Creating A Partnering Liason Relationship With Respected And Trusted Competitors

Spring boarding off of Chuck's remarks on how this could be accomplished for the mutual benefit of each of the participating contractors involved in such a joint venture should be stimulating.

The desired goal that sparked this idea, is how can One Little Contractor combine with other Little Contractors and learn to compete with the waves of staffed out of town Storm Chasers when they arrive in town and benefit from their experience in both canvassing aggressively and having the insurance insiders knowledge on how to acquire the storm related renovation work, for roofing, siding, gutters and windows and for those that provide additional services, the interior repairs that may arise.

First aspect as noted, would be TRUST between the potential group liason members.

Check your individual Ego at the door. This is not about how one contractor can get more than the other contractor out of this relationship. You do not have to be in a partnership agreement, but there must be some terms and understandings discussed and agreed to in writing before this venture could proceed.

Let's look at this as a total Top Down, Business Plan. This is from a lesson that I am being taught from a consultant I have taken on for another project I have in the fire.

WHY (Your Mission – in your case – the value proposition. Get together and then you need to form a real mission/value statement that you can test your objectives against. “To Help the Small Contractors unite and surpass the marketing expertise of the Storm Chasing Contractors. Remember – form this carefully – it’s the LITMUS TEST for your objective statements.

WHAT – Objectives/Requirements In this case, what can a group of contractors attempt to achieve by uniting. Does it fit the value proposition… if not, don’t do it. If YES – describe it. Write requirement statements something like this : Must Do: (these features are terminating if not fulfilled. Think about it carefully, the Must Do cannot be scaled back or skipped over Should Do: (Preference, but not a terminating factor if not supported Can Do: (Optional ‘nice to have’ but are not part of initial evaluation)

Now, together, list what you think you can do together.....

HOW – Strategy for achieving the objectives Your objective statements will prioritize “how” including any “terminating factors” for a mutual working relationship. “HOW” strategies will also reveal the united effort constraints:

WHO/WHEN/WHERE - The action plan, with human resource constraints. This is the way we get from a bunch of objectives to an actual working agreement ready to launch.

Right now – concentrate totally on WHAT (Objectives for the group liason). Don’t worry at all about “how” you’ll do it – that all fleshes out as you continue the process. The better you objective/requirement statements, the easier the “How” becomes – so concentrate on “WHAT”.

Your “Objective Statements” should then be edited into a “requirements document” . That’s what will guide the rest of the process. The more specific and detailed you can make it , the easier it is to avoid dead ends and dark alleys when you’re assembling the liason partnership group effort.

These are some loosely opined figures, commenting on the success stages at each level and how each previous level of documentation affects the subsequent levels exponentially.

A change to a requirements (objective) statement (What) cost you $0.10 (a dime)

A change to a “How” (Product strategy) will cost you $10.00 while you’re evaluating but before you build anything.

A change to the code (Action Plan stage– When/Who/Where) will cost you $100. 00

It is exponentially faster, smarter, and cheaper to hammer out the details in the objective/requirement stage than to do it on the fly lat

Some models may help. There are referral services for lawyers . In this area there " Ask Gary " Gary is nether a person or lawyer . A bunch of lawyers are referred by the Ask Gary group . It is in name only. I'm not sure how the leads are distributed inside . I'm certain they pay for the service .If someone had the gumption they could run the whole country from home. This is a partial answer to what>>>

I think that you are insinuating more of an Ask The Expert and Lead Generation concept there.

Although gaining viable leads is Always a good think to seek, what I am, in this particular instance,referring to is localized mini-networks, where each contractor may be able to proportionately accomplish more as an entity coalition, rather than individually by themselves.

WHAT would a group of 3-5 smallish sized contractors be able to do, with collaborative funds dedicated to seeking out the same customer demography?

A group financed canvassing effort for a newly struck storm casualty are would exponentially decrease the marketing costs, then splitting up the acquired projects on a fair minded basis. Some contractors may have better individual resources for certain projects than others. Some may choose to subcontract out the acquired projects, but hopefully, without the negative connotation that comes along with the Rent-An Illegal version of Subbing by the Stormers.

A dedicated Quality Control Atmosphere could be enabled to ensure that the Locals prove themselves as the cream of the crop.

Without exceptional dedication to providing a superior class project, there would be little differentiation between the impression of the Stormers verion of quality standards and the locals version.

What separates the level of quality?

If needed, the software costs could be split for a multi-user facilitation. A peer with extended knowledge of how to work the numbers could be cost shared via the contractors group.

There is power in numbers, but only if everyone is on the same page, backing each other up with the mission to remain true to the original envisionment and held accountable for continually providing an ethical and honest desire to continue forward, looking out for the success of each other, to prevent any one contractor from faltering, which would topple the groups credibility.

Ed

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Must Do: (these features are terminating if not fulfilled. Think about it carefully, the Must Do cannot be scaled back or skipped over Should Do: (Preference, but not a terminating factor if not supported A must do .. Be able to handle the leads when they come fast and efficiently. 2. Understand the insurance company is not the enemy . If it is understood properly it can become your best friend . Quality is essential so is speed. People are not shopping contractors when in a situation that is traumatic. Protection of there belongings and security is of the utmost important . Basic stuff , I know . Decide who gets the leads. How or why . When out in an area that is hit have door hangers or other lead materials ( who name and number is on it ?? ) This is the test areas . All the other stuff is great in theory. When someone starts thinking why am I giving all this work away ? The collective usually falls to the dollar. This can be a huge problem . How will that be dealt with?>>>

By the phrase, "The collective usually gives way to the dollar", am I reading you correctly in presuming greed rules over the group?

I think so, therefor, that is why it is imperative that a formalized agreement be discussed and all of the potential Pro's and Con's of the arrangement that may and will come up, be dealt with, prior to the actual occurrence of those dilemmas.

For the marketing materials, it could be with all of the contractors names, putting up their local presence as a community oriented contractor that will be there when the Stormers are long gone, or as an entity name for the group.

I slightly disagree with your comment that people are not shopping contractors around when a situation is traumatic occurs. This may "Possibly" be more true, if the even is a major house or life threatening situation, but in most cases of Hail Damage, there is plenty of time to sit back and reflect intelligently. The sense of urgency is drummed up artificially, when dozens of solicitors canvassing the neighborhoods are disseminating the potential horrors of losing their claim availability if they delay.

Another point, is that the adjusters give good and sound advice to the home owners, which is to get several or 3 estimates and compare them. BUT.....The way that they instruct the home owner to do so, inherently makes it seem as if it a requirement on their part to get and turn in those several "Bids" from various contractors. (Don't take that as a slam in the face of the professionalism of the adjusters please) It is just the innuendo seems to prevail and distort the home owners perception of the claims process, subjecting untrained contractors into all leaping through hoops with little hope of achievement as an end result, so they therefor typically avoid the insurance claims like the plague.

(Just as a matter of inquiry, how long REALLY, is there for a home owner to put in a claim?) 1. Is it one year from the date of the incident? 2. Is it one year from when they first discovered that there was damage incurred? 3. Is it longer if the area is declared a CAT Claim Event? (Yes probably, but how much longer?) 4. What if no Record of a storm for a particular Zip Code is known, but there for sure is definitive Hail Damage? 5. If a home owner had the same insurance company, yet the hail damage seems to be weathered and looks to be several years old, would it still be covered? (Sorry to get off topic.....But, for Storm Work, these items need to be understood)

I hope that others are interested in trying to learn from a full disclosure of how a unified effort and learning the insurance restoration business can really come to their aide when the time comes.

Ed >>>

roofing is no longer controlled by the tradesman. it is ruled censored and dictated to by it's transformation to an industry.an industry created by greed and people that are exploiting the H/O and the ins. co's. the H/O is for all practical purposes totally ignorant to what is truly wrong. ya wanna know the first best thing that should/could happen that would literally drive this industry back to the tradesman?that would bring the quality back to what it once was. their should be A national code.like in Fla.bull and membraning the metal,lead stacks. tin-capping to dade co. code.the inspections suck yep.we did roofs in miami after Andrew.the insp. sucked.we hired our own engineer.paid good wages and years later when the last canes blew through I went to the places we did alot of work. westchester,westwood lakes,perrine,and further south.no losses. the ins. co's. should have A proccess to inspect their properties just as they send the adj. roofers like ya'll will do the work.you will pass the insp. you will get the notoriety you deserve locally and then your name will mean alot more locally. OC has A platinum preffered contractor.form A conglomerate locally. approach them and sell just their products.if the roof has vents,then you need 4 products to give A 15 year 100% non-pro-rated warranty for 25 year supreme and then 20 for the duration. if you for A compact and band together to acquire this you will not only be one of A few that are platinum you will be strenghtened by your numbers. when you do this good things become available. thats for another post.theirs ways to literally lock up whole neighborhoods run by HOA's.I'd rather not open this up to the world. I'm pro roofer,am A roofer and feel we need to get our distinguished status back as one of the top 2 trades. I was taught by the best roofer in s. fla years ago. no matter what happens in life,2 trades will always survive. folks don't want A backed up toilet or A wet bed cause of the roof.>>>

tico You appear to have a solid grasp on what should happen, I agree with most of your assessments . For a lot of these guys that face the stormers is immediate near future . I would like to hear some of your or for that matter anyone's experience working with other roofing contractors especially residential . directly . Have you ever had a cooperative relationship with other roofing contractors? Or as a contractor what is it you would do to facilitate one . This is a huge order not insurmountable non the less very difficult>>>

your voice, presence and direct communication with your community is your #1 priority. getting them to co-operate with you is relatively easy once you have their attention.this should be done with articles written in small papers and some sort of media co-operation. John Q public buys from the media. they idolize and idealize their choices based largely on what gets reported. this is where it gets hairy. we all know the horror stories of stormers coming into A stormed area,signing on with the big dogs on the porch. the stormer gets the dog into the fight with the promise of lots of jobs. then they do oodles of work.do it poorly and then leave the dog in the fight while they lope off unscathed. you've got to expose this. provide A better service and then support that service. thus the conglomerate and the much needed warranty.this can take as little or as much time to adress. you decide to what degree you want to perform,form and execute. trust in the community is attainable. you have to put together the unified front. get in front of the HOA's and community leaders and have A strong positive proactive program put together. then prove your worth versus that of the stormer. the sales and all that other stuff is fluff. that truly is just A matter of doing exactly as the stormer. numbers, numbers,numbers.>>>

facilitating and organizing is simple.ask them what percentage of roofs they do after A storm and how many they'd like to do?what they have and would like to have. this is A reccession proof trade in many regions.>>>

The thing to do is for local guys to band together and get a vigorous "buyer beware" campaign going. Use the local newspapers and local media to get the message out to homeowners about how stormers will not be there 4 to 6 months after they install there roof. And how essentially they have NO workmanship warranty what so ever. No matter what area you are from in the country you know who in your town is a local roofing contractor if your in the business. So when you have a CAT situation in your area all the local guys should get on the phone to each other and work together to mount the "buyer beware" campaign. The guy across town who under normal circumstances is your competion is now your brother in arms. By working the "buyer beware" campaign this will drive the calls to the guys who are local and can PROVE they are local.>>>

Ed This is out of the Law studies I trying to accomplish this weekend It should answer your question Presenting a Claim

Insurance claim procedures are often designed to work on a timetable, although these time frames are often approximate. For example, standard health insurance provisions provide that

* the insurer must receive a notice of claim or loss with 20 days of the insured’s loss;

* the insurer must provide any claim forms with 15 days of receiving the notice of loss;

* the insured must supply proof of loss within 90 days;

* the insurer must then pay the claim immediately or as soon as possible.

Claims processing rarely works out this neatly, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes not. Failing to meet these timetables can itself become a matter of dispute and legal action.

Other procedural provisions in insurance contracts also exist regarding the payment of claims, such as:

* terms restricting the period within which a claim must be presented;

* terms restricting the period within which a lawsuit must be initiated against an insurer;

* requirements mandating that an insured who seeks coverage under liability insurance must assist and cooperate with the insurer; and

* provisions that are used in uninsured motorist insurance restricting an insured’s right to settle tort claims.

Further, most policies state that the insurer’s obligation to pay a claim is predicated upon compliance with these procedures. A claimant can lose his or her right to bring a suit against an insurer if the claimant has failed to comply with one or more of these requirements and the insurance claim is rejected on that basis.

The next few sections describe some of these provisions. Notice of Loss Provisions

A notice of loss requirement in an insurance policy affords the insurer a reasonable opportunity to protect its rights, but it also benefits policy holders and the public. Prompt notice to the insurer increases an insurer’s opportunity to acquire information about the circumstances of the loss. A timely investigation promotes early settlements, which clearly benefits the insured. Finally, these notice of loss provisions serve the public interest, because an early and timely investigation increases the probability that fraudulent claims are detected.

Failure to comply with a notice of loss provision is generally excused when the failure is attributable to the risk covered by the insurance. For example, a delay in providing notice to a disability insurer may be excused when the insured is unable to provide notice because of this disability.

In some cases, a reasonable mistake is recognized as an excuse for delay. However, the courts frequently apply more strict standards to policy holder conduct. Courts can be intolerant when a claimant fails to comply with a time limit simply because of his or her negligence. For example, one court ruled that a four-month delay in notifying the insurer of a suit was neither excusable nor reasonable under the circumstances.>>>

Some great stuff here guys . It is a war and you can take back your communities . The last two post superior ideas. tico great points . rooftite good angle . Very positive This is more promising than expected . Thanks Ed>>>

the thing I know for fact is that the large co's are exploiting the bbb ratings for local co.s. many big groups have the platinum preffered contractor status. which deffers warranties to O/C.after 2 years. thus the extended warr. that locals cannot realistically support. thats why I'm saying pick A supplier and then reach status that allows you to offer the great extension of warr. when you do this you then use the same ammo as the key selling point. then you are the true local guy. their are many variables to this. I've been selling roofs for A big co. they have plugged into the being not only local but national also.power in numbers. I'm getting ready to go to denver. but this time I will find A local guy. then work with them to show/identify where they can fanagle themselves into the game. I worked for the best national co. but still found many flaws with what and how. they did not emphasize accurate conscise info consistently. they think(alot of the sales folks) that shingles were invented in 1978.wrong. they do not know what causes curling,understand ventilation being A culprit. they miss out on so much yet push the warranty and the consumer is clueless. thats why I stated earlier. spending time with visiting HOA's.I wish I could win A lottery and have the money it would take to travel around and bring what is in my head to those that need it dearly. did you know,by working the #'s and getting the homeowners deductible that A good salesman gets about 1500.00 onb A 10,000 contract. take out the crew and materials and then the companies cut,which is about the same.you've got alot of waste there. as to the timeline o A claim. allstate has none. they and statefarm are by far your worst to deal with. thus why the big co.s do well. they exhaust the in-house inspection then get an independant adj. and sell A 80-95% good roof to the carrier. this is dead wrong. they frowned on the fact that many MANY times I'd tell the home owner their roof is ok. then go by the house 3 days later and they've got another co.s sign out front and them 30 days later A new roof. if you'd like,give me shot specific questions.I've only sold for this one national co. I liked alot of what they do. their biggest downfall was they really made it seem like the sales staff was key and why they were still in biz. I watched the owner and his key players. they at the end of the day hid bad behavior and still do and the owner knows not what totally goes on within his own co. yet I'm an experienced roofer. did he come to me and ask me what I thought. no he buys and eats the doo doo of the top cats in the #'s dept. personally in one office I'd can everyone but 4 guys that sell and build their own jobs and can the rest. they were slackers. >>>

BTW, the Gary from 800 ask gary is a chiropractor>>>

When the storms come, you should be smothered in leads to run. Your gonna miss a lot of jobs screwin around with some other contractors who most likely in the end are just gonna stab you in the back. Sounds pretty negative i know, but thats j.m.h.o.>>>

OLE Willie Said: When the storms come, you should be smothered in leads to run. Your gonna miss a lot of jobs screwin around with some other contractors who most likely in the end are just gonna stab you in the back. Sounds pretty negative i know, but thats j.m.h.o.

Agree.......of all the businesses I've been involved with the roofing business has been the most difficult to "work" with other roofers. I have a few friends in the business that I give leads to but don't expect anything in return. It's sad too because we should work together, there's MORE than enough to go around.

JET>>>