Atlas Roofing has shaken off its COVID isolation and kicked off one of the shingle manufacturer’s beloved press-the-flesh events, the Atlas Roofing Road Show, which hit the road mid-April starting in Minneapolis, Minn., before its second stop — Ann Arbor, Mich., hosting clients at The Big House.

Michigan Stadium, venerated home of the University of Michigan’s Wolverines football team, welcomed around 250 contractors and guests for a full day of games, informative speakers and thousands of dollars worth of giveaways and prizes.

Playing host while donning a money-print suit, Stan Bastek, Atlas’ vice president of sales and marketing for its shingles and underlayment division, channeled his inner carnival barker to rouse the crowd while infusing information about the company’s newest products and suggested best practices for selling.

“We are so excited to be back on the road, networking and connecting with our partners in the field,” Bastek said in his emphatic, late-night, “I’m gonna convince you to buy my product” voice.

Effusive and upbeat, the Atlas executive MCs these events for a reason: he’s earnestly unrestrained. And while the atmosphere was raucously restrained, the information offered up was beneficial from both a product-pitch perspective and instructive on how contractors should think about how approaching new business.

For example, Bastek suggested that contractors scrap the notion of trying to sell roofing based solely on price versus putting quality front and center of the pitch. Rather than launching into a sale with a base product and then working on an upsell, inverse it.

“[Present] your products in a good, better, best lineup and start with the best,” he explained. “Most customers won’t want to pay for the best product, but when it comes to quality, they’re more [apt] to spring for the ‘better,’ which is more expensive than the good, but not out of reach.”

In addition to describing the benefits of Atlas’ various products, meteorologist Derek Kline, principal of HailTrace, a storm analytics company, discussed the science behind hail and how that science is used to help substantiate insurance claims. Other topics discussed included using in-home sales tools, Atlas’ proprietary sale tracking tools and a coaching session by Nathan Tebedo of ContractorCoachPRO.

The day concluded with a visit to the field where attendees had the chance to strike their best Heisman pose, kick field goals, and channel their inner Tom Brady or J.J. McCarthy.

From Ann Arbor, the Road Show travels to Coors Field in Denver on May 18, with six more stops throughout the summer. For more information on the Atlas Road Show Stadium Tour, visit atlas.com.