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Sam Taggart 00:39
This is Sam Taggart, the D2D podcast. I’m here with Eric Armstrong, and He’s the owner and CEO of Quick Roofing. Now, how many roofing guys are in Dallas?
Eric Armstrong 00:50
I would say about 3000 roofing companies is that the number that people reference all the time.
Sam Taggart 00:55
And to put things in perspective, because a lot of people are selling pest control, satellite alarms, whatever industry, most roofing companies would say for three to 4 million bucks, I would say that’s about the average average. So Eric’s company last year did $120 million in roofing and this year, I’m trying to beat that. And next year, we’re going to go to what what’s the goal?
Eric Armstrong 01:16
Probably close to $200 million.
Sam Taggart 01:17
So awesome, amazing growth is 10 times bigger than most roofing companies out there. And a lot of people can never figure out how to get to your shots. And we’re gonna talk about that in a little bit. And kind of scaling roofing contracting business. But the main thing like we’re out here, you know, in Mansfield, and Texas literally we spent two days jammin How is the last two days is amazing,
Eric Armstrong 01:41
Blows your mind. I mean, it makes you see how you can truly take it to the next level and, and you need to be stretched.
Sam Taggart 01:47
So I want I want to appreciate and honor you for being humble enough to say I’m coming to your boot camp Sam and I’m I want to learn you know a lot of people when they get to the status of yours. You know, I meet a lot of guys like you and then there’s what do you get to teach me your something like punk kid. And I think that the humility is probably what’s gotten you to here to and just hearing your story how you’re the number one employee where you hear about the number four number number four salesman in the company, and about, what 12 years ago? He’s not 18 years ago, 18 years ago? And then how long have you been like the one running
Eric Armstrong 02:20
The show? Right? 18 years. So I it’s like 19 and a half years ago that I came on then I started running the company about 18 years ago.
Sam Taggart 02:28
18 years. So a lot of people think it can be like a microwave just like zip zap 100 some million dollar company wasn’t just overnight became this, right? Absolutely. So I think a lot of people underestimate the power of consistency, the power of growth curve, whatever. So we’re gonna talk about that a little bit. But what’s still cool is you’re still on knocking, you’re like Dude, the other day I was in the field. I’m like, okay, you know, you’ve been doing this for how long? And you’re the owner of how big of a cover you make how much you know, and I’m like, Yeah, but that goes to show you know your roofing. guys call me the exam, I just need to hire a god. What do you mean, you need to hire Washington a god, they’ll go out and like knock and do it all for me. And I’m like, That just doesn’t exist.
Eric Armstrong 03:12
I thinkif we can get out there and show our team and rock with them and take it on the chin and go through that emotional roller coaster one, it shows you what you guys are going through continually, you sometimes can forget. But as you go through it, I think it just kind of reiterate say you better be pushing for good marketing pushing for better leads if we can, but to take them off the doors, but nothing beats the doors.
Sam Taggart 03:37
So yeah, kind of what’s your So tell us a story because I think it’s like the element that I thought was really interesting for this podcast, because a lot of guys out there listening that, you know, maybe they’re brand new, maybe this is their first summer, maybe this is their 10th summer and they’re getting their butt kicked this year better, you know, worse than ever. And so you go out, you’ve been doing this for 19 plus years. And what happens.
Eric Armstrong 04:00
So the other day, I visited my Lubbock office and started knocking with our manager out there. And so we got to knock together and spend some time together. And we knocked about nine blocks and in nine blocks. I didn’t get one response. I mean, I couldn’t even get a person to answer the door and love it one of the most friendly places ever, right? And so we just kept knocking. And the best part about it was is I finally did it was a lot there were three doors left on the street, and I finally sold somebody threw a ring doorbell It was the first time that I’ve ever saw through the ring doorbell is about this close to it. And then from that, though, the very next night wrestled as well, at least for the inspection and the start of the claims process. But somebody better was a young man that had just started he wasn’t in the company two weeks in that timeframe from us keeping on pushing he got five inspection schedule. So although he he had much more response at the door. I mean, but he just it was encouraging to see that he kept pushing because we pushed as leaders.
Sam Taggart 05:06
That’s awesome. So what are some of the are some of the like the things that over the last 19 years you’ve seen in that regard? Like, how does that apply? How do you always see that? Like, what’s the lesson, I guess, learn from that,
Eric Armstrong 05:19
I think you have to be persistent. I gave you the other story of a rep who called me in the previous day, they had knocked on 147 doors and calculated through their sales rabbit. And they did five inspections. And then the very next day, that same rep, doing the same exact process goes to seven doors and gets bad inspections. That’s such a big, you know, one day is such an emotional roller coaster feeling defeated all day long to get the five. And the next day, you just can’t always do something.
Sam Taggart 05:49
It’s it’s, it’s crazy how often, you know, I love the example of like, a rock quarry, like a marble to think of somebody chiseling on a marble, right? It’s not the, it’s like 100 hits, nothing happens, right? And all of a sudden that 101 hit, all of a sudden, it’ll crack. And if you think that the one that 101 hit was the crack, you’re wrong, it was the 100 other hits that made it crack, and actually chiseled the rock. And I think that so many times people think that that those five and a seven day, you know, that’s a killer day, and you’re like, but had he not done the 147. Before that, like that’s the hammer just getting zero cracks on the chisel. That’s still part of actually getting the thing to crack. And I think that’s a lesson that from that story, and that’s what I wanted to share as I was like, man, like, how many people leave and stop hammering, before it starts to crack? There are 50 doors and they’re like, this area, this this job this day, whatever. And how often you see reps get into that mindset. Oh, yeah. So so what what what, so let’s kind of because we don’t have a ton of time going to the airport figure we hop on do a quick little podcast. So a couple a couple of they’re just like, pain stories like to get to where you are, I’m sure you’ve had to go through some crazy left turns crazy ups and downs probably wasn’t an easy smooth like, Yay, sure, perfect plan, like what have been some of the journey, roadblocks, that you’ve kind of had and overcome?
Eric Armstrong 07:24
You know, we we developed through time, you know, I of course, I’ve learned lessons. You know, when I came in, I was a great salesman, I would sell and we had no team. And so as we started developing team, he learned how to deal with different personalities, guys who are alpha personalities that can actually really sell and then how to harness that ability and still work together and have a good relationship. And so we’ve learned, I’ve learned and the team has learned through time how to deal with that. I think as we started growing and having bigger teams, we started understanding how to, you know, how are the great thing was we had a big platform for work workers that we could actually scale very quickly. So as we sold, we were able to perform the work, it wasn’t never an issue that we could perform the work because we already had a huge platform of workers. So that was kind of one of our springboards is that since we had a such a high labor force that was very consistent that worked every single day, we were able to, to expand that and actually perform with a sales rep.
Sam Taggart 08:30
That’s funny is like, I can break that down on even on a micro level if I don’t have a tech. So in alarms, for example, it was all about same days, it’s like a knocking door. So you my attack waiting outside ready to say install, right? Well, the problem was is if my texts get backed up, or if I felt like I couldn’t get the same day, guess what happened in my motivation to sell? Sure. And so there’s this element of sales growth that I think that we subconsciously sabotage, if we don’t feel like production could even keep up. Does that make sense? So like, it’s like, Why so if I’m not gonna get this stuff built, or that’s just gonna cause us even more headaches, if I’m gonna have to frickin build on this or produce it on? Like, I’m gonna get so bottleneck that it’s like, Is it even worth selling. And I watch reps and companies get into this cycle where they literally don’t grow because they fail to focus on having the production size down pat, and the support team, like the volume capacity to actually get big, which are I like that. That’s, that’s,
Eric Armstrong 09:28
And I think something else that you and I really worked on and talked about the last days, you know, kind of tip for us even to go to the next level is, is standardization of process procedure, you know, onboarding processes, which are extremely important. I think as owners of businesses or entrepreneurs, we have a responsibility to people who trust us and come to work for us. And so, part of what we’re dealing with is just that you know, so that it’s a safe, it’s safer in a good investment of time for somebody to come and invest their life and and build a career. With our company so that’s that’s kind of where I’m kind of convicted, if you will, right now as to, to really create that to where it’s just a almost plug and play type mentality where you will have success if you do what you’re supposed to do.
Sam Taggart 10:14
And I think a lot of the problem that people see when they have, you know, you have offices in Lubbock in Dallas, and Austin and San Antonio and all over the country. And I think a lot of people realize that different problems when it’s not just a Dallas office, you guys, I don’t, I can just like thrive word a little bit real quick and be like, Hey, man, how’s your team doing?
Eric Armstrong 10:33
Absolutely. And our leaders, you know, that’s kind of, you know, we’re always looking for great leaders. But our leaders if they, you know, our Lubbock leader, or the Moyne leader, our Denver leader, these are very strong leaders in each of our markets, and they make my job easier, you know, if they can take that vision and take the dream, if you will, and run with the dream, then I feel like that we can do anything. You know, our springboard is is pretty, pretty bouncy at that point.
Sam Taggart 11:01
Love that. So like, let’s say, I’m like some little company, they’ve got four or five sales reps, not in the size of the hundreds. Like, what? What when you think back to when you were in that mode, I was just little DFW, you and your homies so
Eric Armstrong 11:16
sweet time praying? It’s Yes, a lot of good memories that can be made very, very fun. memories can be very precious.
Sam Taggart 11:24
But I guess, how would you help him see things maybe bigger than where he is today? Like, what what what? What advice would you give him to think? A little beyond his like team of four buddies?
Eric Armstrong 11:34
Sure. I would say don’t get strong, you know, keep your expenses lane is what I would recommend. I think that sometimes people go too big too fast. Whether it’s the big huge truck or the you know, there’s a long time where I drove, you know, a frugal truck. It wasn’t I wasn’t about that I was more into building the business. And, and in sacrifice now for more later, right.
Sam Taggart 11:57
What’s interesting, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna put some perspective to that. I mean, he lives in the same house since you were married. 20 Yeah, I mean, you drive like a normal Jeep. That’s just like, nothing special. Nothing fancy. I mean like, that’s what’s crazy, is it’s like you, they don’t see this, but I do. And I’m like, man, like, that’s my style. You know, like, I think a lot of people, they the second they make money the second half of the year, they’re like, oh, let’s go buy a nice house. Let’s go buy the big truck. And I’m like, you’re never build a business that way.
Eric Armstrong 12:29
As you build Yeah, businesses are expensive. I think sometimes. There’s a lot of great leaders I see that are phenomenal sales leaders, they can grow teams, they can do great things. But they got to remember the financial side if they’re not, if they don’t have enough money in the bank, if they don’t have enough money to front the jobs to to handle a bad somebody cheap, right? If they don’t have something where a lot hits them, that they can weather then they can build their entire team. And so so I’ve been convicted by that Jeff quake has been convicted by that, you know, he’s the founder, you know, I took over the 18 years ago. But, you know, he was also you know, he he was telling a story the other day, I’ll tell this real quick. I think it’s it’s shows the character it shows kind of how sometimes people sacrifice. So Jeff, when he was starting his company, he actually was worried. He was like, man, I got this expensive house payment. It wasn’t that much money. But for him, he was like, man, I got this expensive house payment. So he said he got a cheap trailer, that the rent was $250 a month. And he brought on a roommate that paid $200 a month so that he could cut his expenses so low so that he could build a business No. And so that’s how I did it. Now Jeff, he was a roofer originally shingle houses, he did some of that stuff. And, you know, so even the smallest guy, you know, I think that it’s cool that we live in America, we can dream so big. And, you know, that’s, that’s something that’s awesome. But I think some hard work and dedication, you can build something amazing. And I think that, you know, Jeff tells a story of a guy or a group of guys that sat and laughed at him, because he had to pay for the material on on site. You know, he had a couldn’t get an account. He couldn’t do these things. And they would laugh at him in mocking when you come to squat house. And you obviously were humble people, we love people as well. And we want other businesses to win weight. This is America, there’s plenty of opportunity for all of us. But he you know, he that drove him years later. I mean, heck, it’s for 36 years ago, that’s some of that stuff will go on. And he was talking about last week, like it was yesterday that his steel just drove him to want to push harder. So that’s awesome. Take those little nuggets, you know those precious times when you’re with your guys, I remember I told you another story of a guy that worked with me. The first commission sales rep I ever hired, I was so scared. He had to make a living. He was my responsibility. I took that very seriously. And we’re knocking doors at 30 degrees. You know, it’s 30 degrees and we’re knocking doors dark because we have to sell something. So You can make a donation and that was a sweet memory. I mean, it is so many years ago, but it’s like yesterday and it was it’s one of those memories that I’ll probably share some more. I
Sam Taggart 15:07
Love that. No and I appreciate you sharing and then and just being open like I think a lot of times people are willing to share their secrets, you know, like coming up to the mastermind stuff and being willing to share and you know, this even like go to the boot camp and you’re very vocal and like, you’ve been just awesome to work with to like, I think that there’s a lot of people out there that I can’t say that about and honestly appreciate your time just sharing and I get to do podcast. So thank you guys and follow Eric. He’s an awesome leader and stud so a lot to learn to appreciate. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks.
