Differentiate Your Business With Home Improvement

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

COVID-19, raw material shortages and labor shortages – what's next? The time is now to diversify. 

With the Read, Listen, Watch® (RLW) initiative, RoofersCoffeeShop® has made it easier than ever for members of the roofing and construction industries to learn how they want, when they want. Whether you want to read a transcript, listen to a podcast or watch a webinar, the Coffee Shop has made it possible for you to learn your way. 

In a recent RLW, RCS President, Heidi J. Ellsworth, sat down with Matrix Roofing CEO, Wendy Marvin, and Nathan Ferraro of Sashco. Together, they discussed the importance of developing the right customer connections and products and how to channel these assets when diversifying a business. In this RLW, you will not only learn how to upsell performance products and build better relationships, but also how to use these strengths to deepen your company’s roots for long-term stability. 

When it comes to customer service, Wendy Marvin is an expert. She has built and maintained a solid and loyal base of customers for years, using performance products and quality services to garner respect and trust. 

“We really plugged into our customers and looked for ways to do more, be more, be different,” said Wendy. 

Nathan is a chemist turned marketer with a background in tech. He sells high-performance Sashco sealants that he describes as “over-engineered.” Meaning people can use Sascho sealants for just about anything with the assurance that the product will exceed expectations. 

"I've tailored my career to really focus on product development and how can we build a better mousetrap for people to use,” said Nathan.  

To kick off the conversation, the three discussed why diversification is vital for businesses today. They all agreed that, from the past years of COVID-19, material and labor shortages, quite a few worthwhile lessons have been learned about the nature of change, and how it affects business. Not everything can be predicted or controlled, for instance, and despite the many varied speculations about the future, it remains unknowable. 

“When you have multiple streams of income, and you'll hear that a lot in the business world [that] multiple streams of income are safeguards for you to be able to transition to something else when something isn't working,” explained Wendy. 

Diversifying helps businesses navigate disruptions like raw material shortages and maintain stability. It’s an effective strategy to maintain company health and longevity. For businesses impacted by dramatic changes, diversification becomes the lifebuoy keeping them afloat in turbulent waters. 

“You could have a stream of income that your company has relied on for 20 years and all of a sudden, it's going to be down for a month or indefinitely,” said Nathan. “We want to keep a healthy company that keeps people employed so they don't have to be nervous about where the next paycheck is going to be coming from and all that sort of stuff, right? And so, any diversification right now, I think, is just adding some stability where folks can feel like they know where their next paycheck is going to come from.” 

Read, Listen or Watch the entire discussion to learn more about diversification and steps you can take to deepen your company’s roots.