This week the guys discuss building and maintaining a reputation to last.

Create your FREE Installer profile at https://gocarrera.com and become part of the future of the industry TODAY!

GET TRAINED! Find a list of training dates here: https://gocarrera.com/resources/training/

The HUDDLE is where the flooring industry can get together and talk about everything! Lead by Paul Stuart from Go Carerra who is joined by Daniel and Jose Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring.

https://www.preferredflooringmi.com

https://www.stuartandassociates.com

what's up my flooring people

welcome to the huddle we come at you every Tuesday at three o'clock P.M

Central sorry I'm over here stuttering uh but we bring you uh thoughts and

ideas on how to maintain forward progress in your flooring career with me as always Daniel and Jose

Gonzalez from Rapids Michigan preferred flooring

guys are uh as as usual Daniel's in the office and Jose is out on the road

so it's it's uh it's proof of their

their um their dedication to the customer and and somewhat of what we're talking about

today about maintaining or building uh quality reputation in the flooring

industry and this really goes across any specialty contractor but um anyway if

you are joining us on any of the socials or on YouTube please consider giving us

comments some likes and subscribes uh I appreciate everybody's comments on

Facebook and and Views and everything preferred floorings uh Facebook page got

blown up last week it was pretty awesome so uh we appreciate all the comments and

and questions so that being said today what do you guys

think is uh building a reputation important I don't think we were we'd be where we

at with where we're at now without building a reputation yeah I mean

it doesn't just apply to business right you got to think about the reputation you have as a student as an employee

um as an athlete like you know every relationship is is based off of a

reputation or the promise of a good reputation so

well I love that you brought that up because it segues right into when you're an installer and when you uh if you're

regardless but particularly uh remember as as companies as people as installers

as as as as um whether you're a foreign contractor or foreign company but installers in

particular remember your online reputation and your reputation so what

you're on Facebook doing and all these things remember that is your business so

getting on uh you know Facebook and and just got to be cognizant of what you put

on social media people will judge you from that uh it may not even be a good depiction of who you are or what you're

capable of doing or or the person you are but you really want to be uh very

cognizant of the fact that what is going on these screens people find later and it may not shine a

great light on you and harm your reputation um I've seen a lot of that in the

installation community and um you know if you come off

on on social as a complainer constantly well

it's very possible that a potential uh partner in in business is going to see

that and uh judge you accordingly to that without knowing you really so just

a cautionary tell I know it's happened I know that when we hire people uh and

even when we hire subcontractors or partner with subcontractors you know we

utilize go career to to do that on the subs but we check social media and all

that too we want to know what kind of people we're dealing with and um so keep

that in mind when you're online what about when you're dealing with your clients and you you know run across let

me ask you let me actually pose it as a question when you guys run across you know

complicated or difficult scenarios with your with a customer on a project

is reputation on the front of your mind top of mind when you're dealing with

them for me the answer is

not always it all depends on the scenario

my first priority is to make sure that I'm doing my best to solve a problem

remember well that I can't solve anything um no I was just going to say that that

plays into your reputation as I see you guys as problem solvers

yeah yeah and that's that's where I think that that's my that is my

priority all the time is make sure that I'm doing my best to solve um

problems and issues or to be proactive and making sure that we're preventing

any future issues and NASA and that does create

uh I guess it does create that in a sense but that's always the first I never worry about like oh I I hope that

they think I'm professional I hope that they think uh that we did a good job it's just

I'm going to be professional and I'm going to do the best job I can and if that is going to

in return build a reputation then that reputation is organic off of workmanship

off of Pride off of uh just everything that we put into it

that I put into it um that that's called authenticity

I mean you get your reputation from being you really are and doing it all the time

it's hard to maintain that phony reputation it's pretty easy it's just the hardest a genuine reputation if you

if you try yes yes that's the hardest

I've seen people try it though I've seen people do it they're always somebody different in front of me than they are

in front of their client and uh or or other inconsistent in general there's uh

someone that we just met for the first time like what two years ago that said that they're the ones that taught us how

to do flooring yeah stuff like that laughable that's

laughable but you know we have this concept at the company at the flooring

company that is um we kind of weigh

we call it the skills of justice but there's three scales and it's reputation

relationships and money and you can't give up

none of the scales can tip all the way down and just crash and burn

um you know so sometimes you got to give up a little bit of money to to maintain

a relationship or a rep your reputation as as a as a business

um that's just you know we we I preach that a lot in our so does our rco that

hey guys money is important that's why we're all in this but at the same time it's part of the the

equation when you're trying to maintain a relationship with a client or maintain

your reputation in the market I actually just ran into the scenario

with our buddy Bob for their life he got put between a

rock and a hard spot on a project and trying to chase money and I just said

look we'll figure it out it'll come out in the wash one way or another let's just figure it out so I changed

the the way we were going to build it because we were fine financially with

that and then it ended up not being as much as he anticipated right because I changed the

format which we were building it and and uh then you know the next day he's

like you know what just build the whole thing we'll just take care and I I was like are you sure like I you

need to make money too dude like I want to make sure that you guys are making money right we'll figure it out like we

have a good working relationship I know that over the next 12 months six months 18 months we'll get it figured out and

it'll all come back I'm not worried about it he was like no let's just do it all right

okay with it it's interesting I've heard you say that you and Daniel uh say stuff like that

where you've built that relationship with somebody and you got the reputation with

them that that um you know it'll you'll treat them fair and and it'll work out in the end and uh

that you want them to make money that's the piece that I I hear you you care

about your client your customer and making money as well yeah yeah you you it's um

they're not in the position to hire us to make money right right that's what

business is all about is making money so that's where Partnerships come in right we're part of the team this is a

partnership we're dancing we're dancing sometimes we take the lead sometimes they take the lead sometimes

somebody that we don't know takes a lead and we just follow it it's just a big dance as long as at the end of at the

end of the shindig we're all happy we can all sit back and and laugh about that that journey and joke around then

then we're winning we won so when do you do does your relay does

your reputation uh I mean it brings you work I know that for a fact so does it

bring you the high quality work you guys desire I mean does it does it help in that manner as well

I think your reputation like um I've been

lately a couple you know measures and you go over there and they're like

automatically attracted to like you said you were saying earlier your online presence I've seen that you guys have

done this and I've seen that you guys have done that and uh you wouldn't be doing that kind of stuff if you didn't

care about what you you're doing so that that's why I'm calling you it's not

it's them looking at your reputation being like I want them because I've seen what they

have done already yeah it's almost like um not necessarily

A gimme per se but it definitely helps out when you don't have to work as hard

to earn some business yeah well and it's it's rewarding to have

people call you and want you to work to do their job I mean that's a good feeling when you're

not just bidding it have to be the low guy and you're just one of many it's nice when they call you and they want

they really want you to do the project that's a good feeling and it is that's a huge compliment

that's a huge compliment for for the efforts and the time and the the the

frustration that that you put into it into you to your work is um to be

reckoned it's recognition is really what it is Everyone likes to do yeah and it's it's

hard it's the feeling right it's a feeling of where

the work and the effort and everything you just put into that for the last couple years or the last 10 years

whatever has just been justified by by in that one moment um yeah and I think it's like

um it's rewarding but

it's also more enjoyable to work with those kind of clients for the most I

know we're in this for money but it's also if if I have to give up a little bit of money and if I have the choice to

say I can make more money but be miserable or make it a little less money and be and have some enjoyable work uh

you know not every project is that way uh you're getting some Bond Runners we're in a few right now you know it's

summer we got school work everywhere and craziness going and when when I first

started talking to Daniel I was like hey man what's going on here what's up with you he's like I'm just busy you know I

mean Daniel is busy right now in the office he's kicking out a lot of a lot of stuff he's got a lot of stuff this is

this is PG-13 you can say oh okay but yeah he's getting he's getting a lot

of stuff done there I'm actually in the field this week and trying to find balance she just uh you know a little bit short stats have a pattern match

project come up and I busted out the knee pads and the pouch and got to it I

don't mind it I know why don't we get sore but I don't mind it why'd you do

that why because because we have deadlines and the

clients uh are really counting on us to get this done and the amount of time that they have for the project they

moved everything out you know that they scheduled this was scheduled uh weeks ago and just because my schedule changed

doesn't mean that they're scheduled to change right like your schedule is very important though which means it's very

important to me so sometimes when sometimes when you get thrown a

curveball man you just gotta readjust keep that weight back and sit on it a little bit longer and sit that bad out

and hope for the best we're gonna have to change this podcast to the diamond [Laughter]

that's just really it man you know I I saw the other day about something similar to that

um and it's just in relation to life uh going up to that you got to go up to bat

and you gotta be wearing the swing in order to get some results uh and and that's really what this is

hey this is what it's going to take to make sure that we stay on schedule on task and that the client is is happy

we're not putting them in a bad spot so when you care about the right things they have other

they have sorry you you uh you're you're breaking up a little bit so I jumped in when you broke up sorry but uh

it sounds like to me when you care about the right things you build a reputation around those things so you're you're

probably known for getting your work on time getting getting work done on time for the most part none of us are 100 on that

this is Construction but getting your work done on time doing quality work and being well uh educated

on flooring systems that's the reputation I see you guys have well not only that and I tell people all

the time because inevitably there's going to be an issue right so once that

issue pops up how do you go about resolving and we hear stories all the time about you know we had this issue

and this person just never called us back it's not just like you know we also

deal with some sales people where it's like as soon as the sale's done their their hands off with it and it's

like it's all about how can you take something that doesn't go right and

still communicate like you're trying to earn their business hey sorry it has happened I'll be out there tomorrow and

shifting things around because that's what has to happen in order to keep people happy

yeah well I mean we you guys and I we probably buy from the Reps that have

the reputation and return your call or answering your call right I mean those they have our reps

have a reputation and we're gonna use the ones that fit our business the best

which is timely response they actually care about the problems we're going through as contractors and want to help

help us solve it you know those are uh reputation items for the sales reps that

you probably want to deal with the ones who who uh take care of you that way right and you know some of the Reps that

do come in here and they're like hey why don't you have this on the shelf and it's like this is the first time I've

ever even met you yeah we just we just had that we just had

that happen and we were having this like literally just guys just threw all the books away because we weren't getting

anywhere now there was a couple like issues that we didn't know about that weren't you know public right but at the

same time it's a new rep and we've known her for uh from uh another distributor

and we're just gonna build on that relationship and she's been very spot on

since uh coming into the office well that shows you I mean it's not that's why reputation is not I mean this is a

business concept I I say that a lot in this podcast because we taught Concepts that are transcending Flooring by far

your reputation will impact your business almost as much

as anything else in my opinion you can have aggressive because why do you get

better why do you get why are you able to be low and still make money right on

if you're bidding jobs well we're able to do that because we can get some you know we work really

hard with our vendors and the vendors we deal with like us and that's because of the reputation that they that is is it's

not just the relationship those those people have the reputation we have the reputation of getting the work so they

know they have to give us good pricing or they lose the opportunity uh and in

this day and age of value engineering everything I mean a spec is not set in

stone but there we have their reputation of not switching people out unless absolutely 100 necessary I don't I don't

try to gain a competitive advantage that often if somebody's worked really hard for respect and this is just the way we

approach it I know I'm not saying it's the only way but if somebody else worked

really hard for um for that spec we don't just go in and

switch them out as long as we feel like we're being taken care of you know so that's all like your reputation of doing

that they feel comfortable going you know going going in hard with you on that job you

know on that on those projects so I yeah I mean I just

um talk to a church earlier today where we

I mean technically it's not signed yet but they pretty much gave us a verbal that we're the one that's going to be

doing the work and that is 100 because the communication between us and our rep

and having that and knowing because he was like Hey this other company is

asking for numbers now here's a price break and that's all it takes yeah I'll give

you another example so we're dealing with a project nice sized project and and there's a

particular product I'm not going to mention anything any of the products on about on in this uh short story but

um there's a product on there that the people that I gotta dance around this a little bit

because we're right in the middle of this but uh there's some people uh a

specific product specified and we have the contract for all the other flooring

and because the uh that particular product we couldn't get pricing on and

and then they verbalized a ridiculous price to us uh we just excluded it well

we got awarded the contract for everything else and they never got a price for that other floor

so long story short this company uh sells makes and

and installs their product and uh it's not a well-known company

either but at the end of the day my contractor called me and said hey

they need to contract under you I don't want to deal with anybody else than you have them send you the bid and then you

fold it all fold it into your contract that's that's a relationship

just making sure you're taking care of it that's awesome you know what I mean I don't like I don't like this I don't

like the way this is going yeah so if you got a good uh reputation and relationship with people we've got a

good reputation I mean those types of things happen that other company doesn't have a reputation around here anyway and

so he's like I don't know them I know you and I'd rather fold their contract

under you so anyway those are just some examples

and I know that you know you can get real nitty-gritty on having a good reputation but I would say doing doing

the basics being actually caring about the quality like

you guys have said many times on this podcast Karen about your your clients profit and

that they make money you know and caring about keeping yourself informed and

educated and trained on the flooring systems that are out there that reputation will get that if you went

reputation is really important that sub stack of reputation where you are the industry expert and I I look at you guys

as the industry experts on many things especially as it comes into resilient flooring so you get that reputation and

business comes to you and I I would implore all

um installers that's why we we promote and evangelize training and education

one that you become the expert and you will be sought after yeah and that's happened a lot like um

you know thank you to all of our peers out there right when when even when we were employees of other companies they

would say that's a Jose jobber that's a Daniel job or let's get let's get the Gonzalez Brothers on there or and after

we started prefer to you know a long time ago now uh same thing is hey you

guys I got a project that came across my books and I don't see anybody else being able to do it but you guys are you

interested of course we are we're not interested because you you know I

don't want to say fluffed our feathers with that a little bit right but we're interested because we know it's a

challenging job we don't fear from challenges like that and we also want to make sure that it's

right for you and your client even if it's not a direct sale for us we still want to make sure it's right in the end

um and we pride ourselves on being able to make sure that that happens yeah we ended up

with a project that and this is years ago and I I just love this project right because of the way it happened is

got a phone call and said hey I really I have a problem I have nobody to do this install and what's let me send me a

drawing I was like whoa look at this look at all these shapes and others and exploding

oval and lvt and and it was all handcuffed nothing was

what was uh was cut at the factory water jet or laser cup and

he said we asked three other installers and everybody said that it was impossible

um that was like that was like a big carrot in front of

you you're absolutely right it was and they gave us the numbers and me and Daniel

looked at the numbers and it was like man that's not even close to enough and then

I just told Daniel I said you know what I don't care let's just do it right

it's impossible let's just do it and we did it we got it done and one of

the one of the guys was uh who said it couldn't be done was as a good friend of ours and he was just like I can't

believe you guys got that done how'd you do it right there is an example where they've

given up a little bit of money for for reputation

I just thought it'd make a great a great profile picture foreign

it's one of them Feathering the cat projects

you know what I loved it and looked great I was happy about I was excited

about it when I went when I was done with the the the layout I was excited

about it when my sister was cutting it in I was excited about it when Daniel was cutting it in there was everything

about it it was just it was an exciting project to be a part of what do you guys um get

I'll give you an example uh do you get projects let me finish the

question then I'll give you an example do you get projects that match your

your reputation from a standpoint of your capability whether size a project

or like what you just stated specifically you know difficult projects

uh because you know there's guys that are known for being

able to solve all these problems and do all this stuff but then they're they're stuck in that world of only

like doing the hardest work all the time

example if if uh if I can make this uh come around and make some sense but I

got a um I interviewed we interviewed as a

company this morning for a oh it's probably a 1.4 million dollar flooring

job big job and we had to give

um examples of projects that we've done of that size well we have a reputation

in doing the large projects we do the casinos we do the new hospitals we do the Arenas we do those jobs and that's

why they reached out to us in the first place and now they just want to one um you know uh references sorry I was

escaping me at the moment they wanted some references so we we sent them references and looks like you know it's

just one one other company that's interviewing for this job and we feel pretty doggone

um confident confident we're going to get that that

project we're excited and confident at the same time so so yeah I think we've been on

on that before where it's like uh especially when we were labor only where it's like we're getting these jobs because that's

what we do we do the hard stuff and then sometimes it's like hey guys you know we do carpet tile too right like don't

forget that yeah also do Carver tile yeah that's those are real conversations

like hey we're like we don't mind like we like doing it right where it's helping us become better and and

hindsight thank you for all of that everybody thank you um but we do like we do like easy days

too right we don't yeah and it's just like

and then you just you you appreciate the um I don't want to call them no-brainer

jobs right because it's some people close to them some people don't but

the ones that are just super easy on the body I would say um we do appreciate those ones as well

yeah and then at the same time you know sometimes we're we do get these

jobs were that are super easy and it's like repetitive stuff and it's like man

I just wish I would have something that would challenge me you know at some point yeah I had an installer uh one of our guys he

was on a he doesn't like going out of town he's one of our employee installers doesn't like going out of town although

we have to have him go out of town occasionally uh he doesn't like

um you know he is an expert I mean he's really really good his name's Norby and

he is one of the best resilient installers I know he you know we put him on all this hard

work all the time but there was a project and he also does tile

um but we six by six wall tile all white like

huge game bathrooms on the Air Force base after three weeks and it was right here in town he was like Hey can you put

me on something else for just a little while I am going brain dead working on this thing it's so it's like stacking

white wall tile for eight hours a day you know five six days a week you put me

on something that challenges me I mean he literally wanted something that would give him some creative I think that's

wanting to you know exercise that creative muscled that really good installers have

you gotta you're absolutely right use your brain sometimes right because if you're not engaging it you start losing

stuff and it's like stacking stacking that time just not

doing it yeah I will say this I will say this if if you like to go to

work every day on on a construction site and do the same carpet like just use

carpet tile you want to do carpet out every single day the same stuff and and don't challenge

yourself that to me in my mind and this is just my opinion guys it's no different than working in a factory

right like you're not challenging yourself you're not doing anything you you are doing the same repetition every

day but my ADHD doesn't allow me to do that so

again I need to be there here I need to do this I need to do that oh what's this new thing over there squirrel that's how

I like I just well I think that's kind of the the the way really good

installers are dude I mean for the most part you're gonna get bored if if you're

doing carpet taller even broadly back in the day we didn't have a ton of carpet towel

um when I was really installing daily and you know you get on a big old high

school with a level you know double cut level Loop or something or even if it's straight okay even just a road cut

there's no challenge whatsoever no pattern match three 34 foot drops in a

room you know and you just laying them out yeah you're getting five six hundred yards down a day but

eventually you want something that's like you know I just got off that job that had all those ovals and all that

stuff on it where you you got some uh satisfaction out of the after the

installation at the end of it you stood back it's one of my favorite things even for my cruise that I didn't you

know actually touch and install myself it's like standing back and seeing with

a finished product that's one of the rewarding things that I love about flooring

so I agree with you you gotta challenge yourself you said stand back and I remember

Daniel bringing uh uh where it wasn't it called Daniel your little drones draw the blank drone to

projects and buying them up there to get a bird's eye view of a lot of these uh

projects that we were doing on a large scale and or trying to add people can we

use your lift can we we just need to get 30 feet up there so we could take a picture and appreciate everything that

we're doing right because it looks good on the print but when you're on ground level and you don't see everything yeah

you're right man just uh the feeling of satisfaction when you're complete I'm proud of it it's definitely

different when you're on site than what a set of drawing to show you yeah it's kind of speaks to the talent

of designers to be able to put stuff on paper that ends up looking so pretty when it's all you know good designers so

shout out to the commercial designers out there well this is uh this might be the first

we're actually you know kind of coming up at the uh Midway point where at the Midway point of the of the podcast

um just wanted to talk about a few things coming up

we kind of discussed it beforehand but here in the future uh if you guys are

watching this if you'll comment whether or not the you think this will be valuable we're considering doing like a

series on uh being a Commercial contractor in the AI AIA uh pay

applications Lane releases certified payroll that kind of stuff that goes

into be doing what we do um so if you're a residential company looking to get into commercial we can

and and you uh you'd really be interested in that kind of data it's really two different worlds

from a billing standpoint and collecting money and all that and we'd like to put on a three or four

part series about being a commercial material and labor supplier like even if

even if they're not trying to come from residential and they're already commercial it's a totally different world when you start

you know bidding and having to do all the billing and stuff yourself because you know like we talked about earlier

before this started it's like what do you mean I just invoice you no it has Beyond a pay application and then

you know you got to get it notarized and it's it's a whole deal that if if you

don't know what you're doing you can really mess yourself up yeah where you can just say I I've done

that like send in that uh invoice early on they're like this has to be on the

pay application g702 and g703 I'm like what the hell is that I just sent you an

invoice that's when I first got into business and started doing I was commercial installer but I didn't have

any idea about you know how you go about the the actual procedures are getting

paid with uh you know commercial projects specifically when there's General Contractors and architects

involved so we're considering uh I'd love to do that if it's valuable to the

audience you know comment somewhere oh yeah Eduardo actually asked uh if he's

still able to join via Zoom so he should be getting the emails to be able to join via Zoom because that

would actually be really beneficial to actually have someone that kind of doesn't know what's going on so that way

when we're talking about it they can ask questions and stuff like that yeah join us here I mean we love having

conversations that we we've done it a lot you can join the podcast and ask

questions during it and we we answer them right during the podcast so if that's a valuable one we'll get it on

the books and we'll get you uh you know join us live it's fun to have people on

here it's also great when we have guests and we'll have some guests on that

series uh actual General Contractors come on and talk about their perspective of it

um like that you know but join us live it's it's a it's a hoot and it's fun and

uh we we love the interaction

what'd you say give me someone else to pick out I mean yeah yeah

gotta have fun guys any any closing uh thoughts on uh

techniques on building reputation

I'll start doing doing the doing the good work

I would just say consistency just whatever you're

consistent at is going to be a reflection of you and your business stay consistent right and if something's out

of the ordinary which is going to force you out of your comfort zone and out of that that consistency that you're trying

to create don't be afraid to say I can't I don't

know I know a guy or I'll find out um because that will spin off and and

help you um create that and also like your

reputation you guys like your reputation is inadvertently creating your brand like that is that is

you that's how people are going to remember you how they're going to see you and once you have a recognizable

brand that brand is going to be associated with your reputation right off the bat and vice versa I would say

just understand that just consistent just be consistent yeah it sounds like what you're

consistent what you consistently do is kind of ends up being your reputation

right and Rollin says right here always being straightforward and honest

and yeah that's that's us too right because I'm never gonna go into somewhere and try and sell them

something that I know isn't going to work yeah yeah considering you guys have mentioned

that multiple times about like how much you care about the client getting the right floor for the right condition and

not just getting a cell yeah it's not about the sale

yeah it is kind of it is but it isn't right I would rather not sell them

something that I know is going to fail though and that's part of our reputation is knowing that if they call us we're

not gonna just sell them anything throw it in and then be like oh that's what you wanted so that's what I put in it's

like take a step back hey these are the options because if we go with this

product this is the potential that can happen yeah so I just got through uh Huron the

designers but have you ever ticked a designer off because you called that out

and you're like it's not gonna work in that condition and yeah

I want to say no I want to say no the fact of the matter is

is that early on I I was a little too blunt right I was a

little too honest I I there was a zero thought process

behind my thought and my verbalization of my God no filter no pause if there was

someone took my filter and poked holes in it and he just ran through and um

I was young I will say that I was young and I was trying to build uh I don't want to say a reputation right but I was

trying to I was trying to build a reputation right I wanted to be the guy that someone called when they needed

they needed it done right I wanted to make sure that I was that guy when they needed someone to be honest I wanted to

be that guy and man was I going about it the wrong way they have come off

I may have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way in the beginning

but later on that their misunderstanding of what I

was trying to do and my misunderstanding of how to approach that turned into

great relationships and um they do call and say hey what do you

think about this or what about the I have business failing here do you know why well

why did you install it there knowing that this about the product well you know what nobody told me that

right

there's plenty of instance

sorry about that there's plenty of instances where the wrong product I put in the area because somebody wanted to

make a sale and frankly I see that on the Facebook groups where like you know installers or Dr will drag a you know

talk about that with the uh sales people just selling stuff that has no right being installed in this area and uh you

know I I feel for those guys because at the end of the day it's like it's your stuff you're putting

in and some I see this more in residential than commercial where it's

like the wrong product in the in at the wrong product application and the uh

you can't say nothing about it or something like yeah I can't go to the homeowner and say

it when the shop sold it you know they won't work for that shop no more you

know so I feel for those guys but maybe talk to the shop I know that's

what it is right it's going back to communication communication is a huge part of everything because even hold

ahead right here he said designers are cool with his decisions most time but he always gives the option and that's what

you you got to do it's like this is

you you don't go to the homeowner and say hey we shouldn't do this you go to the

designer or the sales person to say hey guys this is probably not the best idea and always present that solution this is

what I would do and this is why you know because a lot of the times they're in

that position where they don't know because they've never they're not in the field they don't know

the applications right so it's also educating them so that way in the future maybe they don't make that same choice

what you don't know and you're always going to have the guys that just go for the sale but hopefully

good quality salesmen will learn the lessons that they've you know from the dings when they put the wrong product in

and man if you're a Salesman listen to this please listen to your installers if they're a good installer listen to them

uh you know installers are us right here on this

call we're in we insult we still do sometimes and we know

open your ears and uh you know help the installer out Eduardo he joined us had

his hand raised what's up Eduardo what's up I don't know if you guys can hear me but uh yeah

great communication and the other day I had I heard this summer but it's the hard conversations

like I sat down with my the boss or the president or company and I told him like you know it's my job to sometimes point

out what's wrong and I might piss you off but that's my job like and you know he said he appreciated it because and we

all hold each other accountable and little by little these hard conversations are getting a lot easier but I know we're going to make each

other mad so that's it nice it's always the hard conversations are

the ones that need to be had the most though yes it is it is and and sometimes when

you when you get a when you gotta approach an owner or someone like that you know who's very much involved they

just might not know because no one else wants to bring it to their attention and the same thing with the sales person right like salesperson's got a lot of

installers working for them and nobody said anything they just do it because they're afraid of losing a

potential chance of doing more installs for that person right we're not trying to undermine anyone we just want it to

be the most successful install for not only the the client but the sales person

too um and I think you know I think uh a little plug for CFI here but I think and

uh and also fcic but I think they're on to it when there's education uh classes for our sales teams

so that way they they can get a little bit of a hands-on experience and they can understand some of what the

installers get out of face right but that's another thing too

protect all last week that guy he was talking about you know they have their their more geared towards sales people

too to help out you kept on calling Jerry Jeff I don't I twice guys come on

it was but it was I know you're hilarious the second time you guys hey the audience doesn't get to

see all the the uh shrapnel I take from that in the text messages later thank you

Jose for the the the the uh the the reminder

I'm so sorry dude I just I like to laugh man I just find that stuff the beauty of

it is uh you know it's just like my uh slip up when I was

Rick James in it it happens and it's a beauty of doing live podcasts I believe

someone is saying to me vulnerable and be who we are so yeah but um let's get back to the CFI

and the Hands-On um sales sales teams don't don't be afraid to ask questions like you know

ask your installers hey how are the jobs going can I do anything different is there anything that I need to work on to

to be better for you to make it easier for you because I'll tell you what I don't like working for the people who

make it hard every time where I got to go back and babysit their job I'll be honest man like uh we're bumping heads

and bumping heads pretty soon I'm going to start charging someone for it or I'm gonna have a sit down with their boss and say listen

I'm doing your guy's job and I don't appreciate it I don't get paid for it start sharing those margins or make some

corrections yeah yeah you know uh to that point

I think installers love it when you go up to them and I know ours do when you go up to them like if it's a newer

product even if it's just a different LBT a different manufacturer and you go hey man how is that lvt delay was it

nice and square or was it they want to tell you whether it was

good or and and uh you want to know that as a as the salesperson you want to

know it wasn't good the new product maybe it was really tough to install

good installers don't gripe around about stuff they just get it figured out and get it done uh but ask those questions

that's a good point ask them how was that product to install know that if you're a retailer and you brought in a

new type of SBC or something you know a new laminate or a new uh uh floating lvt

ask your installer what you know how'd that go together for you you know you you'd be surprised what you'll find out

and you can learn some stuff so right Kevin says it would be nice sales people

in the industry had some type of installation background or training and I'll go back to protect on Jerry because

they every time I see one of their trainings there's a sales person in there doing everything that the

installers are doing just to see what it's like because you when some of these

people are bidding stuff that they don't know right they just think that it everything goes in the same and they don't understand that there's

so much you know technique and and stuff behind some of

these products that it's it's not all the same yeah

all right guys well we're gonna wrap it up closing thoughts I will say that

remember that your online reputation plays into your actual reputation and just be cognizant of that and what you

post online and how you interact with other individuals whether it's in Facebook groups or or you know

um on your live feed or whatever I mean people read stuff and uh so just be

careful there remember that you are like uh Jose said earlier you are you end up

being your company's brand in a lot of ways uh especially as the owner but even

as you know a lead installer for a company if you're if your reputation

is counteractive to the company's brand you can get in trouble a little bit there and if you're an employee

installer there could be some issues like really care about your personal uh reputation and it kind of shines through

to your business reputation and that's what I wanted to like really

log on is the amount of satisfaction and just make it's more enjoyable and you

make better money if you got a good reputation and people are reaching out to you because of that

yes yeah everyone sees well you can make stuff private and

stuff but still there's people out there that'll screenshot and share everything so

always be aware of what you're you're putting on online because you know once

you post it it's there forever yep

yeah I mean when you're posting online try not to make up a character just be

yourself because uh when people run into you and you're not that person that you say you are online

it kind of throws them off because I've ran into some of people that I that I follow on the internet and

I don't know who they are you can go ahead and call me out bro you could call me out no no exactly how you

act pretty genuine so that's what matters yeah

all right guys well Eduardo thanks for hopping on Jose and Daniel thank you so

much uh and um we will chat with you guys a little bit later

sounds good all right guys thank you thank you guys for having me