Sherwin-Williams' MetalVue Dealer's Portal - TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Dominic Caminata with Grosso University and Mark MacDonald with Sherwin-Williams. You can Read the transcript below, Listen to the podcast or Watch the webinar.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: My name is Heidi Ellsworth. We are here with MetalCoffeeShop, and this is MetalTalk. So we are looking at really talking about MetalVue and I know there's a lot of you who are like, what is MetalVue? It's viral. It is growing so fast and we want you to all be aware of what it is and especially the most exciting part, the new Dealer's Portal. This is something that you are going to want to try out and we're going to actually be having some opportunities for you to check everything out after this webinar today.

So before we get started, a couple housekeeping. This is being recorded and it will be available within 24 hours for you to review, share, get out to your other people at your company and the metal industry and roofing industry overall. Please be sure to look for that and you will be getting a notification. Also, we love interaction. So let's chat. So please in the chat, go ahead and let us know who you are, where you're from and what kind of business you have. And we'll get going here with some introductions.

Again, thank you so much for being here today. So today I am very thrilled to introduce our panelists who are the experts and who have made this Dealer's Portal for MetalVue happen. So first of all, I would like to introduce Dominic with Grosso University. Dom, welcome to the show.

Dominic Caminata: Thanks for having me, Heidi. We're really excited about this conversation. This has been quite the journey and obviously we're honored to be a part of this. But we're definitely excited to give people more clarity on what MetalVue is, and of course, the brand new dealer portal that we just launched. So it's been a monster project for us and definitely excited to share this with as many people as we can.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That is so great. Well, can you tell us just a little bit about yourself and Grosso and give everybody a little bit of background?

Dominic Caminata: Yeah, so my name's Dominic Caminata, so owner and founder of Grosso University. I started Grosso University in 2019 with one simple mission in life. I wanted to make one of the single greatest sales training and business coaching consulting companies in the history of the home improvement industry. So a big hairy audacious goal. Those of you that don't know, I got the name Grosso University from my mentor who was Rick Grosso. So Rick Grosso was a very famous trainer and consultant in the home improvement industry for many, many decades.

As a matter of fact, his first sale was to a Babylonian, so that's how long he's been around. So I made it my mission in life early in my sales career, dating back all the way to 2010, that I wanted to take over Rick Grosso's legacy, and I got that opportunity in 2019. And pretty much from that point on just worked relentlessly to build an exceptional online training platform that people could access world-class sales training from all over the world. We do a lot of in-person sales training events and educational seminars.

I spend most of my time in front of a camera just like this doing live virtual trainings with home improvement companies, roofing companies, window companies, coast to coast. And thankfully, we're in a position where Sherwin-Williams was referred. We were referred to Sherwin-Williams, thankfully, through some of our various connections, and Mark MacDonald saw that the team that we had and the potential we had to bring a lot of useful training and information to metal roofing contractors and thankfully we were able to earn the opportunity to be a part of this program.

And it's something we're going to be eternally grateful for. But that was just a brief summary. Obviously I can talk about myself for hours, but I'm just happy to be here. I just want to thank Mark McDonald for putting his faith in Grosso University, and we're going to continue to deliver anything we can to help contractors make more with metal. That's really what we're here for.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Excellent. Thank you so much. Okay, great. Thank you, Dom, so much. And then Mark MacDonald with Sherwin-Williams, you have been on MetalTalk and our RLWs many times, but if you could introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Sherwin-Williams and MetalVue, that would be great.

Mark MacDonald: Absolutely. Thanks for having me, and I'm coming to you from the Fort Myers National Airport in Florida. So if it's a little noisy, I apologize. I met Heidi it seems like a while ago now, Heidi, where we met at the National Roofers Contracting Association. That relationship has really taken us to where we are today. Your introductions between EagleView and all that. I think my background, I have an eclectic background. I was in the service for 12 years, and then from there I went into aerospace, did a lot of program management kind of stuff with advanced electronics.

And then from there went into Valspar, which is the leading supplier of coal coatings in the United States, and we were acquired by Sherwin-Williams. And that acquisition has really allowed us to take our program to a whole different level, because Sherwin-Williams, as everyone's aware, is the largest supplier of coatings on the planet and the strongest brand in the United States. Really what built this whole thing is our desire to grow the presence of metal in the United States. And the only way you do that is through supplying service to the contracting community.

And that's really what we're focused on and that's why I'm excited to be a part of this. So we really appreciate being on the show. Going back to Dominic, without Grosso University, we wouldn't have the platform that we have today to bring that value because it's got to be scalable. And without something like they've built here at the dealer portal, that's just not possible. So we appreciate the partnership with Grosso as well.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: This has been watching it from the very beginning, Mark, everything that you've done, working with Grosso, MetalCoffeeShop being a part of this, which has just been such an honor, I have to tell you, it's amazing. It's really fun to be able to share this with everyone out there. It's been a long road. So let's get started with that in mind. I want to remind everybody the chat is open. So we are going to start with what is MetalVue. So Mark, give us the big picture and bring it down so everyone knows what is MetalVue?

Mark MacDonald: Yeah, that's a great question. I think it is a very large program, but what we're doing is very simple is if you're a contractor, and when I say contractor, I'm really being very specific. I'm referring to someone who's in the business of a retail operation, someone who wants some marketing. They're in marketing and sales. They want to get in business with a brand. There's very strong brands in the market today, Owens Corning, GAF, Pella, James Hardy and those folks have been servicing the home improvement retail market and asphalt retail for many, many years

Our market's a bit different where we're much more fractured. I mean, we have more than 1,600 manufacturers in the United States, which explains why this is such a hard business place for us to get our arms around. So we, Sherwin-Williams, have invested the time and money to work with some of our preferred manufacturers who choose to be in that market. And we've created a service platform to allow them, to enable them to service this multi-billion dollar market that's in the tens of billions with tens of thousands of contractors across the United States.

And so MetalVue allows them to reduce their expenditure, to get in the market and provide a reliable holistic service. So what does the contractor get out of it? They get out of it the service they expect, the products they want, the Sherwin-Williams brand, the product when they want it, the confidence to sell it, confidence to market it, confidence to order it, confidence to install it. The manufacturers, the OEMs that are Sherwin-Williams manufacturers that are choosing to participate are going to provide that service.

That's really what MetalVue is. It's just a series of service software and training that allows the contractor to have confidence through their entire workflow.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I know you mentioned some of those other companies that have been doing this, but this isn't really a normal program in roofing or in traditional roofing, especially not in metal roofing. So to be able to have all these resources and to be able to sell and make more with metal, I mean, this is very revolutionary.

Mark MacDonald: It is. It's different. I'm in the airport right now, but I was just with a contractor today in Florida. I think year to date, they're at about 75 million in sales. And it's a perfect example of why MetalVue. Do they want to work with metal? Absolutely. Do they want to work with our brand? Absolutely. Do they have all the services that they want? No. So we're in there with a business solution. We're in there today with a really exciting platform called Giddyup that we're really excited about.

We're in there offering them a holistic solution, offering integrated solution. So bringing in all the services that we have into that framework, which is what this particular customer wants. So what we've provided is just an integration platform for services software that includes anything that they want that's part of their workflow. That's what makes the program exciting to contractors because almost anyone who does roofing wants to do metal.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Right.

Mark MacDonald: It's just without MetalVue, it's very difficult to do that at scale.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: To scale it. Exactly. Well, let's continue that. Because in order to scale it, you need to have all the resources in hand and you need to be able to really work through the system to get all the systems in place. So Dom, talk a little bit about what the MetalVue Dealer's Portal is and how that is helping to take this to that next step.

Dominic Caminata: Yeah, thanks, Heidi. Again, an example of the Dealer Portal right behind me just so people can picture in their mind exactly what we're talking about as we're describing it. So of course, as Mark explained, MetalVue is an amazing program that brings all the technologies, tools and service that a contractor would expect and would desire to run a successful metal roofing division of their business. We want to make sure that dealers had that one platform, that one stop where they could get a lot of their questions answered and get clarity on all the unique services that MetalVue truly has to offer.

So the way I explain is the Dealer Portal is an online platform of video content and literature and documentation that outlines in detail all the services and technologies that are available to contractors through the MetalVue program. So housed within this Dealer Portal, metal roofing contractors will find video interviews of every contractor and vendor who is involved with MetalVue, with a detailed explanation of exactly how their service or technology can help them make more with metal.

And that's really the headline of this entire program. How can we help support you so you can make this a wild success and make more with metal? So within the Dealer Portal, whether contractors need support with marketing, sales, production, business operations, we wanted to make sure that this dealer portal was that one stop that they could go to to get all their difficult questions answered and select and choose based on the information exactly what they need to take their metal roofing business to the next level.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And it's video, which it's so much easier to learn. As a society, we are now watching videos, learning from that, but you also have links to MetalCoffeeShop where they can get to the directories. You also have one-pagers for people who want to read. So I really like the multi... We're fond around here of read, listen, watch, but the Dealer's Portal really has that however you want to learn, you have the ability probably to do that within the Dealer's Portal.

Dominic Caminata: Yeah, all these vendors are doing a fantastic job of providing with us a lot of training, literature, print literature, one-page documents that clearly outline exactly what their service is with the relevant links and how to reach out to them and contact them directly. And like you said, links to MetalCoffeeShop. And of course, that alone is a priceless network of successful entrepreneurs and metal roofing professionals that people can tap into.

So to the vision of this whole thing, the thing I love about this is metal roofing contractors don't have to get into this uncertain business venture of metal roofing and try to wing it through cost prohibitive trial and error. So we want to make sure that they have a platform where they can get all their tough questions answered, and thanks to Heidi and everything you've done, a priceless community of people they can also tap into. So not necessarily learning things that could work for them in theory.

We like to believe that we're offering things that truly will have proven results and help them make this one of the fastest growing and lucrative business ventures they've ever pursued. And one thing I know Mark really emphasized, which I think is so valuable, is the additional services that contractors are going to get out of the OEMs and the metal roofing manufacturers.

And one thing we're including in this Dealer Portal is also additional training and tools that manufacturers and OEMs can use to make sure that they're taking their service to the next level, which outside of MetalVue, this is not something that really was emphasized enough. Like Mark MacDonald said, this was really commonplace in the asphalt roofing market, but we're trying to bring that whole different level of service and professionalism to the metal roofing market and contractors are really responding to it in a big way.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's what I've been seeing too. I mean, there is a lot of excitement out there about it. So let's talk a little bit about how it was developed. So Dom, let's start with you. This is a big project that you all were working on. How did this all happen?

Dominic Caminata: So Grosso University, thankfully, was in a unique position where we had a foundation, a team, talents and resources where we could help bring this project to life in a very short period of time. And I know this is one of the reasons that Mark MacDonald had faith that he could partner up with us to make this project happen. But one of the things that we had in the very beginning, which really expedited this, is a learning management system that we already were utilizing that we could plug this Dealer Portal right into to get it built and created in a very short period of time.

And that was really the first big thing that Mark MacDonald saw is you already have the LMS we're looking for, you have the team that can make it happen, let's just figure out a way we can partner up on this project and bring this to market as quickly as we can.

Now, the second thing that I'm really grateful for is we have an exceptionally talented group of videographers, graphic designers in-house that can produce very high quality, studio level quality content, premium audio and create all the different graphics and effects you would ever want to make sure whatever content we're putting on here is worthy of a Sherwin-Williams stamp of approval. We want to make sure it's very high end, very high quality. So when people are watching this, they see crystal clear video content.

It's not hard to listen to. I don't know if you've experienced that, watching some content where it's grainy or fuzzy or the audio's really tinny. So we want to make sure the content was educational, but also easy to watch, enjoyable to watch and of course, that high caliber that people expect. And one thing that I think helped with this program too is my background in the industry, been in this industry for over 14 years. I've worn a lot of hats. I've helped train on metal roofing and asphalt roofing.

And being at Grosso University since 2019, I've gotten to learn a lot about all the technologies and the services available. It put me personally in a position where I could pretty much sit down and interview with anyone and have a very detailed and productive conversation about their products and service and moderate the conversation in a very efficient manner. So that was kind of what put Grosso in a position where someone like Mark MacDonald even considered us for the project is we really had the team, the tools and the talent to deliver this.

And then it was about execution. So then we spent a great deal of time interviewing all the vendors and companies that are involved in MetalVue to do a detailed discovery as to what their products and services or technologies are, and of course, how they can help contractors make more with metal, how they can help support their business. And once we did those discoveries, I was able to put together a really simple outline for each conversation and credit to everyone involved with this Dealer Portal and the MetalVue program.

People are flying all over the country to our city here in Madison, Wisconsin to film a short 30 minute, 20 minute segment on how their business, product, service, or technology can help contractors make more with metal. And these conversations were very productive, very high level, very efficient. And as a result of that, we were able to compile what I feel is one of the most comprehensive online doer portals ever made in the roofing space or the metal roofing space, excuse me. I want to make sure I speak accurately.

And once you film it, that's when the real work begins. Because filming, it's easy, right? You turn the camera on and record. And my team got to work on the editing and worked tirelessly with Mark MacDonald to make sure that the content obviously was approved with the Sherwin-Williams brand guidelines and make sure that the brand guidelines of every vendor was approved, but then also making sure that the end dealer portal that we organized was very easy to navigate, very simple and clearly outline the specific content that people wanted to learn more about.

So it was a very big project. It was quite the journey, and it's only going to continue. Again, the journey's just begun. We've merely built the foundation for this, but credit to, again, both of you. You're constantly looking for quality people, individuals, technology services to add to this to make it even better. But that was just a long story of our journey and our role in the development of the Dealer Portal.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well, I was very honored to be able to be one of those people to come to your studio and record and talk about MetalCoffeeShop. It was a great experience. So I think it really helps for everyone out there as you're thinking about this, these are the kind of interviews that will really help you move through the program and make it very, very easy. I do want to say we did have a question from Larry. It says, who exactly are the dealers? And thank you, Mark. This was in the Q&A, so I'm not sure everybody can see it, but dealers are the contractors that are marketing and selling your product.

So these are roofing, metal roofing contractors, exterior contractors, you name it, who want to sell on metal and are working with metal manufacturers and they are selling to the end users. So it makes it great for the whole roofing team to learn. As we look forward too, let's talk a little bit about how the portal helps contractors with the MetalVue program. So Mark, I would love to have you talk through this because working with Grosso, this was a lot of your vision. And you're muted. There you go.

Mark MacDonald: Yeah, there we go. Absolutely. So two things. One is I've had a flight change here, so I'm going to have to leave a little bit early. So apologies. I think I've got just a few more minutes here, about 10 minutes. So on this program, the MetalVue program, when you look at this, there's people out there who have set the standard for dealer portals. We didn't do anything new here. I think that's important. We've got the window companies, the asphalt companies, they've been doing this for a while.

So when you look at those dealer portals, what do you expect? We expect to get a holistic solution, and that's what we're offering, because the starting point is the manufacturer doing what they do. So what does that mean? It means coming in and telling you about their product, educating the dealer and their sales team on what is this product, what's important about it, what's the value proposition of this product, giving them a demo kit, giving them in-home sales presentations.

And that's where the connection with the Dealer Portal across the bill really starts because how do you deliver some of that information? Well, some of it has to be a person, but a lot of it can and should be digital. You're not going to hand them a piece of paper, we hope you won't, or a presentation. You're going to give them a digital place, a repository for that information. That's where you start to see this large connection. And the more value you can give that contractor to take into the home, the more confident they're going to be that they can sell your product.

So that means that we're going to put all the services in their workflow into this program. So we had a conversation today with somebody, very large contractor, that said, "Hey, I don't have a call center," which kudos to them, how big they are, they don't have a call center. It's very impressive. We have partners that can give them a call center and that's in the Dealer Portal. So we have sidekick that can do that. We have the in-home sales presentation. What if they want to do lead generation?

We have a couple of lead generation partners, and we have some digital content that we can provide they can bake into their ad spend. So making those things available to them, the only way that you can really do that is this holistic Dealer Portal that allows them to have an a la carte menu of services that they can go in, look at, learn about and then connect with those people, or you actually do direct downloads. One of the most exciting things we've had on the program recently is installation training.

We've got this guy John Sheridan, he's probably the world's leading installation training for metal period. And we're finishing filming. And who's leading that? Grosso University. They're wrapping that I think today, tomorrow. What are we going to get out of that? We're going to get the ability to give our dealers through the manufacturer... Everything we do at Sherwin-Williams is through our participating manufacturers. It's not Sherwin-Williams. Sherwin-Williams is not going to put a roof on your house.

We're not going to give you a piece of metal. The manufacturer, it's through them that this service becomes a reality. So without them, there's no program. So you find a Sherwin-Williams participating manufacturer in your region, they're the ones who are going to give you access to the Dealer Portal. I'm not giving anyone access to this Dealer Portal unless it's a demo. The dealers are going to line up with that manufacturer. They're going to get this great service from them.

And that's really a really important concept because it's not just that there's stuff that's generic, but that's not what's going to move the ball with homeowner. It's that specific content, what is the manufacturing product you're selling? Tell me more about that. Tell me about that value proposition that's in addition to the Sherwin-Williams. So all of those things are brought forward by the manufacturer to engage the dealer, the contractor. Go ahead.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I was going to say, and also to make that really clear for everyone out there, there is no cost to get into the Dealer's Portal, but there may be costs with individual services that go across. But it's really the fact that these have been companies that have been vetted and that are understanding the metal roofing industry and we're together.

Mark MacDonald: Yeah, that's right. There's no cost. We're not in the business of taking a check for this work. It's engaging with our close vendors and partners that yeah, there's a service fee. They're just like there would be with anybody else. If you want leads, you're not going to get leads for free. You're not going to get business integration for free. You got to work with them.

The value here for us is every time you put a roof on a house and you're an asphalt retail company, a home improvement company, that's new business for our manufacturer and it's new business for Sherwin-Williams. And that's what we want.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yes. And we just had a question in there, Mark, and it goes right to what you just said. Will you be sharing the Dealer Portal? Oh yes.

Mark MacDonald: Yes.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We have a seven day free trial where you can go through and see everything in it and take seven days to do it.

Mark MacDonald: That's something that I believe Dominic and Matt Merck can do is send out to everyone on the call the link to the demo portal. In fact, I have it as a default now on my iPhone. Every time I send an email out, it has the Dealer Portal on there so that people can log into it. Maybe some people won't do that, but that's how important I think it is. I linked it into my email signature.

That's how big of a deal this is to Sherwin-Williams is what does this really unlock? It unlocks the communication between the roofing contractor, the home improvement company and our participating manufacturers. That's the big deal here.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yes. And actually that link right now is in... I am placing that in the chat, and that link is there. But keep paying attention, although we want you to have it. And we're also going to possibly have a QR code here for you pretty soon too.

Dominic Caminata: At the end of this, I'll pull up a QR code that everyone can scan with their phone or tablet that'll take them right to where they can register for the seven day trial.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Exactly.

Mark MacDonald: And Heidi, I apologize, I've got about five minutes left.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay. Any last words, Mark?

Mark MacDonald: Yeah, I do actually. I can maybe put a bow on this. I think that if you're out there listening to this, the first step is get a link to the portal from Grosso University, from myself, from Heidi. I know the people on the call already have it, so hey, you're welcome. And take a look. Spend some time in there because there's a lot to digest. You're not going to digest it in five minutes. There's a lot to see there. And I think once you're in the middle of that, you're going to...

I think Dom and the team, well, Dom did a fantastic job doing the intro to portal to say, hey, this is how you navigate this site and did an even better job talking about this is what MetalVue is. He did an interview with me, and Dom always kind of draws, like you do, Heidi, draws that information out, draws what are the important points here. And so when you watch those two videos, you're going to get a sense of how to find stuff, and you're also going to get a sense of what it is we're talking about.

You're not going to get the entire detail in this webinar, which is okay, but take a look, poke around, look at what we're doing. And then if you're a manufacturer and you're on this call, I mean, the answers will be self-evident. Do you want incremental? Do you want net new business? The answer is probably yes. Do you want dealers or contractors that have sales reps selling your product? The answer is probably yes. Give me a call. Let's talk. If you're a contractor on this call in the retail business, boy, do we have a lot to share with you.

And that's great. I've got a brand and I've got manufacturers that are going to service you. Let's go talk. And then the third group, I would say, if you're in retail or restoration and you want to expand your business, you want to grow your business and gain capability, the great news is take a look at that Dealer Portal and what you'll see is a business in a box for you to do exactly what you want to do, which is grow your business, add high margin products and add scope. So that's what we love.

It works. We're really excited about it. I can't thank Grosso and Matt and Dominic and that entire team enough for what they've done here. I do agree with them that it's probably more comprehensive than a lot of what's out there today. And we're going to keep building it. We're never going to stop innovating. We're going to keep pushing to 2024 and just see where this journey takes us.

So I really appreciate the time, Heidi and Dom, and I appreciate the time of everyone on the call who's taking time out of their day and out of their business to sit here and listen to this. I think if you take the time, you'll be as excited as we're, so thank you very much.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank you, Mark. Safe travels. Thank you so much for being on here. And everyone, we will be finishing up. We have a video to show you, and it's a little bit more information on this portal. Please keep asking your questions and Dom and I can answer those. No problem. And there we go. Okay, so we do want to show a video here. Dom, maybe you can talk just a little bit while I pull up this video to get it out there?

Dominic Caminata: The video that Heidi's going to pull up is a very short and succinct overview of what the MetalVue Dealer Portal is, and it's going to give you some insight as to how you navigate it. But the big thing I want you to see in this video is how comprehensive it is, but also the simplicity of it. It's not one of these daunting online training platforms where you can't find anything.

So everything's clearly and simply labeled and it's designed in such a way where you literally have two pathways to choose and that's it. And you're going to be able to find all your pertinent video content or literature or documents that you need very, very quickly and efficiently. That's what you'll see in this video here.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And hopefully it all will work and you'll be able to hear it too. So here we go.

Video: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the MetalVue Dealer Portal powered by Grosso University. And congratulations to you on taking the first steps to making More with metal. Within this Dealer Portal is a comprehensive library of explainer videos, tutorials and literature, all designed to support your business making your metal roofing division a massive success.

In this video, we're going to briefly explain how to navigate this Dealer Portal, making it easier than ever for you to find the specific content you're looking for. When you first log into the MetalVue portal, you'll see a simple menu of options that will help you navigate to the desired location on the platform. The two most important buttons on this menu will be the training center and the file vault.

When you first select the file vault category, you'll be taken to a vast repository where all MetalVue vendors have uploaded their program overviews, training manuals, print literature and any other pertinent documents to their products and services. The file vault would become your favorite spot to gather information and get the best results out of each service that MetalVue has to offer.

Lastly, if you're looking for any contact information so you can reach out to these vendors directly, every vendor has a simple one-page document that outlines their products and services in detail with the relevant contact information to reach out to them. Moving on to the training center, this is where you're going to find a comprehensive video library breaking down each and every service that is offered through MetalVue.

Each category is clearly labeled to ensure you're able to locate the exact video content you're looking for to support your business. Whether you're looking for assistance with marketing, sales, production, or even operations, the MetalVue Dealer Portal and the training center will be your one-stop to get all your questions answered. We encourage you to take some time to explore all the amazing services that this dealer portal has to offer. And on behalf of everyone here at MetalVue, let's go out there and make more with metal.

Dominic Caminata: So great stuff. So obviously you have the link to register for that one week trial, but basically what you saw is there's two primary buttons that you're going to want to get familiar with, and one is the training center and the other is the file vault. So the training center is where you're going to find all the video content that we've built out to construct this Dealer Portal from A to Z, from top to bottom. And I did the math here. Since we got a part of this program between the sales training content and the Dealer Portal, we filmed and edited over 56 videos so far to date.

And with the installation training, we're probably going to be upwards of 80, 90 videos by the time it's all said and done. So like Mark MacDonald said, there's a lot of content you can enjoy, but you can be efficient with your time by navigating the pertinent content that you're looking for to take your business to the next level.

One thing Mark MacDonald said before you got off the call, which I think is one of the understated values of this whole program, is regardless of what stage you're at in your business, this program truly does give you the blueprint to run a successful home improvement company regardless of what products you sell.

So if you sell windows, baths, kitchen refacing, roofing, siding, whatever it is, the services, the technology, the sales training, everything that we offer here is going to show you how to take your business to the next level and become that dominant retail operation in your market. That's one thing I just want to emphasize here, Heidi. Obviously metal is the headline here, but this is going to help you with any product or service that your company offers, how to take it to the next level.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Exactly. Exactly. And you know what? Let's talk about that. Now that everybody has seen all the things that are in there, and then we're going to go over some of those business services here in just a second, but let's talk a little bit about how it can help the contractors, how can they get the service from the manufacturers that they expect and then what is in that Dealer Portal. So maybe if you can talk to this a little bit, Dom.

Dominic Caminata: Yeah, so how's it in the Dealer Portal is training content from all the different vendors, and of course, even from people explaining things to the OEMs, that's going to help them with generating more leads, with getting more sales, closing more sales, business operations, technology integration, all that stuff's there. And like Mark MacDonald said, this is really all thanks to the participating manufacturers. This is stuff that they're essentially allowing us to be able to offer the contractors in this industry.

And all these things are designed to help contractors making more with metal, following a good, better, best roofing process. So essentially, when you get connected with the right OEM in your territory, they're going to take you through and select a good, better, best metal roofing system that works for you. And of course, a lot of this is based on climate and territory. So the metal roofing solution you'd offer down in Miami, Florida would be a little different than what you'd offer in the Midwest.

So once you have that, a lot of these manufacturers are getting really hands-on with product training, and they're making sure that they sit down with these contractors using things like the Roofing Passport and all the other amazing services to make sure that we have the means to calculate using proposal software, getting the proper estimates and generating a proper per square price for their specific panels. And a lot of this stuff is already built in. You think about companies that try to go paperless or try to go digital.

In some cases, it can take companies years to get that built out where all the heavy lifting's already been done because of the relationship between Sherwin-Williams and these participating manufacturers and the heavy lifting. And as I'm interviewing these people, Heidi, I mean, they spent, in some cases, six to eight months just uploading all this information to the Roofing Passport to make sure dealers and contractors have the means to get the most precise estimating and proposal software ever created in the metal roofing industry and making sure that they also have the means to modify it based on their margin and their per square price in their territory.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Exactly

Dominic Caminata: All they have to do has been done.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Dom, just so people know too, because we're talking about how to work with these metal manufacturers, you say OEMs, however you do it. And so if you're wondering who are these metal manufacturers who are part of MetalVue, that is all on the MetalCoffeeShop directory, and it's actually on the first page. You'll see companies like Drexel, Indiana Metal, McElroy. You can see them all here.

These are the people you should be talking to. RPS. Vicwest is doing some amazing things. So you'll see these metal manufacturers upfront where you can go in, talk to them and say, "I want to be part of MetalVue. How do I do that?" So a very important way to start finding your partners.

Dominic Caminata: And credit to these participating manufacturers. One big thing that they invested in through us personally is creating a masterful in-home presentation that basically walks a salesperson through how to follow our sales process and sell metal roofing following a one call close sales methodology. So if you come on board MetalVue and become a dealer or a contractor selling a Sherwin-Williams coated and branded metal roofing system, depending on what manufacturer you go with, many of these have already made the investment to get this presentation built for you.

So your salespeople will not only have all the tools and technologies and services that they need, but they also have that in-home presentation that they can walk into the house with to instill a tremendous amount of confidence, of course, leverage that Sherwin-Williams brand and truly make the close natural conclusion. So it's not something to take lightly. I mean, I've been on the other side of this as a sales leader and sales coach spending countless hours trying to build out all these sales tools for my team to be successful.

And again, along with all the technology, the integrations, everything we've talked about here, the Business in a Box, you also have all these sales tools that these participating manufacturers invested in to provide that service to the dealers, to the contractors.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Exactly. So we have some questions coming in, Dom, and I want to make sure we get those answered. And I think I did answer it by putting up the MetalCoffeeShop, but how does a contractor know which manufacturers to connect with under the MetalVue umbrella? MetalCoffeeShop. You go to the directory and you're going to see those first manufacturers, anybody who's on that first page. Our manufacturers call them and ask for the MetalVue program.

If you're working with a manufacturer, a metal manufacturer out there, who is not listed, but you are a fan of theirs and they have Sherwin-Williams Coil Coatings on their products, ask them to get involved in the MetalVue program because then you can connect with the emails that we put into the chat, with Mark MacDonald, you know how to get ahold of myself, heidi@rooferscoffeeshop.com and Dom, and we can connect that manufacturer to Sherwin-Williams and say they're interested in the MetalVue program.

So lots of great ways to make this happen for the contractors and the metal manufacturers who are out there. We also had another question about can the link be shared with others in our company so they can take a look? Yes, please share the link. We want everyone to do that seven day trial. Right, Dom?

Dominic Caminata: Yeah. Get as many eyes on this as humanly possible, especially if these are people that are integral to the decision-making process. And we want everybody to have a clear understanding as to what it is and the services that are offered. So yeah, I mean, share this with as many people as you would like. That's the whole goal of this webinar. And the free trial is giving you the opportunity to see what the Dealer Portal is, how it can support your business and of course, give you the information.

I like what Heidi said. Mark made the claim that there's over 1,000 manufacturers in this country alone. And a lot of people don't know this, about 80% of all the metal roofing in this market is coated with a Sherwin-Williams Coil Coating. So chances are, if you're already working with a metal manufacturer, they're already familiar with Sherwin-Williams, they have a relationship with them, and they're putting a Sherwin-Williams Coil Coating on their product. So feel free.

If you love what you see, this whole notion of the business and the training and technology and service all served up to you, bring these metal manufacturers to the table and we'd love to make them a part of this. This is just the beginning, and we fully intend to bring in a lot more people on board to, again, have a whole different level of professionalism and service to the metal roofing market.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Exactly, exactly. So as we're looking at this, I think one of the things that we definitely want to talk about is the importance of the sales call, Dom. I mean, this is really the sales training, I should say training, that you provide is really what is kind of jet fuel of the MetalVue program. So talk a little bit about that.

Dominic Caminata: So behind me here, I don't know if everyone can see this, but I got the Metal Roofing Academy. And just to kick this off, and this is something you and I have talked about on previous webinars before, Heidi, but something like 47% of homeowners are considering metal for their next roofing system. And again, metal is growing in market share, but still only about 17% of roofs are actually installed with metal. Right now it's only about 17% of the market. And a lot of the reason for this is because of all the things we've talked about previously.

The contractors in a lot of cases were attempting to sell metal roofing in a similar fashion that they were selling asphalt roofing. A lot of them were only focusing on people that were asking for metal, and they were trying to be more price driven when they're selling metal roofing. And I don't want to use the word order taking because I don't want to offend anybody, but they were essentially trying to be a low price competitor.

And being that metal roofing is a premium product with a much higher average ticket, in order for salespeople to have high levels of success on selling this product profitably, it's helpful for them to be expertly trained to differentiate, build value to effectively price condition, and do it in such a masterful way that prospects truly desire the priceless benefits of a Sherwin-Williams coil coated metal roofing system. So we'll be trained on Grosso University with our step selling sales process is we train salespeople to truly deliver that masterful presentation.

And what this does, Heidi, is it helps equip homeowners with the information they need to make a confident decision in the roof that they deserve. Let's be honest. So this empowers salespeople also to not just sell metal roofing to metal roofing customers, the people that are asking for it, but we also give salespeople the training and skills to convert potentially an asphalt customer to a metal roof. And we do it in such a way where, again, it's professional. It's, again, duplicatable.

The results are predictable, and the goal of our system is very simple. We have an 11 step sales methodology that we train on this one call close. And the goal is to build such a tremendous foundation of trust with your prospective client, create such a huge amount of want and desire, eliminate proactively all the common objections that salespeople typically run into, and funnel it down to affordability as being the only thing standing in the way. So the close feels more like a natural conclusion.

So a lot of people, Heidi, when they hear one call close sales, the first thing they think about is high pressure sales, sleazeball, scumbag, these typical salespeople definitions. So this is not a high pressure sale. We actually define this as a velvet hammer approach. So salesperson, of course, is trained to go into every house ready to earn their business on the spot, strike while the iron's hot, but they do it in such a professional manner and they provide such an immense education for these homeowners that by the end of the sales process, the homeowner is actually eager to move forward.

They want to do it. And when they are eager to move forward, when they love the product and they need it and they can afford it, once you make it affordable, you can assume the order with a relaxed, assertive confidence and the sale feels like a natural conclusion. And what I explained to salespeople all over the country is he did it right when you influence a buying decision, of course, you do a good job influencing that, but the homeowner the whole time feels and believes as if it was their decision the whole time.

And that's the way it should feel. And I often refer to when you buy a car. I don't know if you bought a car recently, Heidi, but anybody that buys a car, they never go to their friends and family and say, "I was sold a car." They say, "I bought a car."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I bought a car.

Dominic Caminata: So at the end of the sales process, and this is what our paint by number system does, and I'll explain what I mean by that, but the homeowner, when the salesperson leaves, they feel as if they bought the metal roofing system. It's not something that was forced upon them. There's no strong arm selling here. So again, this is done in a velvety smooth manner. Now, Heidi, I don't know, are you a good artist? Can you freehand? If I give you a blank canvas, can you paint stuff really?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I'm pretty good with stick figures.

Dominic Caminata: Stick figures? Okay. Really good at hangman?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, there you go.

Dominic Caminata: So I'm personally not a great artist. If you gave me a canvas and asked me to paint you something really nice, it would look like a stick figure more than likely, like a 2-year-old painted it, right? So the reason why I'm saying that is if you give me a paint by number system though, somewhere it has the canvas clearly marked out with the numbers on the canvas, and then you got your select colors, let's say you have 11 colors to choose from, that's your step selling process. As long as I match up this color with the color on the canvas, I can actually create masterpieces.

I can replicate that performance, right, even though I'm not a good artist. And the reason why I'm explaining that is the sales process is designed to define the 80-20 rule. And a lot of sales organizations, 20% of the salespeople make 80% of the money. And unfortunately, 80% of the sales team is churning and burning. You're churning through about 80% of your sales team.

So we want to flip that upside down where you have such a no-brainer, easy to follow, easy to implement, paint by number sales process, that literally anyone with the right attitude and work ethic can learn and follow and execute. That 80% of your team is wildly successful. And worst case scenario, you're only having to turn over 20% of your sales team. Ideally, you want to keep everyone if you can, but again, we want to make sure success is replicatable, duplicatable, and predictable.

And even if someone's not necessarily a natural-born salesperson, we train them to be proficient at sales and to become multimillion dollar producers because they learn the paint by number system and can create masterpieces in a predictable manner. So that's one of the best ways I can explain that.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It is. And I think it's so interesting because I think it is important to have that engagement with the homeowner, building owner. It's their decision. But I think also something to point out that's really important, Dom, is that there's also great upselling opportunities. Because maybe you're talking about a beautiful metal roof on visit, but then you have that same customer who was going to need siding.

And Vicwest offers absolutely beautiful. And a lot of the other companies too. We just had Vicwest on, so that's why I said that. But they have beautiful siding, board and bath, shiplap, all kinds of beautiful things.

Dominic Caminata: Vicwest is beautiful to have it as a whole. I'm highly impressed with what they're doing. And that's a great point, Heidi. And one thing I want to explain. So one of my superpowers is sales training. This is what I do. I live, eat, breathe, and sleep sales training my whole life.

And one thing that always blew me away is once a salesperson learn this sales process, and that took weeks for me to train the system typically into them to where they can master it, anytime I added a new product to their arsenal, it only took about one to two days, because you can plug pretty much any product or service into the step selling methodology and a sales rep can go into the house with confidence, with predictable results.

And that's what's great is it does give you that opportunity to upsell. So if you offer siding, or even if you offer other products like windows or baths or kitchen facing, it really doesn't matter.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Gutters.

Dominic Caminata: You have a system that not only is going to empower your salespeople, but it's also going to be that roadmap to the sale that sales leaders can now hold their team accountable to. So I often coach clients where they come to us for the first time, and it is like, "Dominic, I have 40 salespeople doing it 40 different ways. It's like trying to herd cats right now." And that's very stressful and challenging because if I don't have any roadmap, again, if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

If I don't have any system that they're supposed to follow, how can I hold them accountable? It becomes very difficult. What this becomes is one of the foundational tools that a sales leader in an organization can use to keep their team on track and hold them accountable to following a specific set of guidelines and a process.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I think that's just so critical to this whole MetalVue because it's not just sales, which starts it, which is so important, but just so you know, so everyone knows out there, as you go through the MetalVue Dealer Portal, you're also going to have how to onboard with your manufacturer, your metal manufacturer or OEM. You're going to have business training along with Grosso sales training. There's lead generation. There's labor acquisition with ToolBelt, visualization with Renoworks, financial services, business solutions. There's so many, I can't even name all of those.

Measure and bid with EagleView and Roofing Passport, ongoing installation training with John Sheridan, as Mark noted earlier, and all the other Sherwin-Williams products that are out there, all the roof coatings with Kool Seal and Uniflex. All that kind of expertise is also available there. And finally, I have to say, Dom, MetalCoffeeShop. We are the networking platform.

We are the hub along with Grosso where we bring everything together and we interlink back and forth. So it makes for a full circle where you're going to be able to get all the information that you need to be able to take advantage of all these different services.

Dominic Caminata: I just want to, again, give props to Mark MacDonald and just his belief in what it is that we're doing and his ability to make decisions in a very quick period of time. Because I had John Sheridan actually come to the studio to film his MetalVue LMS segment, and John Sheridan travels all over the country to do this installation training. Credit to him. I mean, I agree with Mark, world-class, legendary installation training. You're talking nobody better.

But at the same time, I can also empathize with him that when I train a salesperson on my whole process, I'll be lucky if at the end of that training they retain 10% of it. It's a lot of information. And John Sheridan runs into that same obstacle where he'll do this three day comprehensive installation training on good, better, best systems, and it's amazing, but you can only retain so much information.

So whether you use this installation training program to become the installation training and certification process within your company, or you simply use it to reinforce the training that they received in person from John Sheridan himself. I mean, I brought this idea up to Mark MacDonald. He said, "I love it. Let's do it." It is like that simple. It's like, this is a no-brainer. This is the type of stuff that the contractors need. The manufacturers would love to be able to offer that service.

And everyone just came together in a very short period of time and said, "Yes, let's do this." So anything that makes sense where it's like, okay, this is something that could help support contractors and dealers and help them make more with metal. They've been so prompt and efficient to make that decision, make the investment and just do it. So I think it's just a testament to how much they truly believe and how much they genuinely care about supporting contractors and dealers all over the country.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, they really do. It's pretty amazing. So how to get started so that everyone knows out there. We've talked about this already, but it is in the chat. So you can get a direct link in the chat, and that is a seven day free access of the demo Dealer's Portal. You want to connect with Sherwin Williams and I put Mark MacDonald's email into the chat also. So please grab that. Select a metal manufacturer. We talked about that. That is all available on MetalCoffeeShop in the first page of the directory.

Check out the metal manufacturers there. Or if they're not listed there, ask them why not. And then once you pick your metal manufacturer and they are MetalVue, you need to onboard with them in order to get access to all these services. But at that time, they will also, and Dom wants to talk about that a little bit, they will also have their own individual LMS services through Grosso for each metal manufacturer that will also go over their products, right?

Dominic Caminata: Yeah, exactly. So we're working with each manufacturer to put together some really amazing kits and soft packs that your salespeople can carry into the house. And then we're offering product specific training content for each manufacturer. So again, at the dealer level, the contractor level, we're going to make sure that any sales training tools in-home presentation at the end of the day is going to be built specifically for you.

So we're going to be basically your wingman or wingmaam throughout the whole process all the way down to making sure that the person at the kitchen table sitting across from your salesperson sees a masterful, beautiful presentation. Your salespeople are expertly trained in how to deliver it, selling your products and services with that participating manufacturer.

So again, we're going to give you all that hands-on support and training every step of the way. So someone was asking about the QR code. And whenever you guys are ready, I can pop that on the screen for everyone to see.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah, why don't you go ahead and do that. That's great. And yes, a recording to this MetalTalk will be available within 24 hours on MetalCoffeeShop under MetalTalk, under the RLW initiative. And also you should get a link from Zoom that comes through saying that you can get to it too. Of course, heidi@rooferscoffeeshop.com. If you don't get it, let us know.

Dominic Caminata: Can you just stop your screen share off real quick, Heidi?

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yep. I will stop the screen share right now.
Dominic Caminata: There we go.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: And there you go.

Dominic Caminata: So everyone, if you get your phones out, so this is the QR code you can scan, and what this will do... Again, Heidi had it in the chat box, but save this QR code. You can revisit this later or share this QR code with your friends or people, your coworkers or your peers. This is a very simple way they can get registered for this seven day trial and start exploring everything that this Dealer Portal has to offer.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We will also have that QR code along with the link, along with all this information on the Grosso University directory, on MetalCoffeeShop, along with the Sherwin-Williams and MetalVue directories, both on RoofersCoffeeShop and MetalCoffeeShop. So you can find it throughout the sites and be able to get that seven day or share that out with everyone. And obviously this is available right now. If you're watching it on demand, you're going to be able to get this very easy. Thank you, Dom. That is awesome.

Dominic Caminata: Yeah, and someone asked for my contact information. I did put my email in the chat box for everybody. It's dcaminata@grossouniversity.com. If you want more information on the Dealer Portal, the Metal Roofing Academy, or just in general the services that Grosso University offers, feel free to shoot me an email.

We can set up some time to go over this stuff. I love talking about this Metal Roofing Academy, and I get really passionate about it. And typically just when I'm explaining this program, people are taking notes. I'm dropping golden nuggets just from explaining what the program is. So I'm excited and eager to meet with you guys and show you how this program can take your business to the next level.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Excellent. And I want to say thank you, Dom. Thank you so much, and thank you to Mark who had to leave, but we made it through and some great information. So thank you so much for being here today.

Dominic Caminata: Yeah, thank you, Heidi, for everything you've done. And again, we're excited to be a part of this and looking forward to growing this program with you. And it's, as always, a pleasure being on MetalTalk.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: It is always fun. And for all of you out there, thank you so much for watching. I want to say a special thank you to Grosso University and Sherwin-Williams for sponsoring this metal talk and for bringing all this great information and program to the metal industry. This, like you said, will be available within 24 hours and we have our next MetalTalk in the middle of December.

It'll be the second week of December, or I'm sorry, the third week of December. And it will be we are bringing some metal roofing and metal building experts together to talk about 2024 and what they see coming. Check that out. Watch for it. Please check out the directories for both Grosso and Sherwin-Williams and definitely check out the MetalVue. You'll find all of that information there. So for everyone out there, thank you so much and have a wonderful day.

Dominic Caminata: Thank you, everyone. Take care.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thanks.