What is it you can do to battle Stormers ????

CIAK Said: What can you do to get ahead of the Stomers??? What do you see them doing and how can you counter and take the storm away from them. It is time to take your community back after an event.

It has been covered in another thread. Short version is the Insurance industry sets actuaries by default to Xactimate. It is how they set their policy pricing. Tom will you answer some of the questions of the thread. What can you contribute? B) :) :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

I don't know where you heard that from wywoody? If your a local guy and trying to capture your market, save some of the headaches stromers create on the local community and roofing contractors in general. This is the perfect thread to stop complaing and whineing do something about it. Tom, can you add some tidbits that would be helpful. Their is money to be made. Rock has explained it and Larry is a potential soruse for decent information. tinner made some good points. The spectrum is wide and each has place. B) :) :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

Train your people. By training them I mean really training them, not simply giving them the basics then telling them to hit the streets representing themsleves as "insurance claim specialists" or something similar. That's amatuer hour - but unfortunately, that's how most contractors do it.

I'm always amazed that most local contractors from any city in the country (80%) will complain all day long about the "stormers" but not spend a dime to learn how to become better than them so they can control their market. Sure, they'll spend a bunch of money on yard signs and flyers to get the attention of potential customers and then sign a bunch of them up after a storm has hit (too late!). Still, I can guarantee that the same 80% will still leave many thousands of dollars on the table and the "stormers" will still eat up a majority of the local business.

Are all "stormers" bad? Nope.

With 40 years exp in the business + 20 years in the insurance industry, I now train contractors from across the country how to process insurance claims the right way. But, I know my market is pretty much limited to the top 20% who are willing to spend a few bucks to earn a ROI thousands of times their investment.

Any contractor can claim to be an "insurance claim specialist" or something similar - and most do, but that has nothing to do with actually having the real and substantive knowledge and experience that goes with the claim anymore than calling oneself a roofing or siding expert just because they've might have installed a few roofing or siding jobs does and we know there are plenty of those guy's out there.

Doing battle: First, humble yourself and spend a few bucks to get trained by a professional instead of just calling yourself a"specialist","expert", etc. Then, train your sales staff with what you have learned. Then, be proactive by letting your local market know what you do and why they should choose you over a local non certified contractor or a "stormer" - before the storm hits. When it does, you'll be ready, you and your sales staff will be able to overcome 99% of the typical adjuster nonsense, denials, fibs, TI, bad faith, etc. and word will get out amongst them and potential customers that you are a true pro.

Your numbers and your profits will go way up, more adusters will respect you and therefore pay your customers (ultimately you) better (always on legitimate damage) and they'll make up the difference by screwing the next 10 contractors who only claim to be "insurance claims specialists" but who are, in reality, nothing more than posers. Below are a several examples of what happens to smart contractors who invest in themselves to learn how to become real insurance claim specialists: Since this is not an ad nor is this site the proper forum for an ad, some of the info has been xxx'd out.

"Overall I am very pleased with the product and feel it was money well spent. When I sat down to read xxx xxxxxxxx for the first time it was one of those reads you don’t want to stop on. I found it that interesting. It was very informative and I found the information useful." DS - Contractor Sales Rep - Illinois

"I discovered the xx xxxxxx xxx program through an industry forum. Even BEFORE I got the program, following the logic that program creator xxxxx had written about on the forum, I got a claim upped from $4,900 to $7,800 allowing me to more than double my and my boss’s commission! Soon after ordering and studying the program I was able to increase an insurance adjuster’s estimate from $34,000 to $71,000. Borrow the money if you have to, get this program and you'll make it back on one deal, probably double your income too. JG. - Roofing & siding sales, S. Carolina

"I have been in the insurance restoration business for over 10 years. Fortunately a friend (also in the business) introduced me to xxxxxx with xxxxxxx. xxxxxx is very beneficial with its own software program vs. Xactimate, the forty plus adjuster denials with rebuttals, and a full layout how to run an insurance restoration business. Even if you have been doing this for years like myself, there are several things with his program you can benefit from. Most importantly the support by xxxxxxxxx is by far worth the cost of the program." - JV - General Contractor, Minnesota

Think about it! Like one of my midwestern states customers who is in the top 5% of contractors in the country said, "if contractors would get off their butt's and take action, the entire industry would change for the better.

Back to this thread how to battle a stormer let them do all the work for the good hands people and the like a good nieghbor people and they will go broke and out of business very quickly! :laugh:

Its been 4 years since gustav,even more since katrina all the wannabees are done our market has returned to normal,after 2 years of drought rain has returned and were selling metal roofs at a rapid pace and for great margins.Im really enjoying business now as it is as it should be,most call and only get a bid from us.We also are getting our metal at very competive pricing,we had a hail storm a couple hours north of here.I have an adjuster meeting on a ludwieci s tile job on a church this morning, it is pounded and will have to come off to dry in the church its a nice job.I really would prefer my market to stay as is where were busy and competetion is low,but were also selling metal and cant compete on shingles.

There is a better way.

Buy or rent a 7000 sf. building 50-75 miles from where you live and operate. The distance IS VERY IMPORTANT!!!!

If your city gets wiped out, so might your business for a few weeks too.

Now, take 10% every week, or more, and buy tarps and other things to store there, and at your current shop. Buy 100's of those yard signs and store them at both places. Have spare trucks and sales vehicles there too. As soon as the storm hits, stick those signs everywhere. Load all your trucks with tarps, slats, etc. This is the start. Just add in all the things I omitted and you're ready to go. Hurricane and Tornado season is here, so you're already wasting daylight! :woohoo: Start loading up first thing in the morning! Get that second lease signed now!

I'd like to think I'm good too Rocky. Under the clockgun recently, I hired a crew. Ive taught the owner many things, and he already knew most things. The one job he helped me on, I got 3 leaks. :huh: Go figure. I even know which employee was working where. Irksome.

Never made my million. I did lose my winning ticket though. :woohoo: Over $6M and I never found it. That one went unclaimed. Bummer.

I'm used to my 2-3 day weeks now and may need a week or two off in May after the wife's next operation. :)

Didnt they make lots of money doing what they loved. and gave a lot of it away. the money and the ice cream. I love roofing too. Its in my blood, to dumb to do anything else but smart enough to get someone as good as me to do the work, and I got all the work because I was damn good. If I had a project like the one Old School is working you can bet your as... that I'd be on that job everyday. but most houses are not that way

Who here read, or saw on a TV documentry the story of Häagen-Dazs? Not OT. It's actually related to the theme of this thread, imho.

As for money, I was born poor and plan on dying poor. I'm just doing what I love doing and marking time until I drop dead a happy fellow. :)

Not looking for comparisons Rocky. I'm advocating 'mindset' and 'gameplan'. We're on exactly the same page. Your gameplan is what I was saying. I'm just not as good with the words.

Tinner, you're in a different ballgame. There's no comparision. I didn't want to use my numbers but here goes, 2007-2.8 mil in sales 35% gross- 5%net 2008-3.3 mil in sales 36% gross- 6% net 2009 2.8 mil in sales 34% gross- 4% net 2010 4.0 mil in sales 38% gross- 8% net 2011 9.7 mil in sales 36% gross- 6% net. we had our own hail storm that hit in Oct. of 2010 and you can see where the sales went. There is one constant in all of this and that is our overhead. Which was 30% We new what that was and if you do, Then you should know where to set your sales price at to make a profit. Our goal was to be debt free and make 5% after everything was paid. We did this and never left our backyard. the storm came to us and we took advantage of the storm and helped thousands of people work thier way thru the insurance process. I didnt lower my margins to get more sales. Actually I made more net than I had hoped for. Imagine that. I hired 8 storm chasing SOB's and made them work under my plan. I hired 2 tearoff crews and 5 Install crews. Those guys we had to keep a close watch over. Everyone was estatic over the fact they didnt have a tax liability with the money they made from me. Now everybody is gone.Its settled. I would bet that only 50% of the storm damaged roofs are done. We have a marketing plan going with our normal guys and we our still doing better than the 4th quater of 2010. The storm chasers who worked for me earned their money fairly and made a bunch for me. It can be done.... but not if you're a 4or5 man operation, let alone 1 man. You guys have to stop crying the storm chasres are taking to many jobs. They are going to get them no matter what. What are you going to do to get yours? is the question.....

I am Chuck. And my competition have moved their prices closer to mine. I hear that some are also charging for proposals. :) Who wouldn't? Why ride around all day trying to sell something to a price shopper. Let them know you charge and weed out the shoppers. If everybody does that, we all 'win' in that we'll be on equal footing.

I ditched all employees, btw. Too much drama. :)

Those are good idea tinner. Are you a small shop with few employees. Do you do shingles or other commodity type roofing. I have always admired your post and pics. My impression you are a specialty roofing contractor ie Copper and slate.

B) :) :) B) Deep Down In Florida Where The Sun Shines Damn Near Every Day

Well Tom, I point that page out to the competition. What vcan they do? Keep bidding $100. for something I bid at $400.? Or maybe they get smart and say "Hey, we should bid $395. and underbid him!" If the latter, the prices are more inline all the way around. :)