The morning of February 27th, a sea of passionate Shamrockers flocked to our Kansas City headquarters.
Men and women traveled from our Texas, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri branches. At 9 a.m., a three-day training seminar began. Steve Patrick – a well-known strategic advisor, consultant, and author – headlined. He offered words of wisdom and encouragement to our Shamrock sales team.
“It’s an amazing opportunity for our company, for everyone to be able to come together and get to know each other. Have the opportunity to grow and be educated,” said Austin Boyd, Sales Director. “We have one of the best in the business giving everyone tools for success. I’ve been in this business for seven years, and I never had these opportunities when I started. Many lives will be changed and impacted by their experience this week and with Shamrock.”
Each day, Steve took the stage and tackled different subjects: Leveraging the Art of Persuasion; Crushing Your Goals, Doubling Productivity & Sales Fundamentals; and General Contractor Overhead and Profit.
The KC team gave a warm welcome to those who came from out of town, especially Garen Armstrong, Executive Director.
“Having everybody in from all the branches to connect, meet each other, and see how each office operates is always a big deal. It strengthens the overall camaraderie here at Shamrock Roofing & Construction,” said Armstrong. “We are so thankful to Steve Patrick for coming out to discuss goal setting, vision planning, persuasion, and how to deal with adjusters and overcome objections. These are all great topics for our growing sales team.”
Tom McMahon, General Manager, had a similar perspective. “I loved getting to see everybody face to face – from the new hires to the tenured project managers. It’s great to see the younger people learn and feed off of our experienced employees.”
Guest speaker, Steve Patrick, focused on the importance of connection, listening, and continuous education. He referenced many points from his book, “Win the Claim Game by Leveling the Playing Field”. He emphasized what it takes to succeed in the art of sales: developing a relationship with the customer and showing you care by being an active listener and a trustworthy, respectable, and likable professional.
Succeeding in sales is creating honest, compelling conversations that do not involve boxing gloves (i.e. hostility). It’s asking the right questions and showing you’re willing to put in the time and energy to give customers a hassle-free experience, which is the goal at Shamrock and why our motto is “One Call Does It All”.
“I always tell homeowners, ‘The only thing I need you to do is pick out your new roof. We will handle the rest,’” said Chase Swisher, Kansas City Branch Manager. “It’s important to properly educate our project managers so that when a client calls Shamrock, they’re getting a trained professional who will walk them through the process and make it hassle-free.”
Being a top-rated speaker, Steve spoke in an engaging manner with notes of humor and humility. He gave our sales team a fresh perspective about selling roofs and working with claims adjusters. He challenged everyone to remember, “You are not in the roofing business; you are in the people business.”
In addition to classic sales tactics, Steve instructed the sales team to reflect on their biggest dreams on annual Spring Fling. He taught everyone practical steps for turning those dreams into realistic, attainable goals. With Shamrock being an ambitious company, it’s important for its employees to have the same ambitious attitude. It is clear how passionate Steve is about others setting goals and paying the price to achieve them.
“I love seeing the lightbulbs go off when I’m presenting. I see the faces and notice the eyes and body language and know they’re getting it,” he went on to say, “I can’t wait to be back a year from now and for people to come up to me and say ‘Man, I went to your event and here is my story, here are the goals that I’ve achieved,’ That is what makes it for me. Impacting people’s lives now and for eternity”.
Our annual Spring Fling event strengthens our company culture. Allowing it to not only positively affect the employees, but the customers as well.
“We are building a culture of continuity and uplifting the individuals within the company so that we all have the same vision of what we’re trying to accomplish at Shamrock,” said McMahon.
The three-day Spring Fling training ended on Thursday night with an awards ceremony. The recognition given to key members of the Shamrock team increased company-wide morale while inspiring the newer employees to climb the same ladder of success as the seasoned team members.
“I love that Shamrock gives awards and recognition to our project managers who go above and beyond. It’s great for new guys to see, so they can follow in their footsteps,” said Swisher.
As Shamrock’s Spring Fling 2024 drew to a close, it was easy to see its impact. The sales team will now return to their respective branches, fired up, and ready to use all the knowledge provided by Steve Patrick. With big sales goals comes even bigger successes for Shamrock Roofing and Construction. That is exactly what Garen Armstrong wanted, “To pour life into everyone who is a major part of the Shamrock Nation community.”