You don’t become one of the country’s fastest growing building product distributors unless you’re laser focused on serving your customers.
Based in McKinney, Texas, SRS Distribution has over 750 locations across 45 states. They serve everyone from home restoration contractors to new construction developers and offer the latest products in siding, windows, metal and commercial roofing materials, shingles, gutters, doors, and more.
To stand out in a competitive industry, SRS has to offer more than just the best products at the right price. And that’s where Hover comes in.
“Integrations with Hover and other tech have enabled me to now sell into bigger customers,” explains Jarelle Hightower, a territory manager with the SRS branch in Aubrey, Texas. With Hover, he can quickly and easily generate highly detailed takeoffs that give building contractors immediate confidence in their estimates – whether it’s for an insurance restoration job or a complex multi-family project.
Securing New Business with Takeoffs
With over 80% of Jarelle’s time spent pursuing new business, he needs a way to differentiate SRS. Whether it’s a roofing replacement or a new build, Jarelle offers takeoffs for new customers as a way to win new business.
“A lot of roofing sales reps are new to the industry and look for expert guidance on project material requirements,” said Jarelle. “Often, it’s because they don’t yet have the experience to understand the measurements and special materials required for elements like valleys and ridges.” Hover incorporates these details – making it very easy for me to support them with their takeoffs and to input the materials they want.”
On new build projects, Jarelle simply uploads the blueprint into Hover. The new Material List feature quickly generates a complete list of every material needed and accurately calculates quantities based on Hover’s precise measurements. “Any time I do a Hover job now, I use the Material List feature,” he adds.
Having Hover run the calculations is particularly valuable to him when working on complex multi-family unit projects. Often when meeting with a potential client, he’ll show them a takeoff that Hover generated for another job. “I had one customer email me right back, asking me to run his own multi-family project through Hover,” adds Jarelle. “He sent me three more jobs after that.”
Using Hover’s Material List and Takeoffs Saves Precious Time
Before Jarelle started using Hover, he was having to convert everything manually – adding further complexity to an added service he offers his customers. He remembers taking eight pages of notes, front and back, on one project with 17 buildings, all different.
With Hover, he’s now saving 2 or more hours per takeoff. “Now I don’t have to do the math,” said Jarelle.
Hover’s takeoff templates account for all the materials needed for a job, including all installation requirements to meet building codes and manufacturer requirements. With its precise measurements, in just a few clicks, Hover runs the conversions and spits out a detailed, accurate takeoff.
What used to take a day can now be done in hours. “I can send four to five jobs a day to my boss and get the pricing done on the same day,” he adds. “Hover has cut my time down so much, I can now promise my customers a takeoff within an hour.” And that leaves precious time he can use to pursue new business.
Even better, he can empower his contractors to do the takeoffs themselves. “Knowing Hover has the ability to do all this work makes it seem easy,” adds Jarelle.
Selling the “Full Exterior”
While roofing is Jarelle’s specialty, he knows how important it is to sell across the full range of trades his branch offers. Using Hover, Jarelle can confidently provide quotes beyond roofing materials. He can add premium products like windows (and anything else included in the blueprints) that are harder to estimate and outside his wheelhouse.
“The more I added, the more excited this one client was,” explained Jarelle. “If I can provide the walls, the outside, roofing, and windows, that’s basically 80% of the building. The convenience of having just one instead of three different vendors – and gaining all the associated efficiencies and time saved managing a single vendor – adds tremendous value beyond materials pricing alone.”
