Jon Broce and Ty Meredith are the owners of MHI Roofing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
To make their roofing company more versatile and ultimately profitable, the duo has partnered with Ugly Roof, a roof renovation company that prides itself on reviving damaged roofs.
“We offer a refresh, repair, and restore service. We look at Ugly Roof as a product that can help other roofing contractors, as well as our roofing company,” says Broce.
The partnership with Ugly Roof made sense for MHI Roofing because for over forty years the local roofing company has ingratiated themselves to homeowners by offering first-class roof repair services.
Throughout this time, MHI Roofing has been able to develop a recognized brand that has now expanded their operations into states like West Virginia, Ohio, and Florida.
Recently, the company continued their upward trend by investing heavily into QR codes, a once forgotten technological innovation that allows homeowners to use their phone to scan an image that will bring them straight to one of the company’s landing pages.
Employing this strategy has benefitted MHI Roofing tremendously.
“We’ve QR coded everything. With that, we can track who is scanning our business cards, postcards, and door hangers,” Broce explains.
“COVID really leveled the playing field and now everybody is using QR codes again.”
This year, MHI Roofing aimed to generate $8.3 million in sales, but already their 2021 figures are showing that the roofing company is on pace to surpass the $9.5 million threshold.
One reason why the roofing company is shattering their sales expectations is because they evaluate their sales numbers slightly differently than other roofing companies.
“I grade our salespeople on closing percentage instead of just sales numbers and how many roofs they have sold,” Broce says.
Another key factor that has contributed to MHI Roofing’s success is that they have also partnered with Get The Referral in order to incentivize homeowners to refer their roofing company.
“Get The Referral changed our whole game and our entire strategy with the sales team. We’ve been trying for years to figure out a way where we could reward guys for getting referrals, but doing that is hard to track,” Broce mentions.
“So last year I started working with Get The Referral. They make personalized apps, so now we have an MHI app.”
The MHI Roofing app not only allows the roofing company to track referrals, but it also lets homeowners monitor the progress of their roof replacement.
“We try to make sure that the homeowners download the app ahead of time, so we integrated it with CompanyCam as well. Now, when the salespeople are doing their inspections, it shoots over those pictures and the videos that we want the homeowners to actually see,” says Broce.
“Ultimately, once the job is taking place, then you can build the referral network because the salespeople go back and are able to get referrals with the help of the app.”
And it’s not like MHI Roofing is still waiting for a return on investment from their partnership with Get The Referral.
This year alone, the Pittsburgh-based roofing company has already received 86 referrals.
Moreover, being able to track referrals also incentivizes MHI Roofing’s sales team to promote the app because they will be compensated if one of their clients generates a referral.
“We took a realtor-like approach. Each one of our salespeople has their face on their business cards, on yard signs, and everything else. This gives them a territory, and then they get credit for everything that is sold inside of that area,” Broce explains, adding that MHI Roofing assists in helping their sales staff by branding each member of the sales team with their own social media and QR codes.
In this sense, MHI Roofing operates similarly to a real estate company who promotes their realtors.
Yet, the best part is that MHI Roofing owns all the QR codes, social media profiles, and company logos that their sales staff operates under.
This is important because if a salesperson ever quits, MHI Roofing still owns all the intellectual property that was associated with the former salesperson.
CEO Ty Meredith emphasizes that this strategy is not meant to be manipulative or take advantage of sales reps.
Instead, employing this strategy ensures that MHI Roofing can brand the company throughout the entire Pittsburgh market with the help of their sales staff while still maintaining control of their brand.
“We own every salesperson’s company Facebook and landing pages, but we also market for them. For example, when we sell a job, Dope Marketing instantly sends mailers out,” says Meredith.
“We’re building their brand in their neighborhoods, as well as they are building their personal brand, but if they leave, then we still own everything.”
When you consider that MHI Roofing has already generated 86 leads through referrals and has even added new members to their sales staff, it’s safe to say that the system in place is not oppressing the sales staff.
In fact, other roofing companies would be wise to look further into what MHI Roofing is doing because referrals are their third-highest source of leads.
Plus, Get The Referral only charges each user $50 after the upfront cost of building a personalized company app is remitted.
Even better is the fact that all transactions can be done on the Get The Referral platform.
“We actually pay our sales reps like we do the homeowners with referrals, so I can pay them inside the app. That way they can watch their money build and they get paid inside the app from the referrals,” says Broce.
As mentioned, one of the best parts about MHI Roofing’s customized app is that homeowners can monitor the progress of the roofing project, which gives them the confidence that the roofing contractor is doing their job professionally and in a timely manner.
“Homeowners can follow the job all the way from the appointment being scheduled, to the contract being signed, to the job being scheduled. We have a whole project list that they can follow, plus all their photos and videos go there. This gets engagement ahead of time so that when it’s time to ask the homeowner for a referral, they are already familiar with the platform,” explains Broce.
Beyond their customized app, MHI Roofing has also revamped the way they give presentations to homeowners by outfitting their company vehicles with the necessary tools that will allow salespeople to pitch new roofs to homeowners.
Senior Roofing Expert Zack Beck loves the setup because it has optimized the way he can explain the roofing process to homeowners.
“At MHI Roofing, we explain the process from start to finish with a real-life display for our homeowners, especially if they may not be comfortable with us in their home. We come and show them exactly how we do everything, which includes the fascia, gutter installation, ice guard, shingles, underlayment, ridge vent, and then the pipe and boot cover,” explains Beck.
“This setup gives homeowners a wide-angle perspective of what goes into a roof, rather than just holding up a shingle board.”
So far, the responses to this type of sales presentation have been overwhelmingly positive.
“I get pretty good feedback. People tell me it’s like a mobile home show in the back of a van,” says Beck, who then mentions that he incorporates drone footage taken from the initial walkthrough with the homeowner into his presentation.
“I use the drone footage as a photo inspection report. I’ll document things that most roofers will miss because they’re not getting on the roof. The Pittsburgh market has steep slate roofs that we can’t access, but with the drone, we are able to show homeowners something that they maybe have never seen on their roof before.”
To learn more about MHI Roofing or Get The Referral, check out their respective websites today!
