Page 16 - Compass Issue 3

Brian neaton Discussing
numbers and found that we don’t an upcoming project
make any money on your jobs. With Bill BurkharDt.
And I know you won’t let me in-
crease my price, so you need to
find another roofer.' You cannot
believe how incensed that makes
them,” Bill said with a smirk and
a laugh.
With Bill’s new commercial
approach, he found himself sell-
ing more commercial roof re-
placements than ever. “And I was
selling them at those increased
prices,” he quickly pointed out.
“When you increase your price by
‘that’ percentage and your closing
rate by ‘this’ percentage, the num-
bers were mind-blowing to me.
It was a great feeling.” In fact,
in 2016, their gross margin was
higher in their commercial, rather
than residential, division. He’ll also ask manufacturers to come by to provide tech-
culturE oF training nical and safety training frequently.
Initial changes only prove to have a lasting impact if KnoW your numBErS
supported with training. It’s a fact promoted by SGI, “I have this innate ability to process numerical informa-
and Bill has completely bought into the notion. Elevated tion; therefore, I don’t need to track numbers,” Bill said,
pricing only works if employees can sell the value. “We paused, and then yelled. “Wrong! Wrong!” Bill laughed
definitely have a culture of training here,” Bill said. “Ev- heartily and continued, “I used to think that way—that
ery four to six months, I try to step up what we do a bit I knew my cash flow. That I knew where all my money
more. Jason just went to [Learning Alliance’s] Service was going. Then, at the end of the year, I’d look at my
Essentials training.” bank account and go, ‘What happened? Where is it all?’”
Jason Foraker is Four Season KangaRoof ’s primary “As big as any changes we’ve made, the investment
technician. He’s been with the company a little more into understanding the business by the numbers has
®
than a year. Prior to coming to Bill, he owned his own been huge for me,” Bill added. Four Seasons KangaRoof
roofing company for a time, specializing in new con- uses QuickBooks. Bill explained that each element of the
struction. business has its own budget and income statement: com-
“Jason has been a great addition. He’s been willing to mercial service, commercial roofing, residential service,
learn and is hands-on. He wants to help customers and and residential roofing.
solve their problems. His tickets are approaching that “Not long ago, we invested into some industry-specific
$1,000 mark. I’m really happy with his progression.” software called JobNimbus. It was created by roofers for
Jason’s evolution has come thanks to regular training roofers. It tracks my average ticket, closing rates, lead
source, and so on,” Bill explained. “It’s a freeing feeling
with Bill. Bill meets with his entire team for training having processes and controls in place. Brian tracks all
once a week. In every meeting there is a review compo- of that for us and we meet every single week to go over
nent, an update component, and a training component. them.”

the four seasons kangaroof team alWays
makes time for a Weekly training meeting.

16 THE COMPASS | Issue 3 | 2017