Jun 19, 2024
In today's episode, Mike is joined by Corey Combes, the founder of SouthShore Roofing & Exteriors in Tampa, Florida. Corey has built up his company from the ground up to become one of the premier roofers in Tampa. He gives some fantastic insights into how he has gotten to this point. Corey is highly knowledgeable, and the conversation includes a wealth of valuable information. Stay tuned to learn his best tips and tricks.
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Corey Combes:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/corey.corey.71868
SouthShore Roofing & Exteriors:
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Website: https://southshorecontractorstampa.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@southshoreroofingexteriors2465
00:00:00:09 - 00:00:16:23
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So we're back for another episode of the Mission Control podcast.
Kristen, what episode is this? What number? I think this is number
eight. We're creeping up on 100 folks. They say a very high
percentage of podcast last, like, you know, like one episode, three
episodes. But I mean, we are we are vetted. We've withstood the
test of time.
00:00:17:01 - 00:00:34:03
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I want to take a minute to to welcome Corey Combs, South Shore
Roofing and Exteriors to the show. But I also want to acknowledge
that the team over at roof is fantastic. So if you need instant
roof measurements and a roof quotes clean and pristine proposals
which will give your audience no choice but to buy from you. Hit up
the team at roof or down below.
00:00:34:03 - 00:00:50:11
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
There's going to be a link. Click it. Let them know I sent you.
You're going to love that you did. What's up Corey? Nothing man. We
love roofer around here. Yeah, there are a team partners and they
help bring the show to life. And, they're just a great company, you
know, a great company run by great people.
00:00:50:13 - 00:01:10:11
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I'm sure we're going to have some conversation around centered
around roofer today. We will. And we might as well jump right into
it. So you've recently done a tour de America, with the team over
at Roofer. So why don't you talk to me? What about what those
events have looked like? what it's been like for you.
00:01:10:13 - 00:01:33:02
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
The interesting thing about roofer is I think they're coming from
their position a different spot than most people are. Because, you
know, Richie and Nick and some of the higher ups came from the
roofing industry, their family still in roofing. And so their goal
isn't just to create tools for roofers, but it's also to help
roofers understand how to use those tools.
00:01:33:04 - 00:01:52:05
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And part of that roofer Ray show was really about bringing good
information that they can plug into their business right away. So
we had things on, you know, how to market your business. We had
things on how to present in the home. So people say yes to you and
buy from you. And that was what I was doing with them.
00:01:52:07 - 00:02:22:12
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Then they had a, a guy named Dan that came in and talked about the
client experience, and he's from a different industry altogether.
So he came from the credit card space, and then he came from the
technology space, and he talked a lot about the client experience
from a vantage point of overall, how do you make your, your
deliverables much better for your clients, or how do you put
something in place to make your client experience different and
better?
00:02:22:17 - 00:02:37:19
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So that was the framework of it. And I learned I actually learned a
lot from Dan. Some stuff that I was able to put in my company. And
you and I talked about it the, the where we dropped the ball and
what we could have done better on the client experience. So it was
it was really good.
00:02:37:21 - 00:02:53:16
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I love that. Yeah. So you're not one of those guys that you've been
doing this for 20 years. So you know everything and nobody can
teach you anything. it depends on what day you ask. to be fair, it
sounds like we're asking on the right day because you seem very
receptive to what Dan had to offer.
00:02:53:16 - 00:03:10:06
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And. And one of those things in your business. That was great. What
I find a lot of the times is even one good information is given.
It's not the absence of the information, it's the lack of execution
and implementation of that information. Yeah, I say that a lot.
execution is the secret sauce. It's not the information. Yeah,
yeah.
00:03:10:12 - 00:03:28:06
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So what would you be your advice to all the roofers that are tuning
in as far as how to take something from concept to being
implemented? It's a good question. I think that, you know, in my
experience and what I've done and, you know, what I've helped
others do is you first got to figure out what your biggest gap
is.
00:03:28:08 - 00:03:58:12
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
and how can you solve that and how that's going to affect your
overall business. Right. And I think one of the big data services
that the industry is doing right now is telling everybody that
sales cure all, and that's, that's a Band-Aid statement. That's not
a, that's not a solution statement. Yeah. I'll add that a lot of
the times, not only does it not cure everything, it makes a lot of
things worse.
00:03:58:14 - 00:04:21:03
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
It does because it covers up the actual problem. So you think
things are fine, but then when those sales stop coming in, or the
issue that you had is so great, you can no longer conceal it. Now
you have a bunch of sales and you still have this big problem.
Yeah. And that's a really good point. I was actually I wasn't even
on that line.
00:04:21:03 - 00:04:41:19
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I was thinking more. So like if you have production issues and it's
a result of a breakdown of a process, inundating more projects into
the pipeline is only going to put more stress in and exacerbate
that existing issue. Right, exactly. That's exactly right. And then
it makes it more far reaching and results in a shitty customer
experience. And it's just counterproductive to what we want to
accomplish.
00:04:41:21 - 00:05:04:18
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
The insidious part of that, though, is on the surface, it makes
everything look okay because you hang on to that. Well, we sold X
like, you know, here's our gross revenue or whatever. And as we've
seen with some of these bigger companies that have recently closed,
that gross sales number means nothing. And you talk about it a lot
just being a vanity stat.
00:05:04:20 - 00:05:24:11
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
and this is proof that it's a vanity stat. Your sales, if not
followed up with the rest of what it takes to run a good
construction company. If that doesn't follow suit, those sales are
just a vanity stat period. And it feels good. It makes our ego feel
good. I did $20 million in revenue. It's like, oh, this guy's doing
7 million, made twice as much as you.
00:05:24:17 - 00:05:40:11
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Yeah, well, I realize I didn't answer your question about the
implementation. That's okay. We'll get there. We'll get there. but
I went through that myself last year in 23. You know, we had a we
had a really big year sales wise. We had a it was, you know, from a
revenue perspective, you look at it and you're like, wow, this was
amazing.
00:05:40:13 - 00:06:07:09
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
By far the hardest year that I've had in business in my 30 year
roofing career. We just were not handle we were not able to handle
all of the issues. Some were ours, some were not ours. in a way
that we could continue to produce the customer experience that we
were used to producing. We had a lot we had a lot of problems.
00:06:07:09 - 00:06:35:08
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
We had a lot of problems on the installs because of material
availability, our lack of planning, the inability for my team to so
I for about half the year last year, I kept talking to them about
we're getting right to the goal line and we're not scoring the
touchdown. Like for some reason we would get 90% there and then
everybody would just stop and then we would leave it there and then
we would upset the customers.
00:06:35:12 - 00:06:58:05
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I don't I don't know how we got there, but we did. And so I had to
sit back and thank God we had the processes and the documentation
and all of those things in place already. So we could diagnose
where the issues were and plug the holes really quickly, put the
right people in place, get them trained. And now, you know, we're
back to knocking it out of the park for our customers.
00:06:58:07 - 00:07:16:10
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
But if you don't have that stuff in place, then how are you going
to solve the issues first, if you don't know actually what the
issues are, how can you solve them and then more importantly, if
you don't have the processes and the people in place to solve those
issues, how do you how do you plug those gaps?
00:07:16:12 - 00:07:42:08
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
It's a much, much harder undertaking when you don't have those
things in place to fix what's broken, because it's going to happen.
It just does. Yeah, it's really well thought out. That's a great
answer. Thank you. I, I did a consultation with, with a younger
company and they were coming to me looking for advice on different
things like Google among them, but system process things and CRM
things, automation, things like that.
00:07:42:08 - 00:07:56:16
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And I gave them a homework assignment. So what I've been doing. So
for anyone that doesn't know, like the process to becoming a sun
client is like you pay for a consultation, we sit together for 2 or
3 hours. I talk to you about a bunch of things that have nothing to
do with me selling you anything, or even services that we
offer.
00:07:56:16 - 00:08:20:20
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Just, you know, I've been doing this for around a decade and I've
paid very close attention to, you know, pre-revenue companies, 20
million companies, everything in between. Help them scale and,
watch how many eggs sometimes it takes to make an omelet when
they're breaking them. And sometimes there's a lot of waste. Right.
so what I've been doing now is I do a follow up because we can go
through all these great things, and I'm inundating people with a
lot of information that's foreign to them they're not familiar
with.
00:08:20:20 - 00:08:38:11
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And what I found is that the majority of the time, they're
ecstatic. They leave a review, they couldn't be more happy, and
then nothing gets done. So now I've been scheduling like a 30
minute follow up for the following week, like, okay, here's your
homework assignments. And, today, Nick, with easy exteriors, out of
Delaware, we had a great conversation.
00:08:38:11 - 00:08:55:10
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
He had some homework. He didn't get all his homework done. I was
like, okay, well, what happened? And I think sometimes, like,
accountability has to be binary, like, did you do this? Did you not
do it? And I think sometimes other times. Right. There's there's
situations where you have to take into consideration things that
take place, like when the bulls are flying, we're running a
business.
00:08:55:10 - 00:09:11:10
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
It's really fucking hard to be like, okay, we got these 17 things
to do by Tuesday. I better have them done. But he did a really good
job. Like he focused on like revamping his CRM, writing down, like
getting out of his head, his systems and processes and putting them
on paper. So like he missed on some of the Google business profile
stuff, like it's fine.
00:09:11:10 - 00:09:28:22
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I said, so what I want to do for you is to make sure that there's a
pathway to where you're not going to become less busy. Like, that's
not going to happen. Like you're continuing to grow. Your company
is going to be time is going to be more square. So let's create
like a 30 day blueprint where you can say definitively, we've got
these nine different things.
00:09:28:22 - 00:09:43:19
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And on this day, this is a one time task. It should take me about
an hour come hell or high water. I'm spending this hour doing this
like barring a complete emergency. for things that are residual
that you have to do, what day, what time makes the most sense for
you, and then, like, having a blueprint where you're not
negotiating with yourself.
00:09:43:19 - 00:10:01:15
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
The time for that. And, seeing through that, it actually gets
complete. And then then you can move on to the next things in the
business. And you seem very receptive and grateful for that. It's
it's the willingness, right? You you testing is willingness to
actually do some work in this company. Yeah. And I think that's
where a lot of guys.
00:10:01:17 - 00:10:29:11
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
From what I've seen, you know, this is where the, the real, The
real bifurcation here you have, you have people that want. Yeah.
It's the splitting, right. Going in two different directions. And
you have people that genuinely, I think everybody at Face value has
a genuine desire to make their company better. Yeah. There's a
small percentage that are willing to put in the work.
00:10:29:13 - 00:10:52:14
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
That and I think that's where that real bifurcation comes in, is
you have people that want the work done for them, and then you have
people that are willing to put in the work and the problem with
making things plug and play, when you're not sitting down and
thinking through these things yourself and writing them down and
you, you're not personally connected to the things that actually
make your company run.
00:10:52:19 - 00:11:23:04
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
When you're looking for somebody to just come in and and do the
work for you. Yeah. And when you have to dissect that stuff and you
have to figure out and diagnose where there's problems, it's harder
to do because you didn't sit down at the origin and, and work
through all those things mentally and write them down. When you do
that, you have a better chance of picking out the things that don't
work and changing them because you're intimate with those things
that make your company run and and that's really where, you know,
we're missing.
00:11:23:04 - 00:11:55:10
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And that's what I've been trying to champion for and why I've
gotten involved with roofer and doing some of this contractor
coaching, because there's there's this mindset now, for whatever
reason, that it's easy to run a construction company. And that is
why the failure rate so high. So you have the amateur that is
teaching the beginner. And because of that, there's no foundation
there.
00:11:55:10 - 00:12:15:23
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
There's no real foundation for the business. And then that business
is going to crumble because it was never built correctly in the
first place. Yeah. And and they're not bad people. They're just
inexperienced. And that's okay. We all need to learn, right? Yeah.
Speaking of like, inexperience and needing to learn, I see this on
the marketing pages all the time.
00:12:15:23 - 00:12:39:09
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And I get hit with ads and they're like, hey, I'll run your social
media ads for free. You don't have to pay me a dollar till they
generate business. It's like, you want me to be your fucking guinea
pig. You're 17. The fuck off of my feed. Yeah, yeah. right, right.
So. All right, so through the the rise events, you're you're
visiting groups of contractors.
00:12:39:09 - 00:13:06:21
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Geographically, they're in different towns, cities, states,
countries even. Right. So what I'm curious to know is what are some
of the issues that they're facing that are kind of unique to a
certain area or a certain company? Like what are a couple of those?
If you could think of any that have that have come up, and then
what are some of the things that kind of across the board,
regardless of the companies that you're dealing with where they're
located, it's this is a real problem.
00:13:06:23 - 00:13:34:23
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I like where you're going with this because we can talk about this
and now we then we can go back to the implementation. so happy
accident. I saw the thing that I see the most, is so on a location
driven issue, which would be their market. Yeah. And a lot of
contractors haven't been taught how to build a sustainable business
outside of a storm.
00:13:35:00 - 00:14:01:00
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And so you have these particular pockets which they're calling a
storm. They're calling storm markets where they don't believe that
retail can function in those storm markets. And what's interesting
is, well, I'll go out and I'll Google and I'll find a retail
company. I'll say, well, how are they functioning in this market?
How did I function in what was perceived to be a storm market on
the retail, on a retail side, and did really, really well.
00:14:01:02 - 00:14:34:12
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And so the issue they're facing is nobody has taught them how to do
that. So I think that's location specific. What I've seen overall
is a global issue for roofing for contractors. But roofing
contractor specifically is this idea that there's a separation
between restoration and retail and how those should function from a
customer standpoint. What I mean by that is people think that,
or.
00:14:34:14 - 00:15:04:14
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I get the impression that from speaking with a lot of these
restoration contractors, that they think they don't have to do
certain things because it's not appropriate for their business
model from a customer service or a customer experience standpoint,
such as. Well, one of the things that I was working with, roofer on
is helping, roofers, no matter if their restoration or their
retail, it doesn't matter is how they can do an in-home demo to
help their client understand the process better.
00:15:04:16 - 00:15:23:17
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And it's interesting to me when I talk to them and I ask, well, do
you do any type of in-home demo? And they're like, no, we don't.
We're, you know, we Dornoch and we're restoration contractors. And
what I'm trying to get people to understand is that the only
difference should be how the customer pays for the project. That's
it.
00:15:23:19 - 00:15:51:08
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
That's the only difference. The way that you acquire the customer
might be different, and the way that they pay might be different,
but those should be the only two. You need to find commonalities
with really successful companies and how they treat and how they
manage their customer experience. So a good example would be even
if you're a door knocker, you're acquiring that customer
differently than somebody that's using Google, you know, to to have
them inbound lead.
00:15:51:10 - 00:16:16:07
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
But once you get to the door, the way that you educate and the way
that you care for the customer should be the same. Now, the
information might be a little bit different. I'm not going to tell
people what the claims process looks like because they're not
filing an insurance claim. But if you create a nice presentation
for the homeowner so they know exactly what the process is, who you
are, and what next steps are, that's really what you should be
doing.
00:16:16:07 - 00:16:36:06
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So you can build loyalty and trust with that particular customer.
And I truly believe that's one of the reasons why now these guys
are getting pro shop and, you know, they'll go out and they'll file
a claim. And then they're all upset because now the homeowner wants
an estimate. Well, you haven't done your job to build any trust or
loyalty.
00:16:36:08 - 00:16:52:03
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So now they're out shopping you because they don't trust you. And
they don't they don't they don't have any loyalty to you as a
contractor because you have not given them a reason to be loyal to
you. Yeah, they it's like 50 guys with a white t shirt in a bar
with the same build. You look the same as everybody else.
00:16:52:08 - 00:17:30:06
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Yeah. You're all wearing the same Cologne. You're all wearing the
same white t shirt. Right? You know, it's not in a sun t shirt.
It's just the. It's just a white cotton t shirt. Maybe a white
cotton t shirt. Yeah, yeah. so. So that's a tri blend. 100% cotton.
Thank you. Okay. when you have a when you have a, a perspective
like that, that's going to change the way that it's going to
permeate all the areas of your business when you have a perspective
of you just Dornoch and you file an insurance claims, and it's a
volume game that's going to permeate all through your business.
00:17:30:08 - 00:17:54:07
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And so what I'm trying to help people understand is, is the more
time that you spend on your customer experience, and part of that
is your who answers the phone, your sales process, whatever your
sales process looks like, how you inform them, how you educate
them, and then ultimately why they decide to use their contractor.
those things are going to help you build a better, more sustainable
business.
00:17:54:07 - 00:18:13:04
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
You'll get more referrals. You'll retain your clients better. You
know, the whole deal. And so that's what I think. From what I've
seen, this last roofer rise is really what I want to focus on is
helping people understand there shouldn't be any differences other
than how you acquire your customer and how they pay for their job.
That makes a lot of sense.
00:18:13:06 - 00:18:33:08
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I personally think it's more than education, though. I don't think
it's a the nobody's really taught them, and that's the sole reason
I would say that a lot of the times through my experience, it's
willingness. So willingness to be open minded, 100% people are
telling you, right. There's like, you know, someone will reach out
to me in the past and say, you know, we want more leads.
00:18:33:10 - 00:18:55:16
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
For me, that's a fucking red flag, Christian. Make sure I'm waving
a red flag there. because it's like, okay, we're focused on
immediate, like, not anything sustainable, like whatever. And then
the conversation goes like when it's in a store market. or why
wouldn't I just hire more door knockers? It's like, we'll do that.
Why are you calling me good?
00:18:55:16 - 00:19:21:09
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I don't need to convince you that Google works like Google works.
If if I've got to sit here and and put together a presentation on
why Google is a viable option for you, like, we probably shouldn't
be talking. Yeah. and even there's been some instances where we've
done really well, generate a ton of leads in the issue becomes, to
your point, they're not so it should be the same, right?
00:19:21:14 - 00:19:41:00
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Besides how it's being paid and how the customer is being acquired.
Okay. but a lot of the times it's not. And there's a big difference
between I'm gonna send this guy out to sign somebody to a free
roof, God forbid eating a deductible or a $1,000 deductible, even
if it's like a percentage based deductible or whatever it is.
00:19:41:00 - 00:20:05:21
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
A few thousand dollars, versus, hey, how me $35,000? And a lot of
the times hugely different. Well, there's not a there's not a
willingness to understand the difference from what I've seen a lot
of times. And because of that, they put their number one
salesperson, you know, doorknocker, in a position where they're
going to sell retail, like, or we're going to go out and sell this
job now, and you got to educate them.
00:20:05:21 - 00:20:32:21
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And especially if it's a retail situation, it's like, okay, how are
you gonna get that $35,000 check? You're not just submitting it to
the insurance company, but like, this roof's fucked. Like you
actually have to engage with that person. Like you said, build that
trust, build that loyalty, build a confidence where you're not just
one of the 50 guys in a white shirt that all look the same, smell
the same, act the same, like what's going to be memorable about
your company, where that customer, if you leave there without
signing, is I mean, like, I can't wait to fucking work with
them.
00:20:32:23 - 00:20:57:10
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
it's pretty funny because, you know, like my presentation, one of
the first things I said is, I say to them, I was like, look, I'm
gonna hurt some feelings, guys, okay? The product you sell doesn't
matter at all. At all. if you heavily focus on what products you
push, you have literally just leveled the playing field to
everybody else that sells that same product.
00:20:57:12 - 00:21:18:15
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So let's say for an example, your your your guy, you know, you use
gaff or you use Owens Corning, which a lot of people like to use
Owens Corning. So if your big pitch is going in there and talking
about, hey, we're in Owens Corning, you know, whatever platinum,
great. What happens when you're sitting at the kitchen and you hang
your hat on that as your differentiator?
00:21:18:17 - 00:21:38:21
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
What happens when you're at the kitchen table with two other master
or platinum OS's? what's the homeowner going to think? All the
same, everybody's the same. so what's the price? What's your price?
What's your price? Right. Because you've got that guy. That's
right. You're you're all like platinum. Why am I going to pay a
little bit more with you versus this other guy?
00:21:38:21 - 00:22:01:23
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I'm not. Because you guys, you've literally just leveled the
playing field with everybody else. So don't focus on your product.
You can't you can't control that. I think the manufacturers have
done a really good job at like teaching us that that matters more
than it does, but it really doesn't. And the way that I know this
is because when Covid hit, I've never sold an ICO roof in my
life.
00:22:02:01 - 00:22:29:16
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Okay. Never. You got you going to get shingles. We couldn't get
shingles. Yeah. The only thing that we could get was ICO. So there
were two things I was concerned with. And I asked my rep, I asked
my, this distribution, distribution rep, and then I asked the ICO
rep. The two things I was concerned with is if I tell these
customers I can get this particular color and product, can we get
it?
00:22:29:18 - 00:22:53:00
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And if I have an issue, do I have the support to take care of the
customer immediately so that it doesn't disrupt their life? And I
got both guarantees. That's okay. We're going to sell that. We sold
thousands and thousands and thousands of squares of ICO. I don't I
didn't know anything about the product. Right? I wasn't worried
about the product.
00:22:53:00 - 00:23:19:05
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I was worried about my customer and the support that we could give
if they had an issue. That was all I'm worried about. And so what
that showed me was, largely. And I actually changed our
presentation because I used to have a presentation that went
through the installation and what products got used where and all
that stuff, and I found out that that is completely useless like
most homeowners, unless they're an engineer, don't give a shit.
00:23:19:07 - 00:23:40:09
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
They want to know they can trust you with their money. You're going
to be there for the long term, and they're not going to have any
problems. That's really what they care about. So that's what we
need to focus on. So we look at the similarities between
restoration and retail. We find out what all those similarities
are. And then we look at the differences and we figure out how to
modify based on those differences.
00:23:40:09 - 00:24:14:11
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And what you'll find I think, is there's way more similarities than
there are differences. So what are the top three things that you
would advise a contractor that's listening to this to really focus
on in their presentation that's going to help differentiate them?
Well, the biggest thing that I found is and I went to a GAF
training like four years ago, and the guy that was running the
training asked everybody in the training if they have their
mission, their values and their vision written down, right?
00:24:14:11 - 00:24:42:21
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Like their core values, their mission and the vision for the
company. And I and I didn't I didn't have any of those written
down. And he said, I challenge you to, to to write those down. And
I did, and it took me like two months to get those written down.
What that helped me understand really, was what I wanted to be able
to convey to our potential customers based on what our values
are.
00:24:42:23 - 00:25:16:18
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And then more importantly than that, I could train my team on what
our value, what our real value proposition is to the customer. And
once you learn what your real value proposition and I'll, I'll give
you an example here in a second so people can understand what I'm
talking about. But when you learn, when you really learn what your
value is and you write that down and you create a, a guiding
document on that, now you can train and teach your team the person
that answers that or the people that answer the phone, your sales
team, your, you know, your project managers.
00:25:16:18 - 00:25:43:12
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Everybody understands the value that you're bringing to the table
and everybody can row in the same direction. So I think that would
be like the number one thing that I would encourage people to do is
sit down, write your value, your vision and your, mission. Mission
is, and use that as your, your, your guide to write all your
processes and to train your team on, like, who you are as a
company, your identity.
00:25:43:14 - 00:26:01:06
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
We'll call that the North Star exercise. Okay. We'll call that the
North Star exercise. If you if you don't understand as the owner
what your identity actually is, then you cannot convey that to your
homeowners. And why are they going to buy in if you don't even know
who you are? And this, I mean, this stuff like, oh, we're high
quality.
00:26:01:06 - 00:26:32:10
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
That's what everybody says. Come on. Oh, we give great service.
Okay. You know, like when I hear that, I just roll my eyes. It's
like, yeah, it's what everybody says. It's like the most generic
answer you can. What does that actually mean? yeah. So that's where
you start. Okay. Where do you go from there? Then you, you put
together something that highlights how you execute that value.
00:26:32:14 - 00:26:53:11
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And so when I started South Shore, even though I had a lot of time
in the industry, most customers want to know how long you've been
in business, because time in business equals safety for them,
because you have a long track record of, yeah, being a business for
sure. I didn't have that. I didn't have any Google reviews.
00:26:53:11 - 00:27:08:21
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I had zero credibility. So I had to figure out, like, why are
people going to buy for me? Why would they go for me? And so my
presentation that I used to do at the kitchen table was all about
the service that me as the owner was going to give to the
homeowner. I was going to be the guy that sold the job.
00:27:08:22 - 00:27:25:12
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I was going to be the guy that went up on the roof and check to
make sure it was done in a in a workman, you know, good workmanship
type manner. I was going to be the person that solved any issues
during the build. And, and I had videos of this. I was going to be
the guy that was diving into the bushes to clean the bushes.
00:27:25:12 - 00:27:44:05
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
If the crews didn't get it 100% clean, I was going to be their guy.
That was my value, and that's what I conveyed to the homeowners.
And so for me, I had to figure out how I could service my clients
and show them that I was going to give them service, that nobody
else was going to give them.
00:27:44:07 - 00:28:13:18
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And that's what my presentation was. Even though I had no Google
reviews, I had no credibility. I had no time in business. And how
many times do you think I got asked how long I'd been in business?
One time. And I lost that job because I had to be truthful with
them. but because I had figured out what my value was to the
homeowner and why it was important to them and really what they
were worried about.
00:28:13:20 - 00:28:37:21
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I created a presentation that made it so they didn't even question
right who we are as a company. I remember those days I did too.
Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I'm talking about. It like figuring out
what your value is and then conveying that to the homeowner.
Because we all have different value propositions. We do. Yeah.
00:28:37:21 - 00:28:54:10
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I think it evolves right. It has to. It's not it's a fluid
situation. It's not static. And. It's just like anything with
systems and processes like as you grow the company, things are
going to function differently and things are going to need to be
changed. Things are going to need to be adjusted. Yeah. You know,
think of it this way.
00:28:54:10 - 00:29:09:15
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
If you're if you're a five year old child and your mom's going
shopping for you versus the 25 year old adult, like, think of the
differences in clothes that you worn. Think of the differences in
size of those clothes right when you were five and seven and 911,
you weren't always wearing the same size pants and shirt,
right?
00:29:09:17 - 00:29:27:20
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Things are going to change. It's a lot easier in that context to
pay attention and realize the differences that are taking place,
like, oh shit, I got taller. My pants are short as fuck, I need
better pants. They need to be longer. it's the same thing within
your business. As it grows, you add more people. There's. I mean,
yeah, well, so.
00:29:27:20 - 00:29:52:10
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So our presentation has changed from, you know, me, it essentially
telling them that, you know, I'm their guy and, you know, this is
what they can count on. And, you know, all this stuff too. Now, we
try to discredit the one man shows because now we have a team in
place and we talk about what goes wrong and what can go wrong and
how those are handled, typically with other companies and how
they're handled with us and who we have in a place and all
that.
00:29:52:10 - 00:30:07:18
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So they have to change. Our value is different now. I'm no longer
going to be the guy that's going to go clean your bushes because I
have a flair, you know? I love that, right? You know, and I'm not
above that. I mean, I would if I'm on site and we need to clean up
the site, I'm 100% to do it.
00:30:07:20 - 00:30:30:02
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
but it's just not how we're set up anymore. So now our values
changed. We have a team in place. and I'll give you a good, a good
story. We, we tell this story, and we were just talking about this
in our sales meeting. we had a couple last year. We had a couple,
bundles of shingle slide off the roof and hit the outside air
conditioner unit, smoked it, just knocked it right off.
00:30:30:02 - 00:30:48:23
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
This thing broke. I mean, just done, right. Two hours later, we had
temporary AC hooked up in their house in the middle of summer.
Hottest. You know, it's Florida. You know, it's hot, hotter. Shit.
two hours later, we had temporary AC set up in their house so they
didn't have to go without AC. And then, two days later, we had a
brand new unit installed.
00:30:49:01 - 00:31:13:00
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Lower cost, lower quality. Contractors cannot do that. They do not
have the ability and the resources to do that. And so when we talk
about the price disparities and why there's price disparities and
how those affect the homeowner, that's one of the stories we talk
about. Yeah, it would be very intentional about talking about that
100% of my prospects like, you know, and we plan every play to be a
touchdown, but sometimes we throw an interception.
00:31:13:00 - 00:31:31:21
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Here's an example, right. Yeah. It's not important. You throw in a
substance how you respond. Yeah. This is what we did. Yeah. So do
you want to take the chance of hiring a one man show that, you
know, charge to $3,000 less on this roof that doesn't have the
money to buy you a new outside unit that broke, and now, you know,
now you hate the cost.
00:31:31:21 - 00:31:57:23
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
That contractor, even though he might be a good guy, he cannot help
you because he doesn't have the resources. So what is your peace of
mind worth? And that's really kind of how we work on our price, our
price disparity. And one of the things that we've added and that
we're working on adding is helping explain and get the customer to
understand why there are price disparities.
00:31:58:04 - 00:32:14:23
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So they are a little bit more educated on why we might be more
money than the other. And it's all about helping them, price
condition and figure out what's important to them, because some
people don't find value in that and they just want the lowest
price. They're just not our customer. Yeah.
00:32:15:01 - 00:32:24:15
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
When did you realize it's okay for not every customer to be your
customer? When I didn't need the money so badly.
00:32:24:17 - 00:32:53:00
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
It's a fair and honest answer. Yeah, yeah, I think a lot of people
struggle with that. It's a hard one. It's a really hard one. It's
hard to walk away. We just did it. I mean, one of my sales guys
just, sent me a message the other day, and he said, how would you
handle this? And I said, by telling that customer, thank you very
much, but we're going to choose not to help them because she wanted
to change a bunch of stuff in our contract, not doing it.
00:32:53:02 - 00:33:18:19
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Once they start trying to change the way that we conduct our
business, it I've learned over the years it's a huge red flag and
it's just not a fit for us. Yeah. The other thing is, I've learned
I've sold a lot of those jobs and had to deal with the fallout. And
so at some point you get that good balance between experience and
not needing the money, and then you can turn down customers.
00:33:18:22 - 00:33:40:22
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So that might be the right answer. Yeah. It's tough right? You
start a business. You're so concerned about making it, especially
in construction. I want to make it past that first three years for
the first week, first year, first three years. I feel like it's a
lot easier after that point. Whether you're doing 1,000,000 in 3
years or you're doing 10 million, it's a lot easier.
00:33:41:03 - 00:33:58:20
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Okay, as time passes, you build confidence that the bottom's not
going to fall, that something catastrophic is not going to happen,
and you're gonna have to figure out how to provide you for your
family. But it's, I don't know. It's it's something I try to be
very in tune with because. Yes, hard man. People will take your
piece, sir.
00:33:58:20 - 00:34:20:09
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
They will rob you blind of it. and then blame you and blame me.
Yeah, like that's the motherfucker of it. All right. Yeah. That's,
Yeah. So that's my piece of advice. Try to get there, you know,
quicker than Corey did. Not every customer is your customer, and
that's okay. There's somebody that'll help them. It doesn't have to
be you.
00:34:20:11 - 00:34:42:15
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
the tricky part is figuring out what, you know, how to not
disqualify people because you don't want to deal with them versus
are they not your customer? Because those are two those are two
different. Yeah. They're not the same. They're not the same. Those
are two different things. Yeah. It's funny because sometimes like I
would get a message, I'm like, nope.
00:34:42:17 - 00:34:56:11
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And then I would sit there and think about it before, like I was
like, yeah, let me talk to him. It's like, you know, you might be
being a jerk. You know, you may be just like a little bit entitled
right now. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's an intuitive
thought. And maybe they're not coming from a place that you think
that they're coming from.
00:34:56:11 - 00:35:13:15
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
You should give them an opportunity to explain and not be so quick
to dismiss. And that's where the experience comes in. I'm just
trying to learn to become like a well-adjusted adult and evolve as
the days go on. So. You got any tips for that?
00:35:13:17 - 00:35:38:08
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
No. Okay. Anyone else in the audience does come on the show. We
want to talk to you. Yeah, man. We need some, Eckhart Tolle type,
you know, see? So, let's let's get into the implementation side of
it. So that's, there's some, some, some practical examples that I
think people can wrap their mind around. Like what we're talking
about.
00:35:38:13 - 00:36:10:12
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Okay. So in the beginning of the interview, you asked me, you know,
what are some things? Or why do you think people have a hard time
implementing and adopting things? You know? And my answer to that
is, I think there's two reasons. One, there are inherently lazy
people that just want the shortcut. They've been raised in an
instant gratification, you know, society where, I mean, I even
suffer from it sometimes.
00:36:10:12 - 00:36:25:03
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Like if I look down at my phone and it takes like two seconds to
load a web page, I'm like a piece of shit, you know what I mean?
Like what you should have in the sun website, folks. I mean, we're
talking about Google, right? So and this is from a guy that duped
me into getting an iPhone.
00:36:25:03 - 00:36:45:12
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
By the way, guys, I hate that long ed at so there's those people
that are lazy. They don't want to do the work. and then there's the
other thing that's called analysis paralysis, which you're like
trying to figure out how to do it so well that it stops you from
doing anything because you just can't figure out how to do it.
00:36:45:12 - 00:37:11:00
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And so you do nothing. I think that's the minor. And then there's
another type of personality sprinkled in there that will just try
it. and they don't feel like it's good. So they never actually send
it.
00:37:11:02 - 00:37:30:00
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
The. The best thing that I think as a business owners, we can learn
is you're just going to have to try some stuff, man, and it's just
not going to work. And then you're just going to have to adapt and
you're going to have to try other stuff, and you just have to be
okay with it. Like, that is the attitude you need.
00:37:30:02 - 00:37:56:06
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Obviously it has to be thought out has you have to think about how
it's going to affect everything else and all of that stuff 100%,
but sometimes you just got to do it. Yeah, you just got to do it.
And so, we, we were talking with roofing contractors and like how
to create an in-home demo. And I went through told people how to
create an in-home demo.
00:37:56:06 - 00:38:15:02
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
What the framework, what the structure, how the information should
go. And after I got that done doing that, telling them how to do
it, what do you think the number one question I got was, how do you
do it? How do you do it? And can I have your presentation?
00:38:15:04 - 00:38:33:12
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
It's not the information, right. You know, it's the application of
the information. I don't I don't know that you can teach and train
that and that's why I like what you said about the, you know, the
the exteriors company you working with. You tested his willingness
to do some of the work, and you saw that he was willing to do some
of the work.
00:38:33:12 - 00:38:43:23
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So you're going to go down that path with them? Yeah. It.
00:38:44:00 - 00:39:01:13
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
If you're not willing as a business owner. I mean, I know you. I've
known you for years. You've known me since I started south. Sure.
I've known you since you started ascend. One of the things that
served both of us really, really well is we're not super. We're
pretty risk averse. I mean, we're not, you know, we're not super
risk averse.
00:39:01:13 - 00:39:19:10
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So, like, we'll just try shit, you know, we'll just do things.
We'll take a leap and we'll figure it out. We also have the
confidence that we'll get it figured out. We'll figure it out.
Right? Yeah. so having the confidence that you'll figure it out is
a huge one. And then just saying, you know what? I'm just going to
do it.
00:39:19:12 - 00:39:44:22
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And this one might not work. Or we might have to iterate on it and
figure it out to where it's like firing on all cylinders. But the
willingness to just do it is the intangible that you have to have
for implementation. 100%. If you have that willingness. Now, we can
teach you how to do it. And so that's what I found to be the
biggest barrier to implementation is they just don't want to do the
work.
00:39:44:22 - 00:40:01:21
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
They want somebody else to give them the easy or softer way. And it
doesn't exist. And they'll pay a king's ransom for it. They will,
and then be mad when it doesn't work out the way that they thought,
because there's really no way to do that, because I don't know your
business like you know, your business. Sometimes we got to look in
the mirror.
00:40:01:22 - 00:40:19:07
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Guys and gals go look in the mirror. Yeah, we get that a lot. And
like, in our agency, we're not so much for our customers, but for
like, prospects. I reach out, like, listen, I just want to. I know
you guys are good. I just want to pay you. And I don't want to deal
with this. It's like, well, that's not going to work for us.
00:40:19:09 - 00:40:37:16
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Think about a situation. And this has happened with you over the
years where I call you and like thing things look super slow on my
side based on the KPIs, because we're operating off of data,
because we're not taking the calls, we're not booking the
appointments, we're not running the leads. Like, oh, things look
slow and you're like, good things have been great.
00:40:37:16 - 00:40:56:04
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Our sales guys have never close at higher percentage. Like we're
getting a ton of replacements. We don't know that unless we have a
conversation. So what we know is that based on our KPIs and what
standards we try to uphold for our clients, as far as like target
cost per lead, cost per acquire job, we're going to start making
fucking changes because it looks like this campaign is
underperforming.
00:40:56:04 - 00:41:12:10
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
But when I talk to you and you're like, no, it's absolutely killing
it. Like, don't change anything, that would be misguided. And
that's only as a result of us having communication and you being in
tune with what's happening in your business as being in tune, what
is happening on the marketing advertising side and bringing those
two pieces together?
00:41:12:15 - 00:41:32:00
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
It's like the fucking Power Rangers. Christian, cue the Megazord. I
think that's what it's called. when all the Power Rangers get
together and they combine it and they get this big fucking machine
that's like unstoppable. Transformers, I think does a similar
thing. You know, it's like you bring these two things together and
it's like, okay, now we can create like, actionable insights based
off data and actually move things in the right direction.
00:41:32:02 - 00:41:48:16
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Conversely, we could be thinking that things are going extremely
well, like your cost per lead is down 40%, which means you're
getting jobs cheaper. And then I call you and I come to to brag
about it. I'm like, Troy, how great is everything? I get fucking
sucks. I got 17 calls for face. That is more. If I get one more,
it's going to be a fucking problem.
00:41:48:16 - 00:42:10:20
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Like I'm like, oh, God damn. Here. I thought we did a good thing,
right? But again, it's having that communication. So, you know,
communicate with people. Well, we also have to talk about how that
came about right so early on of us working together. You you said,
look, I need you to track x, y and Z, right? I mean, I track the
normal stuff like, okay, what's my you know, what's my close rate,
how many leads I get all that.
00:42:10:20 - 00:42:25:19
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And you said, well, you need to look at this. You need to look at
this. You need to look at this. Okay. And when I would come to you
and I'd say, hey, Mike, shit doesn't look great. And you're like,
okay, well, where is your tracking? I'm like, well, see, you're
like, don't come to me with this bullshit, right?
00:42:25:21 - 00:42:46:18
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Until you until you, because the first year I just didn't have the
capacity to track that stuff. I didn't know it was me doing
everything when I finally realized. Oh, also, when when we signed.
Remember we signed up for Google. Guaranteed. I was getting, like,
30 leads a day. That was wild. Yeah. but. And that's when we really
started tracking things.
00:42:46:20 - 00:43:03:01
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
But if I didn't have what we actually needed to track, like, what
we were getting, what type of leads, how they were, how were they,
how they were dispositions, what did they close out? You know, all
of that stuff that we actually needed to make real decisions for
our company and not just how we feel about shit.
00:43:03:03 - 00:43:21:16
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Yeah. Then you and I wouldn't have been able to have a real
productive conversation on what we need to change. And that's the
thing. That's the stuff that I'm talking about. You said to me, in
order for me to serve you better, I need this from you. And a lot
of times as business owners, really? Well, how dare you need to
just do this?
00:43:21:20 - 00:43:41:05
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Yeah, I'm paying you, sir. Yeah, I'm paying you. What do you. What
do you mean you can't tell me what I'm closing at? I've no idea. I
know those leads. Hit your inbox. What happened? What happened to
them is on you. Yeah, and I need you to tell me what happened and
how it happened. And I don't want to just hear all these leads
suck.
00:43:41:07 - 00:44:02:06
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
How do you. So. And I know this is something that you and I have
had conversations about. And, you know, your salespeople get you
riled up, you come to me, then I get riled up, and then we do like
a reconciliation and specific around the instant quote. So roofer
has this great tool. It's called the incident quote. It's a it's an
estimate I forget instant estimator or whatever.
00:44:02:08 - 00:44:17:03
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And it works really well. It works really well. Patent pending
that. That's good. It works really well for a couple reasons. One,
it differentiates you, right? And even people that have it, you can
have 50 people with it in your market. They're not fucking
marketing it. They're not using it. Right. They don't see a thing
with Google. Guaranteed.
00:44:17:03 - 00:44:32:05
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
If you got Google guarantee and you're just doing it for lead,
you're doing it wrong. Use it on your door hangers, put it on your
crap, talk about it. It should be part of your sales presentation.
People fucking trust Google. So if you can tell people that, hey,
you should trust us because Google gave us a background check, they
endorse our work to a certain degree.
00:44:32:05 - 00:44:50:20
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Like that is super powerful. It's a big deal. but when things are
slow or sales reps are in a slump. This happened to me last week.
It's actually a friend of mine that works for a client and he's
like, man, those Instant Roof quotes are shit. Those leads are
garbage. I was like, okay, I had this conversation before.
00:44:50:20 - 00:45:19:22
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
No. I was like, okay. I said, so pull up, leap for me and show me
how many times you called the last five. I don't document them and
leap. Why not? Why not? Well, because I don't. It's a waste of
time. If not, I was like. So I was like, let me ask you this. You
think it's a waste of time for you to document what's happening
with the leads that you're getting, that you're gonna be held
accountable for as far as, like your production or lack thereof, so
that the owner of your company can put you in the best position to
consistently get the best leads possible based on what's working or
not working.
00:45:20:00 - 00:45:32:10
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I never really thought of it like that. I see where you're coming
from. I was like, yes, I'm glad you see where I'm coming from. But
a lot of the times, like the instinct, it's going to be designed to
do a couple things, give someone a seamless experience as far as
figuring out what that roof is going to cost them.
00:45:32:10 - 00:45:50:06
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And because even if they're in the planning stage, it's fine. Like
they want to know tailoring to the society of immediate
gratification, because you might not get the click of two other
people are advertising it. and people want shit quick, and that's
fine. getting the tire kickers out of the way, like filter aspect
is huge. It's the best thing about it, in my opinion.
00:45:50:06 - 00:46:10:14
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
The fact that, let's say your average appointment with commute time
sit down with the customer is like 2.5 hours for your sales rep
between them planning it and measuring it and everything that
they're doing. If you have them run ten leads a month of people
that were never going to buy once they saw the price, you just put
22.5 hours of their time back in their pocket where they could
spend that actually working on customers, they're going to fucking
buy from you.
00:46:10:14 - 00:46:30:23
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Yeah. So we get like that all the time. Like the abandonment from
the time that the lead submits to the time that it doesn't set an
appointment, say, I got all these people. It's like it's always
going to be that way. Always. Salespeople become become much more,
much louder about it when they're having trouble selling. Right.
Because then they could point to a boss man.
00:46:31:01 - 00:46:51:18
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Yeah. The all these leads are coming in and they're not they're not
fucking responding. It's like, yeah, but that's always been the
case. Let's talk about the fact that the leads that you are setting
appointments on, you're closing 15% lower. Right. Like let's talk
about that. Let's talk about why the fact that I audit the accounts
that you're getting or the clients that you're getting, and on
average, it says you have zero documented outreaches, zero follow
ups, like what's happening?
00:46:51:18 - 00:47:14:12
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I know that you're calling people, why the fuck aren't you
documenting it? So that I can make decisions to put you in the best
position, to have the most amount of leads, the highest quality
leads based on what's actually happening and not you getting in a
fucking mood about a slump that you're having, literally just had
this conversation with my production team about the sales team on
Monday, and this is a conversation where we continually have.
00:47:14:12 - 00:47:36:20
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Right. but you're tapping into something that nobody wants to talk
about. And this is the the personal accountability side. You know,
it's really easy to go and blame us. And digital when we're having
a down month, when we're not getting a ton of, a ton of leads in.
And so my perspective has always been, what's the solution
here?
00:47:36:20 - 00:47:54:03
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
How do we fix this? And it can't be about put putting blame doesn't
do anything like all it does is creates animosity between, you
know, let's say you and I. Right? If I come to you and I say, Mike,
like, our leads suck, we're not getting them or whatever. And
you're like, okay, I'm gonna go and research on my own and see
what's going on.
00:47:54:03 - 00:48:14:11
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Steve, search volumes down, see if, you know, click through all of
the things that we can monitor. I'm going to see if those are down,
if there's any substantial change. And we'll figure it out on our
end. What I need for you to do is I need to look at what types of
lead you're getting, what the disposition is, how you're closing
them, and, you know, who's being assigned these so we can take a
look and see if they're, you know, if there's an issue.
00:48:14:11 - 00:48:33:00
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And I under your end if you both or. Yeah, or both or both and if
and if we don't look at it like that and we don't, both take
accountability for our side and try to figure out the solution,
because at the end of the day, you want to do the best job for your
clients. At the end of the day, I want to bring in as many leads as
I possibly can.
00:48:33:02 - 00:48:49:06
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
It does not benefit me to blame you and it doesn't benefit you to
blame me. We need to figure out how to solve the issue, and the
only way to do that is we both take accountability for our side.
Yeah, keep your side of the street clean is so funny because I made
a piece of content a while back, like toxic accountability.
00:48:49:06 - 00:49:14:18
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Like. And that's not me trying to skirt accountability. What I mean
by that is we've been put in situations where everyone loves a hate
marketing company, is thinking things aren't working and etc. and
like, you know, sometimes are better than others. There's ebbs and
flows, there's lulls like that. Stuff happens regardless of who
you're working with. But there's, there's a there's a tipping point
where it goes from like, holding each other accountable to being a
divisive us versus them situation.
00:49:14:18 - 00:49:27:00
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I'm not sure we feel that shit. Sure. Of course. And it's like, I
like, I don't want to work under these conditions. If you're not
happy here, you know, go somewhere. you know, and that's not to be
disrespect, but I don't want my team in that position where they
feel like they've got a gun to their head.
00:49:27:00 - 00:49:42:04
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
They're being interrogated. Like, let's have a conversation about
let's talk about things that we can do to help you. We have no
problem adding value. We have no problem. Like, I'll sit down with
anybody for 30 minutes an hour. Like if they reach out, like I tell
people, we'll give you as much time as you'll give us. And most
people don't show up for meetings.
00:49:42:04 - 00:50:04:08
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And those are usually the same people that I hop on a Facebook
group and start roasting smart ass businesses. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
these people rob you blind. It's like, I don't know, like I've had
24 hours of meetings allocated for you in the last 12 months and,
you have shown none. Yeah, right. And that's like, that's I don't
want to say dead payroll, but like, it's certainly somebody sitting
there for at least 15 minutes waiting for you.
00:50:04:10 - 00:50:24:19
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
let's just like, you know, communicate you know that that reminds.
So we, we just signed this for exterior remodel. It's like we're
going to be doing like all of the hardy artists and siding and, you
know, new metal roof and new windows. I mean, you know, building
out an outdoor patio. I mean, there's it's a huge it's a big
job.
00:50:24:21 - 00:50:47:13
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
and so the we met over there last Tuesday and, the woman running
the job, you know, we talked with her. We kind of laid out how
everything was going to go, the process, what was going to have
where are we going to put dumps? I mean, the whole deal. Right? And
then two days later, she she text the salesman, I need you to do
the detached.
00:50:47:18 - 00:51:06:20
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I need you to start on the detached garage now. So this woman is
not the homeowner. She's actually an intermediary. She's a
designer. She's the one that's running the project because the
homeowners, travel a lot. And she said, I need you to do the
detached garage now. I need somebody there tomorrow to start
tearing it off and all.
00:51:06:20 - 00:51:28:01
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
This is a huge job. We've given you guys all these deposits. So my
sales guy calls me freaking out, like, hey, we have to start this
job tomorrow. We have to do this now. Sad. Hold on, hold on. Okay,
let's call her. Come back and said, Tracy, do you trust us as your
contractor? Well, yes. Okay. So here's what we're going to do.
00:51:28:03 - 00:51:54:00
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I understand where you're coming from. You have your buyers that
wrote $90,000 in checks. You've given us $90,000. We've ordered the
windows, we've ordered all this other stuff. We've given you a
construction schedule. We told you we're going to start in two and
a half weeks, and that's when we're going to start. And here's why.
I cannot be putting some of my guys here, pulling them off, putting
dumpsters, pulling them off.
00:51:54:00 - 00:52:14:11
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
We're not doing that. It's a small portion of the project. I get
that you want some progress shown to your clients, but you're
actually going to harm the process overall. And you need to let us
do the job like we laid out and agreed to. Okay. She said, okay,
that comes from experience and you knowing what you need to do for
your client.
00:52:14:12 - 00:52:33:11
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So they're successful. Yeah. Look, she could have said, no, I don't
I don't accept that. Like I'm going to go find another cut for her
freaked out or whatever. And we would have had to have a different
conversation. But you've got to be comfortable in who you are as a
company, your processes and, and be able to talk to people and
explain to them why you're doing things the way that they are.
00:52:33:12 - 00:52:50:15
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
They might not like it, but I would much rather have that
conversation on the front end and have a smooth, successful project
for the next two months. Rather than try to do this. And now we're
we're knocked out of our processes. And, you know, my guys are
wondering why they just went and did this and that. It just it's
going to be a mess.
00:52:50:21 - 00:53:05:18
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It absolutely. And,
you know, shout out to Brock with McClellan's contract and roofing.
You know, he was I was out I took my daughter to a theme park for a
birthday last August. He had some changes. He wanted me to the
campaign. So, you know, I'm running point guard. I'm on with
him.
00:53:05:18 - 00:53:23:20
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
A message in my team. We're doing this, this, this, this, this,
this, this, this, this I fucked up. I didn't put one of the work
orders in place that didn't set off one of the triggers that it was
supposed to, and something didn't get fulfilled. Right? It's why
you always call Charlie and and months later and months later,
we're meeting and we figure it out, and I'm like, I.
00:53:23:22 - 00:53:41:22
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
I'm like, I fucked up here. That's my bad. But I'm like, also, this
is a very good learning experience for me. And I want to appreciate
I want to tell you, I appreciate you for bringing this to my to my
knowledge, because that's why you don't fucking get away from the
process. Right? Like all I'm trying to do is do the best I can for
my customer, right?
00:53:41:22 - 00:54:01:09
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Roadhouse pay with good intentions. Great fucking dumpster fire.
Yeah. No, it wasn't. Don't get me wrong. Brock's thriving.
Everything was fine. But I felt bad because that's something that I
told him I was going to do for him, and I didn't get it done. And
it was for no reason other than I stepped out of what my typical
process would be because I was at the theme park with my
daughter.
00:54:01:09 - 00:54:26:01
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
But I wanted to provide a remarkable experience. That shit has to
have limitations to some degree, because you put you put a lot of
things at risk. It does. And, you know, that's the that's the
maturity, I guess, is that you, you you learn those things, you
understand those things. And then next time you, you know, are in
that situation with your customer, you can say, listen, I want to
do this for you, I really do.
00:54:26:03 - 00:54:49:18
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Here's what we're going to do to make sure I don't drop the ball.
And this is going to be better for both of us. It might delay
whatever the changes a day or two. And that's and I get it. You're
in a hurry. I understand, but what we're both more concerned is, is
the result. Right. And when you can talk to your customers like
that again, they might not like it at the time, but when things go
well, they'll respect it.
00:54:49:19 - 00:55:12:10
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And if you don't have the maturity to to have those hard
conversations with your clients, that's where it opens you up to.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and then you have a
bunch of problems, and now you've just created not only problems
for you, but your team, your client. And it just it never goes
well.
00:55:12:10 - 00:55:42:14
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
So yeah, I love that example of, you know, being able to have those
hard conversations. And let's circle this back to implementation.
If you don't have those processes and those systems laid out in
your company, those standards, if you will, which I find funny
little side note, you know, people are bashing systems and
processes now because they're they've decided that, like it is an
important part.
00:55:42:20 - 00:56:05:14
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Let's just look at them as standards. We can just look at them as
standards. If you do not have those standards in place in your
company, how can you adhere to something that that's not in place
and that's where you continually have issues. You don't learn those
lessons, but if you put those standards in place and the team is
trained on those standards, you're going to be less likely to fall
victim to it yourself.
00:56:05:16 - 00:56:29:21
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
Yeah, and so am I. I'm not going to create a problem for my team
just because I want to make my customer happy. Yeah, I love this.
This is great. We should do this again sometime. We should. One
thing everyone for tuning in, y'all. The real MVP is shout out
again to roofer. You guys helped make this happen and we going to
be more grateful for it.
00:56:29:21 - 00:56:36:23
CoreyCombes & MikeStearns
And, you know share this shit with somebody to help follow us. Do
something, do something. Just do something. We go do something.