Dmitry Lipinskiy and Roofing Insights recently hosted the roof repair king, Mike Holmes. Mike is the owner of Repair King, a company located in Minneapolis.
The two dished on many subjects, all of which can be seen by watching the video above.
A few topics that generated a lot of buzz included Holmes’ take on salesmen, and also the cost of doing business.
Said Holmes of salespeople:
“As an owner, you feel tied to not let your salespeople get away. If you have one of those sleds that dogs pull, and you lose a dog, you slow down. You will do anything to keep a dog there, but sometimes a bad dog is a bad dog.”
Holmes was of course referring to talented salespeople, some of whom are vital to a businesses’ revenue.
Yet, problems arise when these salespeople then become more demanding of owners. For Holmes, he said that dealing with salespeople is never easy.
“Do you ever feel hostage to your sales guys?”
asked Lipinskiy.
“Absolutely,”
replied Holmes.
“I really have. You know, the worst ones are your friends, the guys who know they can go anywhere because they’re successful producers. Those are the guys that you feel the most constrained by.”
Holmes also added that,
“you want the money and you want the sales, but you don’t want them to become your competition.”
And in a hyper-competitive industry like roofing, losing good salespeople can have adverse effects on the bottom line.
Still, it should be noted that dealing with demanding individuals isn’t limited to only salespeople.
Many potential clients also attempt to impose their will on business owners.
Holmes recalled a job he took that involved dealing with the owner of a hotel.
At the time, Holmes quoted the job for $100,000, a number the hotel owner balked at and claimed he could do himself for much cheaper.
Holmes remembered telling the man,
“but you didn’t even know you had storm damage. I had to come here and get the roof paid and processed.”
Unfortunately, this was not enough to convince the hotel owner to continue the project with Holmes.
In fact, it took some slick maneuvering on the part of Holmes in order to make the deal go through.
While standing in his hotel, the reluctant hotel owner questioned Holmes’ price based on the cost of shingles, a tactic that Holmes was adequately prepared to handle.
“Well, what do you pay for a hotel room?”
Holmes had asked the man.
“I negotiated with him, and it shut him down because business has a price. It’s not about what the roof costs. It’s about having a business model and trying to grow,”
Holmes explained.
Fortunately for Holmes, his response generated him new business, and now, Holmes encourages other business owners to follow the same path.
“When you sacrifice yourself, you’re moving away from your long-term goals and where you’re trying to end up,”
Holmes told Lipinskiy.
“You have to stick to your goals and not deviate from them because sometimes when you take shortcuts, you get lost in the woods and then you have to come back, and then you’re further away from where you should be.”
Don’t forget: the entire interview between Mike Holmes and Dmitry Lipinskiy can be seen by clicking on the YouTube video at the top of this page.
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