Recruiting Strategies to Hire Roofing Sales Reps

Hiring season is here!

That’s the time of the year when:

• Neighborhoods are littered with yard signs.
• Everyone is in reaction mode.
• We have so much work that we don’t know how to keep up.
• We have competition EVERYWHERE, and it’s feast or famine time.

I’m located in Colorado, and when I get on my Facebook newsfeed, I see hiring ads pop up everywhere, saying stuff like, “Join our team! We can’t keep up!”

And just like the NFL, in roofing sales:

1. We recruit from the SAME pool of people.
2. We look to certain industries when we’re in roofing sales recruiting mode.
3. Almost everyone is doing the same thing.

So, how do we differentiate ourselves?

And how do we bring in more candidates who are actually:

• A good fit for our company?
• NOT going to poison our company culture?
• Going to want to go to work?
• Excited about the opportunity to change their lives?
• Going to do well in sales?

Well, that’s what I’m going to cover here. So, if you are an owner of a company, a manager, or a team leader in charge of recruiting, this is for you.

I’m going to share three very simple strategies that are virtually FREE, and these can help you differentiate yourself and bring in candidates.

Before we jump in, I want to say welcome or welcome back. Adam Bensman, here, The Roof Strategist. Thank you for spending your time with me. Everything I do here is designed to help you and your team smash your income goals and give every customer an amazing experience.

Now, let’s talk roofing sales recruiting strategies.

Roofing Sales Recruitment: Who’s the Right Fit?

Before we dig into the recruiting strategies, we need to identify who will be the right fit for our organization.

In roofing sales, there are essentially two schools of thought here:

1. Do group interviews and bring in anybody: With this, hiring professionals bring in a whole bunch of people, hoping at least a few good folks will emerge and stick around.
2. Focus on finding the right talent: This camp wants to find a good fit out of the gate. They would rather hire with laser precision on company culture and personality.

I am in camp number two here because I’m WAY more laser-focused on recruiting. After all, when I’m bringing someone in to work with our company:

• They’re gambling with their life.
• I want to make sure that I can actually put them in a position to succeed.
• I don’t look at it as shortsighted, saying “Make it or don’t” because I know that someone’s livelihood is on the line here.

So, I really want to make sure it’s a good fit both ways.

On the other side of the coin, there are the purely self-serving motives, where folks don’t want to pour their time and energy into someone who doesn’t really have a good shot at success.

So, I want to find out who’s the RIGHT type of person for the role. With that:

1. We have different types of company cultures.
2. Some companies have seen success with folks from one or two types of organizations.

So, I’ll give you a few examples, and I encourage you to check out my video,  The 9 Best Industries to Recruit From. That’s really important because it can help you identify what types of industries — what type of people — to focus your recruiting efforts on.

Roofing Sales Recruiting Strategy #1: Run Ads in the Wrong Place (on Purpose).

Now, most people will run their ads in one place, and that is the sales section. For example, let’s say you’ve had real success with restaurant workers and bartenders.

There can be several signs that these folks want to get into sales, BUT they’re not going to jump on Indeed to browse the sales section.

So, creative strategy number one is to run your ad in the WRONG place on purpose, putting the ad in places where those candidates will search.

That means that, if I know restaurant workers and bartenders are a really good opportunity for me, I’m going to:

1. Run my ad in the section where servers and bartenders will be searching for a job
2. Craft my subject line (the ad headline) to target these folks, saying something like “Tired of waiting tables? Want to triple your income?”

That way, when someone reads that and they’re actually tired of waiting tables, I have effectively:

• Captured their attention
• Lured them in with an exciting hook.

So, that’s my first mission.

And, remember, the subject line is super important. You can’t write something boring like, “Outside sales, Door-to-door sales, or Roofing sales.”

Instead, you have to SELL the opportunity and the excitement. So, again:

1. Run your ad in the wrong place.
2. Your subject line or headline in the ad is really, really important.

Another really big mistake that I see with roofing sales recruiting ads is in how they’re written. A lot of these ads are mind-numbingly boring. And if you’re trying to get someone to change their life and join your team so you can invest in them, you have to inspire (not bore) them!

That’s why I share:

• My story of entering this business and how I went from earning poverty-level wages ($19,000/year) to making my first six figures in eight months.
• My transformation and how it was far more incredible than just a financial transformation

For most leaders, owners, team leaders, and roofing sales managers, THAT is really what it’s all about— it’s about helping people change their lives.

So, our ad needs to send that message, sell the transformation, and sell the dream. That’s what your hiring ad is supposed to do.

By the way, in my recruiting program included in my training center, I include the framework for hiring ads to target different types of people, so you can copy, paste, and fill in the blanks to customize them for your needs and roofing sales recruiting efforts. These hiring ads have been working really well, delivering fantastic results for many leaders and companies.

So, again, run your ad in the wrong place on purpose. That’s the first tip.

Roofing Sales Recruiting Strategy #2: Create Referral Incentives for Your Team.

Jim Rohn says that we are the sum of the top five people we spend the most time with. So, if you hire a candidate who’s doing really well:

• There are good chances that (s)he knows other good people who are also interested in changing their lives.
• You can leverage that by incentivizing your team with referral bonuses.

In fact, if you spend about $500 to $1,500 in hard costs running hiring ads, you can offer a $1,000 or even a $1,500 referral incentive to reps who refer candidates that you end up hiring.

You can also offer something I call a “stick bonus” because, ultimately, we want folks to stick around and succeed, not just walk through the door.

So, I tend to offer that “stick bonus” after a certain number of sales. For example, I know that reps who make 20 sales are probably not going anywhere because:

1. They have experienced a taste of that success.
2. They know what that feels like.
3. They start to believe in themselves and their ability to earn a living in roofing sales.

So, I’m going to incentivize that person with a “stick bonus” to take that new rep under their wing and support them, so they can succeed.

Again, they’ve got the referral bonus up front and then the stick bonus on the backend if they stick around after so many sales.

Roofing Sales Recruiting Strategy #3: Recruit from Your Day-to-Day Life.

I practice what I preach, and I’ve used this strategy before. In fact, I wanted to recruit one of the latest members of our team, Kennedy, after seeing her in action in another sales role. Now, she’s part of our team.

I also did this at Roof Con, when I was speaking on sales and recruiting panels two years ago. In fact, back then, I was at a steakhouse, Charlie’s Steakhouse, in Orlando, and:

1. My server had upsold me to this dry-age ribeye. It was like a $30 upcharge on this one steak.
2. After I ordered it, I said, “You know what? I’ll just stick with the regular one.”
3. The server sat there in silence and stared at me after I said that — and I LOVED it.

So, I said this to the server:

I’m going to stick with my order.

And, you know, if you want to take these skills that you’ve acquired being a server and apply them in an industry where you could make $150k or $250k, write your name and information on the back of the receipt, and I’ll connect you with some people.

Not only did he write his info down, but he also walked up to me and asked for an introduction. So, I set him up for an interview with one of the companies that I’m working with in Orlando.

I share this story with you (and on stage at speaking events) because you experience people in your day-to-day life — and:

• You CAN find gems of people in unexpected places.
• Beyond restaurants and bars, you may run into great candidates for roofing sales roles when you’re going to the bank, renting a car, going to a hotel, going to a restaurant, and doing other things in your daily life.

Recap: 3 Highly Effective Roofing Sales Recruiting Strategies

Now, you have three powerful recruiting strategies to differentiate yourself and help you find the right talent to bring onto your team. These roofing sales recruiting strategies are to:

1. Run your ads in areas where people are looking (and, remember to watch this video on the 9 Best Industries to Recruit from).
2. Create a referral incentive.
3. Recruit from your day-to-day life.

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Thanks for joining me, and I look forward to sharing more with you in the next blog.