Roofing Road Trip with Heidi- Renee Ramey- PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an interview with Renee Ramey, Executive Director of Metal Roofing Alliance. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast here.

Heidi Ellsworth: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. This is Heidi Ellsworth, a partner at RoofersCoffeeShop. And this is the podcast where we kind of go on the road. It's a little bit more virtual nowadays, but I get to go around and visit with other roofing professionals, experts, and the best part of all, friends. And so today we have Renee Ramey, Executive Director of Metal Roofing Alliance here for a second time. Renee, you've been here before, welcome back.

Renee Ramey: Thank you. Honored to be here.

Heidi Ellsworth: I always love visiting with you Renee, because you have great insight to what is happening in metal roofing. You're so focused in there. And I just think when I look around and see how fast metal is growing, it's pretty amazing.

Renee Ramey: Yes. Yes. We've been really pleased with the progress that metal roofing has had in the residential sector.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah, especially. That's what I'm seeing too. It's crazy. So before we get started and really kind of get into the whole metal roofing, just to reacquaint our audience, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got into roofing and became involved with Metal Roofing Alliance?

Renee Ramey: Yeah, happy to. So I fresh out of college got a job at a local to the Pacific Northwest coil converter mill, however you want to term it, Steelscape. And it was just kind of by chance that they had a position open and was lucky enough to get on there. Was there for a little over 17 years and most of that time spent in the role of marketing manager. So got to know the raw material, coil, metallic coating, painting side of the business. And then from there, I bounced over to a small Pacific Northwest, again, located distribution center. And there, I got a completely different view of the market, more of a downstream getting it out to smaller companies and whatnot. And that was really beneficial. And then from there, bounced over to MRA. I've been fortunate in having the ability to work hands-on in a variety of businesses throughout the distribution chain if you will, that exists and brings metal roofing to homeowners.

Heidi Ellsworth: That's the kind of experience that really does help bring all of this together because I've had similar experiences working with manufacturers, working with distribution, working with contractors. And I can just see where that has just been amazing for the MRA. So tell just a little bit about you joining the Metal Roofing Alliance and kind of how you've been able to bring that experience to them.

Renee Ramey: Yeah. So again, in in my roles previous to MRA, I did a lot of volunteer work with the various associations in the metals industry and MRA was one of them. So I came to know a lot of the people, a lot of the other companies, a lot of the board members. So when the executive director role came open, I was again fortunate enough to have an opportunity to put in for that and get that role. So we exist to educate and promote to homeowners the benefits of metal roofing. And in doing that, we hope to bring homeowners metal roofing into the consideration set for homeowners. And then when they're ready to actually take the next step in seeking out a local professional to help them with their metal roof, we like to connect them with MRA members and assist in that process as well.

Heidi Ellsworth: That's cool. That is really cool. And I know since you've launched this National Consumer Awareness program, you've seen an increase just since then 12% of metal roofing growth, which is huge. And I've been watching the same thing. What exactly do you do? How do you get in front of the homeowners and the consumers to talk about metal roofing?

Renee Ramey: Right. So we're out there on every platform you can imagine. We've done some TV. Partnered with some, I'm trying to think, TV personalities within the home improvement industry I guess is the best way to put it. So we partnered with a lot of personalities that homeowners trust and tune into when it comes to home improvement projects. We have a pretty extensive social media platform in several of the different Facebook, Instagram, et cetera. So we're out there trying to get the message in any way possible. We've, again, podcasts like this. We have webinars. We are on the radio. So it's really just trying to get in front of the consumers. We do market research every year that allows us to identify what the best avenue is to reach the homeowners that we're targeting with our effort.

Heidi Ellsworth: So for a roofing contractor who's doing metal roofing, talk about an excellent resource. You're really bringing the consumers, the people who need a metal roof together with the metal roofing contractors.

Renee Ramey: Yes. That is the ultimate goal.

Heidi Ellsworth: Well, tell us a little bit about the new MRA contractor program. Because that's pretty exciting.

Renee Ramey: Yeah. Yeah. We're super excited. We are fresh into the kickoff. We went live with a lot of the updates and upgrades last month. So we've had a contractor program for many, many years, but one thing that we did start more recently within the last three years has been a contractor advisory board. So we're starting to take the guidance and input from our contractor members a bit more to heart in trying to help drive the program in the right direction. So through the assistance and guidance of our contractor advisory board, which is made up of MRA members, we were able to identify some value add things that MRA could bring to our members. For example, we do already provide consumer leads that come in through our website. That is absolutely something that is of value to our members. But beyond that, starting to bring prospects to them. So a lead is someone, in our opinion, that's a homeowner that's really ready to move forward with a metal roof. So in six months or less 12 months or less, they're going to be putting a metal roof on. A prospect is someone that's more just interested in learning about metal roofing to see if it's even a good fit for their home. And so we've started to capture more of the prospects. We're starting to help our contractor members develop materials and tools to outreach to those homeowners, to those prospects, as well as the leads. So we're creating literature. We're coming up with some communication strategies. We've got some local regional homeowner or home improvement shows that we're starting to partner with some of our members to exhibit out or to help them buffer up their booth by promoting their MRA membership. Yeah. So the list goes on. There's actually quite a few improvements we've made to the program and all of them, again, in hopes of just driving more value add to our members.

Heidi Ellsworth: That's cool. So the contractors are not only getting leads. I mean, and I love how you're saying, "We're still nurturing the prospects. We have solid leads of people who are ready." I mean that alone can really help contractors, the fact that you're helping them with their marketing. And I love the fact that you're helping with home shows too, because that's really double duty. You're helping the contractors and you're getting in front of all these consumers.

Renee Ramey: Yeah, absolutely. And again, I give kudos to our contractor advisory board. So they came up with some pretty interesting ways of accomplishing getting in front of their local homeowners and things aren't rocket science, but nonetheless didn't really pop up in my mind. So it's been a really good process for both me learning the market a bit better from a consumer or contractor perspective, but also for the contractors to have more say in what MRA is providing to them.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. That's great. I mean, as contractors are listening to this podcast and they're public kind of thinking, "Wow, that sounds cool. I can get the leads so I can get marketing support. I can really kind of engage in the metal roofing more so." But as you're talking to this advisory council, what are they saying about other contractors? What would they say to like why contractors should become an MRA on certified contractor?

Renee Ramey: Well, I think a lot of the appeal is from the quality perspective or the third and/or I guess you would say the third-party validation of the business. So MRA, obviously we're focused on metal roofing. Metal is our target, but we're also not a company that manufacturer, sells or installs metal roofing. We are just here to present the facts to homeowners. And so in doing that and performing that service or that role to a homeowner, MRA has kind of become this verification body, if you will. Not that we're technically verifying anything per se, but that we are presenting the facts and that we do have certain specifications of product that our members agree to provide to the residential sector in order to be an MRA member. So to phrase that a little differently, you can't be a manufacturer member if you don't agree and commit to providing what we believe and what the industry believes are the most quality products in the market to the residential homeowner. So we're not only a third-party resource, but we're also from our membership perspective, we're providing homeowners an outlet that we believe to be some of the best quality in the industry. And that goes from the manufacturing all the way down to the installers and the contractors as well. We have to have contractor members be sponsored by a manufacturer in order to be an MRA member. So not just any contractor can sign up. There is a bit of a validation process that's done by manufacturer that sponsors them to say, "Yeah, they do know our product. They do buy from us." So we know they're getting quality product. We've never had any complaints with installs or jobs that they've done. So we have this process in place with a lot of moving parts, but all of it speaks to the quality of the material and the quality of the install. And at the end of the day, that's what we're communicating to the homeowner is MRA not only can educate you about what you should be asking for, but we also have members to kind of take it to the next step that will be using those quality products and know what they're doing with the material.

Heidi Ellsworth: That is truly what is needed. I would love for you to kind of share, I mean, obviously no names or anything like that, but I know there's just been some scary stories recently on homeowners who have reached out to you who didn't use those qualified contractors and the qualified manufacturers and the quality products and installation. What happens then? What happens with those homeowners?

Renee Ramey: Yeah, well, unfortunately, and it just breaks your heart when you, when you're talking to some of them because to install a new roof on your home is not an inexpensive task. And a lot of these homeowners are finding that they're spending a lot of money to do what they think is a good job and going with metal even because they know metal is durable and is a good roofing product. But unfortunately, they're being sold what we refer to as subpar products. An example is we had a series of storms, this was last year. So a little older story, but some storms that went through the Texas area. And we were finding that a lot of homeowners were being approached for stone-coated roofing, metal roofing by people who were selling this product and they were selling it super cheap and they were slapping it up on their roof. Well, not too long after going up or being installed, the homeowners start to have issues with leaks. The product wasn't installed correctly. And when we took a harder look at the material itself, not only was the install not done very well, but the product is not what we would consider quality product. It's very low coating weight. The product itself is not meant to last for years and years. It was meant to, I would use the description it's lipstick on a pig. Right? It looks fairly good. It went up and looked good when it went up, but then they're gone and they're not answering their phones or their company's out of business. And we came across a number of homeowners in that scenario that had gotten bit, and there's really no outlet. The businesses go under and you're just kind of out. And it's really, really unfortunate.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. And I hate those stories. I hear those and it just makes me so sad because we want roofing respect. We want the professionalism of the industry. And I think for contractors who do get recommended by MRA manufacturers and who do become an MRA contractor, for them, what a great way to diversify their business and be able to say, "Look, I'm an MRA member. I am here. I've done all the right things. I can do the installs." So now all of a sudden that message is going out a couple of different ways. And I just think that's so powerful for those contractors.

Renee Ramey: Yes.

Heidi Ellsworth: So as our contractors are out there and I mean, they're all kind of if they're not already MRA members, if they're doing metal roofing, they're probably already thinking, "I need to talk to my manufacturer." As you were looking at the trends, you said you do the trend reports every year on what is happening, what consumers are looking for in metal roofing. Can you talk a little bit about that? Just how should contractors be even selling metal roofing? What should they be talking about with their customers?

Renee Ramey: Right. Well, first and foremost, I think there's very few regions of the country right now that aren't experiencing or have recently experienced some sort of weather-related event, right? Being located on the West Coast right now, we're under wildfire crisis, honestly. And hurricanes and high winds in the southeast and hail storms in the Colorado area. I mean, it's just the weather extremes are happening and metal roofing just far and away exceeds all other roofing products in its performance in weather-related events. So that would be my number one right out of the gate is contractors really should be selling the performance aspect of metal roof when it comes to the location of the home and the threats, the weather-related threats, or the regional threats that are of concern to a homeowner and selling them on, "Here's what metal roofing could do to help mitigate your concerns." So that's first and foremost. Beyond that, metal roofing has a very long life. If you're using a quality product and a quality installer, there's no reason why your roof shouldn't be lasting 40, 50 plus years. And there's a lot of appeal to homeowners, especially as people are from our research are starting to stay in place a bit more. It's a little easier to justify investing a little more money upfront in a roof when you know you're going to be there for a long time. And if you step back and look at the financial aspect of that, you may or may not pay a little more for a metal roof upfront. Just really depends on which metal roof you select over asphalt or other products. But you're only going to put that roof on once. Whereas with asphalt, a lot of times you're replacing the roof two, three times in the same length of time that a metal roof will last. So it's appealing to that financial aspect of not just install and longevity, but then you add to it the ability for solar to be added much easier and longer lasting weather or excuse me, heating and cooling savings. A lot of times there's insurance savings if you've got a metal roof on. So there's a lot of aspects on the financial front that a contractor should be addressing with the homeowner as well.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. And I think during this time I've had some interesting discussions this week, Renee, and I'm sure you have too on just this whole trend. I mean, with us dealing with COVID along with weather events, along with seems like everything else this year. But the sanctity of the home has risen. I mean, people are working there, they're doing homeschooling, they are just spending so much more time at home. Now seems the perfect time to really talk about that long-term durability and beauty of a metal roof.

Renee Ramey: Absolutely. Absolutely. And you hit the nail on the head. We are hearing that on our end as well. And you worded it way better than I did. People are, I mean, were literally forced to hunker down in some areas. And I think as a result of this COVID environment that we're working through as a society, I think it's turned people back to focusing on family, on home, on your safe place basically. And so yeah, I 100% agree with your observation there and what you're hearing and seeing as well.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. As we were talking with roofing contractors and all the roofing industry businesses, we're really talking about that. A lot of you got to be able to pivot and be flexible and really talk about and understand where the homeowners and the building owners are coming from. And right now, roofing it's been essential and it's going to continue to be essential as we're working through that. And so I guess another thought that I have in there is as these contractors are working with these homeowners and the time is so right. I know you said that they need to get recommended, but can you kind of show the path or talk about that path for a contractor to become an MRA member? How does that work? What should they do right now?

Renee Ramey: Right. So super simple first step is to hop on the MRA website, metalroofing, I-N-G, all one word .com. And on the home page, there is a link that takes you to an area for professionals. So there's a professionals page on the MRA website. On that page is a link to a membership form. Well, linked to information. So there's information, but there's also a link to the membership form. So you're able to do everything online. It's super simple. The form's very quick and easy to fill out. And it does provide you if you're not sure of whether or not the manufacturer you're purchasing product from is an MRA member. We've got a list of MRA members that is either accessible on the homepage or also on the form. There's a dropdown box. And you can see who is currently a member. You can fill out a form regardless of if your manufacturer is a member or not. Unfortunately you wouldn't be able to become a member until we got your manufacturer to also be an MRA member. So it does add a little bit of time to that process. But again, a super simple form, super easy process. It's all done electronically. And once you submit your form, usually you're approved very quickly and that's it. That's all there is to it. And I would love to stress right here and now that we have a free level of membership as well as two different pay levels. So at a minimum, it doesn't make any sense not to sign up for free. You get in front of the homeowner, your information and your company's information gets in front of the homeowner. You get a profile on the MRA website. You get access to a lot of the benefits that are out there with MRA membership. Even at a free level, it behooves you if you're a contractor installing metal roofing to become a MRA number.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. I just think that's a no-brainer honestly. I think that's so good. And you're really making me think too about, we've been working with you, working with Sherwin-Williams, working with McElroy, a number of companies out there on really sending out strong educational information about contractors becoming metal roofing contractors. So contractors who maybe have traditionally not done metal roofing, now's the time to get into it. I'm probably putting words into your mouth, but I'm thinking wouldn't that be a great way for a contractor who's never done metal is to go to your site and look at all the manufacturers and read the information and kind of see how they can start building relationships with metal manufacturers around the country?

Renee Ramey: Yeah, absolutely. Our website is, is an educational-based website and that applies whether you're a homeowner or a contractor. So by all means, the information out there would be very helpful to anyone considering transitioning into installing metal rooms. Even if you're installing other roofing products and just wanting to dip your toe into the metal roofing arena to see if it's something you're interested in. Again, I would encourage anybody to go check out the information that we offer up. And then again, you don't have to be a 100% metal roof only installer. We do have some installers, contractors that install a variety of materials. But we do ask that you'd be serious in your effort and diligent in the quality of install that you put on. And yeah, partner with MRA.

Heidi Ellsworth: Yeah. Well and I know where you're hearing about the demand and the material allocations that are going on across the country. So right now for contractors to be more diversified on is a good business strategy.

Renee Ramey: Yeah, absolutely.

Heidi Ellsworth: Well Good. Well, I think for all of our listeners out there, I just have to tell you, I've worked a lot with Renee and MRA over the last couple of years and it's just the quality kind of program that can really take your business to that next level. So I encourage you all to get involved, to go to the website metalroofing.com and see. Plus of course we have all the information on RoofersCoffeeShop. The MRA has a directory on there. We have all kinds of educational. They write great articles. So a lot of ways to educate yourself on metal and by getting involved and diversifying your business, you're only going to be helping yourself as we continue down this path of homeowners wanting more, more at home and more at the business. So, Renee, thank you so much for being here today. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Renee Ramey: Well, thank you. We always enjoy the opportunity and absolutely love partnering with RoofersCoffeeShop. Always a great time.

Heidi Ellsworth: It's always fun. And even though we won't be at MetalCon this year, we will be there next year. And we've got a lot of great stuff coming up in 2021. And I'm very happy that we can get all of your information right here on the CoffeeShop for everyone too. So thank you again. Thank you to all of our listeners. Please listen to all of our podcasts on the podcast Read Listen Watch section of RoofersCoffeeShop where you will find information about anything that has to do with roofing. So thank you so much for being here today and have a great day. Thank you.