All right, so let’s, let’s jump into it. What is up, everyone? Welcome to this interview with Otis Floyd from Paramount Roofing & Consulting. Otis, how are you doing?
Good, man? How are you doing?
I’m doing well. I’m doing well. So quick intro. I think Otis and I have been working together for the past–I want to say–four, three, four months. And over the past three, four months, what I’ve been doing for Otis is helping him out with a lot of pay-per-click and pay-per-lead type ads. Otis is based out of the Georgia area. I believe Douglasville is what it is, right?
Yeah. Douglasville. Just a small suburb right outside of Atlanta.
There you go. So with that being said, I just want to ask you a few questions just so we can get an understanding as to how we got you from point A to point B. So let me start off by asking what were you doing prior to working with me, to generate leads and generate business for your company?
Well, we’re just doing door-to-door. It was door-to-door. I was fortunate enough to start off with two sales guys and we just knocking doors and referrals.
So besides knocking doors, referrals, any flyers, yard signs, billboards, radio, anything like that?
Nah, the only time we had the signs was when we got a job and we posted the signs in the yard, you know, Then what else? We had our business cards and we had door hangers. Yeah, that was about it. No, actually what was a good tool that we use was actually a flyer that we had where we could write a personal note on there. And so that’s what we did. And I had an app where I could be able to ping their house and find out what their name is. So it made it real personal, so that was it.
Nice. Anything online whatsoever?
No, no, nothing online. None of that. I think I started the process, but didn’t finish everything because we were just busy, but no, nothing online.
How did you come across my company? How did you find me?
Well, I found you on YouTube. So I was just scrolling YouTube. Anything dealing with roofing, marketing, anything like that I was watching. I watched every last one of your videos. And here’s the crazy thing: I decided, I said, man, I’m gonna be on his show one day.
There you go, there you go.
Yeah.
So out of curiosity, what were you looking for? As to why you were on YouTube, like what brought you to YouTube as to why you felt the need, you know what, let me start looking up marketing and stuff like that.
Because I knew that was an avenue I wanted to take. I just didn’t have the funds. ‘Cause I wanted to grow my company organically, slow. I didn’t want to you know rush into it. So once I reach a certain point as far as dollars, that’s when I was like, okay, now it’s time to take it to the next stage and find a good marketing company because I want to scale the company.
Got it. So from everything that you had looked at in terms of services, you know, people that you wanted to hire, what made my company stand out from the crowd?
Well, you know, your videos were popping up and I just liked everything you were talking about with Google, you know, Google My Business, Google Adwords, things of that nature. You had a lot of content. You seem very knowledgeable about what you were speaking of. Before I called you, I actually think I have seen the testimony videos, and I called two of the contractors, one in North Carolina and one in Michigan, just to see, did it work for them? And they all gave the thumbs up, said you did a great job for them, you know, took their company to the next level and I called you that day.
Awesome. So what, what was it like before you started working with us? Like what were you getting in terms of phone calls, leads, or just overall? Like how did that go?
Yeah, so I went and bought a second phone, you know, just for the company and I just kept it in my pocket, it never rang. It never rang, man. I was just wasting money at the time having a second phone, but it never rang as far as leads, you know, anything like that, you know. A bunch of Angie’s Lists and a bunch of other companies, but that was it.
So what happened once we started working together? What did you see in terms of results and timeline?
So within us, you know, signing up and I filled out all the paperwork, you got me together on the Google, Google Local Service, Google My Business, things of that nature. I think within probably about 45 days, 30 days to 45 days, my phone started ringing three times a day for leads. Good leads.
Just so we’re on the same page, what’s your definition of a good lead?
My definition of a good lead. They call in for a repair and we ended up getting a whole roof replaced for them.
So just so people kind of understand what you do primarily, what type of clients do you deal with on a day-to-day? And what kind of roof do you normally do? I know you do some, I don’t know if you do as much retail as you do insurance, but can you kind of explain what you do with your company out in Georgia?
So yeah, my company, we are 99% residential, you know. Most of our claims are insurance. You know, most of our jobs are insurance. We get a couple of retails here and there. I do want to focus on that more. I want to build an avenue to get more retail, but the insurance has been, been good to us.
Nice. So what would you say is the best thing about working with someone like myself? Kind of just compared to what it was like before, Like what would you have to say about that?
So, you know, before it was just me and my guys knocking doors, you know, and then, and then once I got in contact with you I felt like you were part of the team, you were my marketing team. That’s what I tell guys I got a marketing team, you know, and it just, it felt good when my guys knocking doors and when I could call them and I could shoot them two leads. And now, you know, they’re like, wow, I didn’t have to knock on the door. And I got this lead, we got the roof replaced, you know, it just made everything just a lot smoother for the company. You know. and everybody’s seeing that the company was going on, you know, upper scale. So it made everybody you know feel good about, you know, standing along with Paramount.
Got it. So what would you say the journey to your results was like? Was it, was it rocky? Smooth? Was it painful? How would you describe it?
No, I wouldn’t say it was painful at all. You know, I’m a hustler by nature. You know, every day I got up and I love the grind. I love the next day, get out there grinding. Nothing was anything I couldn’t handle. You know, I came from the field of, as a claim adjuster. You know dealing with running four or five claims a day, you know doing the paperwork, turning the paperwork over, write estimates. So it all fell, you know, fell hand in hand with me. You know, writing estimates, dealing with customers, knowing how to talk to customers. Understanding their needs and their wants instead of just trying to get the dollar.
What would you say you’ve been able to achieve from using a service like mine?
Well, I was able to achieve, man, everything that we initially set our goal for. A company I’ve been in, been in business September 15th for a year. We did over a million in sales. Got close to 90 Google reviews, all five-star, so you know. I just see the sky’s the limit.
How important would you say Google reviews are? Because I speak about this almost every single day, and I advise clients to go out and really start investing in that. What would you say to people who are still kind of loafing around on getting the Google My Business listing up and focusing on those reviews?
So, by not having Google reviews or Google My Business, you’re really losing out on jobs. I had customers call me and say, the only reason I went with you, because I saw you had, you know, all these nice reviews and everything, what people said about you. I have seen other companies that have more years and more experience than you, but you had all the good reviews, you know? So I probably got 75% of most of my jobs because of Google reviews.
There you go. So, and just so the record is set straight. You’ve been in business since September 15th, last year, 2020 during the pandemic. Starting a roofing company amidst a pandemic.
Man, it was, you know, I didn’t think too much of it. I didn’t think too much of it. I was sitting on the porch with my wife and I told her, look, I’m thinking about starting up a roofing company because I didn’t want to travel any farther as I was a CAT adjuster. She said, go for it. You know? So I started it up and, you know, a lot of people thought I was crazy. Like are you going to do it in the middle of pandemic? People don’t want to have contact with each other, but when people find out they have any type of damage to their home, you know, they are more willing to open up the door for you.
So overall. How would you say business is now? Like before and after? How would you contrast?
Oh, man, it’s day and night. It’s day and night. I keep my phone on me now. I keep my phone on me because it always rings. And that’s the main thing. You know, I always answer the phone when it rings. At first, it was, was all grind, grind, grind. Hustle, hustle, hustle. Work, work, work. Now we are working smarter instead of harder.
What would you say was wrong with just word of mouth? What was wrong with just doing what you were doing originally knocking on doors? Why did you decide that “Hey, we gotta change something. We gotta do something different?”
Because the month of February 2021, I think we might have done one roof, you know? And I was like, I just saw the morale of my team go down and we’re just getting burnt out this door-knocking, door-knocking, door-knocking, And just a word of mouth, just wasn’t going to be enough to where I wanted to take the company. So, I understood. I understood when I got into the business, that marketing was going to be one of my main focus points and it worked out, it panned out.
So what would you say to other roofing company owners that are solely relying on word of mouth? What advice do you have for them?
Well, I tell the ones in Georgia, “Hey, keep doing word of mouth, you know, don’t do the marketing. Let me handle that part.” But all the other guys outside of Georgia, if you really want to scale your company, if you really want to take your company to the next level and, you know, take care of your family, take care of your crew, take care of your guys. You gotta have marketing, you know. It’s 2021 about to be 2022. Not to be on Google or Facebook, or, you know, all these other digital platforms that you can get on, you’re really hindering yourself and hindering your team.
What are the top platforms that you use on a day-to-day? I mean, outside of Google, is there anything else that you use that you find generates jobs for you?
As far as generating jobs, at this point, no. But I do post a lot of content on Instagram and Facebook. So I do want to start doing, you know, some Facebook Ads or something like that. That’s something we could talk about. But as of right now, you know, I’m not going to act like I know everything about the marketing game, so I’m still learning right now. Google is, you know, our number one lead source when it comes to digital marketing. But I do want to start tapping into Facebook. You know, I post everything. I post videos of myself and of my teams on Instagram and Facebook. So we’ll just see where that goes also.
On a scale of one to ten, would you, how tech-savvy would you say you are?
From one to ten tech-savvy, man, honestly, probably a four or five, you know, four or five. I’m not, I’m not a 10, you know, I’m one of those guys that work well with my hands. I worked good with, you know, projects and you know, but not when it comes to computers. No, not at all. I get my wife to come, try to help me out on certain things. I know how to get the job done but not when it comes to the tech sav.
And the reason I asked this is that one of the big objections that I really get on a day-to-day is I’m not good with computers. I’m not good with technology. I hear it all the time. However, I found that you have been really good at posting on social media regularly, right? How much of a learning curve is there to really being consistent in your posting and being active online on your social media platforms?
You know, at first, I was called, I would consider myself the 007 roofer man. I was incognito and I realized if I really want to get myself out there and get our company out there, I had to get in front of the camera. So that’s when I started just posting this content, understanding, marketing, understanding, branding my company.
So that was the main thing. I want to brand, pair my roofing and consultant. And by me to do that, I knew it was imperative that I had to get in front of the camera. I had to constantly put some type of content out there, even if it’s, I don’t, you know, it didn’t have to be anything big, just whatever went on that day. Or if I’m on a roof doing a repair. if I’m on a roof with a, you know, with the adjuster, let me video it and see, is that worth putting on there? Nine times out of ten it is.
Got it. Yeah. No, it’s something that I believe every roofing company owner needs to get on, especially if they want to stand out from the crowd. I’m just curious here. Have you ever met with a prospect, you went out and did an estimate and they recognize you from your videos at all or anything like that?
I haven’t, I haven’t got that yet, but I had had some recognize me from 11 years of playing professional football. So.
So what would be your top advice to other people who are considering working with myself and my team?
Man, go ahead and pull the trigger, you know, pull the trigger. Mats, you know, anytime I called or emailed him, he got back, back in contact with me within 24 hours. It really changed just the whole scale of our company, you know. And, and you were very reasonable, you know.
We always, you know, I called you about certain things. We worked it out. So I think I wouldn’t get that with another bigger company or, or any other company. And you know what you’re talking about, You know what you’re doing. Everything that you told me you were going to do, man. It started happening to me. You told me, “Look, Otis, when we start this, you’re gonna be writing a lot of estimates.” And that’s what happened. I started writing a lot of estimates Sending a lot of proposals out there. And that’s fine. As long as you could turn the paperwork over fast. Hey, you gonna have a good time at it.
So one thing I would like to add is that, would you say that we’re coming to like a slower time during the season? I mean, Christmas, Thanksgiving is around the corner. I know normally things slow down. Are you in the process of getting set up for the following season so that you’re, you’re able to get a lot more out of the online game? For anybody who’s watching this, I would say focus on your Google My Business reviews, that is going to be golden in helping you sell jobs and attract a lot of traffic towards your business. I mean, is there anything else that you wanna add to this interview here, Otis?
You know, during the slow time, just, you know, sit back and reset yourself and see the things that you got to work on. And just prepare yourself mentally for the next season. So things that, you know, you weren’t as efficient with in 2021. Just mentally get yourself ready for 2022 on how to handle it. And like you said, the Google reviews are everything, especially for a new company like myself to have close to 90 reviews. I have seen companies that have been in business for five to 10 years. And we are right there with them far as when it comes to reviews. So they might have more experience, but as you said, the customer wouldn’t know that by looking us up on Google.
Right. Exactly. So, I mean, that’s, that’s all I really have as far as the interview goes. Otis, I appreciate you. Thank you for joining us here. And we’ll catch you guys on the next one.
Man. I appreciate you. Thanks, Mats. Hey, I’m looking forward to 2022. As I said, we talked about my goals, and let’s see, can we reach them and blow them out the door?
