seen on: Art Unlimited
The keynote presentation by Gregg Wallick didn't disappoint 2017 Best of Success attendees. Gregg got right down to business this year, focusing on the core components of building a great brand both inside and outside your company.
Leadership First and then People
Leadership - The "Ideal Team Player" is an amazing book that talks about a construction company. The leader in this book is facing the biggest backlog in his company's history. If you are a reader grab this book and you will learn what it takes to create an ideal team!
People - The right people need to be hungry, humble and smart. This is what makes the ideal team player. You will have a great team when you find people who embody these characteristics.
The Best Roofing Organizational Structure
Simplicity is at the core of the Best Roofing organizational structure. Rule number one: don't over complicate your organizational structure. Your team should be able to quickly understand where their place is. Below is the organizational structure used at Best Roofing:
The Best Roofing Story
Best Roofing uses a verbal exercise at the start of every meeting. This core value exercise is listed below.
Your company's core values should be second nature. If you were to ask his team about company values, every person can easily respond with the same values!
The Weekly Presidents Meeting
For over four years, the executive team has held a weekly team meeting. Gregg said that this weekly meeting is imperative to his company's health to make sure everyone is on the same page. The meeting is held on the same day and starts and ends at the same time, as a way of keeping consistency. Your company will have good years and bad years and weekly meetings are an effective way of staying on track. Gregg emphasized that it is crucially important to maintain consistency and never cancel this meeting!
Quarterly Huddle
At Best Roofing, there is a quarterly company huddle where Gregg reviews the state of the company. He will also talk about the current workload, and awards are given at this time. Best Roofing has awards for almost every possible positive action in the company. The award that teams get most excited about is when cold hard cash is dispersed! Being recognized in front of the entire staff has completely transformed the team's morale.
Build Community
Have weekly events. For Best Roofing this means beach volleyball, annual picnics, yoga classes and a company gym. Every year, they host an event called Breakfast of Champions for their team. This event replaced the traditional Christmas ham and they outfit their team with high-quality boots!
The community-building events are meant to connect the office team with the field team. It is good practice for the health of your roofing business to figure out ways to break down the barriers between the office and field teams. Once you do this, you will find unity within your company.
Compensation Plan
You might not think that a compensation plan would be a major part of your brand, but it is. Your compensation plan is one of the most important pieces you have for retaining staff. Be transparent about your salaries and how staff members can gain rank in the company and earn pay raises. Make it clear and accessible for people to rank and grow in the company. Gregg notated that you need to recognize people who are overachievers. They have created what's called the "Hustle Advantage" within their compensation plan. The Hustle Advantage is a program where staff has an opportunity to gain a salary upgrade within their rank for high levels of achievement.
Managing your Brand
Identify your ideal client. When you understand the type of client that is going to make you money, you will see your profit margins begin to increase. Your company needs to be focused on creating strong relationships with clients in order to win return customers. Put your focus on clients who are likely to need or utilize multiple services over time.
Pro Tip:
Avoid professional buyers as they are going to be looking at price over anything else.
Your marketing department's primary role is building and promoting your brand along with business development. Their job is to label everything within the company: this includes big items down to small items. To do this, the marketing team at Best Roofing has a brand manual for the company. Their mascot, Jake is a huge part of their marketing campaign. If you have ever Seen an Aflac or Geico Advertisement you will remember these commercials. The Best Roofing dog is the same. They have a ton of fun with Jake in their marketing campaigns. In fact, Jake was requested to attend a contract signing. The client said they wouldn't sign without meeting him!
Make sure your marketing is in front of your customers at the right time. Remember that your customer isn't going to be thinking of you all of the time. So, you need to make sure when they have reason to think roofing, your company is first on their mind. This is the power of a brand!
- Community education classes are also a huge part of business branding. Some possible ideas include:
- Be active in your community, start engaging with groups that could be your clients.
- Train community members how to prepare for hurricanes.
- Educate realtors and property owners how to detect issues with their buildings.
By making your brand your clients' hero, you will win! Start looking at trade shows, associations, or networking events to attend as a way to get yourself into the public's eye.
Vendor alliances are critical to reaching more people faster. Create a group of businesses within your network and share your marketing efforts. As a network of supporting businesses you can
- Host exclusive events
- Share digital and print marketing campaigns
- Buy into large print magazines!
- E-mail lists are also very important to your marketing plan. Gregg said he works with a cartoon artist who makes funny jokes about roofing. The cartoons are dynamically personalized to each person on the mailing list. Currently, they are growing their mailing list by at least 100 subscribers a month!
E-mail lists are also very important to your marketing plan. Gregg said he has been working with a cartoon artist who makes funny jokes about roofing. The cartoons are dynamically personalized to each person on the mailing list. Currently, they are growing their mailing list by at least 100 subscribers a month!
Best Cares
Best Roofing sets aside money to invest in the community. For example, Gregg has a bus that shuttles homeless people to local churches. He challenged the audience to do something different, reach out and help people. When you give back to your community, you will reap a positive reward.
Tracking Leads
Make sure you are tracking leads and their sources. You must know what types of leads you are receiving and from where. After you begin tracking the Lead and Closing Ratios, you will be able to better understand where to invest your marketing dollars.
Gregg ended his presentation with a key tip to all business owners. Identify the process of your business. Map out the experience and touchpoints that your customers and teams will experience. Once you understand the pain points, you will know how and when to help your customers.
Best Roofing has worked tirelessly on their brand over the years. Today they earmark 2% of the annual budget to marketing.
In conclusion, Gregg stated that above all else remember this: