Complicated, please read and think it over before going to work
Pros
They give you a work truck They don’t give you a hard time
Cons
They send you to a training class, and start sending you to knock on doors. After a short time you realize the trainer doesn’t even know what they are doing. The amount of hail damage you encounter is minuscule, therefore the guys who are good at this job are master persuaders. For weeks no one even explains what the damage is you’re looking for, just tell you to take pictures and explain it to the homeowners. They explain to you that any damaged roof is fair game, they make it seem like the insurance company is glad to pay out which is the furthest thing from the truth. I’ve seen houses with 30 blown off shingles get denied for replacement. Once you start signing contracts, you start going to meet insurance adjusters, who you very quickly realize aren’t buying your roof. Your management will explain that you need to know how to get a roof bought.. (aka pay them off) The company management is very good at covering its tracks with this. They tell you don’t lie, don’t do anything dirty. Though you’ll realize the guys making money are playing the game. There’s nothing wrong with that but I didn’t care to do it. The worst part about the actual job is having the use the joke of a program that is needed to sign your contracts and follow up on files. If you don’t look at a file for 3 days, the corporate office will be calling harassing you.. once you have a handful of files.. you’ll never keep up with all of them and be able to have time to continue selling.. and this is a problem (see later) You will drive around in a truck all day and beat on doors and hang flyers. You’ll get chewed out at least once a day. You’ll get the cops called on you. People will call you a scammer. You’ll bust it signing contracts.. playing the game.. but eventually you realize that one roof gets put on a day.. (could be different in other territories) Some roofs take more than one day. There’s one crew. There’s 5 sales reps fighting to get roofs bought. You have make roughly 100k in revenue to get ANY commissions paid to you that month. The average roof is 20k or less.. no matter what they tell you. There’s 20 days in perfect conditions to get roofs put on each month. More like 14 after rainy days, technical problems.. a lot of jobs take more than one day. You will need approx 5 roofs installed that month to get a commission.. give or take on the cost And there’s a line of jobs waiting to be done.. the work of 5 salesman signing contracts Now friend figure out logically how you’ll ever hit your commission threshold. Oh, and for the best part, you’ll see everyone you work with (including management) get fired left and right for no apparent reason. They’ll hire more folks, and you’ll watch them get fired too. Then they the jobs those salesman have had in their files.. and they make you go and meet with adjuster, talk to homeowner.. all for a job you’ll never see a dime from.. cutting into your precious time to make a sale.. You’ll sign ten or more contracts before you ever get a roof that the insurance company will purchase. Yet you’ll call these people every day until you get your second no from the insurance company. Wasting days and days on end for nothing. And here’s what happens then.. you’ll get one bought.. and then the next day you come in.. you’ll be fired for no apparent reason.. like all the rest you’ve witnessed. And then you’ll think.. that one job will cost 30,000.. the company has paid you total 2000 in salary.. perhaps 2000 in vehicle upkeep.. and they’ll pay their installers minimum payment to put it on.. end of the day they make 25k off of you.. and you don’t get a damned thing more than 500 a week for the many weeks you’ve been working 60 hours a week. Though I do know some guys that make it longer.. great salesman.. but they get burnt too. They’ll go months where they don’t get their commissions. Perhaps they signed 20 contracts that month, but they didn’t get installed, and it happens over and over again… till they’ve built a backlog of 20-30 jobs that are awaiting install.. then they fire them. Sometimes because of not keeping up with files.. sometimes for no particular reason. Roofclaim make a huge check while the salesman scrambles away with some tiny sum for the work they’ve done. It’s a genius business plan. I applaud the management for that. You cannot argue with the efficiency. Don’t waste your time there though.
