Randy Chaffee - Cultivate a relationship with your Manufacturer’s Rep! - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an live interview with Randy Chaffee of Marco Industries. 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. This is Heidi Ellsworth with Roofers Coffee Shop. And I tell you what, today, you guys are going to love this podcast. This is to the heart, I mean the heart, of the roofing industry. And something that I've been lucky to be around and work with some of the greatest folks in the world on this topic, and that is manufacturers' reps. So today we asked a leading, and I mean leading, manufacturers' rep, Randy Chaffee, to be here today with us. And we're just going to talk. Randy, welcome to the show.

Randy Chaffee:
Heidi, thank you. It's great to be here. It's awesome to be here.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I'm telling you. Just like you, we both have been in roofing for a long time. I have worked with manufacturers' reps. I've done marketing for manufacturers' reps. I've been on the other side where I've put all the huge, national sales meetings together, and worked with some of the best. I tell you what, you have made this, not just a science, but a thing of beauty.

Randy Chaffee:
You said that just the way I wrote it for you. Well done.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah, that's right. Just the right way. Since I'm so excited about this topic, before we get too far going, Randy, can you share with all of our listeners who you are and a little bit of history, and talk about your roofing, what you do?

Randy Chaffee:
Oh, sure. So I started in the world of manufacturers' repping four plus decades ago, I've been involved in this industry. And I say four plus decades because it's getting dangerously close, Heidi, to the big five.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Oh, man.

Randy Chaffee:
But I started when I was like 18.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. There you go.

Randy Chaffee:
And I use four plus decades because it sounds not as old as 40 plus years, at least in my mind. I stumbled into it with my dad. And back on the farm, he started a building and roofing business along with the farming. I learned a lot about customer relations, and doing what you say you'll do, and taking care of customers. And I did the construction thing. I've laid my share of metal roofing specifically in the past, helped build pole barns. Loved it. But that just wasn't what I wanted to do forever. I spent a little stint as a purchasing agent for a lumber chain, and bought everything in the world of metal shingles roofing-related. But again, I found there that my heart was still back out being on the road, building relationships, and making customer friends, as I like to call them. So I've been doing it a long time.

Randy Chaffee:
I grew up in a little town of Carson City, Michigan. Which nobody, I guarantee you, nobody will know where that's at because there's 1,201 people. And we left town, the little sign flipped 1,197, I think it was. But nice little town. But from there, I kind of just started this repping thing. I worked as a company guy for a while for a manufacturer, Cannonball, which I don't mind saying. They're a competitor of mine in one of my lines, but that's fine. We're all pals, and we're buddies. And an opportunity to go rep, and started bringing on some other manufacturers like ST Fastening, Marco Industries. And I do some work with Roser, which is stone coated metal shingles. And we're introducing a line of condensation barriers soon through Isaiah Industries. It's called Aqua Defender.

Randy Chaffee:
So just some of, it's just fun, Heidi. I love this industry. I've developed such a relationship with people over the years that some people ask me, "When are you going to quit?" And I said, "There's nothing." I'm not in this, oh, three more years, nine more years, seven more years. I have zero. I mean I'm planning stuff now is I'm going to do this forever.

Heidi Ellsworth:
That is how I am. I feel the same way Randy. This industry of roofing and construction is just, you're right, it's family. You make friends, you make family. And why do you want to leave? Why do you want to quit? What else would we do?

Randy Chaffee:
I don't know what else I would do. I would drive my wife crazy. And I drive her crazy enough because she runs my office. She takes care of all the business part of the world, and just allows... Well one, because I'd mess it up, according to her. But two, it allows me to be really free to do what I like to do, which is marketing, sales, business development. And I like to call it, see, by definition, I'm a sales guy, but I don't use the word a sales guy. I don't even like to use the world sales rep. Because the representative is the more important operative word in my mind. And I know we're going to talk about some of that looking at some notes that we talked about. But I represent the manufacturer to the distributor. Represent means more than just selling stuff. A big part of it is selling stuff. But it's problem solving, it's education and training, and support, all those kind of things. And that's what I love. I love that relationship thing a lot.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Well when I was a regional manager with Carlisle, I worked in the west with all of our manufacturer's reps and all the distributors. And I have to tell you, it was some of the best lessons for me in my career of how to work with people, how to bring it all together. And so you're right. It's not about selling. It's about building those relationships and solving problems. And I think that makes such a huge difference. I would love for you to talk just a little bit about what the business of manufacturers' reps. So there may be just a few people out there who are like, what? I've never worked with a manufacturers' rep. What are you talking about? I've just work with my distributor. What's that all about? Can you kind of talk about that important link there, and how it relates to contractors?

Randy Chaffee:
Sure. So I would refer basically the definition of what I do, what I own. My agency is called Source One Marketing. And basically we're exactly that. We're a manufacturers' rep agency or an agent. So what that means is, to the general public, the I, we're a sales guy. But it's the way we do it, the way we operate is different. I operate by a contract with manufacturers. So I'm a 1099 guy. I don't get paid a salary and expenses, and all those sort of things. As a buddy of mine says, "You eat what you kill," right? If you sell something, you get paid. If you don't, you don't. So it puts a good emphasis on selling.

Randy Chaffee:
But more importantly, Heidi, it puts an emphasis... Because the most important part is not the sale. The most important part is keeping the business long term. So you're always looking for new business, but you don't want to get A here and lose B there because you didn't pay attention. Right? But outside of that, my relationship with my manufacturers is exactly the same as if I was a company guy. I deal with them on a daily basis the same way. The only difference is I don't turn in a call report. I don't, I want you here, here, here, here. I just literally set my own schedule, set my own life, do what I do, and represent them hopefully the best I can.

Randy Chaffee:
And the nice thing as an agent or a rep, because some people will go, "Well, how do you have time to manage all those products?" And it can be challenging. But if you stay in the same general industry. For example, I wouldn't want to start selling orthopedic products. Which number one, I'm not smart enough. But number two, that takes you to such a drastic different route that you couldn't do. That's a whole nother deal. Taking on another product line, for example, in the roofing industry is easy. Because it's the same base customer. I just have something else to offer, something else to bring.

Randy Chaffee:
And so what you'll get a lot of times with a rep is that multitude of products that still all fall in the realm of what you are doing as a distributor or the contractor's doing. So maybe we don't want to talk about fasteners today, but we want to talk about underlayment, or maybe we want to talk about this versus this. And for me, what's the first in? I may not get all your business today, but I'd like some of it maybe if there's a fit. And then we grow from there.

Randy Chaffee:
But from a contractor standpoint, and I know that's our target audience here today, Heidi, I think they need to try to get to know their rep. And it's not necessarily their rep or they don't see it that way because they don't even know we exist sometimes because we call on their distributor. But I think we as reps need to do a better job sometimes, and I'll include myself in that, with spending time with the sales people from the distributor to get to know their contractors better. Because there's so many things we can bring from training to backup information they may not have, to looking at an issue, to looking at a problem. We got this special deal. Can you help me out? So those are things that we're just there to augment the efforts of the distributors, what we are. Not take their place because we work hand in hand with the distributor. But you're just getting an unpaid consultant, if you will, that be there to help you to back you up. And I think that's a real plus.

Heidi Ellsworth:
It is. And for contractors, so I've worked with so many contractors. And what I've seen is by building that relationship with the manufacturer and the distributor, and then part of that as a manufacturers' rep, I mean, they will find out so much more. Like what kind of marketing programs, reward programs, what's happening with materials. All of that, that sometimes, I mean it a lot gets lost in between. And so sometimes you just need to go straight to the source and know the questions to ask. What are some of the things that you recommend to contractors as they get to know their manufacturers' rep, what are some of the things they should be asking about?

Randy Chaffee:
Well, I think one of the keys today, Heidi, is unfortunate, but is the pretty incredibly tough supply chain situations we've had. Because a lot of times the distributor is stuck in no man's land, and they don't always know exactly what's going on. They don't know when you're going to get product and what's causing this, what's going to fix it? Is it going to get fixed? We don't always have all the answers. But the one thing that we do have as a manufacturers' rep is our fingers on the pulse with the manufacturer. We know we've got X containers on order. We know we're waiting for raw goods. We know when they'll be in.

Randy Chaffee:
And my manufacturers and good manufacturers will keep us guys well informed even with stuff that we don't necessarily want to take to the public. Some things I may not say, but we know so I can help guide you as to... I mean, I've made calls where if I knew there's going to be an issue potentially on a particular product, I'll make calls from my top distributors, and then they can thus take that to their contracts, say, "Look, I'd put some orders in now, even if you don't need it. Because three months from now, I'm not sure I'm going to have it. We just may not. And it may be touch and go for quite a while."

Randy Chaffee:
And those are things that, like I said, the distributor, and I think this is one of the important things, the distributor has, and we've all been behind their counters, right? They've got 966,000 catalogs of every product in the world. It's hard for them to be fully abreast on every single line item from every single manufacturer, right? The book's that thick, right? So if you really want to get down to the grassroots of what's going on with product Y, guys like myself that are working with that manufacturer is probably that's where you're going to get that true, honest answer.

Randy Chaffee:
And I think contractors, the better relationship they have with the reps for the different manufacturers, especially ones that they use a lot, they're going to be able to make their decisions probably better. Not because the distributor doesn't want to tell them, they're just not in a position to always know. Or to know at the level that we may know, because, like I said, they're dealing with 75 other manufacturers, right? All I want to talk to you about Mr. Contractor, Mrs. Contractor, is this item right here, right?

Heidi Ellsworth:
Right. Well, I think also contractors right now are having to make some hard choices on, okay, we can't get these products. What am I going to offer to my customers? What can we get? And to me being a manufacturers' rep who reps multiple lines, that gives you that wider view also of kind of, okay, you might be able to, like you said, order now, or maybe consider this. And it helps the contractor's business by giving some options and some expert advice.

Randy Chaffee:
Oh, exactly. Because typically there's usually options. As a rep agent, you typically have some options. I mean, generally, most manufacturers want the bulk of their business to be with them. In other words, they don't want a guy like me having... I can't have seven lines of fasteners. Okay? But there's sometimes one or two things can happen. I might have one other one, or a secondary. Or if you're really in the game, and what I mean by that is you're engaged and you love this industry, and you're in it for the long haul. If I don't have what you need, a good rep will go, "Give me a little bit." I've called my competitors before. Said, "Hey, look, I'd appreciate you don't go trying to steal my business from this guy. But do you have this?" "Yes." "Would you call them?" Or, "How quickly could we get it? What would the cost be? I'll try to get this done for you."

Randy Chaffee:
Because it's all about, I want, as a rep, and I think this might resonate with contractors, is I want them or their distributor always coming to me first. And even if I can't handle it for you, if I can help you, then you're going to come to me the next time. Next time I probably have it, right? But if I just say, "No, I don't handle that. I don't know what you're going to do." Then put the extra time and effort into finding it. And there's a lost out opportunity for me to build loyalty with them people, right?

Heidi Ellsworth:
I agree. And I did the exact same thing. I mean, it's about those long-term relationships. And so getting the job done, obviously you want to sell your products first, but you also want to take care of the customers. I think that's so straight on. I love that. So I want to kind of talk a little bit too, and you mentioned earlier, Marco Industries. I love those guys. They're on the Coffee Shop. Everybody should check out their directory and all their great information. You've been with Marco for how long?

Randy Chaffee:
It's 20 plus years.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Okay. That's amazing.

Randy Chaffee:
I'm one of the longest people, and I've never been an employee. I've always been a rep. I know on all their sales team, and I'm probably the oldest guy period. Not only just in age because I'm old, but just in length of time there. Yeah, I've been there from, not day one, but back in the old ownership. And so I've watched them grow. I've watched them get better. And it's I'm blessed to be with them. Good people.

Heidi Ellsworth:
And hopefully this doesn't upset anybody out there, but I've seen it. I've seen where as companies have grown, manufacturers have grown, they believe that they outgrow their reps, and they bring it inside or they make changes. And I just have always felt that that's such a big mistake because of the longevity, the memory of this industry, the relationships. And so to hear a manufacturer like Marco that has been so supportive and loyal, as you are to them, that is really something special. How important is that to that relationship to what you do selling to distributors and helping contractors?

Randy Chaffee:
Well, it's really important. Because let's face it, even as a rep agency, we're still concerned. That stuff concerns you, right? You don't want to spend years building up business to just have it yanked all of a sudden right. Can happen. It does. That's the nature of the beast. I think the one maybe thing that a rep may bring to the table is we do have to be successful. Because that's the only way I get paid. Number one. And I do sort of like getting paid. And number two, I think at times we have the ability to dig deeper with distributors and dig deeper with the contractors because we have more than one product line to work with them. So we probably become more in tuned to their needs, more in tuned with what they want. And the hope would be more valuable to them as a resource.

Randy Chaffee:
And I look at it from a manufacturers standpoint for just a minute. If I call on you as a roofing distributor, for example, talk to your contractors. Maybe fasteners is not what you're interested in today. Maybe you're very happy where you're at. That's okay. But there's going to be something that there's probably you could use a little help with. And so if, as a rep having multiple lines, I can find that niche right now. Or niche. I think that sounds cool. That fits you today, and we'll start there. And then we'll build from that.

Randy Chaffee:
Where if you only have one product line, if you don't have these seven or eight things that I have, or if you don't need those right now, well, I'll see you in a few months, I guess, right? There's nothing else to talk about. So the key is, I think, we can get in the door many more places. Because in the roofing industry and the post frame industry that I operate in, I've got something. Even if you're massively happy where you're at, I've probably got something. One little thing that I could probably help you out with. And that's all I ask for. Then we'll go from there. I don't need it all today. I'm in the long game. I'll take it if you want to give it to me, of course. But I'm in the long game.

Randy Chaffee:
And I think, as reps, we're definitely long range thinkers. We're short term thinkers, but we have ability to think long term because this is my agency. Like I said earlier, I have no end game. So I'm not thinking about, well, just what am I going to do this year? Nah, I'm already into next year a long ways already. I have been for months now. So I don't know if that answers the question.

Heidi Ellsworth:
It does. And I think it's really important for contractors to kind of look at that, look at the relationships that your manufacturers' reps have with your manufacturers and that support because it all comes together. That's the trick. That's what I always saw is like if your regional managers where the manufacturers are supporting your manufacturers' reps, and they're supporting the distributors, and they're all supporting the contractors, now you have success. And so I really see that as, I don't know, I think sometimes, as success happens, people forget that, that that's how it was built.

Randy Chaffee:
They do.

Heidi Ellsworth:
But I'm always like that's how it's built right there, those relationships.

Randy Chaffee:
Exactly. Well, it is. And it makes me think about, I've talked about a lot in the past, and I've started changing this sometimes when I chat with people, there's always the triad, right? The triangle. And it's always quality, price, service. Or I like to say, quality, service, price, because I always think price should be the last. Because if you don't have the quality and you don't have the service, price is sort of irrelevant, right?

Randy Chaffee:
But I've expanded my thinking with that. And I call it a box. I said, you got to think, not out of the box. I see no box. I see no cardboard. That's what you really, in my opinion, need to do. But thinking of a box. You got quality, service, price, and relationship. And I think you need to think in the terms of box because, many times, if you use a rep for example, or a company guy, either one, but you use the salesperson, let's say, to the fullest extent that you can. What you're going to have is, okay, the quality will be what it is. We're assuming is probably good. The service, that's up to the distributor as long as we give them, as a manufacturer, good service. The pricing's going to be determined by the distributor and us to them.

Randy Chaffee:
But the key factor many times is that relationship part, the extras. The extra mile, the extra yard, the extra things that we can do for you. The extra question you can call me at 2:00 on Saturday. And I go, "Hey, Bill, what's up?" "Hey, I'm on a job, and geez, I don't know what to do with this." Or, "Is there any way..." "I can't tell you till Monday, but I'll find out first thing." Those are probably as valuable, in my opinion, as the triad. And so, in my thinking, I've went from the triad to a box from a standpoint, I think all four have to be touched.

Heidi Ellsworth:
They do. They do. I agree with you so much on that. So that's really interesting. And I want to kind of, because I think it's an interesting case study, but over the last two years... And when I was a regional manager, I did it right in the middle of the recession. What a time to learn sales, to learn the field. But COVID has had its own... I mean, you can't get out. You can't travel the last year. Now we're nonstop travel again. Everybody's out and about. How have you maintained those relationships? And I know you talk about this on your podcast, right?

Randy Chaffee:
Yes.

Heidi Ellsworth:
How do you do the try and trued way of sales and being out in the field to now maybe not being able to, and doing Zoom, doing podcasts, all this stuff? How have you handled that?

Randy Chaffee:
A great subject and one that I love to chat about. I remember, and you talk about Marco, I was at a Marco sales meeting the week that the world kind of imploded, right? It was early March. NBA's walking off the court mid game. Everything's like what's going on? And I think we all knew we probably shouldn't even be going to this meeting, but we're road warriors, right? Yeah, of course we're going to a meeting. We like to be with each other. We want to go have some brewskis and burgers at night together. And this is what we do.

Randy Chaffee:
But I remember getting back to the airport and there's like nobody. TV's doom and gloom. The world's ending. And so I started that night. I had a flight from Tulsa to Atlanta, and then Atlanta to Fort Myers. And I started making notes. What am I going to do? Because I don't know what I'm going to be able to travel again maybe. It sure looks bad right now.

Randy Chaffee:
And so I'll try to fast forward this, but I started studying what are the other options virtually to be with customers? Because that's my whole thing. I truly, the biggest asset that I have period, is me, and what I can bring. My years of experience, my desire to help, my desire to try to build this team together. But all of a sudden, I can't be there to bro hug you and to bring you coffee and donuts, and to go grab a pizza, or go grab a burger and beer tonight. I can't do this. I said, I didn't want to lose that personal connection.

Randy Chaffee:
So really fast forward, and I started doing some studying. And I started deciding that virtual is a unique thought in our industry, and something that I hadn't put a lot of thought. Because I use a hashtag #RoadwarriorRandy because that's what I do. That's my life. But I knew that I had to change this way of thinking. So I started guesting on a few shows like this. I started picking up my iPhone. And Heidi, if I hadn't chatted with you in a few days, I wouldn't just call you or text you, I'd do a quick video. "Hey Heidi, what's going on? Just checking. Did you get that sample? Is everything okay?" Whatever it is. Same way with emails, I started, and I still do, I don't just send you a quote. Maybe I'll send you a quote, but I do a quick video. Hey, line seven right here. See that line seven? That's the one we're talking about.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I love it.

Randy Chaffee:
I included some other things. Give me a call. The response to that was massively good because nobody else was doing it. It added personal touch, and you still got to see me. I'm still in front of you as your guy. And then I decided to start my Building Wins LIVE show as another way to give back to an industry that I love, and to bring people in the industry. You're going to grace our pages. Not pages-

Heidi Ellsworth:
I can't wait.

Randy Chaffee:
... the airwaves, here in February, I think it is, to be on the show. But it's able to bring people like you, people like authors, other sales professionals, manufacturers. I've had a couple, three people on talking from the metal industry, talking about coil pricing and supply issues. And so it allows me to, and I guess this is longer than I meant to be with this, but it's a force multiplier. And I love the idea of force multipliers. This is now back when I couldn't go anywhere. I can still be in front of people. I can be in front of thousands of people and never leave my office here. And I can have thousands of customer touches broadly, and still have time to do 20, 30, 40 a day on virtual. Sending an email, sending a text.

Randy Chaffee:
But then to really get to the crux of your question, everybody was talking. And I got to know a lot of people. I've broadened my horizons 100X in the last two years. And like I said, authors and podcasters and people. And there became two distinct sides for a while. It was the old normal. And I'm just going to do nothing. So far, I get to keep my job, I guess. So I'm just going to sit it home and I'm going to wait until this is all over. And we, air quotes again, go back to normal.

Randy Chaffee:
My experience told me we're probably never fully back to what you call normal. And more importantly, Heidi, I don't think we need to or should because we're finding new ways to do things. But then I also found this group of folks around the country that were the new normal people. And I don't disagree with them either. And in some end industries, maybe it works better than ours. But we're never going to get on a plane again. We're never going to go see a customer. We're never going to get on a plane in New York City and fly to Dallas for the day. We're never, never, never. We're all going to just sit and do this.

Randy Chaffee:
Nah, I don't buy that either. Not in our industry. So Heidi, that caused me to start thinking hybrid, right? And I use the word hybrid a lot. And I think you mentioned early on when we was talking, or maybe before we got on live, or on the show here, but there's got to be a medium ground here. So what I've been able to accomplish, I feel reasonably well, is combining old and new into a hybrid where, when I can travel and when travel makes sense, I can make full use out of it. But in the interim, I augment that with, like I said, this little baby here, iPads, PCs, whatever, video and chatting, doing shows, guesting on shows, inviting people to things, posting, social media.

Randy Chaffee:
And I know that's a word that a lot of folks in our industry still hate. Ah, I don't like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. Ah, it's all stupid. Think what you want-

Heidi Ellsworth:
And do what you want.

Randy Chaffee:
... [crosstalk 00:30:18] but I'm going to tell you right now, you better be involved. Because it used, you'll remember Heidi, many years ago, probably now, you hit a point where if you didn't have a website, okay, next. Because if you don't have a website, you're not real, right?

Heidi Ellsworth:
No validation.

Randy Chaffee:
None. I truly believe, and correct me if you think I'm wrong, and somebody may, but if you don't have a social media presence today, it's the same validation. If I can't find you on social media someplace, and you're not somewhat active, you're not bringing value, then you're nobody I need to deal with. And I think even folks my age are there. But I'm also long term. The 25 and 35 year olds, which either are or soon will be the decision makers, if you don't see me on Facebook and LinkedIn with some goofy post or some information, some, "Hey, I'm on a walk, and here's a thought I had," if you don't see me doing that, I don't want to talk to Randy. There's 19,000 other people that I can watch or follow, right?

Randy Chaffee:
I think it's really important to hybrid it though. Not go old, not go new, find a hybrid. And each business, east contractor is going to have to find his comfort level. And I'll tell you, a lot of guys get scared of it, scared of doing this type of thing. And I remember the first day, my first show that I did at Building Wins LIVE. It was going to be a live show. I've been on a lot of shows, but never hosted, right? And I have a producer director, a good buddy of mine that does this for a living. And we put the format together. And I was going to do it. He said, "Well, can we start January 2nd, 3rd," whatever that date was. And I kept going, "Well, or the 20th." Because see what I was doing? I just kept putting it off. And he goes, "No." He says, "I already put it up. I posted it. We're going live on this..." He didn't give me a choice. God bless him for that.

Heidi Ellsworth:
You got to do it.

Randy Chaffee:
Right. You just-

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. It's exactly... So I love that story of you flying home and starting to make notes. And because I am a huge believer in the hybrid. And I mean our first Coffee Conversations on Roofers Coffee Shop was in March of 2020. Because I looked at my partner and our team, and I said, "We have to be here for the industry. We have to be here, and we have to be bringing questions." So we had Reid Ribble and NRCA were the first one's on there answering questions. It was exact same thing.

Heidi Ellsworth:
But when now, this year, July, we went to the Florida Roofing Show, and I am just as adamant that we have to be there. We have to be supporting our associations. We have to be there in person. We have to continue this hybrid thing. So I love that you said that. That is exactly how I feel. And I think it's really, if we can continue to accomplish this within the roofing industry, it is only bringing the professionalism and the image and the success of roofing professionals up every single day, along with social media.

Randy Chaffee:
Oh, no doubt. And I love the fact that the trade shows are coming back. Because I I agree. You still need that interpersonal, in person, I should say, handshake, bro hug. How you doing? Great to see you. Chit chat. Want to go off the floor and-

Heidi Ellsworth:
We're doing videos at the trade shows so that people who can't go, because there are people because of health issues, because of family, whatever, who aren't going to be able to make it. So now all of a sudden we have this, like you said, this greater influence out there.

Randy Chaffee:
Oh exactly. And it's funny you say that because I know you do that. My next show, I think, is the National Frame Builder Association show in Nashville coming up. Yeah, we're less than a month. About a month, little over a month. Five weeks, I think. But anyway, at the Opryland there. We've all been there a million times if you're in our world. And I've already got four or five people set up. And then at random after that. Because I'll be doing short videos from there too. Because I want my followers, my friends, and people that can't make it for whatever reason to get a little taste of the show, right?

Randy Chaffee:
And because that's just one more way of just keeping your name in front of people, if you're a rep or if you're a contractor, you're a manufacturer or distributor. But secondarily I think the best promotions you can do are the ones that you get a promotion out of it for yourself, but you do it by giving. And I tell people when I get on, and when they get on my Building Wins LIVE show, and you and I'll have this conversation in a month or so when we get on is, myself and my producer director, Wes, we facilitate the show, and we get that promotional value, right? But it's your show, right? This is the Heidi show that we're going to have today, right?

Randy Chaffee:
And I think there's been, Tony Robbins or somebody said once, I think, "The more you do what you always did, the more you get what you always got," or something along that lines. And I believe that. And I also believe that if you want more, you need to give more. And the more you give, the more it'll come. And you got to give without what am I going to get today if I do this? It's like, I do a lot of tabletop shows too, as I know you did in your Carlisle days, I'm sure. You go to a distributor show. You're all set up with your little backdrop. And your literature and a couple samples. But I love those because I get to be hands on with the contractor. I can show them a new thing. They can ask a question, they can issue a complaint, whatever the case may be. And those are massively invaluable.

Randy Chaffee:
But one thing I skipped over, and I didn't want to forget, is the other beauty with hybriding this virtual with old school is we never thought we'd have been in that position two years ago, right? God forbid we go back to that again. But you never know, I guess. But if you develop that and use that now today, as I do, as an augmentation of what we do, if worst case scenario, that happens again for a while, you don't have to lose any ground because you're there. You just crank it up again.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Yeah. We know how to do it, and we're doing-

Randy Chaffee:
We know how to do it.

Heidi Ellsworth:
... it from the road.

Randy Chaffee:
Exactly. Exactly. From the hotel room, which I'll be doing next Friday from a hotel room in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Heidi Ellsworth:
The name of this podcast is Roofing Road Trips, and those Roofing Road Trips, I've been doing all over. Coffee Conversations in hotel rooms. And that's just our new world. It's our new life.

Randy Chaffee:
It is.

Heidi Ellsworth:
And I really want to, to all the contractors who are listening out there, I think we may be talking really from a manufacturing to the distribution and more of a national side. But the concepts and ideas that Randy are talking about can work very well in a local sense. By being on the local social media, by being a part of it, by putting videos out there, by Zooming all the time as much as you can and staying in front of your customers. And I think if anyone takes a nugget away, and Randy, I love this so much, take a video, show them the proposal, send them in the email. I mean, it's a whole new world. And Randy, you are a wealth of knowledge. Thank you so much. I love it.

Randy Chaffee:
Oh, you're more than welcome. It's been a great conversation, my friend. I appreciate it.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Oh, we're going to keep doing this. This is the kind of stuff I love so much. Because I think we've even gone a little bit long, so thank you-

Randy Chaffee:
[crosstalk 00:38:23].

Heidi Ellsworth:
... all who are still listening. I love it. Randy, I want to be sure everybody can get to your show. So how do they find you?

Randy Chaffee:
Okay. It's buildingwins.live. And you can literally Google buildingwins.live. You can go to Facebook or YouTube, and just click on Building Wins. It'll pop up. And find us, we're typically every Friday at 3:00 PM Eastern. It's a live show. Very industry based, or other value added. So sometimes I'll have an author that wrote a sales book. That's still industry based. We're not talking about screws or nails or shingles. We're talking about how to be a better salesperson, how to sell by serving, whatever the case may be. But it's something for everybody. It's very loose kind of conversation like we just had. We just sit and chat. And then occasionally we do some special editions. But people can find Building Wins LIVE, and follow the show. Follow me under my name, also on social media. And love to have anybody follow the show. And I would say, if people out there listening have a story they'd like to chat about, I'm booked right now through February. But I'm also always looking for good folks to come on and chat. Or we can even do a special edition if you convince me.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Everything. I love it. And that is exactly, we're always looking because there's so many great stories to tell. That's the thing. And this has been the Randy show. So thank you. Thank you for all of that. And for everyone listening, we're going to put Building Wins LIVE, the link and everything within the Marco Industry's directory along with this podcast, along with we'll look at some of the other podcasts with links so that you can hear Randy every Friday, plus on demand.

Randy Chaffee:
Love it, love it.

Heidi Ellsworth:
And I can't wait to be there in February.

Randy Chaffee:
February.

Heidi Ellsworth:
Thank you, Randy-

Randy Chaffee:
You bet.

Heidi Ellsworth:
... so much for being on the show today.

Randy Chaffee:
Absolutely, Heidi. Thank you. It's a pleasure.

Heidi Ellsworth:
I love it. And thank you all for listening. This kind of information is what we try to bring every week with on our Roofing Road Trips podcast. And you can find them all on rooferscoffeeshop.com of course, but also on your favorite podcast channel. So be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single one. And I'll be seeing you from the road soon. Have a great day.

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.