Darci Kunard - Why Contractors Should Go Green - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Franklin International National Accounts Manager, Darci Kunard. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Speaker 1: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. Explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long-term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews, and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Heidi Ellsworth: Hello and welcome to another Roofing Road Trips from RoofersCoffeeShop. This is Heidi Ellsworth, and I am here with one of our favorite guests, who is recurring, who keeps coming back because we have so much fun and we learn so much about sealants and caulking, and that is Darcy Kennard with Franklin International. Darcy, welcome back to the show.

Darcy Kennard: Hi, Heidi. Thanks for having me again. It's so good to see you.

Heidi Ellsworth: Oh my gosh, it's so fun. We just saw each other at IRE-

Darcy Kennard: Yes.

Heidi Ellsworth: ...and had some fun videos there. But today, I love this topic, sustainability, one of my favorites, and really how homeowners, how contractors, how people should go green and really start embracing this. So before we dive into that, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself, although everyone knows you, and then just give us a little bit of history about Franklin and Titebond.

Darcy Kennard: Absolutely. So I am Darcy Kennard with Franklin International based out of Denver. I'm a national accounts manager and previously a product manager for caulks and sealants. So I've been in the industry, what, almost 13 years now. Really, really passionate about caulks and sealants. I know that sounds so strange.

Heidi Ellsworth: I love it.

Darcy Kennard: It's definitely a very important part of all of what we do, especially in the roofing industry. If it's not sealed up, it's going to leak. I'm sure a lot of people remember, but Franklin International is home of the Titebond brand of products and part of what Franklin International does is we are at the heart of our company into chemicals. So we manufacture chemicals, including a lot of the polymers and raw materials that go into our products as well as other people's products.

Heidi Ellsworth: And that really puts you in a great spot to really make some changes and the commitment that you have to sustainability. So why don't you share with us just a little bit about Franklin International's commitment to sustainability? Because it's so cool.

Darcy Kennard: Yes. So what's very exciting about Franklin, and I think really important for all of us in the industry, is that we want to make our earth better. We know that air quality is so, so important to all of us and that ensuring all of our products do not cloud up your home or the atmosphere with high VOCs, which is volatile organic compounds, for those who are not aware what that is. It seems like it's a buzz phrase right now, but it's been a buzz phrase for 30 years.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Darcy Kennard: And Franklin is just very passionate about making sure that our products are not only very good for the environment, but also good for our manufacturing process and the people who make those. So we want to make sure that we are doing good things when we're manufacturing these products and that when people are putting them on their houses, any buildings, that they are not being exposed to things that are bad.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. I love that so much, Darcy, and here's one of the things. If I look back probably 20 years ago, maybe not that far, 15, there were a lot of companies out there who instead of embracing low or no VOCs were just trying to fight the regulation so that they could have higher VOCs. And that mentality has changed and I'm just so happy for it. Because even at the time I was like, "You're spending all this money to fight it when it's the right thing to do?" So to see that today and to see that commitment. And understand when you talk about VOCs, they're bad for the environment, but they're bad for people too. We need to be aware of those things. I love that you have this commitment.

Darcy Kennard: Yes. In addition to that, it's not just going forward with things that are low VOC, we want to have high performance.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yes.

Darcy Kennard: So we want to get that performance that people are used to and that you can stand behind and say, "Yes, this is a high-quality product that's going to last for a long time, but it's also good for the environment."

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah, and Franklin has put money behind that and all of your research and development, and I mean that's a commitment. To be able to now have those high-performance products, low VOCs, that's awesome.

How can contractors really use that? And you and I have talked about this so many times, but I think it's so important, is that sometimes when those contractors use the smallest things, are some of the most important things, like making sure your roof is sealed, right? You're not going to have leaks. And so now having that same conversation with, we're also very environmental friendly. How can contractors start really encouraging that, incorporating is really the word I'm looking for, into their business?

Darcy Kennard: I mean, it's a very easy add-on to your pitch and it'll differentiate you from the other people who are quoting jobs. You can state, "We only use products that are low VOC and this is why." And, "They are high performance and here's how they're high performance." Just a couple, maybe two or three bullet points that contractors can speak to to the homeowner or business owner that says, "Yes, we are committed to using products that are better for the environment and this is the performance that we get out of these products." And that really helps, I think, their business stand out.

Heidi Ellsworth: I think so too. And as a contractor, if you can look at all of your products from whatever you're doing, the shingles, or tile, or slate, whatever, and really bring together that sustainability story. Right? And when I say story, I mean real. This is real. Not just a made up story, but this is real.

Darcy Kennard: Yes. Yes.

Heidi Ellsworth: And then you go all the way down to the sealants, the caulks, the fasteners, the insulation, because every part of the roof has a story of sustainability if it's really looked at like, does it have long durability or performance or longevity? And so I love that to kind of taking that time and evaluating their systems overall and then bringing that to the owner's attention.

Darcy Kennard: Yes, I think that that's a really good way to be able to incorporate what products that you're using to differentiate your business-

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Darcy Kennard: Especially with the homeowner. And then if you think about it, if you're using your home while it's being, the roof is being done or whatever renovations are being done, perhaps the gutters or some siding or windows, you don't want to be trapped inside your home with a stinky product. You don't want your customers to go through that either.

Heidi Ellsworth: That was exactly where I was going to go next, is that there's the green aspect that is so important and really, especially as we're looking at these millennial homeowners more than ever, they're like, they want to know. Is this green? Is it not green? And they can research it to find out. But also just the smell. I mean, I remember way back in the day I was, before I got into roofing, Darcy, I was working at my job before then, and they were putting on a hot tar roof above us and oh, the smell that, and it was summer, smell came in, we were at a school and it was just so much smell.

Now today, of course, we all say that's the smell of money, but I just remember that before I really understood how that goes. And now today we've come so far in all products where there's buildup, asphalt, everything is still that everyone has really taken to how do we eliminate that smell? So when you are caulking or sealing all the windows, the doors, the siding, the roof, you're right, that can make a huge impact on the homeowner. No smell can make the totally other great experience.

Darcy Kennard: Absolutely. And then that high performance coupled with that. So yes, there are some products that are low VOC, low smell, but they're not suitable for the roof. And that's where Franklin really dove in with their expertise with all of our chemistry backgrounds and all of our polymers where we've really created products that also perform. And so those are products you can apply hot or cold, wet or dry, underwater, doesn't matter. This product will work and it doesn't smell that.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. That's great. That's great. What's some of the feedback you're getting from your contractors on this? What are you hearing?

Darcy Kennard: Well, I mean, our WeatherMaster brand are products, which includes our WeatherMaster Windows Setting Indoor, the Metal Roof Sealant, of course, the Ultimate MP, where MP stands for multipurpose. These are three of our products in that WeatherMaster line, which has that all weather performance that I just talked about. What we get from those, and those products have been around over 23 years, and we have so many people who just love those products. They know that they work, they know that we stand behind them. They're available in a multitude of colors to match any color. But it's also that little caveat of these are low VOC products while they're high performance and they know that they'll work.

I think one contractor recently, he stopped by the IRE booth and he kept running up. He was so excited. He saw our little color boards and said, "Oh my gosh, we use this product. It's so great. We can't believe that it even sticks to coded metals."

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Darcy Kennard: Which of course it does. I mean, it was kind of a weird thing when someone's telling me, "We can't believe it does this." It just kind of cracks me up. Because I think, of course, we engineered our products to actually perform with the things that they should perform with, but I think not all companies do that. And that's something that makes Franklin and Titebond stand out.

Heidi Ellsworth: There's a lot of people who go one way or the other, right? Maybe performance, but yet it's high VOCs and everything. And then there's people who go low VOCs without that performance. But the ability for you to do that across so many types of products, I think that's huge too. I mean, you're talking about metal, but then there's also... There's so many types of roofing products, but your products work across the board.

Darcy Kennard: Absolutely. And they stick to any substrate, which I think is another great value when you're looking at the type on portfolio, it's not just metal roofs, it's not just asphalt. It's not just skylights. It's stick to everything. Stucco, stone, it doesn't matter.

Heidi Ellsworth: That's so great. And you and I have talked about this before, but just with you saying that, it just, again, these products need to be in the back of every truck for service and maintenance because again, service and maintenance, who knows what's all going on in the facility, what's happening? You're able to get in, do repairs, no smell, high performance, and it's going to work on anything that you come across. It should be in the back of every pickup truck.

Darcy Kennard: I mean, of course, I couldn't agree more with that. And then I think of the little things that Titebond offers. We've got plastic tubes, removable nozzle, you cut the knob. It's just all of these little things that add up to that really high performance product.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah, yeah. Oh, I love it. So as you're kind of talking to those contractors who you saw at IRE, I know you've just been on the road, Darcy, talking to so many people.

Darcy Kennard: I know. My voice.

Heidi Ellsworth: What are some of your tips? What are some of your tips for selling green and really coming back and talking about all of these benefits that we just talked about for both homeowners, for sure, but also service and maintenance with those building owners. What are some of your tips for the contractors for selling?

Darcy Kennard: Well, I mean, Franklin provides tons of materials at no charge. I mean, you've saw them on our last little road trips podcast where we, I know do where we had the bendable block that shows our product and had the flexibility of it. And we've got the color dots, we've got brochures, and of course we have cute little videos. We had 30 seconds that just really hit hard on the features of the products. So all of the things are something that contractors can, when they're presenting either their service or maintenance, or a bid, they can show to that homeowner or business owner and say, "Here's part of our guarantee and some of the products that we use, and we're more than happy to provide those at no charge."

Heidi Ellsworth: And it's such a differentiator because so many contractors or salespeople will go in selling a roof and talk about the shingles or the tile or whatever it may be, but if you're sitting there and you're playing with this little block that you have that shows the flexibility, the dependability of the sealant, you can hand that right over to the homeowner. Everybody likes to touch. Everybody likes to play with things. And so I think that is a great differentiator for salespeople as they're sitting at the table and they're talking about... Or even if they're doing Zoom to show it's like being back show and tell.

Darcy Kennard: It has that cache to it. It also shows the adhesion. If you were playing with something like that, I mean, that's a great stress reliever, just something. But it just has that little, oh, wow, it's memorable. People-

Heidi Ellsworth: Yes.

Darcy Kennard: I think remember it. And then, oh, that's a great product.

Heidi Ellsworth: And these contractors care all the way down to the sealants on the whole exterior.

Darcy Kennard: Right. Because you think something that caused eight, $9 a tube, maybe a little less. But if you're spending that and you're able to showcase that, and then you're able to say, "This is part of our offering, and that's really what's makes you stand up from the competition."

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah, big time. That is so cool. So, okay, how can contractors get your products?

Darcy Kennard: So we're available at almost any distributor out there. A lot of times, you know, just have to ask for it. There's of course, specific colors that match certain metal roof manufacturers windows, siding doors. We have that color match, which we've talked about on titebond.com, where you go ahead and select your manufacturer, and then wet product matches that color. As little as one case, a product can be dropshipped from our factory in Columbus, Ohio to the distributor or to your job site. So it's very easy to just tack onto that. So if you think Beacon, ABC supply, SRS, I mean, those are the big ones, but any of the distributors out there carry our products.

Heidi Ellsworth: And it's even on online too, right?

Darcy Kennard: Yes.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Darcy Kennard: I would love to point to Amazon, but those are kind of fleeting here and there in terms of what colors are available online, but we've got very heavy presence on some of the box stores as well.

Heidi Ellsworth: But we always are roofing distributors.

Darcy Kennard: Absolutely.

Heidi Ellsworth: 100%. 100%. And you know what? Everybody out there, you can get all this information. You can see all of this on RoofersCoffeeShop, on the Franklin directory, and we make it easy for you to connect and find all the information you need to get these samples. In fact, one of the cool things that Darcy does is she, on a regular basis, kind of switches it up throughout the year. A free tube is available. You got to find the ads, go to the directory, and you can get a free sample for your business to try it out, if you haven't. I mean, I know most people have been using it, but if you haven't, you can also do that through RoofersCoffeeShop.

So that's kind of cool.

Darcy Kennard: It is. And it comes with a little kit. So there's literature in there, the block that we talked about that shows the product, and then there's actually two tubes of product in there.

Heidi Ellsworth: Love it. That's right. Two tubes. Yeah.So check it out on the site and try it and tell us your story, Darcy. We should do that. We'll be like, if people are using some of these tips that we've been talking about on the sales thing, let us know. Let Darcy know. Let me know. We would love to hear how you have used some of these different components of the roof to help in your sales call, help in your service and maintenance. I think that would be cool. I would love to hear that.

Darcy Kennard: I would as well. There's so much power in those stories.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah.

Darcy Kennard: We're hearing about it. And people learn from each other. Right?

Heidi Ellsworth: Just like that gentlemen who came running up during IRE. "Yeah, it sticks to my metal roofs. This is awesome."

Darcy Kennard: Yeah, of course that does.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah, I love it. Well, I want to say thank you to you and to Franklin for being leaders in sustainability in the low VOCs, the performance of the product. To me, that's just inspiring. And thank you so much for everything you and Franklin International does.

Darcy Kennard: Thank you, Heidi. I really appreciate all you do for us as well.

Heidi Ellsworth: It's fun. We always have a good time. We do always. So Darcy, again, thank you for being on Roofing Road Trips and we will be having you back because this is the best time.

Darcy Kennard: It's sounds good. Thank you, Heidi.

Heidi Ellsworth: Thank you. And thank you all for listening. Great stuff, great tips, ways to think about that sales process a little bit different. And you can find all that information and the flexible block and the tubes. Get some of that on RoofersCoffeShop in the Franklin International directory. Of course you should be listening to all of our podcasts, which are under the read, listen, watch section, navigation, under podcasts, Roofing Road Trips. Find us there or on your favorite podcast channel. Be sure to subscribe and hit those notifications so you don't miss a single episode. And we'll be seeing you next time on Roofing Road Trips.

Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi from the RoofersCoffeeShop.com.