Roofer of the Month - Elite Exteriors - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Jordan Grant from Elite Exteriors. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast. 

Megan Ellsworth: Hello everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth, here at Roofers Coffee Shop back again to celebrate our Roofer of the Month for August 2023, and it is Elite Exteriors. I have Jordan Grant here with me. Hi Jordan.

Jordan Grant: Hey Megan. How are you?

Megan Ellsworth: Doing good. I'm excited to learn all about y'all, and excited to hear your story. So why don't we just dive right in and have you introduce yourself and tell us about Elite.

Jordan Grant: Sounds great. First and foremost, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to join your podcast, and it's an honor to be selected by Elite to represent us as a company. My name's Jordan Grant. I'm the sales manager for Elite Exteriors. And Elite was created back in the beginning of 2020 by our two owners, Carlton Kohler and Chuck Settambrino. Each of them had previously worked for other roofing companies in various roles, and they chose to branch off together to start Elite in order to create something of their own making, and a culture based on principles and family.

Chuck comes from more of a construction background, while Carlton served one tour in Afghanistan as part of the Marine Corps, which is why we market ourselves as a veteran owned and operated company. And following his service, he became an insurance adjuster for a number of years before switching over to our side of the industry. So with the combined experience from top down with both construction and insurance, our team's pretty well-trained to handle both retail and insurance claim work.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome. What would you say Elite's specialty is?

Jordan Grant: Absolutely. That's a great question. So we've helped numerous homeowners with a number of different types of projects over the years, but we made the choice recently as a business to revert back to our bread and butter which is roofing, gutters, and paint. So the majority of what we do is insurance claim work when it involves replacing the roof. These are the components that are common on the insurance scope. So by focusing on these few areas, we're able to provide quality work at an efficient rate, which not only makes our customers happy, but our team can get paid faster as well. So I'd have to say our specialty would be insurance claims, more specifically residential claims. But as far as products go, we believe ourselves to be a jack of all trades. Outside of asphalt shingles, we also install metal roofing, TPO, silicon coatings, and of course, DaVinci. That would probably be our favorite thing to install.

Megan Ellsworth: Love it. We love DaVinci here at Roofers Coffee Shop.

Jordan Grant: It's an awesome product.

Megan Ellsworth: So this is my favorite question, and it's so fun, because everyone's answer is always so different. But what is something special that your company celebrates? It could be culture, it could be actual holidays or festivities, could be your customers. What does Elite celebrate?

Jordan Grant: So that's a great question. I thought about this a lot, and there's really just so many things that I love about working for this company, Elite Exteriors. I feel like there's so many things to celebrate, so to narrow it down's tough. But culture is a huge deal for us. As a whole and for our customers, I'd say that we celebrate our achievements like becoming a GAF Master Elite certified contractor, which only about 2% of contractors have. And we also earned the award for DaVinci Roofing Project of the Year in 2022, and I believe we're up for that award again in 2023.

But within our company specifically, we celebrate not only our team success, but individual success as well. I'd say that we celebrate our family-oriented culture. We are all pretty close inside and outside of work, but Chuck and Carlton have done an amazing job of creating a platform that breeds success. The whole goal for them was giving normal people just like me and you an opportunity to succeed and provide for our families. So we're a very sales-focused company, but Elite's structured in a way to assist our team as much as possible so they can focus on gaining new customers and making more money for themselves and their families. But each month, we go into as far as celebrating the top salesmen for that month, reward them for that, as well as announcing the monthly and quarterly bonuses reached by each individual. So we have a lot of team chemistry and I'd say friendly competition between ourselves.

Megan Ellsworth: Love that. There's nothing wrong with a little friendly competition.

Jordan Grant: I agree.

Megan Ellsworth: So why should home or building owners work with Elite Exteriors?

Jordan Grant: Oh, another great question. So as I mentioned before, the majority of our work is insurance claims. And the experience our company possesses from that side of the industry makes us a better option to customers dealing with the claims process. We take that weight off their shoulders as much as possible and advocate on their behalf. So whether we're there from the beginning when their claim's initially filed, or we pick it up after they were denied after working with a different contractor, we take pride in helping homeowners and business owners get properly indemnified for their covered losses. As you may know, it can sometimes be a battle with that insurance company, but we stand up for the homeowner.

And for example, I won't mention any names of course, but just a few weeks ago I met the owner of another roofing company while I was having lunch in the middle of our workday. We started talking, exchanged business cards and whatnot. But I actually ended up rocking his world when I explained to him what supplementing is, and how that turns into thousands of dollars more from the insurance company for things that they might have left off the original scope. So I think that's a example or evidence enough right there of why I would stress to potential customers the importance of choosing a contractor that's not only knowledgeable in the product, but also understands the insurance claims.

No, but regardless of it being insurance or retail, we hold ourselves to a higher standard, because the warranties we offer wouldn't be covered if we cut corners. And word of mouth, as you know, can be a business's greatest or worst enemy.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, absolutely. I have two more questions for you. One is, why are you a Roofers Coffee Shop Our Club member?

Jordan Grant: So we were first introduced to Our Club after we won the DaVinci Project of the year. We were invited to join you guys. So we joined, of course. And then I'd say our favorite thing about being a part of it basically is, it's an open town hall for contractors to meet and share knowledge and information. I thoroughly believe networking is such an important part of the business, and helping each other succeed in the industry will always be important to Elite.

Megan Ellsworth: Yes. And lastly, what would your walkup song be?

Jordan Grant: I gave this one some good thought too. I got to say a number of songs came to mind, but given the fact that we worked so hard on the insurance claim side of the industry, we agree that our walkup song would probably be Queen's Another One Bites the Dust.

Megan Ellsworth: Nice. I like that. That's awesome. That's definitely the best answer I've had yet.

Jordan Grant: Oh, cool.

Megan Ellsworth: Love it. Well, everyone here at Roofers Coffee Shop just loves Elite Exteriors. We're super honored to give you guys the prize of Roofer of the Month for August, and we really love having you a part of the community and appreciate your involvement in everything that you do.

Jordan Grant: Absolutely. And once again, it's a pleasure to be on here and an honor to receive that recognition. I believe we'll be joining you guys again for the Roofer Coffee Shop Zoom meeting covering DaVinci material and product talk as well. So hopefully I'll see you there for that.

Megan Ellsworth: And we'll see you on The Coffee Break too. Well, thank you again, and I'll see everyone listening next month for our next Roofer of the Month. Awesome.