Podcast

If multiple bids come in for a project, the decision maker is confronted with making a choice. As long as our price is more or less in the ballpark. This strategy wins every time because the customer gets to see your sincerity and attention to detail. They feel more comfortable trusting you and your organization to handle the project and they buy hello boys and girls. Welcome to the third and final episode of my three part miniseries where I've been sharing what I feel is the best strategies and processes for implementing or improving your customer relationship management software in 2019. I gotta say thank you for all the questions I have been getting on Facebook Messenger. It has been a blast talking with all of you and so rewarding when I see you guys take action. I can honestly say that some of you are going to drastically change your businesses in 2019 if you see this project through. Now let's discuss what I feel are the must have tools that automate your business and start giving your customers more of that wow factor that drives five star reviews and a steady flow of referrals.

This is the show where you'll learn the mind hacks, strategies and process we use every day to turn everyday roofing companies into the dominating local authority with our ultimate roofer marketing method. You'll also learn how we use Facebook ads to rapidly and affordably scale up business for roofing companies and generate leads on Autopilot, putting you in touch with the right customers who pay the right price at the right time. Here's your host, Adam Sand. Now let's get after it.

Okay, so are you excited? I'm excited. This has been an awesome few weeks putting out these episodes and some of these freebies that I've been taking months to perfect are working out so well, especially the CRM picker from the last episode. That was a monster of a project. But I just think it's like so cool when you guys used it and then email me about your results and say like, oh, that's the one we're currently using and we love it. Or we never really took a look at that one, but the features are exactly what we need and we can't wait to switch. Those are the kind of messages that make these episodes and projects totally worth it. The most rewarding thing is when I see a guy who's working his tail off growing his business and something I do gives him that missing piece of the puzzle that ultimately unlocks the potential of his company. When I hear that it was a quote unquote good luck that they happened to play my episode that day that one comment makes my whole week. So on that note, I highly suggest going back to listen to the first two episodes in this miniseries in order listening to this one. While this is certainly a good standalone episode to truly understand the power, profitability and productivity boost that these tools offer your business, the last two episodes are a must listen. So if this episode leaves you anything but completely jacked to transform your business, I can only assume that you are missing some of the knowledge I dropped in the other two episodes. Plus, to properly execute the implementation of these tools, it's very important you have a good understanding of your current process for managing your leads from the point of first contact, such as a homo advisor lead or a phone call, to the day you pick up the final payment from your customer. That being said, if you feel you have that all figured out and you're ready to see the powerful new tools available that you can implement today, then let's get into it. We have six tools to share and I've secured some discounts on most of them. And in one case I have a deal you simply cannot beat anywhere else. As usual, listen to the end or check the show notes in your podcast app or on my site to get the goods. First thing we need to discuss is Zapier. I've covered it in the last episode as well, but today I'm going to dive a little deeper into it because the rest of these tools are truly awesome, but to use them you need Zapier. The best part is this is actually a tool most people can figure out with a little hard work and dedication I figured out while I was angry and drinking, but that's a story for another day. So what is Zapier? It is a website that acts as the glue that holds thousands of other apps together. In today's world, we're using a ton of different tools in our personal life and in our business, and in many cases, a big part of our role as the humans. Interacting with those software tools is copying information back and forth and back and forth, giving that data some context or simply making sure that it's in the right place. This leaves most of us thinking wasn't the purpose of computers to create less work for us? So Zapier is the answer to that question and finally gives you your time back by letting the apps do the work for you. This is because Zapier lets apps talk to each other through customized automations called zaps. For example, let's say you check your Gmail and there's a lead from HomeAdvisor that has a potential customer's name, email and phone number. This email looks the same every time you get one. Many companies then have to take that name, that email and that phone number and put it into a CRM or estimating program. What Zapier can do is read that email for you and it knows the difference between the template and the customer data that you need. It can then take that data and publish it into your software for you and even set a task letting letting your estimator know a new lead is waiting to be contacted. Maybe every time you go do that estimate, you have to make a copy of your estimating spreadsheet something in Excel, right? And you have to save it as the customer's name so you can find it later. This might seem like nothing, but it actually takes at least three or four mouse clicks and then you have to type the name. Well, with Zapier you can hit one button and it will do it all automatically, creating a copy of your spreadsheet file and saving it as the name of your customer that you are currently estimating, which saves moments and it eliminates hassle and double data entry errors are completely gone. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Zapier users have saved millions of hours in repetitive tasks from their business workflows and reduced data entry requirements across thousands of industries, from medical to marketing to manufacturing and more. In my personal roofing company, I have over 30 zaps running. Many of them run several times daily and result in thousands of tasks per month that are now automated, many of them customers absolutely love so, such as my rainy day button. It's a zap that is triggered when we click a single button in our CRM. It moves all scheduled installs forward one day on our calendar and then it alerts the customers so that they know by text and email that there has been an adjustment to their install date. This saves us countless calls and emails updating customers. We never have to call a customer to apologize because we aren't coming tomorrow as planned because of the five rain days the last month that put us back only to hear that they booked a spot at the kennel for their dog two weeks ago and now they have to a $40 cancellation fee and they're missing a day that they booked off work. This is all for something that was easily preventable but often gets lost in our to do lists. We've now automated this. I could literally go on for hours telling you every zap I have created both in my companies and my clients. Businesses that have saved money, time stress and customer complaints. Frankly, nowadays whenever I look at any app, software or tool, the first question I ask the sales guy is if they have a Zapier integration. If not, I don't care how powerful it is. If I can't connect it to anything else, you might as well hang up and call the next guy. So going forward, all the tools I suggest in this episode will have well thought out integrations with Zapier. And there are over a thousand apps that currently work with Zapier. Now there is one thing. It's not cheap, but if you count all the time it takes you to do many of the daily repeated tasks, it easily justifies the cost. Even a one crew owner operator, especially a one crew owner operator, will find the first seven days of every month it is paid for the monthly fee for Zapier. Bare minimum, you want to get the $62 a month plan that gives you auto replays and more than 1,000 tasks. Every time a zap runs there is a trigger that is what starts the zap. That is followed by an action or multiple actions that are caused by that trigger. Sometimes you also have a condition that only lets the zap continue if it matches a certain like customer name for example. So it doesn't take long to get over 1000 tasks in a month. That is the crazy thing. Once you start seeing the volume of tasks eliminated by your zaps every month, you'll look back and say oh, that task usually is like an interruption plus it like takes like three minutes of time. When it runs 72 times in a month that saves you three points hours of your life plus stops the interruption. This is where it gets even better. So with all my clients usually running at least a few zaps plus my company is running many, I have to pay for a team account with what basically works out to unlimited tasks. I mean I get 50,000 tasks a month and the next 50,000 cost half a penny per task. So for a limited time only, depending on how fast it fills up and how much of a headache it becomes, I am offering each and every one of you the opportunity to set up as part of my quote unquot team. You won't be able to see each other's zaps because you will have your own private folders and you pay nothing. That's right. I pay over $300 a month for this Teams account plus whatever for how many tasks my client and I run over the limit. But if you would like to try Zapier risk free and start connecting your apps and tools I will give you a free account as part of my team for as long as I'm in business, which should be for a long time. I hope to get access. Just sign up@roofingbusinesspartner.com joinmyteam all want word and I will get you a team account set up right away. Okay, so on to the tools. The first thing you need is a good place to track leads from. At the very least, first contact to sold roof. I understand many of you are using project management softwares to coordinate roofing jobs and subcontractors. Most of these programs have seriously lackluster sales management systems. One of the tools I like best, whether you wanting to track and automate your entire process or just the sales from lead to sold roof is, is pipedrive. Okay? It's an app called pipedrive. Like the name implies, if you want to drive leads through your pipeline, this is one of the best tools for doing it. Pipedrive makes sales teams unstoppable and empowers them through simplicity and focus. They're a company that really understands that every sales team has a process that guides customers through a journey. In roofing, when working with homeowners, that flow is pretty much usually always the same. You get a lead, then you reach out to the lead, then you have them as contacted, then you qualify them as a potential customer or not. You book an estimate, you measure the roof, you quote the roof, or you build a quote, you present that quote and you follow up with them. Eventually there's a negotiation, you close the deal, and then you hand it over to scheduling and installation departments. Customers always move from one to the next stage, right? Sometimes they skip, but they rarely go backwards. You don't really, you know, usually quote a job and then have to go back and, you know, see them as coming as a new lead. For example, pipedrive gives a really simple but powerful dashboard in what is called a Kanban view. Kanban. It's K A N B a N. Don't ask me why it's called that, which is a header with client cards below. So in whatever stage they are in of the buyer's journey. So, right, the, you know, lead, follow up, contacted, sold, negotiation, whatever. But in each stage, whatever, depending on which stage they're at, the most relevant information that you would need at a glance for that stage is right there. And as you move clients from say, contacted to estimate booked, they go from one list to the other. So at any time, you could easily see visually that you have four leads that are uncontacted, three contacted but not yet booked. Nine estimates booked for today, 15 that have been quoted but not followed up, four that are currently negotiating and 29 roofs sold but no dates booked. This gives you a great picture of your business and the closing ratios and where customers are getting stuck in your process so you can make improvements. Best of all, it all links to Zapier and allows 12 triggers, 12 actions and five searches. So that means there's 12 different things that can happen in the app that trigger a zap. And it also has 12 actions that can be done when another app triggers it and five searches. That's like a way to give it a condition so it has to find a certain customer or a certain deal, right? And now this is a lot for such a simple but powerful CRM tool. With those triggers and actions you can automate a ton of things in your business. For example, leads can automatically go in from a form, set tasks to certain people, assign a sales rep and send a text to the sales rep letting them know there's a lead. Booked appointments can automatically send reminders with a picture of the sales rep to make sure the homeowner finds your estimator familiar and comfortable to work with. You can write one email in gmail and get a report of how many customers are currently awaiting, follow up on their quotes and address the situation with your sales team. All from home. When customers move from one stage to the next, you can automatically send them messages with information that is contained within the CRM. So if you tell pipedrive that they are a Gaff Master Elite customer, once you collect payment, that payment can automatically trigger to send them a PDF file with the warranty terms and conditions which saves a normally annoying hassle of a task. This list literally does not end. It all depends on what you currently do in your business and what tasks are currently slowing you down, or if you're not getting them done according to your standards because you just don't have time or your people don't have time. So you can check the show notes where I have a link for a free trial and like full disclosure with all these tools I've secured deals for you guys or like free trials and with the exception of the Zapier team deal that I'm actually paying for, some of the others do pay me a small commission or send me like a gift card if you become a paying customer. So full disclosure. But I can honestly tell you that I use each and every one of these tools and one or both of my companies personally and in my customers businesses and I Love them. Okay, so next up, if you're anything like me, you have employees, partners, subcontractors, vendors, customers, friends and family sending you texts and emails all day, every day, 24. 7. Add in spam, phone calls, bills, and it just becomes a completely unmanageable mess. I have four email accounts, and the idea of inbox zero, like, where you have have no unread emails, like it's just no notification bubble, is a pipe dream for me. They say there are two kinds of people in this world. People with zero notification bubbles in their phones who tackle every email as it comes in. And then there's people like me who know that when they have 12,046 emails, that's one more than 10 minutes ago. So an email must have come in. Check it, and if it's not important, just go back to whatever it was I was doing. And that's it. That's me. That's what I do. So nothing drives me more bonkers than having constant communication with work teams going on inside email and text. Especially when there's a conversation that kind of happens in two places at once. You know, like where the accountant says an email saying that a certain project is missing a receipt. So you text the guy who usually handles that project or purchases for that project and go back and forth. But then after all that, you find out there was actually this other person that did it. So you call them and then they email you the receipt. But then you got to remember to forward it to the accountant when you stop driving or at your next stop. And then that whole kind of thing gets lost. And then the accountant sends another email, but you miss it because you think you already handled that. We all have these kinds of back and forth with department heads, staff, installers, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. People forget to check spam, or heaven forbid, they don't check their email every 20 minutes and they didn't see your email yet. It's enough to drive you nuts. And then come the post it notes and the ccing yourself on every email and hitting reply, all to try and make sure everybody's reading everything at all times and people got each other's backs. Logistically, the systems are not set up for running a business efficiently. Which brings me to my next tool. It's a team chat app that has taken the world by storm and is now the backbone of small organizations right up to Fortune 500 companies. It wasn't the first team chat Apple, and it probably won't be the last. But there are many alternatives. But the pricing on this one just can't be beat. It's free and you only need to pay for it once your company becomes like a massive power user. My personal roofing company, for instance, is still using a free Slack account. I cannot recommend this app more. And nothing drives me more crazy than when someone stops following the process and starts texting me. I don't know if you heard that. That's my dog barking in the background. That's Thanos. Be sure to check out our videos on Facebook Live. But yeah, he teaches me a lot. Basically, I hate it when people start texting me or emailing me because I don't want calls anymore. Because more often than not I'm always busy doing something and a call comes in and it becomes an interruption. So either the task I'm working on gets screwed up, right? Or especially now that more like I work on more complex tasks because Zapier automates all the easy stuff or whatever the person on the phone needs doesn't get done because I don't break focus on the task at hand well enough to remember what they wanted me to do. So all communication in my company now happens in Slack, no exceptions. For example, my business partner is also my best friend. I couldn't stand sorting through pictures of his kids, stories about friends, personal conversations, just to try and find out who that client was that still hasn't sign the finance contract for the roof because he text me. Slack allows you to have one to one messages, just like you know, chat or sms and then you get notifications just like a text message. But it also allows channels that are more like chat rooms that multiple people can be in. And it kind of has a dedicated specific topic or task that you want to kind of have only happen within that one discussion, right? You can also use Zapier to send messages on your behalf to certain channels when important events occur. Like if a team member needs supplies. For example, you can set up a supplies channel in Slack that some like you have some kind of like runabout, logistics driver, employee type guy, right? He watches that channel or everyone can watch that channel. And if a specific crew needs like, I don't know, more caulking or sheets of plywood for wood repair, they can take a picture of what they need and then it'll automatically go into that channel and it will send a notification only to the right people that could help that are like paying attention to that channel. So that way anybody who's nearby or the person whose responsibility it is gets that message automatically and has A picture to know exactly what it is they need. Or perhaps the accountant sends through a purchase order for another roof to be loaded. Right, you can have a roofskidding loaded channel and the material list with both the quantities, the address, the job notes and the materials all can be posted into that channel as soon as she puts through the purchase order. So the foreman can review and address any concerns, plan his week and let his crew know what to like say to bring a lunch because it's too far out of town to grab a bite somewhere. It allows your team to run way more efficiently and communicate way better and collaborate amongst themselves, not requiring you to babysit every single conversation. All in all, there are 10 triggers, eight actions and five search conditions that you can use to build almost any automation that you can dream of. So not only can you have all your communication in one place, but you can also allow your staff to collaborate and answer questions amongst themselves. You can have private and public channels, so there's ones only managers can see and ones that everyone can see. Very quickly. You will find like other departments are starting to get along better than ever before, there will be less times that you need to get involved in things. Happier customers are always a byproduct of a well run organization. And like I said, it's totally, totally free. So you can go to the podcast, show notes in your player or on the website and you can get a link to sign up for that absolutely free. So what could possibly be better than Slack and pipedrive that's an easy one to answer. Have you ever heard that a picture is worth a thousand words? Well it's absolutely true. The number of project management softwares in the roofing industry that are trying to implement some kind of picture taking capability to their softwares is astounding. And some of them are executed so poorly, storing the photos in a Google Drive but not allowing easy access to them from other team members. Sometimes it can be difficult to sort and find images related to specific projects. Many lack the ability to do annotations or some kind of markup on the pictures to highlight like specific parts that you might need someone to pay attention to or something that you might want to tell a customer. So like I've said a thousand times in my roofing business and that of my clients, I try to find the tool that performs a certain task better than anyone else and then integrate it through zapier. And many of you have probably heard about this tool. It's called CompanyCam. On its own, CompanyCam is an awesome addition to any construction company, but the ability to create and name projects and have them be geolocated is genius. Meaning what? That means like an estimator can like take pictures on site during the quoting process, and then a foreman can arrive on that site a month later, click jobs near me and instantly see only the pictures that are relevant to that job. Simple to use. Easy Snapchat like editing makes it even so Even like a 46 year old roofer with 25 years experience roofing, but no skills on a cell phone can learn to use every feature in like 15 minutes. The team over at CompanyCam have done an incredible job with this app. And that's not all. They have a bunch of other cool features. You can measure square footage or like distance between two points using some of the newer cell phones that are capable of augmented reality. Basically that means your phone has a camera that can kind of sense and determine pitch and distance. So it takes really great before and after photos too. Using this ingenious process that kind of overlays one photo on the other. It makes it easy to share to your social feeds too. So you can tag photos, you can send messages in photos, you can record voice memos on photos. So much stuff it even creates a unique website for each project and allows you to share a link to that site. And that is where the magic really comes in. With Zapier, you can set up triggers based on tags in your company cam photos. For example, you tag a photo as tool supplies and it will automatically send the picture to the channel in Slack and send a message to the right person alerting them that supplies are needed or a tool is in need of repair or replacement, Rather than naming each project every single time. When your estimator arrives on site, they can hit one button in your CRM like pipedrive and remember that workflow I was telling you about earlier where Zapier could copy the estimating spreadsheet and name it well simultaneously. It could also create a new CompanyCam project with the customer name and address and phone number already assigned into that app. So you just open it up and start taking your pictures now. Now, how about that workflow that sends a message in Slack when a roof is getting loaded? Wouldn't it be great if the link to that CompanyCam project was in the message so Forman can also see the job notes and all the pictures taken of the site in advance? How about if it automatically included that link in your purchase order with delivery details so the distributor can see exactly what house they're delivering to? I have multiple clients who have had shingles loaded onto the wrong building because of a simple data entry error along. In fact, that was the reason we got company Cam. We ordered a. It was a trailer park and we ordered house number 17 to get loaded. And the lady at our distributor, honest mistake, she put in the order but accidentally typed house 71. So we had a job that we had to start late, embarrassed ourselves in front of our customer, and had another homeowner upset that a bunch of shingles were on his roof when he came home. And the following day a crew of guys were walking all over his roof to remove the shingles. Thousands of dollars in mistakes have been prevented by integrating company cam projects across multiple tasks in organization. And I have another trick with CompanyCam. I wouldn't even share here for free because I think it's honestly just way too valuable to give it away. In the show notes, you can get a link for a free trial to that Company Cam. So be sure to check your player or roofing business partner website to get that set up right away and start building some simple zaps like these in your free zap your team account that I'm giving you. So if a picture is worth a thousand words, then what's a video worth? Right? And the answer is, is thousands of dollars. So let's unpack that a little bit. Many could say that roofing is a highly competitive industry, but it really isn't. We all know that, like, less and less people are interested in doing this kind of work. Across the board, construction and trades have had a shortage of labor for years. And therefore the sales process comes at the time of need more than want. Selling things such as cars, real estate, or life insurance is where a want has to be created out of thin air or psychological selling. And that is much harder and more competitive. More people want to do things like that as well because it's easier than standing out and building something, right? And so in that industry, to try and separate yourself from the herd and build trust and loyalty, such as when you're a car salesman, is way more difficult. Believe me, I've done both. And I'll always tell myself and anyone else that roofing customers are so much nicer and more pleasant to deal with than car customers. The same guy that was rude from the handshake, he lied and said his trade in vehicle hadn't had any accidents. He treated the whole experience like it was a poker game. And he leaves unhappy no matter what you did. And he wouldn't buy until he can tell that we're basically Selling the car for a dollar above cost. And I just want to get the deal over with and be done that next year. The same guy who sends in a lead, he has no idea that I was a sales manager when he bought his car. But he, you know, asked us to come do an estimate through our website. He's shown us how that he paid. You know, when he like he ended up choosing to go with us, it was a great experience. He showed us how he paid 25% more for our company to do the roof than the next guy, made us an incredible roast for dinner, bought the entire crew beers for after work, right? And this guy had no idea who we were. He was just a different person. Right. When they buy cars, when they buy roofs. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why people just don't trust car sales salesman. They don't want to come down to the store to do a test drive a car until they really know the bottom line price, right? The experience is all happening online. Yet when they call a roofer, they invite you into their homes. They spend a good hour or more letting you climb around on the roof to measure before the price even comes up. And the stakes are higher with a roof than it would be for a car. One could argue that. But the simple fact is that contractors do not have the same reputation as car salesmen. But that being said, the competition is heating up as more and more roofers rely on things like Eagle View. Meeting customers at their home for an inspection is becoming kind of a thing of the past. The result is more roofers are simply sending proposals by email. And the best tool they have at their disposal to stand out is some kind of template. Why choose us? And that document is filled with words that, guess what? Sorry to tell you, most customers aren't even reading it. And if they are, or many don't understand what you're saying, or they just don't believe you. So the human touch is fading from the experience. And that disconnect between you and the homeowner is not serving you and your goals. Sure, you can probably bang off a lot more estimates in a day, but customers won't pay for a commodity, but they pay for a service. Trust and effort is a service the customer loses when all this business moves online. So there's no amount of pamphlets or brochures that can make up for that. For these reasons and more, I absolutely cannot live without bombbomb in my business. And it is single handedly the most powerful tool in my arsenal for increasing profits and closing ratios of our sales department. For these reasons and more, I absolutely cannot live without Bombbomb and it is single handedly the most powerful tool in my arsenal for increasing profits and closing ratios of our sales team. The best part is there's no magic to it and there's no manipulation of the customer. This is not some word track intended to magically make the customer want to pay 10% more. It's just good old fashioned hard work allowing you to give personal service at scale. In the new business model of roofing. This is a problem that realtors and car salesmen had to overcome years ago when the Internet became the new protective barrier that allowed customers to shop and negotiate at their pace from the comfort of their own homes. Those businesses lost the ability to make a good first impression and connection a long time ago. So we only need to really look at those industries to see what inevitably will happen to us as roofers and what we should do about it. When I was responsible for building out an Internet sales department in the car industry, we made a new rule that every single lead that came in on any car required a video walkaround to be sent immediately to the customer. Back then it meant having multiple iPads charging at the reception desk, and if a customer inquired about like a 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan asking for how many kilometers are on it and if it had power sliding doors, instead of just sending them an email back, trying to get them into the store, or simply answering their questions, the sales associate would go grab the keys, pull the car out of the lineup, get an iPad, record a full video, walk around showing all the features of the car and addressing them personally by name and answering their specific questions in the video. That video would then be painfully uploaded to YouTube and titled and then 5 or 10 minutes later when the video is live, a link would be sent in the email to the client as a response. Five, six years ago, this was completely unheard of and totally transformed the customer experience. When car sales guys were trying to succeed on a platform of information scarcity where they kind of try and manipulate the customer and needing to come to the dealership to get a straight answer instead of, you know, or to get the code condition of a used vehicle. This Internet department that we were building was sending videos of popped hoods, undercarriages and navigation feature demonstrations. Every metric that one could kind of measure a sales department on improved, drastically outperforming the market. Lead to show up, ratio lead to sold ratio, profit per car, everything. In many cases, used vehicles were being delivered by trucks. 600 miles away to remote areas where car shopping usually required the time and expense of a multi day trip, saving customers. That time and money directly translated into profits for the car dealership. Now this is an almost mandatory part of a career in car sales. Now real estate is no different. Many of you have likely received a personalized video from me as well. Downloading one of my free workbooks or signing up for my mini courses. And I'll continue to do that until I literally can't keep up. Because I believe that it's a natural, necessary part of doing business over the Internet. The great thing is that tools have greatly evolved since the days of recording and uploading to YouTube and then sending a customer a link. With Bombbomb, you can record and send in so many ways. You can record from the mobile app or from your desktop, paste the email address and it sends instantly. No uploading, no link sharing, and the video shows up in the email as a little animated image thumbnail that kind of gets the person person's attention when they open the email. As with all the tools, it integrates with Zapier through eight actions and four triggers. So you can record a generalized email video that shows people, say your site prep process so that when you when you complete a purchase order, it automatically sends that video to show the customer what they can expect for you know your crew to do when they come set up the site. If your process is to send a personalized bombbomb video to every lead so the sales rep can like introduce themselves and request a time to meet for an estimate, you can create that as a stage in pipedrive and as soon as the video is sent it can move to the next stage and set a task for follow up. This way as you onboard new sales reps, they can get into the system and get producing even faster. One of the most effective uses I've found for Bombbomb in my roofing company has been for missed estimate appointments. Anytime we get on a roof, when the customer comes, couldn't be around or didn't want to be there for the appointment, we record a walkthrough of what we noticed on the roof and our plans or suggestions on how to proceed with the project. Considering it's so easy to record and send these videos to customers, there is very little pushback from staff and it's way easier than writing a big long email. Plus it's way more likely the client will consume and understand the information when it comes in a video. If multiple bids come in for a project, the decision maker is confronted with making a choice as long as our price is more or less in the ballpark, this strategy wins every time. Because the customer gets to see your sincerity and attention to detail, they feel more comfortable trusting you and your organization to handle the project. And they buy. So imagine one little tool that grants you the opportunity to book more appointments and close more deals at prices that allow you to complete projects more profitably without stress or temptation to cut corners. Like I said, it isn't magic. There's no manipulation here. This is just the reality of doing business on the Internet. As more and more of the experience is conducted online, you can reject it or embrace it, but at the end of the day, you can't put technology back in the bottle. Combined with marketing done through Facebook Live, video and Instagram stories, it's easy to stand apart from the competition in a positive way. We're actually executing this strategy in a partnership program project that I'm working on with fitness clubs implementing Bombbomb into regular client communications for the New Year's rush. I'm super excited to see how it goes because I know it's going to crush the competition strategy of a seven day free membership with a fitness assessment that's the same as roofers who offer a free estimate and the marketing company that advertises a free 30 minute marketing strategy call as some kind of value to the customer. It's nothing, right? Bombbomb is a tool that easily allows you to deliver value upfront and create a relationship based on reciprocity where you give before you ask and they are more inclined to work with you in return. I got a link for you guys to get a free trial of Bombbomb so you can start using it to make more money now and you get $50 off if you continue to be a customer. So far we have covered Zapier, the tools that make every mate tool better. Pipedrive a place to simplify and empower you to book more estimates and sell more roofs. Slack, the communication hub for your business to bolster collaboration and create more efficiency across all departments. Companycam, which is the best way to document projects, set clear expectations with clients, and create certainty that improves the work quality of your roofing company. Then there's bombbomb, the ultimate tool for any top performing salesperson in any industry. What else could you possibly need? Many of you are already using this tool, but in most cases not to its full potential. My final recommendation is QuickBooks Online. I know, kind of boring right? We've all heard of QuickBooks. It's not sexy. It's that thing the bookkeeper and the accountant use. What many don't know is that QuickBooks Online integrates with Zapier and has a staggering 19 actions, 12 triggers and 4 search conditions that can be connected to any one of the thousand tools on Zapier. Accounting and bookkeeping is also the most congested part of your business with common, simple repeated tasks. Counting the beans, as they say, is not enough. Understanding what your finances are telling you on a day to day basis is a part of remaining competitive, fostering healthy growth and improving day to day operations so you can see problems before they happen. There are so many points in your day where a task either requires something to be done in QuickBooks and there's an equal number of times that something done in QuickBooks is the first step to a task that is usually a heavy workflow of little things that need to be done. With all the tax changes, especially in the US you can be damn sure that the IRS will be watching closely to make sure businesses are adhering to the new codes. Now more than ever, it is important to make sure you are Audit proof. My mom has been an accountant all her life, has friends all over the world and she tells me all kinds of stories about how every time there is a major tax reform, the following year is full of audits and trust exams with all the tools available now they know that they can simply tell you or your bookkeeper to open your books and ask to see receipts for 10 different transactions. If you can't easily produce them or don't have them, they take you through an audit and make an example out of you. The fact that you don't use the tools doesn't matter to them. They have higher standards than ever and to be audit proof and able to demonstrate compliance, they expect businesses to start taking advantage of this technology. So buying a tool used to require like if you wanted like go buy like a hammer or an a new Hitachi gun or whatever, you used to require a PO on an account with the with the vendor or a receipt at the till of the store you bought it from and you would try to keep all the receipts in some kind of folder in your truck and then at the end of the month you pay the statement on the account or you pay your credit card bill and just kind of assume that the full balance on your business credit card was a tax write off. Worst case scenario you try to keep all the receipts in a shoebox or some kind of bigger folder and well that doesn't cut it anymore because it takes forever to find the receipts, they get faded and ultimately it frustrates the taxman, which never ends well for you. So now people try taking pictures of receipts and stuff. The bookkeepers try to code them to appropriate expense categories and ultimately every one of you buy something, put fuel in a truck or pay for a work order. It needs to be quickly accessible and so many tasks are kind of just in case you get audited, right? So this is a big, big problem for businesses. Thankfully, once again, integrations come to the rescue. There are a few great tools that can now read the receipts called an OCR object character reader. Yeah, it's basically optical character reader, that's what it is. And it can know the difference between a gas receipt tools, food supplies, marketing. And it will automatically code them to the right expense category, allowing for better reporting and faster job costing, which empowers you, the CEO to make better decisions. Even if you don't view yourself as a CEO, maybe your company is small but growing. The customer still expects you to act like one. Strong reporting, same day job costing and audit proof bookkeeping allows you to make great decisions, invest in your business safely and take money out guilt free, all while minimizing tax liabilities. Accountants and bookkeepers love the power of QuickBooks Online and its ability to simplify the rest the of of the way the rest of the company interacts with their work environment. Ultimately, Your job as CEO of your company, whether it's a company of 1 or 100, is to have a vision. And you thrash your way through the dangerous jungle of building a company and living the life of an entrepreneur. Forging a path for your team to follow as it grows and turn it into something like a road the accounting department has to take the mess left behind and turn it into something measurable. And oh by the way, they have no idea what an Owens Corning duration is or why you need a torch to put on a roof. So anything you can implement to make their job easier and improve their ability to understand your business's finances will translate into more time they can spend providing you with meaningful guidance. The faster you accurately determine the profit of a completed job, the sooner you can find inefficiencies and improve them. You can address install related delays the same day rather than a week or a month later when nobody remembers what happened on that job. And payroll, oh my gosh, the improvements you can make to payroll. 10 minute payroll runs, automatic records of employment, digital time clocks. You would not believe the amount of theft I see in companies without digital time clock. Systems guys basically guessing on the high side of their hours because they claim to have worked at this time or claim to have worked at that time and they just write their hours down at the end of the, at the end of the week. It's crazy. I could go on and on and on guys, but the point is that QuickBooks is not just the software that your accountant or bookkeeper uses. It's not something that lies outside of your circle of concern. QuickBooks Online is a cloud based program that connects virtually every task and any tool and allows you to automate so much of your business and get more work done without doing any more work. As a CEO, knowing where you stand daily, weekly, QuickBooks Online is a cloud based program that connects virtually every task to any tool and allows you to automate so much of your business and get more work done without doing any more work. As a CEO, knowing where you stand daily, weekly, monthly and yearly allows you to make way better decisions and get the edge on your competition. Not using QuickBooks to its full potential is like driving in the dark with no headlights. If you're not already using it and you want to save 50% for your first six months, you can use my special affiliate link in the show notes or on the website. Okay, so there we have it folks. Those are, in my opinion, the most powerful tools for any roofing business owner looking to improve their quality of life while simultaneously creating a better workplace for their staff and generate five star experiences for their customers. In total, the links in this episode will save you $62 a month on Zapier for as long as you want. $50 off BombBomb for the year, $81 off QuickBooks online and they all come with free trials so you can get set up and start making money right away. Not bad for less than an hour of your time and attention I hope. Right? Thank you so much. So again you can get all the links to all the discounts and free trials in the show notes or on your podcast player or directly on my website. To make it easy you can just visit roofingbusinesspartner.com joinmyteam. You'll send send me your info so I can get you that free zapier account and all the special links are right there on the thank you page. I love to hear your stories so be sure to hit me up on Facebook messenger and let me know your thoughts on this episode and any questions you might have. Plus, on my Facebook you'll get to see my new pup Thanos. He's pretty cool he was barking in the episode here and we do videos every once in a while. You'd be surprised how much my dog teaches me about business on our walks. Thank you so much again for listening guys. You can check out the show notes or visit www.rufin. To download the templates as well as use our Process Manual generator. Now bear in mind this process generator is in its beta version, meaning I need your help improving it and understanding how it helps you. So please let me know. Comments, emails, Facebook messages. Let me know how it works. Let me know any challenges you come across. Of course it is always important for me to note how much much I appreciate your attention today and your dedication to growing your roofing company. I think this podcast was about an hour long or just short of that. I know that's no easy task, so thank you again for your attention. As a roofing company owner myself, I really respect the hard work and dedication from everyone from the receptions to the roof inspectors to the installers and even the bookkeepers that all keep our businesses going. If this show is valuable, please something that would really help me is open up your app, leave me a quick review. Good, bad, I don't care. But your feedback is so important to me so I can keep creating content you like, value and implement. So have an awesome day and be back for the next episode on how to pick the right CRM software for your roofing business. Thanks again. Talk to you later.

Free stuff is the reason you listen to the end and this week's episode is no Exception. Head to roofingbusinesspartner.com and check out this week's show notes to get your freebie bonus. Also, until February 2nd, get our roofer Facebook ad apprenticeship program for only $127. This 18 day program includes over 80 minutes of video instruction done for you resources, two guidebooks, a forum to ask Adam all your questions along the way. This should remove any excuse or doubt that you can have your own ads running and generating routine leads in less than 18 days. Adam spent thousands of dollars to learn this stuff and to give it away for only $127 is the kind of craziness that only happens during a new podcast launch. So go check out the show notes and we'll be here again next week flapping our gums and making you money.