Jason Forrest

09/09/2026

Owners and sales leaders in home improvement and roofing, this is worth reading before your next sales meeting.

The first time I was promoted into sales management, long before I started Forrest Performance Group, I asked my boss what I should do. His advice was simple. Ask the salespeople how you can help them. So I did, and every answer was the same. Better leads. Better prices. A better product. I spent months trying to deliver things that were never actually mine to give, and I felt like an overpaid admin.

Everything changed the day I told a rep the truth instead: "I can't change your price or your leads, but I can teach you how to sell through those problems." A rep named Kristine came back the next week and asked me to coach her again, after she closed a deal using exactly what I taught her. Rep after rep started asking for the same thing.

That taught me that fixing a rep's circumstances only keeps them waiting on things nobody in the room controls, while building one specific skill in that rep sends them into every future deal with something that actually stays.

Owners and sales leaders, count how many hours this week went into adjusting circumstances for a rep versus building a skill in that rep. That number predicts next quarter's close rate.

Comment "freedom" below and I'll send you a free copy of Sales Freedom.

09/02/2026

You keep hiring "A-players." They keep going average within twelve months. Here's the real reason, and it's not who you're hiring.

Contractors, sales leaders across roofing, remodeling, and home improvement are telling me the same story right now: a great rep joins the team, misses quota, and is gone inside of a year. Not because they got worse at selling. Because the environment around them never gave their skill anywhere to go.

Here's the principle I want every home improvement owner to write down: Performance = Knowledge − Leashes. Your rep already has the knowledge. What's stealing their performance is a leash, and it usually isn't something in them. It's something in the room: a sales manager who steps in and closes the deal instead of coaching the rep through it, a quota that moves depending on the owner's mood, a Monday meeting that reviews numbers instead of building skill.

Most contractors respond to a rough quarter by blaming the hire. They go find another "A-player," drop them into the exact same sales management system, and eighteen months later they're having the same conversation about a different name.

Before you post another job ad, do this instead. Sit down with your current sales manager and ask one question: in the last 30 days, how many deals did you close FOR a rep instead of coaching them to close it themselves?

Drop your honest number in the comments below. If it's above zero, you don't have a talent problem in your building. You have a coaching problem, and that one belongs to leadership to solve, not the rep you just hired.

Great reps don't fail because they lost their edge. They fail because nobody ever removed the leash that was holding it back.

Comment "FREEDOM" and I'll send you my book, Sales Freedom, the same sales leadership training system I use to help contractor sales teams stop burning through A-players and start developing them.

08/31/2026

Nearly 2 out of 3 builders in America used an incentive in August. Here’s why your team shouldn’t depend on incentives 👇

Send a message to learn more

08/26/2026

If your reps keep dropping price the second a homeowner pushes back, they haven't been trained on how to hold it.

Material and labor costs have gone up a lot over the last couple of years. The gap between what a job actually costs and what a homeowner expects to pay has gotten wider. If you own a roofing, remodeling, or home building company, you've probably felt this.

Here's what happens when a homeowner hesitates on price. The average rep takes a hundred off here, two hundred and fifty off there, and pretty soon there's a discount on the invoice that nobody approved. Your job cost doesn't change when you discount. That money comes straight out of your profit, not your revenue.

Nobody ever gave your reps another way to respond when a homeowner pushes back on price. So when that happens, dropping the price is the only thing they know to do.

Before your reps get to a price, teach them to ask one question: what happens in this homeowner's life if this problem doesn't get solved? When a rep has a real answer to that question, price becomes a smaller part of the conversation.

That's a skill your reps can learn. It starts with you deciding your margin is worth protecting.

If you want to teach this to your team, my book Sales Freedom walks through how to do it. Comment FREEDOM and I'll send you a copy.

08/25/2026

You can give your sales team a revenue goal. That doesn’t mean they’ll hit it. Here’s what does 👇

Send a message to learn more

08/18/2026

This story from an old sales book hit me like a punch in the face, in a good way, and it rewired my sales mindset.

It's about a golden goose. Every day, that goose lays a golden egg. Simple question. Where does the real value live? In the egg or in the goose?

Most salespeople think it's the egg. The market. The rates. The leads. The territory. Once that egg is gone, it's gone. Nothing left to sell.

The goose is what keeps making eggs. The goose is the source.

In sales, you are the goose.

Next time you catch yourself blaming the market, the rates, or your leads, stop. Go back to the goose. You are the value. Not your circumstances.

Watch till the end, then drop a comment: are you protecting your eggs or building your goose?

Tag a sales rep in your circle who needs to hear this. Share it in your team group too, this is the kind of sales training worth passing around.

08/17/2026

Remodelers: the "easy lead" is dead, and your reps are trying to win it back by giving away your margin. Let me explain👇

Send a message to learn more

08/04/2026

Builders: "pace or margin, pick your poison" is a lie that's costing you six figures a year.

Zonda surveyed builders across the country in June. 53% said buyers are getting bigger incentives than a year ago. The average price reduction now sits at 6%. That's your whole year's profit, handed away in closing cost credits.

Here's what most owners miss. Every incentive is an excuse. It's what a rep reaches for when they've got nothing else to sell.

You don't need a bigger market. You don't need more leads. You need a different question.

Every buyer walking into your model home already has a real reason to move. A job change. A baby on the way. A commute stealing two hours a day. That urgency is already there. Your rep's job is to uncover it, not create it.

So here's my question for you: when your team meets a buyer, are they asking "what are you looking for," or are they asking "what's changing in your life right now"?

One gets you nothing. The other gets you the sale, at full price.

Comment FREEDOM below and I'll send you my book Sales Freedom.

08/03/2026

Home builders: when your buyer pushes back on price, your rep does one of four things. Argues. Freezes. Runs. Or apologizes with a discount.

All four cost you margin. And it's not your rep's fault, sellers markets trained a whole generation to process buyers instead of selling to them.

Here's the shift. The objection isn't rejection. It's a buyer's past self fighting their future self, and it's a plea for your rep to lead them, not discount them.

The framework: Agree Agree Lead Resolve. Agree emotionally. Agree logically. Lead by reframing. Resolve the real fear underneath.

No arguing. No discount. Just a buyer led to certainty and your margin protected.

Which of the four does your team default to? Tell me in the comments.

07/29/2026

Discounting is admitting that you don’t believe you deserve the sale at full price.

Every time you drop your price to save a deal, part of you hates you for it. Because you just told your customer the future you promised wasn’t worth fighting for.

You can either sell them a discount, or sell them their destiny. What you sell determines whether you’re a closer, or just a simple order-taker.

The “order-taker” sells the discount. He negotiates against himself before the customer even asks. He trades belief for comfort and calls it “being flexible.”

The “closer” sells the destiny. He holds the price because he holds the vision. He knows the number was never the objection. The conviction was.

This isn’t about being pushy. It’s about being convinced. You can’t sell a future you’re not willing to defend.

Sales leaders, sales reps, business owners: which one were you the last time a customer asked for a discount?

Comment “FREEDOM” below and I’ll send you a free copy of my book, Sales Freedom.