Jerri Hayes:

Yeah.

Shannon:

You're like, hey, I know what I'm doing, I'm taking care of my customer. What everybody else is doing is up to them.

Jerri Hayes:

You know, they build a quality product. There's no it's more expensive. It's very quality, but it's more expensive. So, if that's what you want, okay. But here we build a good quality product for a lower price. And uh right now, I'm wanting some inventory.

Shannon:

Well, that's hey, she nailed it. She got you on camera.

Peter Miller:

She did, she got me on camera, and uh I will say we were we had uh another load of inventory headed this way, and the uh delivery truck broke down from the manufacturer. He only had one truck, and so he wasn't able to get us an another load until actually Tuesday of next week. So, we do have another load coming in, but it will be uh just a little bit.

Shannon:

What's exciting? A salesperson always wants to see more inventory because you felt like you have more opportunity to sell.

Jerri Hayes:

Something new on the lot, you know. And we only have four colors to choose from here, too, which is kind of boring as far as you know, you have white, you have off-white, which is colonial, you have buckskin, which is a beige, and you have gray. Okay, so then you add all the different trim colors to try to dress them up a little bit. I stay away from bright red and bright green because they're you know, I try to keep it as neutral as possible. So if somebody's house is brown with uh white trim, they can buy a beige shed that's got uh brown trim. It'll blend, you know.

Shannon:

What's your what's your best piece of advice to those who are in the industry who are listening as a sales professional?

Jerri Hayes:

Get to know your customer. Be kind, smile at them, find out what they want. What are they gonna use it for? Do they want to store bins? You know, do they need height? You gotta ask questions. That's all.

Shannon:

I I've heard somebody say before, like, if you keep asking questions and they keep answering, that gives you permission to continue to ask more questions.

Jerri Hayes:

Exactly, yeah.

Shannon:

And then you ultimately get to the bottom of like what they want.

Jerri Hayes:

Yeah.

Shannon:

Uh by just being curious.

Jerri Hayes:

If they come in and ask for an eight by ten, I show them everything on the lot, because you never know. Guy you last two weeks ago he came in and he bought two sheds from me. He came in, he wanted a 12 by 30. He wound up buying a 10x16 and a 10x12, two sheds. Which paid cash for them.

Shannon:

What's your favorite experience so far in selling sheds? Or sales in general? Your favorite. We can we can talk the your least favorite too, but I'd be curious your favorite experience.

Jerri Hayes:

Like what I don't know if I have a favorite.

Shannon:

Like uh selling uh, you know, like a pantry to a church or just some like did you ever do anything that just like really made somebody's day whenever they Well, I sold a barn dominium, my first barn dominium, and then that made me happy.

Jerri Hayes:

And he comes in here all the time, he calls me Miss Jerri, I call him Mr. Nathan, you know. And uh he just got his plans, and I can't wait to see it when it's finally done, you know, and he bought the same color as what we've got out there, and you know, that that makes me happy that I've I got him into something that he could live in and then that he'll can afford.

Shannon:

Right.

Jerri Hayes:

Because he's a single father, you know, and it's hard.

Shannon:

See, that's it's that it's those little details that are beautiful. Like she talks about Mr. Nathan, but then she says, Well, you know, because he's a single father, and like that that's the part that goes by the wayside for most people because it's an impulse buy a lot of times. They just want to get them sold, they want 15 minutes, get them sold. They want to don't want to take much time in the customer acquisition phase. Probably to buy a car is fairly the same on the customer acquisition as a shed, but it seems longer. You got to spend more time with them, but maybe it's the other way around. Like maybe you need to spend more time with them in the shed or the barn dough.

Jerri Hayes:

I think I spec that out what five or six different times for Nathan because we had to get every detail right. Did you ever call them about the windows? Yeah, okay, good.

Peter Miller:

All right, yeah, yeah. I love that.

Shannon:

Those little things are just like you know that she's paying attention to the customer.

Peter Miller:

And that was the other aspect of it, you know, something single father, but then also the other thing that she said is something that he could afford. Um and this goes back to I was looking at the Shed Sales Professionals page this morning, and uh Richard Miller said something about um what is what is the benefits of rent to own, and he listed uh fourth different things. But that right there, he's able to do something on a payment that he's able to live in. Um and I know there's some in five years he's gonna have it paid for too. Five years or sooner. And so rent to own gives an option to be able to do that. And I know there's some there's gonna be some people listening and saying, oh well, you can't live in in certain things. I understand that. But there can be some interesting uh I don't know what the right word here is, but well they're gonna they're gonna lie to you.

Shannon:

The customer's just gonna it's just the way it is. They're just gonna lie to you and tell you I'm not gonna live in it. And like in most cases, like no one's going to police that and go knock on the door and say, Are you living in here every day? Um, so like you have to take the customer at their word, but that that's where I feel like uh gosh, I want to get Melody Troutman back on a back on a podcast because she's so good about like explaining where that comes down to uh the rubber meeting the road on the law of like what can be, what can't be, and like understanding your contracts and like going through the details of your contract so they feel like they understand it, and where you can offer the best service you can, but you can also stay legal and you can also do the right thing, but like do all you can to help your customer as well.

Jerri Hayes:

The thing that bugs me are the permits lately.

Shannon:

Here in Florida, that's a that's a big thing.

Jerri Hayes:

These building departments are getting so picky about every little detail, and I think it's a shed. Hello.

Peter Miller:

We were on a podcast just yesterday, yesterday, and uh the gentleman and Mr. Mike Langston with Tampa Sheds, and uh he was he was talking about he's their business is fifty years old this year. And he said, when back when he was a kid, being able to do that, he said building departments didn't care. You could put sheds wherever you wanted because it was just in your backyard. And then we talked, I think it was around Hurricane Andrew here in Florida, where building departments started adding in 2004.

Jerri Hayes:

They got really picky in Polk County. I had three hurricanes hit my house in in six weeks' time, and I just bought it.

Shannon:

2006.

Jerri Hayes:

2004.

Shannon:

2004.

Jerri Hayes:

Yeah, it was three hurricanes in six weeks.

Shannon:

Wow.

Jerri Hayes:

Yeah.

Peter Miller:

Yeah, I think that was Hurricane Charlie.

Jerri Hayes:

Charlie, uh Francis and Gene.

Shannon:

Yeah.

Peter Miller:

Yep. I remember I remember those. We were it hit uh Hurricane Charlie was notorious um for destroying Punta Gorda, but it came all the way across the state. It was such a fast-moving storm, and that's the one thing with Florida and these buildings, that's what we talked about earlier. You know, you can look at pretty much any shed out here on any shed lot in the state of Florida, and they have to have hurricane strapping, they have to have built to a certain wind speed because of all that. And so these buildings are built very sturdily.

Jerri Hayes:

160 miles an hour. And I said, if it's if it's like that, I'm out of dodge. I'm not just gonna stay here in Florida.

Shannon:

Yeah, you get uh you got the worst introduction possible. Moving here in three and six weeks.

Jerri Hayes:

Yeah, and then yeah, and in 2004 we had and they had never had a hurricane in Winter Haven in 40 years. That's why we bought in Winter Haven.

Shannon:

Uh-huh.

Jerri Hayes:

And then the very next year after we bought, we had three hurricanes in six weeks' time.

Shannon:

They were due. That sounds like after 40 years.

Jerri Hayes:

Well, but I'm still in the same house, so we got it fixed up, so it's okay.

Peter Miller:

Yeah. Well, we're glad you stayed. Well, thank you.

Jerri Hayes:

I'm glad I stayed too, after, especially after being in Rochester, New York, and it was eight degrees. The temperature and it was uh three below zero was a chill factor there yesterday morning when I went to drop up my rental car.

Shannon:

Trust me, Jerri. I'm doing everything I can to get my wife to move down here. I told her, like, we're gonna put the pressure on her. Uh, but we'll see. We need a job, Peter.

Jerri Hayes:

Hey, it's cool here, but you know, there's no snow and there's you get wind. This is a wind tunnel here, I tell you. You go out there and everything's blowing around all the time. So that I wasn't gonna fix that doggone banner. I f I figured Peter must have put it up yesterday.

Peter Miller:

Yeah, I uh and that's one of the things, you know, signage and such. So we have uh some banners around here, but like she says, this is a wind tunnel, so we have to always be checking to make sure that you know they look right because you don't want a banner sitting out there that's you know half falling over or something like that.

Jerri Hayes:

Yeah, put some holes through it so the wind can blow through it.

Peter Miller:

Yeah, yep. So this is this is your cue to get mesh uh mesh uh banners for your shed lot. So one of the things that that we do is we try to have the different options that we have. So like if you have rent to own, you know, no credit check. Uh if you have finance options, maybe you have zero money down. Um if you do free delivery, free delivery, those are those are some of the things that we put on banners so that way as a customer is driving by, we're able to promote that, you know, find a way to get them in there.

Jerri Hayes:

I always say free delivery and free setup, you know, and I tell them how we set it up on our four-inch paper blocks, they're eight inches wide and they're sixteen inches long, and you know, that they're up off the ground. Tie them down, and then what he I always ask, are they gonna go on concrete? Are they gonna go on uh ground or whatever? You have to know all that stuff. And make sure the lot is level, make sure that when he brings it in, and he's not gonna go over your septic tank field, drain field, you know. You'll be very sorry if he does it.

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Shannon:

Are you this is uh a question I've just been like waiting to ask this whole time. Um how how do you ask for the sale? How do you ask for the money? I feel like your position is gonna be different than what we see most of the time in the industry. Like when it gets down to the whether it's payment options or something.

Jerri Hayes:

Is it gonna be cash or check?

Shannon:

It's very simple, straightforward. Yeah, it doesn't feel offensive. No, it just feels straightforward. Yeah, people want you to ask that question. Of course, and if you're nervous about asking that question, that that's gonna be tough for a salesperson.

Jerri Hayes:

You're not a salesperson if you're nervous about asking that.

Shannon:

You're you need to be in another field. That's part of the business is you have to ask for it. Yeah.

Peter Miller:

That's what we were talking about. You're gonna get it straightforward. That is about as true, rubber meets. The road is again if you feel uncomfortable about asking for that sale, yeah. You may need to either work on that, get coached on how to do that properly, or maybe it's not the right fit for you. Um, and that's spoken right there. I mean, as plain and as bold, it's very straightforward and it's not that's not emotional.

Shannon:

It's you know, it's like, hey, this is a part of business and the transaction here. We've got a good product, you know, but it costs money and we need yours, so are you gonna pay or not?

Jerri Hayes:

Everything costs money, you know. And if you have a product that they're happy with the color and the construction and they're okay with the price, then you just go ahead and say how are you gonna pay for it?

Shannon:

At what point do you ask? Do you start out with it or do you wait and like get to know them a little bit?

Jerri Hayes:

Sit down in the office after I after I show them what they want. I can I say come on in and we'll get it written up for you.

Shannon:

Okay.

Jerri Hayes:

And then once I start asking all the questions, you know, name and phone number and email address and the last four of their social and all that information. Okay, it says cash, check, or card. How are you going to pay? That's simple.

Shannon:

Yeah. There's not there doesn't have to be like overly complex, does it? No.

Jerri Hayes:

Don't make it any harder than you know, selling sheds is I like I told Peter the first day, I said, I love this job. So much easier than selling trucks, you know. I had to know so much more, you know.

Shannon:

I struggle. I definitely struggled with uh product knowledge, giving them over overcompensating with product knowledge, uh show trying to get them to understand why I believe so much and what I believe so that they would believe it too. And then ultimately um I began to like oversell. Yeah, yeah like uh they already said yes. Why am I still talking?

Jerri Hayes:

When I used to sell trucks, the first person that spoke when you gave the numbers lost.

Shannon:

Uh-huh.

Jerri Hayes:

So, if I lost, if I said okay, you know, if they said they spoke first, then that means that I had the sale.

Shannon:

So, you wait them out and you just kind of make eye contact and allow for almost even a little bit of like silence. A little bit of silence. And just uh your payments are $3.99 for this for 60 months and then silence.

Jerri Hayes:

Exactly.

Shannon:

And then if you got uh uh silence goes by 12 seconds and you it got awkward and you were like, Well, we could you lost.

Jerri Hayes:

Exactly.

Shannon:

You got it, yeah, because they're just waiting you out.

unknown:

Yeah.

Shannon:

It's I love it. I love these discussions. You can learn so much from the different people and different processes and the way they do things, and uh um I just I just knew right away you were gonna be likable. It was really easy.

Jerri Hayes:

One of the things I had difficulty with was when I every job I've ever had, even when I worked in a factory, I was the only woman in the finishing room. I was the only woman in the uh prefinish when I was on the road, you know. I'd go up to a customer's door and I'd knock on the door and they were expecting a man named Jerri Hayes, and uh this one woman came to the door in a negligee. Oh my and uh it was from like Fredericks of Hollywood with a fur all over her there, and she said, Oh, I was expecting a man. I said, obviously. And so anyway, I got her fixed up, you know, her furniture touched up and everything, and then I got out of there. But when I used to sell trucks, uh, I was introduced as a truck specialist, and the guy would be shaking my hand, looking over my shoulder. I said, Would you like to speak to a man? Would you me feel more comfortable? He said, Yes, I would. Okay, so I called a kid over here that had been here two weeks. Yeah. And I said, He wants to speak to a man. So he'd come over and I introduced him, and then I sat down at my desk about 30 seconds later. The guy comes back, he says, he doesn't know anything about trucks. I said, No kidding. Why do you think they introduced me?

Shannon:

Oh, that is the best soundbite of the my podcasting history in almost five years and 500 episodes. That might be my favorite. It's the fact that you're not afraid to talk about the things that we're often so afraid to talk about. Because you know that that kid just he just didn't know his way around yet, and being a man made no difference in the process.

Jerri Hayes:

Exactly. Well, I had I had taken the truck course, I knew all, you know, I passed it 100%, and I used to go to all the seminars on the trucks, and even sent me to Cleveland when the uh Duramax and the uh Allison transmission first came out with a diesel, and they sent me out there with one of the mechanics, and he learned uh that part, and I had to learn it all too, you know. And I wasn't a mechanic, but I had to learn it to know it.

Shannon:

I feel like we need little Jerri Isms, little sound bites of just like her, just like we need a soundboard on an app on our phone that just says, get back to work, you know, that just says, you know, like take your job serious.

Peter Miller:

Tell them the price and be quiet.

Shannon:

Tell them the price and be quiet. Exactly. Uh you need you need 15 different buttons you can hit to just be like, gosh, I'm in my head right now. I just need somebody to like shoot me straight here and tell it to see customers.

Jerri Hayes:

More customers, that's what I'd like.

Shannon:

Yeah, well, more customers have more buildings.

Jerri Hayes:

Yes, I need some buildings to sell exactly.

Shannon:

We're gonna we're gonna when we get off air here, we're gonna tag team Peter and hold him accountable.

Peter Miller:

So hey we're working on it.

Jerri Hayes:

Yeah, I was on the phone with Harris when you called me because I said, you know, remember that one that you fixed the wall on after the guy we had an accident here uh in my shed that was being delivered, and a guy pulled in. I don't know how it happened because I was in the office, and next thing I know, uh my shed's all damaged, and uh the guy's out here at his car is damaged, and we're we had utter chaos that morning.

Peter Miller:

Well, let's just say for all the shed haulers listening, when your shed hangs off the back end of your truck and you're trying to take a turn where cars are real close to one another, sometimes the back end can uh swing out further than you expect, and uh that's exactly what happened. That's what happened.

Jerri Hayes:

Yeah.

Shannon:

I may be asking a loaded question here, but what is your relationship with uh the shed hauler? You guys have a good relationship and you can like share and like uh if he needs to get a building in somewhere, you kind of go through the details with the customer to make sure the building will fit.

Jerri Hayes:

Well, I actually go out and do uh site checks.

Shannon:

Okay.

Jerri Hayes:

You know, there's one going out, I think it's tomorrow. Uh and he's in the city of Lakeland. Okay. And I went out there and I looked, and his street is like a cow path. It's so narrow. And I knew that Josh was not going to be able to get down there. I said, You've got to have another way. He said, Yeah, over here on Bella Vista, it was a wide street, and that's where the shed is going. So I made sure Josh knew how to go into Bella Vista and make the delivery easy. Because if I make it easy for him, then he always helps me out. And he likes the way I do that, the site check, because you know, I can tell from looking at it if he's gonna be able to get it in there or not.

Peter Miller:

And I can tell you the shed haulers appreciate that.

Shannon:

Oh, for sure. Yeah, that's one of the main concerns, is like the overpromising of a salesperson.

Jerri Hayes:

Yeah.

Shannon:

Like, hey, they can do anything, get it anywhere, and then it puts a lot of strain on that hauler.

Jerri Hayes:

And I always say, we do not take down fences, we don't go over septic drain fields. So if you have either one of those issues, you need to address it before we deliver your shed.

Shannon:

Well, this has been great. I've enjoyed it. This is one of my favorite interviews. Do you have any questions? Like, I don't know. I mean, I know we're here interviewing you, so we didn't prepare you for any questions. But do you have any for us, myself or Peter? Anything about podcasting, anything about sheds, anything that we can help with?

Jerri Hayes:

It's my first podcast, so I have no idea what it's all about.

Shannon:

I am so happy for to be here as your first podcast. That's great. We've done nearly 500 of these interviews, and so like we've gotten very comfortable with talking to people, and I love your process, I love your attitude, I love like the just the straightforwardness. It just it reminds me so much of yeah, just like I feel like a better America. I know that sounds like really crazy, but it really does. Like, I feel like we lost on our generations compared to like uh uh yours. And I always like to hang around people who are more elder than I because I learned from them. Uh you know, you listen to what they're saying, you get their experiences for free. You've already experienced it. I haven't. I can learn for free. I can avoid mistakes by just hearing what you have to say.

Jerri Hayes:

All you gotta do is listen.

Shannon:

That well, that's the hard part. That's the hard part.

Jerri Hayes:

Your father, your father, is he still living?

Shannon:

Yes.

Jerri Hayes:

Okay, listen to him. He's the same age as me.

Shannon:

I do. I do. We actually have a better relationship with my dad than I've ever had at this point in his life.

Jerri Hayes:

What did he do for a living?

Shannon:

Uh maintenance. Uh he grew up, had a sixth-grade education. Um, dad made him uh, you know, I grew up really poor, 16 kids, and they had uh to cut wood for a living. And like he so he had to get out of school. He was one of the boys, so he had to, you know, go and he's just had a very like hard life. Moved up to Aurora, up to Chicago for about 12 years for work to try and find work and raised a family. But he's had, you know, he's had a couple of like uh um troublesome spots in his life, if that's what you want to call it. Been married a few times. I had a you know, I'm a sixth child of a third marriage, so like you know, I come along my mother was married three times too. Yeah. Well, I think, yeah, there's I think he's got five hundred smells. We've only got one. I've been married 25 years. I'm not saying that makes it better.

Jerri Hayes:

I've been married, I was married for 105 years. I said, Ma, you can't be married for 105 years. She used to add them all up, you know.

Shannon:

Yeah, we it's been good, but I do. I go out to eat with him every week.

Jerri Hayes:

That's good.

Shannon:

And I'm thankful that that that he uh Friday night fish fry. Well, we'll all night. So Saturday, sometimes we'll hit a day just through he just likes to go to McDonald's and drink coffee and talk with his friends. And I go out there and sit with all these older men and just listen to them talk. And I'm just like a student. I'm not there to offer anything, I'm there to learn.

Jerri Hayes:

Some of those experiences, like I go to uh Tower Lakes Chapel, and there was uh three Navy veter or a Navy veteran and a marine veteran, and they were all uh telling me all their experiences of things that they had, and it was very interesting, you know, the things that they've lived through that you would have no idea about.

Shannon:

That's exactly right.

Jerri Hayes:

I mean, I was born in the middle of World War II, and obviously your father was too, you know. So, I always said my daddy wasn't in the service.

Shannon:

Same year. What month is your August. August. So, he's in July, July 11th.

Jerri Hayes:

Oh, I'm August 20th, so I'm uh Leal. He's uh cancer.

Shannon:

Yeah, six weeks behind you or behind him. Uh that's interesting. Uh well, look, I just I think you're a joy to be around. I can see why Peter enjoys having you here. Um maybe I'll call you up when it's my birthday. And uh you said you're karaoke uh fancy. Okay. Well, we'll get you to sing happy birthday.

Jerri Hayes:

No problem.

Shannon:

Thank you, Jerri. Appreciate you being with us today.

OUTRO:

Thanks again, Shed Pro, for being the Shed Geeks studio sponsor. If you need any more information about Shed Pro or about Shed Geek, just reach out. You can reach us by email at info@shedgeek.com. Or just go to our website www.shedgeek.com and submit a form with your information, and we'll be in contact right away. Thank you again for listening, as always, to today's episode of the Shed Geek Podcast. Thank you and have a blessed day.