Roofing Success
The Roofing Success Podcast is a show created to inspire roofing contractors to achieve optimal success in their roofing businesses. The host, Jim Ahlin, is the co-author of the book, "Internet Marketing For Roofing Contractors, How to TRIPLE Your Sales and Turn Your Roofing Website Into an Online Lead Generation Machine", and Co-Founder of Roofer Marketers, the Digital Marketing Agency for the roofing industry. On each episode, Jim will be sitting down with industry leaders to talk about their processes, the lessons they learned, and how to find success in roofing.
Roofing Success
From Rock Bottom to Roofing Empire: How He Signed 50 Contracts in a Week with Cole Haynes
How do you go from addiction and rock bottom…to signing 50 roof contracts in ONE WEEK and scaling to $10M?
Meet Cole Haynes, the founder of Escalade Roofing. In this episode, he shares the raw truth of how he battled through addiction, betrayal, and burnout, and used roofing to rewrite his future.
💥 No roadmap.
💥 No investors.
💥 Just grit, God, and Google reviews.
Cole built a powerhouse team of sales reps from gym buddies, sauna convos, and church friends. His first summer? 50 roofs and $70K in personal sales. Now? He's stacking contracts, automating with tech, and training a faith-driven sales force that's STORM-READY and scaling fast.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- How Cole signed 50 contracts in 7 days
- His secret for hiring A-players and building a no-drama team
- The exact tools & systems Escalade uses to handle explosive growth
- Why referrals, reviews, and networking CRUSH paid leads
- How to dominate even without knocking doors
Plus, Cole’s secret weapon? His faith. His team kicks off every meeting with a verse, and lives by it.
If you're launching your company, scaling past $3M, or dreaming about that $10M+ year…
You’ll feel this one in your soul. And walk away ready to build your own empire.
🔗 Links:
https://escaladeroofing.com/
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How do you go from battling addiction for over a decade to building one of the fastest growing roofing companies in your city in under a year? That's exactly what Cole Haynes is doing. In 2023, he launched Escalade Roofing from scratch. No investors, no roadmap, just grit, faith and an unstoppable drive to create a better life for his family. Now he's leading a storm-ready team that signed over 50 contracts in a single week and he's aiming to break $10 million in revenue this year. In this episode, cole reveals how he built a high-performance sales team from friends, gym buddies and sauna conversation, the tech and systems he's using to handle this explosive growth, and why door knocking, google reviews and BNI networking are still his top lead sources. Also, he talks about how faith, discipline and content are driving his company culture. If you're early in your journey or pushing past that $3 million mark, this episode is packed with real, raw advice you can put into work right now.
Speaker 1:Let's jump in with Cole Haynes from Escalade Roofing. Welcome to the Roofing Success Podcast. I'm Jim Alleyne and I'm here to bring you insights from top leaders in the roofing industry to help you grow and scale your roofing business. Cole Haynes, what's up? Escalate Roofing? Yes, sir, that's North Carolina these days.
Speaker 2:Well, it's a lot better, since we just got two and a half inches in the rail a couple of days ago. March 16th hit us good all through the heart of our main city. So life is good. The guys are out there crushing it right now signing contracts like crazy. It's a good day, day for sure we needed it.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's awesome. We'll talk about a lot of the preparation and how you got to. You know to be able to capitalize on that, on the storm when it comes through. But, you know, give the listeners a little bit of background on you and Escalade.
Speaker 2:Give the listeners a little bit of background on you and Escalade yeah so well I mean my life story like I grew up in Oklahoma City, oklahoma, and then kind of like grew up in a rough life. I was raised by an alcoholic father and I was surrounded by drugs a lot of my life and so I struggled with addiction for like the first 15 major years of my life, so from like 12 until I was like 30. I was, I was deep in addiction. So, um, that was a big part of you know me and and going through it, you know, just trying to get out of it and um, so I moved to North Carolina to kind of escape that because a lot of my my friends were getting shot and we were just in bad you know bad group of people. So I tried to escape it, moved to North Carolina and then I kind of got right back in it like addiction, you know bad group of people. So I tried to escape it, moved to North Carolina and then I kind of got right back in it like addiction, you know, just kind of takes over. So I do have that that you know story where you know addiction and alcoholism had a hold of me, but I did overcome it. You know, I found, found God, and he gave me the power over those things and I got deliverance from it, and so life is much better now. So I met my wife here. I was married once before. I've got three kids with her divorced, and then I'm remarried. Now I've got a two-year-old with my other wife from South America. So she's from Columbia, so very happy. So how I got into roofing, though, was I was teaching at a school, I was a network administrator, I was always in technology and stuff like that, um, and so I ran the network over there.
Speaker 2:My daughter starts dating this this uh boy. His dad owns a roofing company, um, but he's just a sub and he's doing 19 roofs a week. And so, um, like, he's coming up in these huge trucks and I'm like man, you know that dude's got some money. And then, um, so she starts dating him and, uh, I get in his house. He's got marble floors. I mean it looks like one of those columbian houses you know, just like marble, crystal chandeliers, like keypads on every door. And he's rebuilding the house to like two and three stories and and, uh, redoing the like the, the attic space, and in the in the frame, like the, the, the basement and stuff, just building it out. I'm just like dang, like must be nice, you know. And so um get in there and and I'm in his house. He's like yeah, you can make a lot of money. You want to sell some roofs for me? I was like dude, I could sell anything, you know, just tell me what to do.
Speaker 2:He sets up an appointment with another business owner. You know he was doing roofs as a subcontractor. So one of the roofing business owners takes me on an inspection because I sold a roof through my friend at church. So I get up on the roof. He's like that's hail, that's wind. It was like the perfect inspection. It showed exactly what hell and wind was. Um, so after that, like, I got that first check for like a thousand bucks and I was like off to the races after that.
Speaker 2:So, um, I think I would say like that three, three months that I was off for summer vacation when I was teaching, I did at least 50 roof contracts sold, you know, made about 60, $70,000 that summer and then just took off, you know, from there and then the way I got out of it was, you know, I told him. I was like you know, I'm building your business. You know, like you had zero five stars on Google and you've got 67 five stars. Now, like you know, can we talk about maybe some equity? Like you know, you bring me as a partner. And he just kind of chuckled, like laughed at me, like you know, you're crazy, I know. And then I was like all right, and then you know, that was in my mind like he's never going to partner with me.
Speaker 2:Then I sold like a $70,000 metal roof. I was figuring out what's labor, what's material. He was telling his crews don't tell Cole nothing. Don't tell Cole how much I'm paying you for labor. Don't tell Cole the suppliers. Don't tell him how much the materials are. He was trying to hide it all.
Speaker 2:And so I found out and like I figured out how much we profited on that metal, if it was like 40 grand. And then he gave me a check for 5 000 and I was like dude, like we had an agreement like 60 40 on the profit. You know we split, like it was a handshake thing, but but I mean I was. I think I did over $2 million in sales with him, you know my first year, and so I was doing supplementing too. I learned Xactimate I was doing all the supplementing stuff. So at the end of it, he owed me like $70,000 in supplements, $7,000 in roofs like seven roof payments never saw a dime of it in roofs like seven roof payments never saw a dime of it. Um, but got out and like off to the races again. Uh, march 2023. We started escalade roofing and basically just did it all over again by myself and that was, um, the best thing that ever happened to me.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's awesome, it's cool. Like it's the opportunity and roofing is so tremendous. Um, and it's crazy, it was um martin pedigree that I've had on a couple times. He talks about it too. He was. I think he was like a. He was working at a golf club and like these guys would pull up in these big trucks and like he's like what do these guys do man? Like what it? Like these, what did these guys do man Like what? Like these are like what I got to do something like that. And it's amazing how just the just seeing it can give you the kind of the motivation to, to, to achieve it. Right, like it, it's something that that's something real special. Okay, so you hit the ground running. Right, like this is this, is it? Now, I know what I'm, you know I know, I know what I know, I know what. Uh, maybe you don't know what you don't know, but like what have been the biggest challenges? Cause you're, you're not. Uh, let's just from our conversations you didn't, you didn't start, you didn't try to start off slow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember him telling me you can't make over $2,000 on a roof, cole, that's crazy, you can't make more than $2,000. I always thought, okay, we're only making $2,000 on this roof. I sold my first little roof, you know, in March, when I started it and, um, I made like five or six grand on it. So I was like all right, well, he's a liar, you know and so that was just like that moment when I saw that, you know, it was just like, man, we're, we're going now, you know, um, the opportunity for my family, you know, to provide like a better life. It just lit a fire in me. That was just crazy.
Speaker 2:And I would just say anybody that's starting out, you know, starting a company or trying to get your sales going, you got to get out there and just knock those doors. You know, um, the first year I would say so I I'm never probably going to have to knock another door again if I don't want to, but I like to actually knock doors because it's just, it's just right there, I mean it's it's money, just, um, coming to you, you know it's. It's it's just if you can show that customer why, you know, uh, you're the guy for the job, like I mean, it's just really easy to sell at the door. So, um, yeah, I mean I would just. I would just say and what was your question again, jim Um?
Speaker 1:kind of some of the some of the biggest challenges that you've faced. Like what are you know? Like you know, cause you, like I said from our conversations you hit the ground, running man. You're like I'm going this is all and everything. We're going hard. You know, in my experience, when I run like that I break stuff, and so you know what stuff did you break along the way and what lessons have you learned from that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm the same type, like I mean, I'm just like from a fire hose, like I'm just going to go and, you know, seek and kill everything in my path. And uh, my, my father-in-law would tell me I'm like a bull in a China shop. You know I'm just going to go in there and just go crazy and get it done. But um, uh, the challenges would be, you know, in starting out, you got to make sure you, you know you have everything done legally. You know you've got to make sure you have all your licenses, your permits, your, you know, insurance, general liability or workers comp. And you know, starting out, just making sure everything is done, you know legally is the main thing. And then also you go through a lot of crews. You know, like my first year, in the beginning of from March to like the summer, I had like 30 or 40 1099 installer guys. And like I'm like going through this audit right now, it's like, yeah, you got 40 subcontractors used in six months and I was just trying to find the best ones, you know. And so you go through some of those installers that maybe aren't the craftsmen you know. And so you go through some of those installers that maybe aren't the craftsmen, you know, maybe they're not the ones that know copper work or or know how to do a tpo flat roof, you know. And so, um, filtering through and finding those good crews, because I mean a lot of those other roofing companies, they're not going to tell you who the best crews are, they're not going to try to help you, they want you to fail. So, um, just going through that and you know, just finding you a good crew.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was picking up a crew at ABC supply, talking to a guy like in the parking lot hey, you do roofing, yeah, I do roofing, and it's like all right, well, I hope you're good, you know. And then just monitoring them and making sure they know what they're doing. And so that's some of the challenges is just making sure you're legal, making sure that everything's done up to the quality that you're setting the standard for, because my goal when I started Escalade Roofing was to never have an unhappy customer, and that was in my mind and that's what I trained my employees. It's like we will not allow an unhappy customer, and you see that in our Google reviews and we have over 125 Google reviews they're all five stars and nobody's ever put a bad one in there, except for another roofing company. I'm convinced it was another roofing company that gave us a bad review, and so we responded professionally and it is what it is, but it's still there. But yeah, we pride ourselves and when we step on the customer's lawn they become family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. What have been some of the things that have been most helpful, or what are the lessons that you've learned in hiring crews? What are you looking for? What questions are you asking them before you hire them? How do you find the good ones?
Speaker 2:I would say the copper. If they do copper, you automatically know these guys know what they're doing. So copper is a good telltale sign of like the best of the best crews, because the copper guys are the ones that know how to fabricate metal. They know how to mold and shape metal Um, and those are typically the best ones. And also TPO crews if they do flat roofing uh, typically, if they have that type of uh work behind them, they've had training and shingles and other things like that.
Speaker 2:Also, make sure that they have their workers comp insurance, cause in the beginning I had, you know, uh crews that I was hiring and they told me they had workers comp and then they didn't have it at that time and so I got hit with a big insurance bill at the end of the year like, yeah, you know they didn't. Actually they weren't carrying the policy during the that time that you were using them, so I had to pay uh for that workers comp insurance bill that they they didn't have. So, just making sure your crews have workers comp insurance, uh, that's very important and I would just look, yeah, look for the guys that know custom copper, and those are usually the ones that are the best.
Speaker 1:So one of the things you said is you know, when you, when you started out, you just you went. You went door to door like and that's what I think I think in the beginning you have to be aggressive about acquiring business. Uh, another person I've had on the podcast, juan Reyes, and he didn't even know how to bid a roof. He went out and printed 250 business cards and went door to door until someone said yes and then he found a crew that would help him bid the roof. Like there's this motivation that you need to have to get to a job and those jobs come door to door. Were there recent storms or were you just like I just need work, I'm going to go get it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean a lot of that's just figuring it out as you go right and when you mess something up, like you're never going to do that again, so, but you're learning in the moment. So I would, I would tell my guys, like just get out there and mess some stuff up. I mean, don't, don't make a big mess, but you know, get out there and just be vulnerable and that's the best way that you're going to learn. You have to allow them to make those types of mistakes. You're just going to hold their hand and tell them exactly what to do every time. It's almost like I'm trying to replicate myself and my experience and every single one of my guys, and so, just being strategic about that, like don't hold their hand and tell them every little thing. It's like give them the tools, but also allow them to mess up, uh, so that they are learning, you know. Um, that's very important.
Speaker 1:And I would assume that's for yourself too, when you're getting started, right, like, go out there, understand that you're going to. You're not going to have the best pitch. You may screw this up, you may bid this job incorrectly, you may have to eat something on this one, right, you may have to like. I think we need to understand. I heard a great quote recently and I'm going to butcher it a little bit, but, but it's um, we're practicing for things in the future that are unimaginable to us now, and I loved that it was from a guy named myron golden, and I love that he used the word practicing.
Speaker 2:We're always learning. Like Martin Pettigrew says 1% better every day. 1% better man, like every day.
Speaker 1:We got to give ourselves that grace Right, and so what allowed what? How did you overcome that mentally, like, was it just that you had, you know, the faith in the outcome? What was it that you that allowed you to just go out there and go for it Like, all right, I'm leaving this company, I'm starting a new company, I'm going to go get business, like, what was, what were some of those things that for you, yeah, so I mean I kind of got lucky because I learned how to grow a roofing company before I started my own.
Speaker 2:I basically built this business from the ground up because he was only subcontracting jobs. So I kind of like used that year to sell and to learn, because I learned how to create his brand, I learned how to grow his Google reviews, I learned how to knock doors and I messed up a lot of stuff under his name, which didn't hurt my name. Now, like you know, a year later, when I'm starting Escalade, I'm like off to the races. I know how to get the insurance. You know my wife has her business. You know degree two and marketing degree.
Speaker 2:So she's like, she's kind of like the spaghetti monster in the sky, like nobody sees her much, but she's she's like, you know, the puppet master working all the things in the background with the brand and the content, and you know things like that. So, um, we, we make a good little duo. Um, but yeah, I mean there's just so much to it. You just keep getting better every day. I mean there's so much things that you can do after knocking doors. You know. Now I'm going into these B&I groups and I heard networking group was really good, and so now.
Speaker 2:I've got a networking group, b&i Greensboro. I've got my COO in High Point and I've got another guy, sales guy, in Kernersville, and so we've got these networking groups where all these insurance agencies, real estate companies, property management companies are all you know. And the thing about BNI is you're loyal to the group and so your focus is to give referrals to the other people, and the more referrals that you give, the more referrals that you receive, and so that's just a huge thing too is just, I would say, get into a networking group.
Speaker 2:It's going to really grow your network in your local community and help connect you to other businesses that are successful. The other thing where I learned at Dimitri's conference in 2023 of December, I kept hearing like Eustace Roofing, monarch Roofing and all these big companies. They just kept saying content, like make content, and at the beginning I was like that's that, that doesn't make sense, like I don't know. It's like content, like what is content? Who cares, you know? But then, like that's what all the huge companies were saying, like that's how they grow their business, make content. And so I know you could speak to that. Like that's you.
Speaker 2:You got a big deal making content, like um in a podcast, and so I just went super heavy and I started living my life on camera.
Speaker 2:You know, live, you know just let basically like showing people my family and you know doing cool videos in, uh, my personal page and also run an escalate roofing page and showing what we do every day.
Speaker 2:And content was key. Like content's huge for growing your business, even as a sales rep, if you're up there on a roof and you sold a roof and you do a customer testimonial real quick, it's like, hey, you know, I'm here with Mrs Johnson, you know, we just got our roof approved by her insurance company Like she's super happy and just be excited and like can you you know, we just got our roof approved by her insurance company like she's super happy, and just be excited and like can you, you know, just give us a quick testimonial on your experience with escalade roofing. And then she's like like 20 seconds but then boom, like that customer testimonial goes out to thousands of people, um, and if you can share it into local facebook groups too, then you're getting it in front of 30,000 local people in your city. And there's just so many ways to grow your business through networking, content and referrals.
Speaker 1:Referrals is massive too. Yeah, customer content and authentic. A lot of times you think maybe you need to hire a guy like Patrick Carr or someone to come out and do some real. I used it, yeah, I used it. Patrick's awesome. Like there is a time for that professional content.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But on the other side of that, just pulling out your phone and having a conversation with a homeowner boy, that is impactful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like a live Google review.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, it's like a live Google review. Yeah, yeah, it's. It's amazing, the opportunities that heard people say like it's not so much about the quality, it's more so about the quantity, because, like they um, bradley, bradley would say, I'll take somebody like me that's going to go out and knock 10 doors, versus somebody you know that's just starting out that's going to go and knock 100 doors. That guy that's knocking 100 doors is going to kick my ass every time. That's what he said. So it's because the numbers are just multiplying. You do want quality Quality is super important but the guy over here producing the quantity is just going to crush you out. And so that's what I do really good at. I just go just crazy. I'm just doing massive quantity on all levels, with the content, with the networking groups, with the knocking doors, with the you know just everything.
Speaker 1:Kind of like just pour it all in, you know yeah, as much activity as possible, because that activity leads to a lot more activity, and that activity leads to more activity and that activity leads to more activity, and it's such a snowball effect. You made a comment that you don't even really have to go out and knock doors anymore, right? Is that from the referral network that you've built, then?
Speaker 2:Yep. So yeah, I mean I would never have to probably knock another door if I didn't want to. And now my schedule is getting so crazy I can't even really get out there anymore with the business growing. But yeah, just because I have so many real estate agents that know me as the roofer, I have so many property management companies that know me as the roofer management companies that know me as the roofer, so many general contractors that know me, insurance agents, local agents, farm bureaus, state farm agents all state agents that know me as the roofer and refer me to their community, to their customers, and so it's just. And they have my cell phone. I give my cell phone out to everybody because they can go to the office number too. But I mean the office number gets flooded. So you know I want people to come to me, um, because I know it's going to get done when it comes through my phone. I'm a I love texting because you know you shoot me a text, I'm on top of it. We're going to get it done immediately, get it scheduled, whatever it is. And so, just surrounding yourself with those types of people and those relationships and companies Like, for example, I went to my B&I group.
Speaker 2:Last Friday I was visiting another chapter and there was this lady in there. I just met her the week before and she said, oh, I got a referral for you and she sent she referred it. She sent me the email and I looked at it. It was 1715 HOA buildings that she wanted replaced. She's like, well, I hope you get it. You know, go bid on it. And she's like it's with this company. And I was like, oh, we're already with that company, so we're already on the vendor list for that company and we have the HOA vice president's referral for us. So those kinds of things. Right, there is just, it's a game changer. Those relationships equals sales.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm going to. Oh, you should bid on this. Oh yeah, we are, we are, and they know us. And now you have another person. What would you do this year? Right, like, in door to door is different. Right, like that's, we'll throw direct sales and marketing, like if you just turned everything off, but we're allowed to receive referrals. What would you do this year, right, like that's a good question to ask. That's a good question to ask. The more people you do good work for, the more people you build relationships with, the higher that base becomes. Exactly, that foundation continues to grow. Everyone knows that company that's been around their area for 30, 40 years. Everyone knows who they are every day. Yeah, they, they don't show up on google, they don't do like they don't.
Speaker 1:They don't knock. They don't knock doors, they just answer their phone.
Speaker 2:Sometimes they quote, three times higher. And they get the work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they get the work, yeah, and they get the work right. That is the outcome of what you build along the way right. That's the outcome of it.
Speaker 2:Of being somebody that they know like and trust.
Speaker 1:That's right, and you mentioned that you really wanted to make sure that you had a great customer experience. How have you gone about shaping that? Because there's a lot that goes into it. Before we carry on with the episode, let's give a shout out to one of our sponsors.
Speaker 1:I talk to contractors every day that feel stuck. Contractors every day that feel stuck Not because they're not working hard, but because they're missing the structure to growth, without chaos or their culture's falling apart, because their team's unclear, unaligned or just burned out. And when change hits, they're reacting instead of leading because time and priorities aren't under their control. Day 41 Thrive helps to fix that with proven strategies for growth, culture and leadership that actually work, Ready to thrive beyond the storm. Visit the link in the description or visit the Roofing Success podcast website on the sponsors page to start your journey today. Website on the sponsors page to start your journey today. You really wanted to make sure that you had a great customer experience. How have you gone about shaping that? Because that's a you know there's a lot that goes into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so one of the things that I would tell myself in the beginning, when I started the company, was you know, I'm just, I'm not going to allow me, you know, the company to ever have an unsatisfied customer. And so that was what I would say is like, when we step on your lawn, you become family, and that's what I tell uh, all, all the team. You know, that's, that's the mentality, right, it's like we're going to treat you like we would our grandma, like our mom, and that's how we do things. And we haven't had that bad review yet. So we do have over 125 five-star reviews and we've worked hard for that.
Speaker 2:And there is always those difficult customers, right, and they try to make it tough. And like, for example, there was one customer that we put on an Owens Corning uh duration. It was an Owens Corning duration roof and, um, the supplier sent Owens Corning Oak Ridge but duration was on the order and so we put the whole roof on. Everything was perfect, the color was right, you know, it looked beautiful. But this guy was like a micro, just, he was a doctor. He read into every little detail of the roof and he said, well, these, you know, shingles are, are this this thick and the duration is this thick, and you know, this is unacceptable and just was one of those just like super difficult, and so we ended up just like, all right, well, we're just going to take it off and we're going to put you a duration roof on, because that's what you want.
Speaker 2:And so those are the kind of things that maybe it takes you, you lose, you know, four, four grand, or you break even or whatever it might be, um, but you keep that customer happy and you keep those gober reviews. Uh, five stars, and I just won't allow one star review Like it. It just it can't happen. Um, and even four star reviews like made me mad, like I've had a four star review and it's like, yeah, you guys were awesome, but you know, there was just this one little thing and, um, well, let's fix it, you know, and let's get that Google rating up to five, and so that's super important because your reputation on Google is your everything, you know.
Speaker 1:It's everything. People trust online reviews more than a recommendation from a friend or family member. It's crazy if you think about it, right, like, yeah, it's kind of crazy, yeah, but, but that social proof is impactful. But the other aspect of that is that you did, you did the right thing and, and you know, if you're not doing a lot of work, that may impact you financially a little bit more than if you are doing a lot of work, right, but but at the same time, like the, the impact on that homeowner long-term, long-term, what they will say about you long-term is you know, man, they, they actually made a mistake, put the wrong shingle on, tore it off and put the correct shingle on, like that's. That is sometimes more. That story can be more impactful than they did a good job, it's the ripple it's the ripple effect, you know for sure.
Speaker 2:I mean, imagine if they go and give you a one-star review and they say I ordered this, and then you know they put on this and this company's lying. You know it's not honest, and then it's like your whole reputation is destroyed over that one little thing and it's like dude reputation is is so important. I mean, nothing's more important than than integrity and in the company you know yeah, so now you're you know what do you have?
Speaker 2:you're you have about reps this year. Is that what you're running? And so over 200,000 homes were destroyed. I think we've signed over 50 contracts in the first week. So, hallelujah, you've hired more reps. You're hiring even more reps.
Speaker 1:You're in the middle of a storm that you're trying to capitalize on. How are you thinking about it and preparing to train these reps properly so that you still continue to get that great customer experience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we have a door-to-door university. We went through door-to-door experts with Sam Taggart and we have that D2D university. So we do about 14 days of training on the computer, split with about 14 days of shadow day in the office, and then they'll go out the second part of the day and follow those guys around and really listen to those guys that are being successful and getting them trained. I've noticed that we're trying to bring in all these people and stuff but not everybody's built for this thing. It's not for everybody, but those that do have the gift or are coachable and can learn this thing can do exceptionally well at it.
Speaker 2:My top sales rep, rob. He sold 27 roofs in his first six months. He made, I think, $80,000, $90,000 his first six months and then won the Rolex. He won the end of the year, rolex last year and then now he's going crazy in this storm dude. I think he sold like 20 contracts in the past week and a half, two weeks. He's just a door-knocking machine. He grew up very poor in Virginia. I think people that grow up poor just when they find this thing and the ability to provide something for your family. It just lights a fire in you like no other. And I mean he'll, he'll knock doors all day long and he'll get three, four contracts a day consistently in big, old, huge neighborhoods like and, and that's what it takes. I mean you got to put the grind and the grit into it and go knock the doors and and um, but he's just a sweet old country boy and people can't tell him no, how do you put that grit and grind into someone, or how do you?
Speaker 1:if they don't have it, how do you determine that yeah, they're not, that we don't, we, we can't put the effort into that, or, you know, maybe you have something. I, I see something. Where are you at with that?
Speaker 2:yeah. So I've heard people say that they'll hire C players and they'll keep C players because they can get a little bit out of them. But I look at it differently. I say that we're only looking for A players, and you know, you might be a B player now, but we're going to get you to become an A player through the training, through you know the time that we spend with you, because we, because we're trying to win the Superbowl we, we don't want to lose in the playoffs. We, we don't want to. You know we're all competitive Um, we're.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of athletes that work for Escalade too, and athletes are great sales people too, because athletes don't like to lose. And so when you throw a leaderboard up there and you throw a competition board, and then you're like all right, know this, this week, whoever signs the most contracts gets two thousand dollars cash. And then it's like, oh my god, like I was thinking like a hundred dollars cash, like you're gonna give us two thousand dollars cash and that is gonna just make them go crazy and knock doors. And when you have the tools to track it and give them the tools to be successful like sales rabbit, um, we use roof link as our crm and sales rabbit is. A is a is an application where you can go and track every door that you've been to. You can say if the customer signed, you can say if they're not interested. You can say if it has visible damage, you can say if, if you know they're not home, and so then you can assign these little areas out to these. Or you know, two and a half inch hail hit, you're going to circle the area and you're going to have that rep go to that area and they're going to go and they're going to keep track of that neighborhood. Um, really cool tool. I recommend.
Speaker 2:Sales rabbit. Um roof link is a really good crm roof link. Actually just sold to sales rabbit. Sales rabbit Um roof link is a really good CRM roof link. Actually just sold to sales rabbit. Sales rabbit bought and so we got. We got a good deal on uh on sales rabbit because of that merge. So wow yeah.
Speaker 1:Are you so? How are you tracking your sales team? What are the important metrics that you feel, the most important metrics that you feel that they need to hit on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis to to determine, for you to determine if they're going to be successful or for them to find success?
Speaker 2:So before, um, we weren't even tracking these guys, and that was a big mistake. It was like, well, just kind of go do what you can do, you know. And then, but then I went to, uh, I joined Rise Up Kings and I joined a mastermind. It was like a for Christian business owners. And uh, my, my battle buddy at Rise Up Kings, he's actually a billionaire. His name's Troy Duhon. He owns Premier Auto, one of the biggest car dealerships in the United States.
Speaker 2:And so, Troy, I told him I was like we don't have an office and I'm working out of the house. And he's like what? And it's amazing what a relationship will do for you, right, Like somebody that, like Randy Hurtado, shout out to Randy Hurtado, I love him. Man, Like he's just a good dude. Like he's in the industry DT, DT, roofing out of Texas, he's so helpful man, Like I can call him anytime and he's just like do this. And it's like cool, Like that, just, you've been in the industry for three years. You've already messed this up. I know the answer. So, um, those types of relationships, uh, are worth the weight of gold, you know, Um and so, um, who was I talking about before? Randy? The? Uh, you're from, from, rise up. So rise up, Kings Troy, he, he, you know I'm telling him I don't have an office.
Speaker 2:He's like dude, like get an office, you know. Uh, how are you going to speak life into your people? How are you going to light fires into them every day? How are you going to encourage them? You know, we were having like a meeting at a sale, a sales meeting at a coffee shop, once a week and it's like all right. So now we, we bought this office space, you know, and ever since then, in the month of August of last year, we did over 500,000 in sales, our first month as an office. And so that was huge. Like you have to have an office to, to train to, to motivate, you know, to, to teach these, to get these guys on fire.
Speaker 2:Um, and then the the way that we started, and then Troy also said this. He said he said, um, there's a saying that says like that which you, that which you track, will improve faster. And so we weren't really tracking much, Like it was just like all right, well, you know, sign a contract every day. But then we started like making the guys in the sales meetings like all right, let's go up on the board. What do you got this week? How many contracts have you signed? How much revenue did you do, um? You know, how many doors did you knock, um, you know, um, how much retail jobs did you do, um?
Speaker 2:And then, yeah, but there's, there's like we wanted to keep it simple, but there's like five or six, right, just things to make them accountable for. You know, this is what you have to do. So the first week we started tracking it. Everybody went up there and wrote zero and I'm like zero Because I went up there and I wrote like 10. I had 10 for me. And then the next week you could see like, oh okay, here's a two, there's a three, Rob's got a five. And then, as soon as we started tracking and making them write it up on the board, um, the numbers just just improved drastically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a big, it's a big, it's a big. It will create a big impact on your business and then it also will really help you make better people decisions.
Speaker 2:Right Easy to let them go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it's like easy to let them go, but or just even simply like man, what's going on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, invest. You know, are you having trouble at the more. Are you having trouble at the door? Are you having trouble at the kitchen table? Where are you having troubles? Let's see if we can fix that and then, if you can't fix that, maybe it's not right for you. Maybe we have another role for you, maybe we don't, but having the metrics out there, the most important metrics that you could track on that for that role on an ongoing basis is is is super, super impactful. Um, what are you doing to ensure that your team is getting the Google reviews, cause you've done a great job yourself, but now how do you transfer that to the team?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean, the way that I was most successful with Google reviews was, you know, just a simple text Like I've got a copy and paste text to you know the group, and I always remind them like, don't forget to send out your text to the Google reviews, because a direct text to the homeowner with the link to the Esql google page, that works great. But we've also got this new app where it automatically follows up multiple times for every signed customer, um, and so even after the initial inspection, it'll start requesting a review based on the inspection you know um, and then all the way down until you know we close the job. And so those, those follow up apps are vital, because it was cool once we started using it. I just started seeing like five star reviews just come up randomly and it's like wow, that's so much easier than having to text them and follow up with them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. So it's just consistency in the ask, yeah, and it sounds like you've kind of taken it off their plate a little bit. It's not just on them, you're not just relying on your team, you're relying on technology and automations to also be to fill the gaps there where they miss out. You know you got a big goal this year and a big jump 10 million. What, what operational things did you put in place? Did you get? You know, hire some job site supervisor, like? What did you do? You know, from an operational standpoint, did you have to hire people in office, a production manager, what were those? You know to go from three to ten. That's you know you got some systems put in place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Outside of the sales reps. What did you put in place?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we did get the site supervisor for the jobs, the installs, and the site supervisor will go out and get those reviews or not the reviews, but the you know the neighbors right and talk to the neighbors and try to sell the jobs to them as well. The neighbors, right and talk to the neighbors and try to sell the jobs to them as well. It really helps the sales guys to not have to oversee their, their projects as a project manager as much, so that you know they don't have to run materials. They don't have to. You know, oversee the project and make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. The installers they can go out there and sell more, and so that's a key position. And then you know just what was the question again.
Speaker 1:The, the. The operational team that you put in place like what things did you put in place operationally to support? I know you're enjoying the episode, but let's give a shout out to another one of our sponsors. As a roofing marketing agency owner and coach, I've seen it all Great marketing wasted because no one follows up fast enough. That's why I built Power Up Agents, Not just a receptionist. Our AI handles the entire customer journey, from answering the first call to booking the job, to post job surveys and reviews 24-7 inbound, outbound, even multilingual. If you want leads followed up instantly and customers nurtured automatically, visit the link in the description or visit the sponsors page on the Roofing Success Podcast website. Your full AI team is ready. The operational team that you put in place like what things did you put in place operationally to support the growth that you're looking to get Well, so?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, I didn't have my coffee today. I just realized that's right, um. So so, yeah, I mean, obviously, like that two and a half inch hailstorm, that that might do it honestly. But yeah, to be able to handle all that stuff that's going to be coming down honestly like um, you just have to have a CRM that's, like you know, up to date as far as like it needs to be running seamlessly.
Speaker 2:And that's what I like about RoofLink is it takes you down from step from the inspection to, you know, signing the contract, to measuring the roof, to sending out the quote to the homeowner and having them sign it, and then, after they sign it, you measure the roof and you can order the materials. It's going to order the materials, it's going to schedule the labor with your crew and then it's going to create an invoice. And so RoofLink was built by roofers, so they know the streamlined process of of what it takes to scale, and so it's built for that um and it really just it automates the entire process, um, so just making sure that roof links, like you know, um 100 accurate, making sure that we're staying on top of closing out the jobs and, and you know, um other than that it kind of runs itself and then bringing in other tools, you know, like like sales rabbit um, hail, trace um, you know, just making sure the guys have all the tools they they need uh to be successful in the position as well.
Speaker 1:Uh so technology is leaning on technology.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's the only way to get it, and I think once I get to 10 million, then I'm gonna have to figure some other stuff out too. It's like I broke three last year and you know, three is manageable. It's like at three. It's like you don't even necessarily maybe need a crm at three.
Speaker 2:I don't know um you can run it off of, you know like company cam or something, right, yeah then yeah you know, then you come into three plus and it's like, okay, we got serious systems, but then when you break 10 go into 40 and 50 million. I'm sure there's all kinds of other stuff that that we need to figure out right yeah, we talked about like and you started out in sales.
Speaker 1:You know you kind of alluded like I could sell anything, like just give me a shot. When you started off in roofing, what do you feel now, looking at you know kind of, you know, being in the door to door network group and being around some of the some successful sales trainers, what was it that you had Like, what made you an effective closer right away?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, um, I think, just showing, showing genuinely like that you care, um, just being an honest you know honest person, and and the thing about roofing is you're helping people, so it's really I would say it's probably one of the easiest things in the world to sell, especially when everybody's getting a new roof, and is you're helping people, so it's really I would say it's probably one of the easiest things in the world to sell, especially when everybody's getting a new roof and then you're stuck with the ugly roof on the block and it's like I want a new roof. What's going on over there, you know, um, and just having like that five-star company back backing you, um, I mean it's, it's really an easy thing to to, to sell to people when they know like and trust you. You know, um, I think that's the biggest piece is just, uh, the integrity piece, and you know, I mean we can go into God for a minute.
Speaker 2:You know, like I said, I was struggling as an addict and and I went to that rise of Kings program and we, we went through that and and the four pillars of Rise Up Kings is faith, family, fitness and finance. And so really bringing God into the company. And I like to say, like this like man, like we work on the plan of addition, but God works on the plan of multiplication, and so with with man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible, and so my relationship with God really really was a big part of how we grew so so quickly, I think, because he opens the doors of heaven and pours you out blessings that you cannot hold, and so that's so important for me. It's like there's a lot of things that happened as the business grew, where I knew it wasn't me, it had to be God, and so I would say like that's probably like the number one thing that I would advise people to put at the front of their life and their company is put God at the head, because the Bible says that you know, we're not called to be the head, we're not called to be the tail, we're called to be the head, and so that's what I instill in all of my employees.
Speaker 2:Every sales meeting. We've got a little devotional. Our Bible verse for the year to memorize is Ephesians 3.20. And Ephesians 3.20 says to him who is able to do exceeding and abundantly above all, that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, and so we're able to do exceeding and abundantly. Above all, we can even think according to God in us, and so we're able to do exceeding and abundantly. Above all, we can even think according to God in us. And so that's what we're memorizing as a team, and I'm trying. You know God wants us to prosper.
Speaker 2:The Bible says that. You know, he lays, he puts up kings and he brings down kings. And if you look at the history of the Bible, like Joseph, he was a king of Egypt, and Daniel was the king of Babylon, and David and Solomon were the kings of Israel, and so they were the kings of the massive nations. And so, um, we know that, and that's what we put in front of the company is, is you know to put God first, and um, that's how we start every meeting, and and um, I think that's how you really retain good people too is you're not just helping them grow in self-development, but you, you're helping them grow spiritually, and I think that that really um speaks. You know, I mean, that's just gonna gonna keep those people right, the good people um, if you're helping them grow, yeah and it's it.
Speaker 1:It's your culture too. Right, right, like, so. Your culture attracts people that are like-minded and it repels people that are not like-minded. Right, and so, within what you're building is it continues to evolve and grow from there. How many of the new team members came from existing team members, or did you just go out and cold recruit? Has it gotten to that point where it's like oh no, I know a guy too, I know someone from my church.
Speaker 2:Some of our top salesmen came through recruits and friends of them. Yeah, like Adam. Adam saw me pumping out ro roofs for lemus roof and I put him in the uh, I put him in the app like because I knew he'd be a good salesperson. I was trying to bring him on to lemus on the old roofing company and he's like dude cole's selling like four roofs a week, like what's going on, and he's an engineer with the box company. You know he's making seventy thousand dollars a year. And so I was, I but started Escalade. Adam came on board. And then so Adam brought on Pierre and Pierre's just crushing, like I mean he's a killer. And then Pierre brought on Darren and Darren is a machine, I mean he's a military guy and he's just going crazy. Um, and you know, just um.
Speaker 2:And then I got on, I got Rob in from the gym, so we all work out of the same gym, and so I recruited Rob. People, the good people to hire too, are people at the gym because they are dedicated. So I get Rob in the sauna. The big old country boy that sold 27 in six months and he's got like 20 contracts in two weeks already from the sales storm Found him in a sauna and he's like I just tell right now he said, no matter what I do, I'm the best at what I do. Like it's it's, you bring me in, I'll be the best. And in my back of my head I was like, yeah, you know okay, but sure enough, he, he sure was, and everybody knows rob's the best.
Speaker 1:And so then rob brought on will, and will is is a killer dude and so, yeah, that's that's super important to get those people through, because you know that they're not going that a good hiring question that leads to how, how committed they're going to be. That that's something that people should think about, as you're, you know, as you've gotten through this journey so far, you know, looking back, what, what, what would, what would be the advice that you would give to someone maybe starting out or stuck at. You know, maybe they're stuck at that $3 million. They don't see that $10 million as an option. What are your thoughts there? What's some advice for these people?
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean I would say you, can, you know, to two million on your own right, selling and knocking doors all day and keeping it small. But to break it wide open you've got to build systems. You've got to have key positions like an office manager to run all of your office. You've got to have like an operations person to run your operations and your production. You know you need a site supervisor to go out to those jobs, make sure it's being done, you know in quality, so that they can go and get those materials that are missing on the orders. And then you know, that way your sales guys can be out there, you know, focusing on selling more. I think it's just really important to have those types of systems in place to scale. If that's what you're trying to do. I mean many people are OK, just sitting around that three to five million and don't want to break through that 10 million. And I still haven't figured out how to break over the 10 million. But I think we definitely will hit that 10 this year and that's through those types of systems and just having the CRM capability. I mean, talk to the leaders that, talk to the big dogs, see if they'll let you know what CRM are you on, you know what networking groups are you in. I mean, join all the Facebook groups, join Nextdoor. Get in your local community. Give back to the schools, the local charter schools, I would say the schools that have more money. Don't go into the hood schools as much, because I've donated there and it's like I don't even think I got anything out of that. But go to the schools and go to the rocker stadium like high point rockers. Get on the uh. Get on the uh on the wall. Get your name up on the wall and all those people that go to the same and see the games they're going to see Escalade Roofing right there. Donate to your community. Get in your local chambers of commerce, the more the merrier. Go into all the cities. Go to Kernersville, Go to High Point, go to Winston-Salem, go to Greensboro. Get in all your chambers of commerce, because then your name is going to be listed as a roofer there and they're going to refer you and tap into those markets and go to those events and set up a table and just network and talk to people and just let them know you're there and give them your business card.
Speaker 2:Pass your business card out like it's going out of style. I mean because I've passed cards out in the mailboxes and I've got a call a year later. Hey, I got your card, like a year ago. I had it on my desk, I'm ready for the roof, can you come do it? And it's like OK, cool, you know, you just never know what types of seeds that you plant is going to turn into into something huge cards.
Speaker 2:He passed them out in like a month and I was like what do you mean? You need more business cards? Like I just gave you a thousand. He's like, yeah, they're gone. Like, wow, okay. So out of that thousand, that first thousand, he got a relationship with this company that's buying all these apartment complexes are in private equity, private equities giving them money. They're going and renovating the interior and replacing the roofs and the gutters. So he got this relationship with his company. Now, lo and behold, pierre's the roofer to go and do these. You know, 2000 square massive apartment complexes, you know, and he sold like a six hundred and eighteen thousand dollar project which he'll probably, pierre's probably going to make around like fifty thousand dollars on that deal, and so that's just one project, and so those types of things you just never know what's going to come about, but just plant those seeds everywhere you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man plant those seeds. Thanks for your time today, Cole. This has been another episode of the Roofing Success Podcast.
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