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“Because your company is only as STRONG as you are.”
Forward-thinking roofers tune in to get help building STRONG companies, sales teams, leaders, systems, marketing, relationships, culture, and financials.
Whether you own a own a roofing company, manage one, or sell roofs - subscribe to the channel for content that will help you:
1) Close even more roofing sales.
2) Adapt to new roofing industry trends and changes.
3) Take control of your roofing marketing and lead generation.
4) Improve D2D roofing sales.
5) Build the roofing company of tomorrow.
Hosted by Adam Bensman
- Started in D2D roofing sales in 2011
- Former Roofing Company COO (multi-state)
- Creator of the Roof Strategist Sales System (used nationwide for retail + storm)
- Founder of The Roofing STRONG Alliance by TAMKO™ (formerly known as the Roofing & Solar Reform Alliance)
- Author of the #1 Best-Selling Book: The Roofing Sales Survival Guide: Beat the Odds, Overcome Yourself, and Win Big
Content produced on or before 5/13/26 was previously produced by The Roof Strategist, TAMKO makes no representations or warranties regarding the content.
Dealing with toxic, negative, angry people
can totally put a damper in your day.
And in roofing sales,
we deal with toxicity.
All the time.
It might even come up when you're
just knocking on someone's door.
They scream at you, calling you a scumbag,
telling you to get a real job, calling
you all sorts of names that I wouldn't
even be able to say here on YouTube.
And other times it comes up
with our customers, people that
we've served and everything
seems like it's going just fine.
And then like a light switch, they
flip and all of a sudden they are
angry, aggressive, insulting, and.
And if you're anything like me, these
things, even though we say, Hey, don't
take it personal, they can impact us.
In fact, we can go back home or
back to the office, and the weight
of that negativity is like a rain
cloud over us that poisons our day.
Poisons our mindset, poisons
our motivation, and it is just
really difficult to shake it out.
So in this video, I want to give you
some tools to help you deal with the
toxic negativity that is inevitable
when it comes to roofing sales.
And the reality is, this video right
here was inspired by someone who
just said, I don't review the roof
Strat, or gimme a thumbs down and
says a, a negative review on Facebook.
And then his comment was, these reviews.
And the truth is many of them were cuz
we got spammed by someone doing some four
X trading and it blew up our page and
we've reported them to Facebook three
times and they will not take it down.
But every single other review that you
see there on the Facebook reviews is real.
These are people that have met me.
That are using our programs.
You can click on their profile and see.
You can go to our website and the link
in the description and click on the
results tab and see hundreds in hundreds
in hundreds of unsolicited reviews.
You can jump in any industry Facebook
group and say, Hey, what do you
guys think of the roo strategist?
And ask publicly or search Adam Besman
or the Roo strategist, and you'll
see for yourself what's being said.
But when I get these reviews, they still
drive me nuts and they get under my skin.
And I said, you.
What a great time when I'm
right in the thick of it to be
able to relate to that feeling.
Like when I was knocking a door
and someone screams at me telling
me I'm a scumbag, get a real job.
You're a low life loser, whatever else.
So sorry, my blood
pressure's getting going.
Let's get to it, shall we?
First, I just wanna say a quick welcome
or welcome back, Adam Benjamin here, the
roof strategist and everything that I
dedicate every waking minute practically
of my life to is this helping you and
your team smash your income goal and give
every customer an amazing experience?
And I know I can't say every minute of
my waking life, but lately it sure feels
like it over the last six months with
the hours that we've been putting in.
But at the end of the.
The reason I do what I do is because
I've found, in my opinion, an
estimation that about 66% of first
year sales reps quit or get fired.
And the main reason for that is
they weren't equipped to succeed.
And part of being equipped to succeed is
knowing what you're actually gonna face.
Now this industry is far from.
Easy.
It is really simple, but it is not easy.
We get beat down, we get called names.
Customers flip like that.
Crew stuff happens, uh, cu There's
inner conflict in the office.
Just things are not easy.
The interpersonal stuff that we face
is just really, really challenging.
So let's jump into how do we
deal with this toxic negativity?
And I want to give you three helpful tips.
Now, tip number one is
to realize that it's.
About you.
Now I want to qualify that because
everybody says, don't worry about it.
It's not about you.
Now, one of the videos I did in
the past was on staying motivated
even when times get tough.
And I shared this story and I'm gonna
share it again here, but a short version,
and it's an ancient Chinese proverb.
There's a man paddling up river in
his canoe, and as he's paddling,
he sees coming down river, a canoe
coming towards him and upset.
He stands up and he waves his paddling.
He says, Hey dude, watch out.
You're coming right towards.
And the canoe barrels straight
towards him without moving.
So naturally this guy gets mad.
He's in that canoe.
He's like, he's, he moves over and
the canoe comes right towards him.
He says, dude, watch out.
You're coming right towards me.
And the canoe keeps coming towards
him, and he's looking around.
He's like, what a freaking idiot.
And he gets irate and he's
screaming at the man in the canoe.
And then before you know
it, The canoes collide.
The man falls down.
He stumbles upon, uh, drops his,
his ore, picks it up and turns
around and he looks at the canoe
that just passed and it was empty.
And the message in that is that there's
no one in the canoe, meaning our reactions
to things, our broadcast of emotions are
targeted, but they're really not at some.
And just the same as someone who thought
that it was a good idea to write me a
negative review that wasn't about me, Adam
Besman, that's not insulting my character.
This is someone who just so happens
to have enough free time and to
feel compelled to share this.
And I realized that instead of being
angry, I realize it's not about me.
In fact, I shifted from anger to
a level of compassion to say, that
must really not be a great way to.
To feel so compelled to just jump
online and say negative things about
someone else, to feel better about
me by putting someone down, huh?
It's no sweat off my back cuz
there's no one in the canoe.
If it's not me, it's someone else.
And chances are that person has
blasted the same thing to other people.
So it's not about me
and it's not about you.
So tip number one is to realize
that even when things feel targeted
and directed at you and toward.
It's really not about you.
We often personalize these things like
it's an attack on your core being,
but if you just swapped you for sales
rep number two, and they're in here,
they're gonna get that same response
from the person, the angry screaming
when things go wrong in people's homes.
They get really personal.
All right, because it's
their home and their castle.
So there's tip number one.
Don't take it personal.
Remember, there's no one in the canoe.
Now, tip number two is to
reconnect with your why.
Now, what is our why?
I'll share mine.
My why is to help every sales rep
smash their income goal and give
every customer an amazing experience.
Now I'll, I don't know if I'll ever
be able to impact that many people.
I don't know if I'll
ever be able to do that.
So it gives me this vision
to chase indefinitely.
And I was inspired, by the way, by Simon
Sinek's book called The Infinite Game
in order to chase that really big why.
So I reconnect with that.
Say, Hey, you know what?
I can't let this one clown.
Upset my path and distract
me from serving my people.
And just the same for you.
Your mission is to smash your income
goal, I assume, and give everyone of
your customers an amazing experience.
And if you allow this toxic negative
energy, energy to impact who
you're serving, they're winning.
So if your mission is to serve,
well earn great money by collecting
what I call thank you notes.
You know the types where a customer
hands you the check for 20 grand.
Thank you so much for taking the
time to explain everything to me.
Thank you so much for being here for me.
They're thanking you
as they give you money.
That right there is the greatest gift
in the entire world, and your mission is
to stay focused on serving those people
and just look at that as some, some
distraction trying to pull you off course.
So focus on your people,
your why and your mission.
And if you don't have a Y yet, I
wanna walk you through a really
fast exercise to to figure that out.
We first write down our income goal.
I wanna earn X dollars by this.
And then we ask ourselves, well,
why do I want to earn that money?
And for many of us we're
like, well, I don't know.
I just never did before.
But that's not enough.
Ask yourself deeper.
Is it to buy the house?
Is it to save money for
college or for your kids?
And then you ask one more time,
and why is that important?
So we have our goal.
Why is it important?
Why is that important?
And when we go even deeper, that goal
might be because I didn't have these
opportunities in a, as a kid, and I
knew that if I did, I'd be even further.
So what I want to do is give my children
those opportunities that I didn't
have, give my wife the opportunity
to not have to work, to raise our
kids, save for college, and provide
a lifestyle that I didn't have.
Now we're tapping into something.
All right, so that's reason
number two, or excuse me, method
number two, to survive this toxic
negativity is to tap into your why.
And then reason number three
or method number three, this
is far in away my favorite.
It is to close your.
And recite all of the amazing customers
that you've served, the lives you've
impact, the stories you've heard from
people, the emails that are sent in
saying, thank you so much for helping me.
You've been amazing.
I can't believe that we wanted to buy
in your roof and you found hail damage.
Thank you for making this
process so streamlined.
Thank you for creating an opportunity
that was so much better than the last
time we had a deal with a contractor.
The homeowners that invite you back for
dinner, the customers that write you
a thank you card, the customers that
send you home with homemade baked goods
because they loved working with you.
And when you go through all three of these
in one and you say, it's not about me.
And then number two, I'm tapping
into my why of being of service.
And number three, look, I am worthy.
Look at all these people I've served.
What you do is you create a shell
of armor that all this toxic
negativity boo just bounces off.
And one of those reviews that
inspired this was a gentleman who, who
commented, he says, Adam, thank you
for just being you and being quirky.
And I, I laughed.
And he, he put in parentheses
and quirky in a good way.
And, you know, At first,
I was ashamed of it.
I was a little worried about
being myself and being quirky.
I, I didn't fit the norm when I started
doing this in the roofing space.
And the more I've been who I am, the
greatest challenge has been to be more
of me and inspiring others to do it.
Now I feel like it's my duty.
It is my duty to be me, to to be
authentic, to be unfiltered, but
to do so in a, in a heartfelt
way, not a way to justify having
a negative attitude or cursing or
throwing f-bombs in every other word.
I mean, tapping into my
core, being of a loving human
being, trying to serve others.
And the more that we do this together,
you and me together, the more that we
can serve, the more we can earn, and the
more that we can uplift this industry.
So listen, my ask of you is
if you know anyone on your.
Who's dealt with negativity or an angry
customer, share this video with them.
It's not gonna stop.
We're gonna be bombarded with it,
especially in the world of social media
where everyone can get behind a keyboard.
And when I was just speaking at the
Owens Corning Platinum Conference,
David Goggins talked about how he's
sitting there trying to run a hundred
mile race, getting feedback from people
who've never run a mile in their life.
And, and it, that one saying, I was
like, David Goggins, you're awesome, man.
I love that.
So join me on a journey of building our.
Remember, it's not about you.
Tap into your why.
And remember all of those people who
love the service that you gave them,
and you'll provide a shell to deflect
all the toxic negativity, which
I'm gonna let you in on a secret.
The more successful you get,
the more it comes so you can
fulfill upon your mission.
Smash your income goal and give
every customer in amazing experience.
Pass this video on to someone who.
Thank you so much for joining
me today, just cuz our time
here is about to wrap up.
Doesn't mean you are in my time, has to.
If you like this video and you want
more, I invite you to join me in
my free training center and you can
click right here to get inside or text
the word free to 3 0 3 2 2 2 71 33.
And if you want more videos on Mindset,
YouTube, I, excuse me, I have a great
playlist for you on YouTube and you
can just jump into that one right here.
Hey, thanks again for joining me
and I'll see you on the next one.