Every forward-thinking roofer has asked at one time or the other, “What exactly does it take for a company to increase its profit margin?”
In our experience working with tons of roofers, we’ve found that the formula “Great People + Automation = Profit in Roofing” holds the key to achieving success and increasing profit in your roofing company. Your company’s greatness is determined by the quality of the people you have on your team and the seamlessness of your operations. These all play vital roles in driving sales and consequently, overall success.
The combination of great people, carefully pruned teams, and automation technology enables your roofing company to thrive. In this article, you’ll learn how to harness the power of this formula, set your business on the path to success, and consequently, create a sustainable future for your company.
How Do You Find Great Team Players?
For a roofing business with a profit mindset, it is necessary to get the best people on the right seats on the bus. This means you have to hire people with the skills needed for the company to function effectively.
Many times, the people with the right skills won’t walk straight into your office, you need the right techniques to discover them. Not everyone out there is great, you’d have to search through many people to find great talent (The A-players).
Also, you might need to spell out what great qualities you need in your recruits. If you don’t know how to identify the skills that make a person great, you wouldn’t know how to attract or hire them. Some qualities of A-Players are:
- They can monitor the company’s accounts receivables and payables.
- They are trustworthy (Because you won’t be around always).
- They can multitask, thus helping to reduce the number of hires for that role.
- They can handle a large volume of work.
What’s the Average Size Needed to Start A Roofing Company?
You don’t have to hire so many people to successfully run a profitable roofing company. With just three to five people, you are off to a great start. The main focus should be on getting the right people rather than setting up a large size company.
The necessary people that make up a starting three-man team are:
- Account receivables and account payable specialist
- A great logistics person
- A person that can carry out the licensing activities in each municipality.
Two Key Points:
- Prune The Tree: If you want a successful company, you have to prune the tree. Now that you know what to look out for in the people for your business, you are going to have to fire those that don’t meet the qualifications for your company to be successful. Strategically reduce the size to the best three to five people. However, as your company grows you get bigger, small size won’t suffice anymore.
- Break Up into Cells: Seamless communication between team members is vital. Here’s where small cells and team leads come in. Group those people into sub-teams and hire great people to head the teams. This would enhance teamwork and aid communication across the teams.
As helpful as a large team is, note that you can’t keep hiring indefinitely. There are times you just have to say no. This is because there are diminishing returns the more people you put into a project.
How to Deal With Low Performance From Salespeople
Straight-commission sales organizations are characterized by intense competitiveness and cultural problems. The results of the sales determine the performance scale. The salesman at the top benefits more even with decreased sales, which can be dishonest.
Typically, no one wants to be the guy that performs the worst. As a result, your team will experience a false bottom when you tolerate poor performance from salespeople. As long as they are not at the bottom, the people at the top are happy with their level of output. Due to his position at the top and the fact that there are more salespeople below him, the salesperson who should feel less qualified does not feel that way.
Eliminating the underperformers would put pressure on salespersons who operate with the typical middleman mindset; those who are not driven to be at the top and also do not want to be the lowest-performing guy.
Also, before laying them off, you can give them a little bit of time to understand what is going on with them.
- Is the guy really okay with what he is doing and making?
- Are the sales low because he is just learning?
- You should also check the effort he is putting into it.
It is very important to sieve out the wrong people during the recruiting process. “One bad hire is worse than three new hires”.
- Hiring the wrong person would waste resources. Imagine spending so much time training the new hire only to find out the person isn’t fit enough for the role.
- Firing the wrong people would also affect the credibility of the workforce commission.
Watch out For Profit Drainers!!
Most times, it’s the guy with extra people in his office that might need advice on how to increase profit. Surprisingly, it’s not the one with three Ferraris in his garage (that seems reckless with money).
An extra load of people in the company kills silently because it doesn’t appear extravagant, but it costs almost the same as having an extra Ferrari. Every unprofitable person you have on your team is no different from having an extra Ferrari sitting useless in your garage!!!
Profit draining can also come from hiring the wrong person for a leadership position. It’ll drain your profit more, but you might not realize it immediately. Oftentimes, it is more obvious with the sales persons. If you have a sales guy that is not producing results close to the targets, you’ll spot him quickly. It’s always best to take the rigorous pathway to hire the right people.
How Do You Automate Your Processes?
Automation means the use of technologies that can minimize errors and increase productivity by reducing human intervention. It reduces the number of challenging efforts needed for tasks. If automation in roofing increases profit, it is best to join the train. Many major administrative tasks can now be handled by software technologies, particularly CRM automation tools.
CRM uses data analysis to increase credibility. The men involved in roofing trace the roof out with a measuring tool, and then the CRM tool creates an accurate estimate of materials. You wouldn’t have to spend so much time on the material lists or monitor the work to ensure the labour is accounted for. The only human intervention needed is to be sure nobody is manipulating the tool.
Conclusion
By automating your processes, your team’s productivity doubles or triples, without having to hire more people. How much more when everyone on the team knows their onions? You’ll be on your way to stardom!! However, such great hands aren’t commonplace; you’ll have to do some digging to find gold.
The problem with not automating your processes and building a quality team is that you aren’t just unproductive, you lose money!! So why not get started with automating your processes right away? This is one of our specialities here at Hook – helping your team fly at the needed pace!! Let’s know how we can be of help today.
