The Pricing Estimator That 2x'd Hoel Roofing's Sales Opportunities [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 143]

This transcript has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy. 

00:00:00:05 - 00:00:01:04

Adam Martin

being able to

00:00:01:07 - 00:00:04:03

Adam Martin

use this tool to answer that question.

00:00:04:06 - 00:00:10:21

Adam Martin

I mean, it was basically like somebody had just dropped a gold bar into our laps and said, here you go.

00:00:10:23 - 00:00:28:08

Bob Ruffolo

You're listening to the Endless Customers podcast, brought to you by the team at Impact. Ellis customers is the proven system to become the most known and trusted brand in your market. You want to start to learn the principles of endless customers and how you can implement them in your business. Pick up a copy of Endless Customers, the national bestseller.

00:00:28:08 - 00:00:50:01

Bob Ruffolo

Wherever books are sold. Ready to start implementing endless customers in your business? Talk to impact about how our coaching program can help you implement endless customers to success. And if you want experience endless customers in person, do not miss our upcoming conference! Endless Customers live in Chicago March 30th through April 1st, 2026. Registration is now open. And now onto the show.

00:00:50:01 - 00:00:51:16

Bob Ruffolo

Here's your host, Alex Winter.

00:00:51:22 - 00:01:01:12

Alex Winter

Whether we like it or not, buyers are trying to figure out cost long before they ever talk to your team. And when we don't give them those answers, they go somewhere else to find them.

00:01:01:15 - 00:01:10:19

Alex Winter

Today's episode is about what happens when you stop hiding from pricing and start answering the questions every single buyer already has. We're joined by Adam Martin.

00:01:10:19 - 00:01:20:23

Alex Winter

He's the media director at Hoel Roofing, to talk about a tool his team recently launched. It's an instant estimator that gives buyers real pricing insights before they ever pick up the phone.

00:01:21:04 - 00:01:41:10

Alex Winter

And early on, it's already changing the way people engage, how they qualify themselves and how they enter the sales process. In this conversation, we're going to break down why they built it, what it took to make the pricing work, what they're seeing so far from a results standpoint, and what this means for any business trying to build trust and move buyers forward.

00:01:41:11 - 00:01:43:14

Alex Winter

Adam, welcome to the show.

00:01:43:16 - 00:01:44:20

Adam Martin

Alex. It's great to be here.

00:01:44:20 - 00:02:03:19

Alex Winter

It is great to have you back. I'm wicked excited to be talking to you today because you've had a lot of great advancements and things that have been happening with your journey with endless customers, and I can't wait to dive into that and for everyone to hear all about it. But before we do, just in case people maybe missed your last episode, which if you if you have missed it, you got to go check it out.

00:02:03:19 - 00:02:09:06

Alex Winter

It's really great. Can you let people know who you are? And a little bit about Hoel Roofing?

00:02:09:08 - 00:02:29:07

Adam Martin

Yeah. So I'm Adam Martin, I am the media director here at Hoel Roofing Remodeling. We're based out of Rushville, Indiana. And if you have no idea where that is, that's fine. We are basically almost halfway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Give or take a little bit closer to the Indianapolis side. But, we do home remodeling.

00:02:29:07 - 00:02:45:04

Adam Martin

So, our bread and butter is the roofing, siding and gutters. We also do doors and, you know, windows and all that other stuff to interior remodeling. But, yeah, every day we're out there putting roofs on for for neighbors all around, within. You know that our ish from our office. So.

00:02:45:07 - 00:02:51:08

Alex Winter

Yeah. And you direct all the marketing and content that's coming out of Hoel Roofing, is that right? You run the team over there.

00:02:51:10 - 00:03:08:01

Adam Martin

I do any of the social media. You see, most of the ads that we run at least come through me. If not, you know, run through one of our, you know, partner agencies or whoever else. But, yeah, I am the head of marketing. Basically anything new aside from the content on the website, is written by, my partner Troy.

00:03:08:02 - 00:03:13:13

Adam Martin

You'll see. That is our content writer. You know, that impact help us define.

00:03:13:15 - 00:03:32:14

Alex Winter

Excellent, excellent. I love hearing that. Well, so let's kick things off. I have a question here, and I think this is a good one. Just to start the conversation for everybody, let's talk about your sales process a little bit. And what made you start to think about implementing an estimator? And when did you do it?

00:03:32:14 - 00:03:37:15

Alex Winter

What made the decision happen, and how has it been working out for you since implementation?

00:03:37:17 - 00:03:59:21

Adam Martin

So I'm going to age myself a little bit here. Alex. Yes. I'm only, you know, 28, you know, like that. But I have been here, not entirely always doing what I'm doing now as media director. But I've been here at Hoel Roofing for almost four and a half years now, give or take. This November will be five years for me.

00:03:59:23 - 00:04:17:05

Adam Martin

Back when I first got started with everything, we were just kind of, doing things, you know, doing everything the best that we could to reach, you know, the people that we knew, like, Bob and Emily really started everything when they started the business. Based off of word of mouth and referral. And that's done really, really well for us.

00:04:17:05 - 00:04:46:02

Adam Martin

You know, for the time that we ran for the first, you know, few years, because the business also has existed for going on. Is it nine? It's either 9 or 10 years this year, but it's one of the two, like, we've already beaten most other roofing companies, you know, for the survival rate for that. But for when I first got started with Hoel Roofing, really what we were running into is we were getting out into, you know, the local neighborhoods, we were getting out.

00:04:46:02 - 00:05:08:02

Adam Martin

We were reaching people that, you know, that word of mouth was doing really, really well. However, where we were really noticing that there was a fall off was when people would call in and, you know, have questions for us for, for the office for, you know, whoever was answering the phone, you know, that day, the question would be like, well, what's it going to cost?

00:05:08:05 - 00:05:27:19

Adam Martin

You know, and, our standard answer at that point was just, well, you know, I don't really do estimating, but I can have one of our sales guys come out and they can give you, you know, take a look at everything, give you an estimate. And and that was the best answer that we could give them. And with some people they were like, well, I don't know.

00:05:27:19 - 00:05:52:05

Adam Martin

I, I'm really not sure if it's what I want or you know, how soon I want to do it. So, thank you. But, you know, no, thank you. And, you know, we wouldn't get any information from them. They wouldn't turn into a lead. So really, the fact that we kept getting that over and over and over, continuing on, you know, through the last couple of years, people just kept saying, like.

00:05:52:07 - 00:06:05:02

Adam Martin

I don't know, I just I just want to know what it costs. I just want to know what it cost. It was like, okay, we need to answer that question directly to them. You know, if people are going to keep asking it, we need to answer that question. So, you know.

00:06:05:08 - 00:06:05:21

Alex Winter

Then you got.

Adam Martin

To.

00:06:06:16 - 00:06:22:00

Alex Winter

And just interject, good on you guys for for noticing. Right. Because when you it sounds like a problem, but it really is an opportunity because if you keep hearing that over and over and you're missing business because of it, that could be opportunities. You have to take note of it. You can't ostrich and bury your head in the sand.

00:06:22:00 - 00:06:31:20

Alex Winter

You got to go. All right. How do we fix this? Because we could. There could be a lot more business on the table. If we could just answer this question in a meaningful way, or at least meet people right where they are, build some trust.

00:06:31:22 - 00:06:46:23

Adam Martin

Well, and that question is one of the ones that scares especially people in our industry the most. You know, because it's like, okay, do we tell them what it costs? Or do we just say, well, here's what it'll cost you. You know, like.

00:06:47:01 - 00:07:04:10

Adam Martin

It's really it's that same thing that we've learned from working with you guys that impact, you know, the entire period that we've been working with you, it's just like if if what if we're if we're going to do what it takes to become the most known and trusted roofer in our area, you know, what does that look like for us?

00:07:04:12 - 00:07:35:15

Adam Martin

And so we really sat down and asked ourselves that question, right. It was right about the time that we were getting started, working with you guys, early last year, I want to say, and that was one of the the questions that came up so often that we were really wrestling with, you know, trying to figure out, you know, okay, how do we best set up so that we, we can answer that question for people, you know, and especially, you know, how do we do that so that people can just get the answer if they want it themselves?

00:07:35:15 - 00:08:02:13

Adam Martin

You know, that we don't necessarily even have to give it to them. And I believe it was actually at Impact Live in Chicago last year. I want to say it was February or March. It was it was early last year. I'll say that much. Marcus, I believe, came on stage and, did a presentation specifically about price guide, the price guide that I, you know, platform with everything.

00:08:02:15 - 00:08:03:04

Adam Martin

And

00:08:03:09 - 00:08:26:22

Adam Martin

I think there was a moment where, because it was myself, our sales manager, Chris. And Bob, you know, owner of the business who went to the Impact Live that day. And we were sitting at the table together as Marcus was talking about it. And, you know, we were taking our notes and everything. And in the break right after that talk, I'm pretty sure there was a moment where we all kind of looked at each other and went, we need this.

00:08:27:00 - 00:08:42:01

Adam Martin

being able to use this tool to answer that question. I mean, it was basically like somebody had just dropped a gold bar into our laps and said, here you go. You know, this will solve your problems. Just just take this, you know, and

00:08:42:03 - 00:08:48:20

Adam Martin

I'm not going to say it was the easiest thing to figure out because, you know, like I said, nobody likes talking about their pricing one way or the other.

00:08:48:22 - 00:09:13:08

Adam Martin

And it did take us a while to get it all figured out, but, for the first, maybe year, that we had it, we just had a simple, you know, like roofing estimator basically on it. I think it started as a metal roofing estimator, and then it turned into a shingle roofing estimator because of the number of people that were, you know, more interested in either or.

00:09:13:10 - 00:09:38:09

Adam Martin

But when we first put it on the website, we got a little bit of feedback on it, you know, and improved it a little bit. And then we changed it to the shingle estimator. And we got even more feedback on it. And it was good. But I know what you want to talk about now is the new and improved update that we just did, that we launched at the end of February, because that was an undertaking.

00:09:38:11 - 00:09:56:21

Alex Winter

Yeah. So. Well, listen, you're there is a sticker shock to your industry. Roofs are expensive. Anyone who is a homeowner, who has had to go through the process of roofing or fixing the roof on their house, it can it can be costly. But you also you also as a, as a consumer, have to be really careful with who you work with.

00:09:56:21 - 00:10:13:10

Alex Winter

Because if you're going to spend the money, sometimes people try to cut corners or save a buck. And in my experience is that doesn't usually save you money in the long run. If anything, it ends up hurting you, and you have to spend more money to fix the things that you thought you were saving on. So it's really important to build that awareness.

00:10:13:10 - 00:10:28:20

Alex Winter

And that's why a tool like an estimator, even though it might have been hard to implement or a little scary, it's so important and it's so critical to get people excited, or at least at least aware and knowledgeable of what they're getting into. And that's the best way to build trust, I think. So good on you guys for doing it.

00:10:28:20 - 00:10:41:04

Alex Winter

So tell me about this new iteration. You started out metal roofing turn into shingles. What happened in, in February and this new evolution of it? Yeah. I can't wait to hear the story. I'm excited.

00:10:41:06 - 00:11:04:07

Adam Martin

So, so one of the ways that the question evolved, you know, instead of just like, well, what's that going to cost me? We started seeing that question turn into more of a, like, what do you guys offer you, like, people work went from not being so sure of, like, what it would cost for their project to the question became more of like, what do you guys do this?

00:11:04:09 - 00:11:23:02

Adam Martin

And the more I looked at the price guide tool, the more that I was actually impressed, because it was set up so that all I had to do was, you know, rework it a little bit. But, if you look at our website now, Aurecon, if you want to check it out, you know, shameless plug right there.

00:11:23:04 - 00:11:53:13

Adam Martin

And you, you go to the instant est player, there's bright yellow buttons everywhere, you know, that, that say, get an instant estimate. You know, with all that, the very first thing that you'll see where the instant estimator is on the website is a layout that has I'm not going to say every single, service, you know, that we offer, but all of the major services that we offer, you'll see, you know, metal roofing, shingle roofing, siding, gutters, and I believe right now there's windows on it as well.

00:11:53:13 - 00:12:13:14

Adam Martin

Too soon there will be exterior doors on it as well, too. But we just got a new tool from pro VA that we haven't actually been able to dig into yet to get that pricing in correctly. So coming soon it will be updated. But you know, where before it was just, you know, if you had a shingle roof here, there's tools for you now.

00:12:13:16 - 00:12:39:11

Adam Martin

It's for anybody who comes to the website who's interested in any of our services here or what. You know, here's what we have to, you know, for you to to instantly get a range of this is what it will cost for my home based off just a little bit of information that you know about your home. So I have it set up so that you can select any or all of the, the services that we offer.

00:12:39:11 - 00:12:56:03

Adam Martin

So, you know, if you're interested in a shingle roof and a metal roof, you select both, it'll walk you through both parts and it'll give you an estimate for both, and it'll give you the total estimate of both of them together. Or if you're interested in, you know, you just want a shingle roof, but you also want new gutters.

00:12:56:05 - 00:13:22:06

Adam Martin

But you're also kind of interested in siding down the road. You can click all three and it will also give you, like I said, the individual pricing for each one of those and what it'll cost for the entire project all together as a range. And not only that, but within each of those tools to, for example, for gutters, because it's probably the clearest one for us, we only do one kind of gutters, six inch, gutters that we, you know, they're seamless.

00:13:22:10 - 00:13:41:20

Adam Martin

We run them out of a trailer, you know, to the length of the, the, the gutter run that needs done. So the only seams in the gutters are where, where the gutters have to turn, literally, or where the downspouts come out. Technically, but if you click on gutters, you tell us, you know, roughly how many linear feet of gutters you need.

00:13:41:20 - 00:14:00:04

Adam Martin

And that's really easy to figure out. You know, if you know, you know, the general dimensions of your house, you know, so your your house is a square and it's 30ft by 15ft. Your house is going to if you need gutters on all four sides of your house, your house is roughly going to need about what, 90ft of gutters because.

00:14:00:04 - 00:14:17:22

Adam Martin

15, 15, 30, 30. Yeah. So you would click on, you know, 90 linear feet or whichever one, you know, includes 90 linear feet for the ranges. And then you're going to be presented with the option of, okay, do you want gutter guards? And you can say yes or no to that. And if you say yes it'll add a little bit.

00:14:17:22 - 00:14:42:00

Adam Martin

You know, if you say no, it doesn't add anything at all, you know, and then it'll spit you out your, you know, your price and say, okay, you've said that you were interested in this and this and you didn't want that. Regards. So you can expect your price to be this, and it'll shoot you an email that has all of that and breaks it down and it tells you like, hey, if you have any other questions, you know, our office will reach out just to make sure that you know, all of your questions get answered or to set you up an appointment if you'd like to.

00:14:42:02 - 00:15:02:22

Adam Martin

And it's that easy, you know, you show up on the website, you fill out the form real quick. It'll ask for a little bit of your information just so that we can get Ahold of you, to answer those questions, and then boom, it's ready. And it's, it's available on the website for, like I said, shingle roofing, metal roofing, gutters, siding, windows, and soon to be doors, too.

00:15:03:00 - 00:15:21:04

Alex Winter

That's amazing. Yeah. It's amazing. You can get really granular and selective with it. And it sounds like you did exactly that. But I also think I've heard this before, where people shy away from estimators because they don't want to give the price and have people get the wrong impression, like, oh, it's not accurate, but it's called an estimator, it's an estimate.

00:15:21:04 - 00:15:35:01

Alex Winter

It doesn't mean it's going to be. That's going to be the exact out the door price is just trying to give people a range, trying to educate people. And you know, what's cool is when you click around in these estimators, you start to learn things. You start to go, oh, maybe I do want gutter guards. Oh, maybe I do need X amount of feet.

00:15:35:03 - 00:15:55:15

Alex Winter

Got like things that people would not normally think about that adds or takes away from the price and the overall cost of the project. It's a great way to get people excited about it, to build trust, to build, to educate them. I mean, it's just all around a really cool tune. It sounds like you keep, iterating and evolving this as you're getting feedback from people, which I think is also critical.

00:15:55:19 - 00:16:13:08

Alex Winter

What made you guys be open to feedback? I think that's an important piece that also, like sometimes it's not just a set it and forget it, like, hey, let's just put this estimator on the site and then we're good. You need to get feedback from people that are using it and and optimize it. So how did that play into how you're constantly iterating on it?

00:16:13:08 - 00:16:18:00

Alex Winter

And like what feedback have you gotten from from people so far?

00:16:18:02 - 00:16:54:01

Adam Martin

As a general rule, you know, if we hear something once you okay, that's sure. Probably somebody's opinion, you know, but especially with our sales team, you know, being out and talking to our neighbors, you know, all across these central Indiana every single day, you know, if they keep getting the same questions, the same comments, you know, the same this or that, you know, from multiple people over the course of you know, a couple of weeks, a couple of months, you know, over the course of an entire year, if we're not answering the questions that they're asking, we're just going to keep getting those questions from more and more and more people.

00:16:54:03 - 00:17:32:06

Adam Martin

So what we've done is basically just, we've implemented a meeting basically that happens between, myself and Troy. I'll see the other half of our marketing, and the entire sales team, at least once a month. We, we all sit down together, and it's a time for, you know, marketing to show the sales team like what we are doing to make their job easier, but also to get feedback from them, on those questions and the things that that they're running into as homeowners, you know, the pain points, the things that we can do to help make their job easier even further by answering the questions by, you know, further refining things that

00:17:32:06 - 00:17:42:14

Adam Martin

are going on, including with the instance estimator, including with, you know, the content that we're putting out just to make sure that our customers are getting the best information that we can give them, you know?

00:17:42:16 - 00:18:14:11

Alex Winter

Yeah, absolutely. No, I, I love hearing that. And you guys have really bought into the endless customer mission, which is to educate and build trust and become the most known and trusted brand in your space. And I feel like you live and breathe that throughout the whole organization. How has how has that played into so working with impact, having your coaches, how have they helped sort of shape this mentality and, and make sure that, like, you are living and breathing it every day and that you're applying it to the content you make to the estimators that you're putting out, like, how does that play into your day to day?

00:18:14:13 - 00:18:42:18

Adam Martin

I mean, honestly, it's just the mindset just constantly being in that, okay, how can we improve? How can we, you know, how can we be more known, more trusted? Brian Casey, our coach has from the beginning has just really closely worked with us to make us stay in that mindset, you know, to sit with it and to go, okay, this is good, but how can we be better?

00:18:42:22 - 00:18:44:21

Adam Martin

You know.

00:18:44:23 - 00:19:02:08

Alex Winter

Yeah. I love hearing that. Brian, shout out to Brian Casey. He's one of our, senior coaches here at impact. He's just a great all around guy. I'm curious now. And I have to do this. I want to know. So you've had a couple iterations of the estimator. The latest one was, within the last, within the last month or so.

00:19:02:10 - 00:19:15:06

Alex Winter

What results have you been seeing, since implementing this and and iterating on it, like, what can we can we get some numbers? I'm curious just to share with our viewers and listeners out there as far as the success you're having from implementing this.

00:19:15:07 - 00:19:40:11

Adam Martin

Yeah. So I mean, on a small scale and I mean, I can say smaller, you know, however, with it on a small scale, nine the last 90 days on our website. So you guys introduced us to the tool Microsoft Clarity. Shout out Microsoft to like, you know, whatever else with it. But it's just a fantastic tool to be able to see, like, truly what's going on with your website and how people are interacting with it.

00:19:40:13 - 00:20:08:22

Adam Martin

And according to clarity, in the last 90 days on our website, people have specifically viewed, you know, gone to clicked on that instant estimator before. It's like home page where you view the instant estimator itself. People have been on it 199 times just in the last 90 days. Basically this year, you know, in the last 60 days, the there's 146 of those sessions.

00:20:08:22 - 00:20:34:14

Adam Martin

So there were 53 sessions, give or take, in January ish in the last 25 days since the 27th, when we launched the new, the new estimator, there have been 93 sessions. So 53 in January, 15 three in February and 93 in March. Wow.

00:20:34:16 - 00:20:47:11

Alex Winter

Wow. That's a big jump. So once you made it, you had decent numbers going into it. But once you made the change, you basically doubled down on those numbers. So your your double in the last 30 days since you've made these updates to your estimator. Wow.

00:20:47:13 - 00:21:12:16

Adam Martin

Right. And like I said that's just traffic to the page where the instant estimator is is posted. You know where it's found on our website. That's not anything else. For all the impact that it's made to the rest of the website or, you know, to our social media or anything else, you know, with that too, just from a lead standpoint, because I know, you know, yes, roofing business owners, you know, whoever else out there like leads or what matter, right?

00:21:12:18 - 00:21:40:03

Adam Martin

Leads are how you get customers, whatever. In and this is specifically just saying website leads because we probably should separate out, you know, our instant estimator leads, you know, versus, you know, everything else. But we see the overall success, you know, from the website itself. In 2024, we had about 60, leads, and I say about 60 because we weren't the best at, you know, keeping track of everything back in 2024.

00:21:40:04 - 00:21:47:15

Adam Martin

And we also changed CRMs that year too. So the numbers are a little weird. Okay. But we had a we.

00:21:47:15 - 00:21:57:20

Alex Winter

Had a 60. We appreciate the candor. Now that's being honest. That's what this is all about. Right. So you had about 60 that you that you are aware of in 2024. Okay. And then 22.

00:21:57:20 - 00:22:26:00

Adam Martin

And that's website leads okay. In 2025 we had about 93. I can see 93 leads from the websites a little bit better, you know, in 2025, year to date. So literally from January 1st, 2026 to now, you know, not even the end of the first quarter of 2026, we are already at 48 leads generated directly from our website.

00:22:26:02 - 00:22:26:14

Alex Winter

That's amazing.

00:22:26:14 - 00:22:41:16

Adam Martin

And those are ones that are in any stage, you know, whether if they're just the lead that's come in, you know, that's in the CRM period, or if we, you know, we've scheduled an appointment with them, we've gone out and given them an estimate or we've done any sort of work with them with anything like that. They are in the CRM.

00:22:41:18 - 00:22:44:15

Adam Martin

You know, they have turned into something for the business.

00:22:44:15 - 00:23:02:10

Alex Winter

That is epic. Congratulations. That's that's huge. We're not even finished with Q1 yet. People, and you already know, are halfway halfway to where you were last year. And it's only Q1. That's that sounds like it's going to be an, a banner year for you guys. If you keep if you keep going the way it's going. That's incredible.

00:23:02:12 - 00:23:24:10

Adam Martin

Yeah. I mean, we we kind of had this conversation a little bit before we started rolling, but I'll, I'll say it again. I've had a goal, in, in all of my meetings with Bob. And, you know, as far as what we wanted to get to with our marketing and everything for the last couple of years, to really keep our sales team busy, you know, on their toes all the time.

00:23:24:15 - 00:23:49:08

Adam Martin

I had a goal of reaching 70 generated leads a week during peak season because we understand, you know, when it gets cold and everything, we're probably not going to hit that. But to average about 70 leads a week, you know, per week through the roofing season. And in the past years, you know, in a a few weeks out of the year, you know, we would get up to, you know, 80 or 90 or, you know, over 100 maybe.

00:23:49:08 - 00:24:11:15

Adam Martin

And that's if we got a big storm or, you know, some big something happened that would, you know, generate a lot of revenue for us, you know, a lot of leads, a lot of work, a lot of everything for us. And yeah, in in the past few years that might have happened. But in general, we've kind of fallen short of that goal of 70 leads a week.

00:24:11:17 - 00:24:34:22

Adam Martin

Average consistently. This year, we've had the last 3 or 4 weeks at least. We've been over 80 leads a week, like we were over 90 leads a week when I ran our report on, on Monday this week. So something's working one way or the other.

00:24:35:00 - 00:24:37:13

Alex Winter

I would say so, yeah, I would say so, yeah.

00:24:37:15 - 00:24:55:03

Adam Martin

Not only are the leads, you know, up and flowing, the guys are starting to complain a little bit about how busy they are, which is also a very good thing. But this is also about the earliest in the year that we've gone over $1 million in revenue. And it's not even the end of Q1, like we said.

00:24:55:18 - 00:25:11:11

Alex Winter

That's so no, that's amazing. Well, because you're not in peak season yet. So you want to your your goal that you had with your CEO Bob was, hey, let's let's get to 70. Let's get to 70 a week. And you're already exceeding that. And you haven't even hit the season that you were expecting to be in. So you're, well exceeding that.

00:25:11:11 - 00:25:29:06

Alex Winter

And that's that's just so exciting to hear. So I'm curious, you're, you're saying that there's almost so much work that the teams like, oh my gosh, we can't keep up with it, which is a great problem to have. How has the estimator and what you're implementing, how has that affected that like the sales side of it. So are the leads that are coming in.

00:25:29:06 - 00:25:40:14

Alex Winter

Are they more educated? Are they more qualified like you? Have you heard from the sales guys and sales team that like, hey, the conversations are just easy and I'm signing stuff like no problem. Like, is that is that true? Is that what's happening?

00:25:40:16 - 00:26:08:06

Adam Martin

I mean, it goes back to that original question, the reason why we even started, you know, thinking about what we could do with that led us to the estimator in the first place. People are searching, you know, asking the question of like, okay, so what is this actually going to cost me? They're finding that the answer on the instant estimate or on our website, you know, where they can get on, they can get a rough price and they can figure out, you know, that, hey, my project is going to cost me between this much and this much.

00:26:08:06 - 00:26:11:15

Adam Martin

You know, it's so long as I live, you know, here in Indiana, you know, because.

00:26:11:15 - 00:26:12:07

Alex Winter

Right.

00:26:12:09 - 00:26:31:11

Adam Martin

Our service area, that's what our pricing is based off of. And so really what that's turned into is more qualified leads for our sales team, you know, people that otherwise would have come to our website, not not know their questions answered. You know, and then called the office and gone, you know, hey, so what's this going to cost me?

00:26:31:11 - 00:26:45:06

Adam Martin

And then we go, well, we can have somebody come out and take a look, you know, and they can get you an estimate. And, you know, that's about the only good way we have to do that. You know, in the past that would have happened and they would have seen the estimate and done. Oh yeah, I'm not ready for that yet.

00:26:45:07 - 00:27:00:21

Speaker 2

Whereas now they, you know, can call into the office or, you know, get here. However they get here, you know, to find us, we can say, hey, we actually have a wonderful tool for this on our website, you know, and this isn't us pushing our website one way or the other. This is just us providing a tool to you.

00:27:00:23 - 00:27:18:00

Adam Martin

You know, if you would just take a few minutes of your time, go to this site, you know, go to our website, click the button that says Getting Insight estimate. You can get that idea. It means absolutely nothing to us. I know I've already talked to you. You know, with everything. Or if you have any more questions, you know, give us a call back, you know, with everything.

00:27:18:00 - 00:27:39:02

Adam Martin

But those people can go on the website, get an idea of what their project is going to be, and then go, okay, I'm more ready for that than I thought I was. Or maybe we need to save for, you know, for the next few months or, you know, something like that. Like, yes, we do get a lot of people that call in that's, you know, it's emergency, like, hey, we had shingles blow off and we need work done ASAP, you know?

00:27:39:03 - 00:27:57:05

Adam Martin

Right. But for those people, especially for those customers where it's like, yeah, we're we're really just, you know, we're getting ready to sell the house or, you know, we really just want something different or, you know, it's not really an emergency sort of situation for them. We've seen so many more situations where people are like, yeah, you know, we checked out your website.

00:27:57:05 - 00:28:35:22

Adam Martin

We learned quite a bit and we went, okay, let's do it. You know, so not only are the leads coming in, you know, more qualified, more prepared, more informed and more ready to work with us. But they've also already had several touches, you know, with us as a brand and as a company, too. And so even though we are still proponents of the like, especially if you're going to, you know, run your project through insurance or anything else like that, like, yes, you know, get multiple estimates, you know, understand what you're getting, you know, and go with the, you know, the contractor that you trust the most at the point where they're ready to choose

00:28:35:22 - 00:28:40:18

Adam Martin

the contractor they trust the most. I mean, are you going to go with the contractor that.

00:28:40:19 - 00:29:10:07

Adam Martin

Showed up, handed you a piece of paper that written in pencil or Sharpie, you know, says, you know, through Owens Corning shingle, $14,000 or are you going to go with the contractor that you called explained? You know why they do what they do, gave you a tool that allowed you to understand how much it was going to cost in the first place, sent out a, you know, one of their representatives who gave you an estimate like everybody else, but also explained to you why the rest of it was the way it was.

00:29:10:09 - 00:29:21:23

Adam Martin

Gave him an estimate that breaks down every single piece that we're going to use for your roof, and why it's important and what you know and how that plays into your estimate.

00:29:22:01 - 00:29:24:11

Adam Martin

Which one would you choose? You know, like.

00:29:24:13 - 00:29:25:03

Alex Winter

It's no, it's.

Adam Martin

It's why we've you.

00:29:26:03 - 00:29:27:12

Alex Winter

Know, it's a no brainer, right.

00:29:27:14 - 00:29:45:01

Adam Martin

That's that's why we've ended up doing what we, what we're doing and why we are where we are is because we, we took that chance to step out and answer the questions that people were asking and be honest about our pricing. You know, to tell people like, hey, this is what it costs. And here's why. Right.

00:29:45:03 - 00:30:01:07

Alex Winter

Not to mention all the other content in social and video and written and all the other things that you're doing as well to help build trust. And I think that's I think that's the silver lining here that people should take away, at least in my opinion, is that if you want to become the most known and trusted brand, you have to put yourself out there.

00:30:01:07 - 00:30:17:05

Alex Winter

You have to talk about pricing. You have to educate people because that's what they want. They're going to figure it out one way or another, and it better be from you and not from your competition. And when you do that, look at what happens. You get amazing results and it's only Q1. I can't wait to see how the rest of the year shapes up for you.

00:30:17:05 - 00:30:20:14

Alex Winter

Adam. That's just a back. So cool.

00:30:20:16 - 00:30:45:05

Adam Martin

I had, one of those cool moments the other day, too. Because, I, I was manning the office phone for a little bit while, both of our office girls were in another meeting, you know, out doing their own thing. And I got one call the entire time that I had the phone. And it was from a gentleman down in, like the Central Florida sort of area.

00:30:45:07 - 00:31:00:11

Adam Martin

And he called and, you know, when you see the number ring in and it says Florida, you know, as a, as an Indian, a roofer, it's like, okay, you know, what's this going to mean for us? It's probably another spam call, right? Pick up. Answer it anyway. You know, just like you know. Hi, this is Adam with full roofing.

00:31:00:11 - 00:31:29:01

Adam Martin

You know, what can I do for you? And he goes, so I was actually on your YouTube watching this video. Well, he actually started with his tanner available because Tanner was the, you know, the sales guy who was the subject matter expert for the video that he watched. Okay. Anyway, but he goes, I was on your YouTube watching this video, and, I just had questions because, you know, we're down here in Florida and I have a couple of estimates from, you know, from other roofers.

00:31:29:03 - 00:31:45:21

Adam Martin

And I just want to know if, like, Owens Corning or good shingles because I've seen, you know, that they've had a couple of, you know, like class action lawsuits and a couple other things. And like, I don't know, it just seems like you guys know a lot about it. And I just, you know, I just wanted to ask some, some questions if that's fine.

00:31:45:21 - 00:32:02:23

Adam Martin

And I was like, hold on just a minute. Muted it for a second. I went, oh my gosh. Is this really happening now. You know we heard people, you know from people from not even within our service area, you know, are seeing our content now. They're like yeah these people know what they're talking about. Call, you know, like, yeah, these people know.

00:32:02:23 - 00:32:23:17

Alex Winter

They're a completely different part of the country that can't really do business with you because they're not in your territory or exactly are still seeking out your, your, your honest advice and the knowledge that you have because of the content that you put out. Because frankly, it sounds like the people in their geographic region, they don't they don't trust them or they don't really have the information that they clearly need to have, which is crazy.

00:32:23:19 - 00:32:40:16

Adam Martin

Wow. Right. And I mean, the question he had was was Owens Corning versus Tampico. And I was honest with them, was just like, hey, most of our suppliers up here don't even really carry Tampico like we don't. We have this much in, you know, experience with it because it's just not up here. So I can't really tell you, you know, one way or the other with it.

00:32:40:22 - 00:32:56:22

Adam Martin

But like, here's what I can tell you about Owens Corning. You know, with our experience. And granted, like this is an art climate up here too, you know, but. Right. Yeah, it was just a really cool it was a cool interaction because it was like, no, this isn't going to turn into a lead unless this guy has rental properties up here or something, you know, with all that.

00:32:57:04 - 00:33:03:16

Adam Martin

But like at the same time, like just taking a few minutes, you know, just to answer those questions, to do that, like,

00:33:03:18 - 00:33:11:12

Adam Martin

if that's not who we are, you know, we're not here to to, you know, to help people, you know, why are we doing what we're doing? You know?

00:33:11:14 - 00:33:12:04

Alex Winter

Yes.

00:33:12:04 - 00:33:12:23

Adam Martin

Preach.

00:33:13:01 - 00:33:41:05

Alex Winter

I hope everyone out there that's listening and watching this and taking notes right now from Adam here, dropping some some truth bombs. Okay. Last question for you here. This has been an awesome conversation. I'm so happy to hear how everything's been been going for you and the team at Hoel Roofing. What would you say to people out there that are listening right now, watching right now, going like, I still don't know about pricing and if I should say anything or I don't know if I'm going to put an estimator on my website, what would you tell the folks out there right now?

00:33:41:07 - 00:34:16:08

Adam Martin

I think one of the hats that I wear here at home roofing is tech support. So when you know things with technology go awry, the TV stops working, you know, that sort of thing. I'm generally the one that pokes the buttons, you know, goes into the settings, fixes it, that sort of thing. Yes, I did build and design the, what will what we'll call the Comprehensive estimator tool that's on the website now, however, if you're on the fence about even just getting started, you know, about, you know, is a it's a should I even put an instant estimator on my website sort of thing?

00:34:16:10 - 00:34:42:11

Adam Martin

The answer is definitely yes. And can you. Definitely yes. So I mentioned the first iteration of our instant estimator, you know, was a roofing based one, you know, started with metal winter shingles. I didn't design that one. Our sales manager, Chris, did. He got in. And just because he knew roughly what we charge, you know what what makes sense price wise for us.

00:34:42:11 - 00:34:59:12

Adam Martin

You know had and he could figure out the numbers to put in you know for that to to get the ranges to where they made sense. You know, for people where, you know, people would do the estimator and then they call us and yes, that's still where we would fall, you know, if we came out and given, you know, or gave an estimate to them in person.

00:34:59:14 - 00:35:14:09

Adam Martin

Chris is not tech support for our company for a reason, and I love him dearly, like I love him dearly. He is a brother to me. And, he if you hear any chuckling, his office is through the wall behind me too, and he might be listening to me. Right. Okay.

00:35:14:11 - 00:35:16:10

Alex Winter

Feel like I've been talking smack about.

00:35:16:10 - 00:35:51:12

Adam Martin

Me, bro. I love Chris dearly, but if he could figure out how to, you know, design this estimator, not even put it up on the website, you know, just to design it, to put it together, you know, to make it work enough that it went on the website the first time. You can do it. I mean, anybody listening here, like, unless unless technology short circuits around you for no apparent reason, you yourself can figure out price guide dot AI and get an instant estimator up on your website.

00:35:51:12 - 00:35:59:20

Adam Martin

It is very easy. It is very intuitive, and it works with you to make sure that you have what you need.

00:35:59:22 - 00:36:21:22

Alex Winter

Yeah, yeah, that's really great advice and I, I agree. And I also think too that there's something, something else you said in there that really stuck out to me. I think a lot of people overthink it, I myself included, I'm a perfectionist. I want everything to be perfect. Putting an estimator out, even if it isn't perfect, is better than not having pricing on your website, and you can always iterate off of it and optimize it and make it better and get some feedback.

00:36:21:22 - 00:36:38:01

Alex Winter

But don't be an ostrich. Just don't stick your head in the sand. Just just go for it and see, see what happens. Because if you do, you might get some pretty incredible results. Like the team over at Hoel Roofing. So congratulations, Adam, and good on you for for all that you've been doing over there.

00:36:38:03 - 00:36:48:20

Adam Martin

Yeah. Thanks, Alex. Yeah. And like you said too, like legitimately, if you're not answering the questions, you know, that your customers are asking who is. Yeah, is.

00:36:49:02 - 00:36:49:21

Alex Winter

Probably your competition.

00:36:49:21 - 00:36:58:21

Adam Martin

If you're not answering. Yeah. If you're not answering the questions, your competition's probably trying to answer the questions. And if they trust your competition more than you.

00:36:58:23 - 00:37:17:07

Alex Winter

That's not a good look. Yeah. Well, Adam, great insights. Thank you so much for sharing this awesome story, sharing how everything has been going so far. It sounds like 2026 is going to be the best year ever for Hoel Roofing. And I couldn't be happier for you guys. So congrats again and thank you for being on the show.

00:37:17:07 - 00:37:18:18

Alex Winter

It's great to see you.

00:37:18:20 - 00:37:20:02

Adam Martin

Absolutely. It's been a good time.

00:37:20:06 - 00:37:32:21

Alex Winter

Awesome. We'll have to have you back on again soon, because I want to keep checking in with you and seeing how your journey goes with endless customers. But for now, this is our show for everybody there watching and listening. This is endless customers. I'm your host, Alex Winter, and we will see you on the next episode.