Inside IRE 2025 with the Metal Roofing Alliance - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Renee Ramey of Metal Roofing Alliance. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Karen Edwards: Hello and welcome to another episode of Metalcast from metalcoffeeshop.com. My name's Karen Edwards and today I'm welcoming Renee Ramey from the Metal Roofing Alliance. Renee, welcome.

Renee Ramey: Good morning.

Karen Edwards: It's so nice to see you. And we're gonna be talking today a little bit about the Metal Roofing Alliance, but mostly about all the exciting things that you guys have planned for this year's International Roofing Expo, which is February of 2025. I think it's February 19th and it's in San Antonio, Texas. So first of all, to get us started, tell us a little bit about the Metal Roofing Alliance and the mission of the MRA.

Renee Ramey: Yeah, so Metal Roofing Alliance is a focused nonprofit association and our focus is the residential roofing market. So we exist to educate and promote metal roofing to homeowners and to support the industry as a whole. So we have contractor programs, manufacturer programs, et cetera.

Karen Edwards: And you guys do a lot. I saw at the winter meeting for the Metal Construction Association, you gave an update on a lot of the ways that you are reaching that market. One of is your brand new website, which we did a podcast earlier on that. But you do a lot of advertising and getting the message in front of homeowners, right?

Renee Ramey: Yes. Yes.

Renee Ramey: Yeah, yeah, that's why we exist. So we spend the bulk of our money, very cognizant of spending the bulk of the money that comes in on anything from social media and digital online advertising to creation of assets such as infographics or flyers. We do PowerPoint presentations. We do podcasts. do, you you name it. We partner with media such as yourself, some influencers on YouTube. So we're getting our message out via YouTube, via TV, via radio, any platform you can think of, we try to get on and get that message out.

Karen Edwards: Excellent. And we're seeing metal really grow, right? You know, we heard some numbers of where it was 20 years ago compared to where it is today and it's expected to continue to grow.

Renee Ramey: Yes. Yes. Yeah, we've seen it when the association started, it was just around 3 % and last time we looked, which would have been last year, it was sitting right around 17, 18%. So it's the second largest roofing product going on homes in the United States and Canada.

Karen Edwards: Wow, yeah, that's fantastic. So because of this growth, we're seeing more contractors who maybe only installed asphalt shingles looking to expand their offerings and add metal to their business. And it sounds like the IRE this year is gonna be a great place for them. So can you tell us a little bit about what Metal Roofing Alliance has planned?

Renee Ramey: Yes, going to be a busy IRE for us in 2025. So we will be there with a booth. So just right out of the gate, we have people there. I will be there. We will have a booth with information. But beyond that, we are going into our second or third year, I should know this, but of on floor installation training. So MRE partners with MCA and we put together a series of training, installation training that is done actually on the floor and it walks through not just a type of metal roofing but pretty much touches on every type of metal roofing there is. So whether it's standing seam, know, pre-formed panel, we actually even have a company coming that does retrofits of metal roofing. So there's a lot of information, very well attended the last year or two that we've done it, so super excited for that. And then this year we're actually sponsoring an on-floor presentation.

It's going to be more of a panel and it's going to represent from a contractor perspective or a builder perspective why they transition to add metal to their portfolio of products. So it's going to be really interesting because from our perspective it's not me up there preaching to the choir so to speak about why you should do metal. It's actually people that have transitioned into metal that believe it fully and want to share the message. So yeah it works. about that.

Karen Edwards: That's great because like you said, it's great to hear from peers and fellow contractors that have experienced and done this. Now I want to talk about the training a little more. Can people come in and try it themselves?

Renee Ramey: Yes.

Renee Ramey: Yes.

Renee Ramey: No, it's not set up that way. It's more of a visual. it's you in the audience as a contractor watching a contractor, a fellow contractor that installs metal walking through various aspects of installing a metal roof. So some of them will cover, you know, with that particular type of metal roofing, how do you address valleys or hips or, you know, whatever the case may be, as well as just basic installation. So, but it's all visually, you're just sitting in the audience watching.

Karen Edwards: Okay, alright, but you're still seeing it happen. It's not like watching a video.

Renee Ramey: You're seeing it. Yeah, and really this is meant to get people excited and open up their minds to the idea of installing metal. And then from there we have many members and many third party installation training programs that we can refer people to to get that hands on.

Karen Edwards: Excellent. Now tell me a little bit about the schedule. Is this, you know, several times throughout the day? Is it just ongoing?

Renee Ramey: It's basically ongoing. There will be a schedule posted at the show. I believe there's one on the website as well. But you'll find throughout the day, it starts when the show floor opens and it's just one product after another for an hour at a time. And then we rotate them the next day. And so yeah, it's continuous training all day long.

Karen Edwards: So how do you recruit the trainers to come to the show and do this?

Renee Ramey: Awesome.

Yeah, to actually give the training themselves. Well, this year was done a little different the first year. So I do think this is our second year because the first year we had our members. So between MCA and MRA, we worked with member companies to send installers to the show with their product. This year, I already wanted to approach it a little different. So we have our members still shipping product to the show, but we have actual contractors.

Karen Edwards: Yeah!

Renee Ramey: That will be installing it instead of the manufacturers themselves. So it's a little different spin. So IRE was pretty involved in working with us to pick the installers that show up. And I'm really excited because from what I gathered, the few that I've heard are showing up are, I mean, they're known in the industry to be very good, long times installers of metal roofing. Yeah.

Karen Edwards: Excellent.

Karen Edwards: That's nice that the show that you work together, you know, to do that. And I think, like you said, people like watching demos, right? That's one of the reasons that they come to the show. So when is the panel? Where does that happen?

Renee Ramey: Oh gosh, you got me without having that information up, but I will share it very quickly. It will be, and I apologize. I actually was just looking at this too. It's gonna be on Tuesday, oh excuse me, Thursday the 20th from 3.30 to 4.30 Central time. And it's actually on the show floor, so it's gonna be booth space 7141.

So you're at the convention center, just walk in the floor. It doesn't require you to leave the show to actually go see this present or this panel, which works out.

Karen Edwards: And it's about an hour, you said.

Renee Ramey: Yeah, it's going to be about a 45 minute presentation or panel discussion with about 15 minutes at the end for questions and whatnot. we're hoping and actually I believe the way I would like it to be formatted is it's going to be almost a Q &A as we go as well. So we're going to have actually a influencer, name's Stephanie Dale. She's from Build Productions. It's going to kind of lead the panel discussion but also participate. So she's going to have a series of topics that MRA has, you know, put some input on, but she's going to walk the other contractors through that asking questions and then addressing it herself. So the format will really be very open. If anybody has a question at any time, it'll be a more interactive. Yeah, Yeah, we're hoping to avoid that.

Karen Edwards: That's good. Yeah, a bit conversational rather than somebody just talking at you. Yeah. wow, this is exciting. Any other, you know, I'm thinking about resources because we're talking about installation training. We're talking about a panel of contractors talking about how they did it. But there's other resources available throughout the show, I'm sure, because there'll be a lot of metal manufacturers there exhibiting. But, you know, the business side of things when we talk about sales and marketing and actually selling, will we be talking about that at all? Maybe during the panel?

Renee Rame: over.

Renee Ramey: Yes, I believe it'll be a topic during the panel because I think that's a big question mark for a lot of people that haven't worked with metal is just how do you sell it, how do you market it, what's the difference in the demographic and how do you adjust your business accordingly. So absolutely that will be touched on. During the show I'm sure there'll be a lot of other training in that regards. But just to throw out a teaser, MRA is also gonna be doing our first annual contractor training event later this year that will be solely focused on business and marketing sales and marketing No install training during the first event anyway, but so there's a lot of resources out there We've seen that we're going to address some of them at the show But we're also going to address it on a larger scale later this year with a dedicated training

Karen Edwards: Yeah, yeah, that's so important because, you know, most contractors that have traditionally been doing asphalt, a metal roof is a little more expensive, right? It's a different kind of customer. It's a different kind of, it's a different kind of sales process, I think. So learning to install it is the first step, but then learning all of the business side of things, I think, is really important for contractors. So that's great to hear that you're doing an event.

Renee Ramey: Yeah.

Renee Ramey: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're excited. And I think there's a lot of misconceptions about how difficult it is to install and

And we just need to get past that myth. Yes, it's a little more difficult, but not much. And like anything else, riding a bike, as the phrase goes, once you do it a few times, you get very confident. Then it's no slower necessarily to install than other roofing products. And so we just need to get that out in front of people, help them consider it.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, and I think it's important to note too that the manufacturers and the suppliers of the products often offer training and support as well.

Renee Ramey: Yes, most do. In fact, we had a board meeting last week as an association and I'm, excuse me, collecting. The installation training programs from our various manufacturers to post on the MRA website just so at any given time a contractor could go to the MRA website and find any number of training programs offered by the manufacturers, which in my opinion a lot of times those are the better ones to do.

Karen Edwards: Excellent.

Renee Ramey: Especially if you're you you've selected a very specific product or a couple very specific products It's better to get trained by the people that make them sometimes. It's just general training

Karen Edwards: Yeah, for sure. Well, I'm glad you mentioned that because they're not everybody's going to be able to make it to the IRE, right? So what will they find on your website, which is metal roofing dot com?

Renee Ramey: Yeah.

Renee Ramey: Right, right, so we are getting ready to stand up. It's not stood up yet, but probably in the next two to three weeks we'll have what's called an MRE resources page that's getting stood up. And wow, I mean, all I can say is.

It's going to have a lot of stuff on it. But the whole gist of that particular web page is giving as many tools, resources, links to training, anything that we can think of that a person either already in the industry or thinking about getting in the industry might need to learn how to sell it, install it. Promote it, how to work a lead and then giving them assets. Anything we create, we would love our members to use. And so getting them infographics and PowerPoints and anything. Yeah, just like I said, I keep saying anything because we're really thinking big on this one. We want to put everything out very accessible on the website. So that'll be coming, yeah, in the next probably two to three weeks. We're standing. Yeah.

Karen Edwards: You

Karen Edwards: That's fantastic. That's fantastic. And so how does a contractor become a member?

Renee Ramey: It's really simple. You go to our website. There's a link that says partner with MRA. You fill it out and send it in. The only requirement, we'll say, of getting approved typically is that you have to be endorsed by one of our manufacturer members. And I know a lot of contractors think, that sounds like work or mine probably isn't a member. You'd be surprised how many manufacturers are members of MRA. We have quite a large covering of manufacturers.

Very few times have I come across someone applying for membership that didn't have a supplier, a metal roofing supplier that was a member of MRE. And so the process is, you know, I reach out to that member, I just say, do know these guys? Do you sell to them? Do you, you know, know any issues with their company? We want to make sure we're selling quality product and we're doing quality customer service, I guess, if you will. So it's just a simple check in with the manufacturer saying, you know, do you endorse them? Are they?

Quality contractor. 99 % of the time the people that are applying and want to be engaged are quality and that's it. We get them set up in the system and they're good to go. We have leads that go out to them that come in through the site and as I said earlier any tools we have they're yours.

Karen Edwards: Yeah, that makes sense because if you are capturing homeowners who are looking for metal roofs and you're passing them on to a member, you want to make sure that they're going to have a good experience, right? Yeah.

Renee Ramey: Yeah, yeah, we don't want to ruin the image or perception of metal roofing by supporting someone who's not taking it seriously. Yeah.

Karen Edwards: Right, yeah, wow. Well, this is fantastic. I'm excited to walk around the show at IRE this year to see some of the medal training. It's gonna be great. So that is February 19th through the 21st, and that's in San Antonio, Texas. And I know registration's open, and I'm pretty sure contractors can go onto the expo floor at no charge, that the expo hall pass is free. Yeah.

Renee Ramey: Yeah, I think so too. Yep, I believe so.

Karen Edwards: Excellent. Well, Renee, I want to just say thank you for being here and for sharing all this exciting information with us today.

Renee Ramey: I will always enjoy seeing you, Karen.

Karen Edwards: Alright and thank you everybody out there for listening to this episode of Metalcast. Be sure to subscribe so that you don't miss an episode and follow us on social media. Follow Metal Roofing Alliance on social media as well so you won't miss a thing and we hope to see you on a future episode. Bye bye.