Working in roofing distribution for years, Rob Miller gained knack for finding the products that customers needed. Those detective skills came in handy when an otherwise stubborn customer sought out a century-old clay tile.

“I just dove in and, you know, this pre-dates the internet, so a lot of it was phone calls and faxing and drawing line drawings of the pictures with the dimension on it, faxing it around the country,” Miller said. “And it turns out I found it for him, and he bought the tile from me and I ended up getting his shingle business going forward.”

The light bulb went off in Miller’s head, and Miller collected literature about luxury products like slate, cedar, tile, and hard-to-find products, carving a niche for himself in the industry. In 2008, he struck out on his own, founding Worth Roof in North Carolina.

Miller shares his journey into the roofing distribution world and how roofing suppliers and distributors can take advantage of entering the market to diversity and create more opportunities for sales.

“I believe this is a differentiator because … if you have a people that someone that throws a 100-year-old piece of tile on the counter at a branch and you can say ‘yes’ to that versus throwing your hands up the air. That that gives you value versus the distributor across the street,” Miller said.

View the full conversation here or listen to the podcast version.