Sales Process: Caliche Roofing
The business and its process in one line. Residential roofing and gutters in San Antonio, sold to homeowners on insurance claims and retail jobs, from first contact through an in-person estimate by Kevin or Sam to a signed contract, currently dependent on Ray reviewing insurance estimates before they go out.
Archetype. Local service company: the trust moves happen before and during the visit, price lands live, and the close or designed follow-up ends the step sequence.
The steps
| # | Step | Trigger | Builds | How and who | Asset | Exit condition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Intake and triage call | Phone rings, web form submitted, or referral calls in. Insurance adjuster referral joins here or at step 2 depending on how warm they arrive. | Know: confirm problem fit, job type (insurance vs retail), rough scope, expectations, budget frame for retail. Qualifies out jobs under $1,500 (repair policy). | Dana takes the call, follows the intake script. Flags insurance vs retail. Declines repair jobs under $1,500 per the stop-doing policy. Books the estimate visit. Passes a clean job card to Marco. | Intake script and job card (see Build order) | Estimate visit booked and job card complete. Repair jobs under $1,500 declined at this step. |
| 2 | Same-day confirmation with one credibility line | Estimate visit is booked. | Know and Like: confirms the appointment, sets expectations for what the visit looks like, plants one line about why Caliche is different. | Dana sends a confirmation text or email within 30 minutes of booking. One sentence on what to expect. One credibility line (not a sales pitch). | Confirmation text or email template (see Build order) | Homeowner has confirmed the appointment time. |
| 3 | Values and "why us" email | Confirmation sent, visit is 24 to 48 hours out. Skip or compress for urgent/storm jobs (see Edge cases). | Like: positions Caliche as a real company with standards, not a storm chaser. Builds warmth before anyone knocks on the door. | Dana sends the values email the evening before or morning of the visit. | Values email (first asset, drafted below) | Email delivered. No reply required; the goal is presence before arrival. |
| 4 | Estimator baseball card | Values email sent; Kevin or Sam assigned to the job. | Like and Trust: homeowner knows who is coming, their name, their face, and one human detail before the door opens. Character plus competence before arrival. | Dana texts the baseball card to the homeowner 30 to 60 minutes before the estimator leaves. One photo, name, one line on experience, one human line. | Baseball card per estimator: one for Kevin, one for Sam (see Build order) | Text delivered. Homeowner knows who to expect. |
| 5 | The visit: diagnose before you prescribe | Estimator arrives on site. Referrals who already trust us may move through this step faster, but the diagnostic questions still run. | Trust: the estimator learns what the homeowner actually cares about before presenting anything. Scope, insurance status, timeline, what went wrong last time if applicable. | Kevin or Sam runs the visit to a meeting flow: greet, inspect, ask before presenting. Uses the visit guide. Marco coaches Kevin and Sam on this flow as part of the insurance independence work this quarter. | Visit guide and diagnostic question list (see Build order) | Estimator has documented what the homeowner cares about and has a clear scope. |
| 6 | Price presented live, walked through on site | Inspection complete, scope clear. | Trust: price is walked against what the homeowner said they cared about, with options anchored. Not emailed cold. | Kevin or Sam presents price on site, references the homeowner's stated priorities, offers at least two options (example: standard vs upgraded shingle line). Handles objections using the objection guide. Ray reviews insurance estimates before sign-off during this quarter's transition; Marco is the first call for questions on site. | Pricing options sheet and objection guide (see Build order) | Homeowner signs, or a clear next step is set (insurance approval pending, spouse needs to be present, etc.). |
| 7 | Same-day follow-up: close or designed path | Visit ends without a signed contract. This is the step most likely to recover revenue right now: the average estimate-to-decision window is 11 days, and nothing formal happens in that window today. | Trust: the follow-up is designed, not left to chance or silence. | Kevin or Sam sends a same-day text within two hours of leaving. Acknowledges what was discussed, confirms the next step, sets a specific date to reconnect. Marco tracks every open estimate in the Monday pipeline report and assigns a next action and a date to each. No estimate sits without a named next action. | Follow-up text template; pipeline report cadence (Activity part, not started yet) | Job is signed, or it is in the pipeline report with a named next action and a date no more than 4 days out. |
| 8 | After-the-no path | Homeowner declines or goes cold after follow-up. Currently unowned: this is where Caliche is losing the most recoverable revenue. | Trust: a designed sequence keeps Caliche present without pestering. Most competitors disappear after the no; Caliche does not. | Day 7: Kevin or Sam sends a short check-in text ("Still happy to help if the timing changes, no pressure"). Day 14: Dana sends a seasonal or educational touch (storm season, gutter maintenance, insurance claim tips). No more than two touches after the no unless the homeowner re-engages. | After-the-no sequence templates (see Build order) | Homeowner re-engages and re-enters at step 5 or 6, or is marked closed-lost in the pipeline report with a date for a future seasonal touch. |
Where trust is thin today
The coldest moment is the gap between booking the appointment and the visit. A homeowner schedules with Dana and then waits with no signal about who Caliche is or who is coming to their door. Steps 3 and 4 close that gap and are the highest-trust-per-dollar moves on the map.
The after-the-no path (step 8) is unowned today. With an 11-day average estimate-to-decision window, most of the lost jobs are sitting in silence right now, not actively going to a competitor. A designed follow-up cadence in that window is the single highest-payoff change on this map.
Insurance jobs add a trust wrinkle: the homeowner is also managing an adjuster, and the estimator who can speak that language clearly earns trust fast. The visit guide and objection guide need to cover insurance-specific objections as a priority this quarter, while Ray is still in the review loop and Kevin and Sam are building that fluency.
Edge cases and fast paths
Urgent or storm-damage jobs (active leak, storm just hit, homeowner in distress). Speed is the trust move. Compress steps 3 and 4: Dana calls instead of emails for confirmation, and texts the baseball card while Kevin or Sam is already driving. The values email can be sent after the visit as a thank-you. Do not skip the diagnostic questions on site; a rushed diagnosis produces a wrong scope and a callback.
Insurance adjuster referral arriving warm. This homeowner already has some Know and Trust from the adjuster's word. They may join the process at step 2 or step 4 depending on how much the adjuster has said. Dana flags this on the job card so Kevin or Sam does not re-sell what is already sold.
Retail job with a homeowner who has already gotten two other quotes. They are in comparison mode. The baseball card and values email matter more here, not less. Kevin or Sam's job at step 5 is to find out what the other quotes missed before presenting anything. Price anchoring with options at step 6 is critical; a naked number against two other naked numbers loses on price. Retail close rate is 22% today; this is where the diagnostic and anchoring moves have the most room to improve.
Referral from a past customer. Arrives with high Like and some Trust already. Steps 2 and 3 still run (they take Dana 10 minutes and cost nothing to skip badly), but Kevin or Sam can move faster through the diagnostic and spend more time on scope and options.
The payoff, in rough numbers
Current close rates: insurance 34%, retail 22%. Average estimate-to-decision window: 11 days. Lead volume by type is not yet broken out, but at $4.2M in revenue these are the starting numbers.
Insurance jobs. A 5-point improvement in close rate (34% to 39%) on insurance jobs, which carry higher average values than retail, is likely worth $150K to $300K a year depending on average insurance job size. That range is a labeled estimate; Marco should confirm average insurance job revenue to make the math exact.
After-the-no recovery. In residential roofing, a designed follow-up sequence in the 7 to 14 day window after a cold visit typically recovers 10% to 20% of jobs that went quiet, based on comparable trades. That is a benchmark, not a Caliche number. If Caliche runs 20 estimates a month and closes 34% of insurance jobs, roughly 13 insurance estimates per month go unsigned. Recovering 2 of those 13 per month at an average insurance job value of, say, $12,000 (labeled assumption: owner to confirm) is $24,000 a month, or roughly $288,000 a year. The cost to build the after-the-no path is two text templates and 30 minutes of Marco's time. Track recovery rate from month one.
Retail close rate. At 22%, retail has more room to move than insurance. The diagnostic and price-anchoring moves at steps 5 and 6 are the most likely things to change. A 5-point improvement there has a smaller per-job dollar impact but adds up across volume.
The first asset
Values and "why us" email (Step 3): the highest Like-building move before the visit.
Subject: A little about us before we come out
Hi [Homeowner first name],
We have your estimate scheduled for [date and time]. Before [Kevin or Sam] comes out, we wanted to take 30 seconds to tell you a little about how we work.
Caliche Roofing has been doing residential roofing and gutters in San Antonio for [X years]. We are not a storm-chasing crew that shows up after a hail event and disappears. We are a local company with [22] people on the team, and we plan to be here long after your job is done.
A few things we think matter that not every roofing company will tell you:
We tell you what we find, not what sounds like the biggest job. If your roof does not need a full replacement, we will say so.
On insurance jobs, we know how to work with adjusters and we will walk you through what your claim covers before we ask you to sign anything.
If something is not right after we finish, we come back. [Insert your warranty or callback policy here in plain language.]
[Kevin or Sam] will be there at [time]. You will get a text with their photo before they arrive so you know who to expect.
See you soon, [Marco or Ray's name] Caliche Roofing [Phone number]
Prompt to finish it. Copy this prompt and run it with your own details to complete the email:
"I need to finish a pre-visit values email for Caliche Roofing. The goal is to build warmth and credibility before the estimator arrives, so the homeowner feels they are dealing with a real, trustworthy local San Antonio company, not a vendor. The voice should be plain and direct, like a straight-talking contractor, not a marketing agency. Please fill in the following: number of years in business, the warranty or callback policy in plain language, one or two real things Caliche does differently that a homeowner would actually care about (not marketing language), and whether Marco's or Ray's name should sign the email. Do not add any claims I have not given you."
Build order and punch list
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Intake script and job card (Step 1), this week. Dana needs this before any other asset matters. Without a clean job card, Kevin and Sam arrive without context and the baseball card cannot be sent. One page, 10 questions, a checkbox for insurance vs retail, and the repair-job decline script for jobs under $1,500.
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Confirmation text template (Step 2) and baseball cards for Kevin and Sam (Step 4), week 1 to 2. Both are short. Each baseball card needs a photo and two sentences; Marco collects those from Kevin and Sam. The confirmation template is one paragraph Dana sends in 60 seconds.
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Values email (Step 3), week 1 to 2. First draft is above. Ray fills the bracketed facts and approves the voice before Dana sends it.
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After-the-no sequence templates (Steps 7 and 8), week 2. Given the 11-day decision window and the current absence of any formal follow-up, this is the fastest revenue recovery available. Build the day-7 text and the day-14 Dana touch before the visit guide. Kevin and Sam send the day-7 text; Dana owns the day-14 touch.
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Visit guide and diagnostic question list (Step 5), week 2 to 3. This is the coaching tool Marco uses to get Kevin and Sam to Ray's close rate on insurance jobs. It is the most important asset for Priority 1 this quarter.
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Pricing options sheet and objection guide (Step 6), week 3 to 4. Especially the insurance-specific objections. Marco drafts from his own experience; Ray reviews.
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Team walk-through before the first lead hits the new process. Marco runs a 30-minute session with Kevin, Sam, and Dana: here is the map, here is who owns each step, here is what passing the job along looks like. Do this before the process is live, not after the first job goes sideways.
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Hand off to Activity. Once the map is approved, the Activity part defines how many estimates per week, how Marco tracks them in the Monday pipeline report, and what the cadence looks like when volume is low. That work is Marco's next deliverable.
What to check first
- Does Dana have a decline script for repair jobs under $1,500 today, or is she handling those calls without one? If there is no script, that is the first thing to write, before the intake script is even finished.
- What is the average insurance job value? The payoff math above uses $12,000 as a labeled assumption. The real number makes the after-the-no recovery case much more concrete and gives Marco a number to show Ray when prioritizing build time.
- Confirm Kevin and Sam's last names so the baseball cards and cascade can be made specific. Marco knows who they are.
Rules that never bend: every step builds Know, Like or Trust or it comes out; one owner per step from the team context; the fewest steps that will actually run; the after-the-no is designed, never left to chance; no fabricated testimonials, credentials or numbers; drafts in the company's voice, blanks and prompts for the owner's private facts.