Make your Roofing SOP's work for your business.

Why I Wrote this: 

The process of running a roofing company is pretty straightforward, but every day I find roofers struggling to put the pieces together, making up new ideas that don't work and when they find something that works they can't get their team to adopt it. Employees can't tell the difference between the last idea that was nothing but a struggle and poorly implemented, and the next big thing that is going to level up the business and change the lives of everyone who work there. I witness this problem more than I can Stomach. Every single day, 2 times per day I am on a live webinar with Roofers and roofing company employees in attendance. 

We have private trainings and webinars but these are just the ones that we make completely free and open to the public, and we have been consistent with it since October 23rd 2023. So thats well over 400 Webinars as of the date of writing this blog. Since they are live, we end every webinar with Q&A and regularly ask for engagement, and feedback surveys in a very intentional way to hear the voice of our customer and the roofing industry at large. 

This problem persisting longer than necessary is causing a lot of pain: 

• Business owners brothers at odds, trying to do what's right for eachother but also their own families
• Long time business owners struggling to adapt to the changes happening in the industry.
• Private Equity firms buying roofing companies like toilet paper in a pandemic but seeing revenues decline due to inability to unify systems and processes.
• Families forced to retire fathers, hurt their mothers, and push down the dreams of their children paralyzed over discerning from what worked, but might not continue to work, and what might work but is not proven with a family business. 
• Internally siloed teams like sales to production, marketing to sales, shop management to accounting trying to optimize their departments to the overall goals of the roofing company but unable to hear the struggles of one another for fear of a change. 
• Owners integrity being called into question as unmet promises to employees, vendors, suppliers and crews - caused by the impotence in their ability to predict outcomes and cement best practices
• Career employees struggling to keep up with change, new entrants to the roofing industry getting a bad initial experience leading to a shortage of applicants coming in to replace those retiring
• Public Shaming on social media and youtube channels when failure inevitably catches up due to the simple inability to get aligned in an approach. 
• Vendors, Trainers, Coaches, Consultants being labelled as 'Gurus not because their advice and mentorship is based on false principles but in many cases due to lack of repeatable results from variability of inputs and deliverable impact to their clients

Why I think I can help with this Post: 

For as long as I can remember, I have learned visually and enjoyed the idea of mapping out ideas, choosing to learn better ways to effectively do so. This allowed me to break down complex problems and feel empowered to try things I had no God given ability to do. I didn't benefit from some sort of great pedigree or fancy schooling but I always felt I could do more than I was destined and was determined to figure out how.

As life went on, I have surmised that I get some form of personal validation and feelings of self worth from helping people figure out and find some sense of certainty in the best way to do something. If I could spend my life with a Sharpie, calculator, and endless blank canvas helping people break down a problem, idea, process and build it into something that they could go execute on and not worry about the financial needs of my wife and child I would likely die a man who lived a fulfilling life.  

That wasn't in the high school career guide book, or my 2013 Bingo Card so by way of an exciting Journey I end up owning a roofing company, knowing diddly about Roofing. Forced to figure it out to survive I end up connecting with the early roots of the facebook roofing community and spent my early days and late nights collaborating on ideas to figure out what made them grow. Next thing you know I was getting interviewed on podcasts and stages and Roofers all over the continent started offering to pay me to come to their offices to figure stuff out and I end up having to get a corporation and a website, figuring out how to market what I was doing because it was as close to that Sharpie-dream life I'd found. That was in 2018. 

7 Years later I have mapped out Hundreds ideas for myself, clients, friends, and partners. 

5 Step Algorithm to Design a Better Roofing Industry

For one reason or another, not a lot of people seem to look at the roofing industry through a lens worthy of world class expectations. I don't know if there is some kind of deep rooted insecurity or lack of self worth that grips the industry cohort but its quite pervasive. Whenever I have talked about why CAN'T there be a Billion Dollar retail roofing brand nation wide, I am usually met with skeptic dream crushers that say it cannot be done. I ask the question a lot; 

Why do 80% of roofing companies deserve to exist? 

I don't do that to hurt the feelings of people who want to argue for their constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness. I mean it to say, why is it that in Denver there is a hundred roofing companies with a 4.6 Google Review ranking or better, with more than 50 reviews.

How does a consumer decide between these brands?

What would the invisible hand of capitalism say are the market forces that require that?

Elon Musk is often cited for saying that he questions all requirements, regardless of the source. 

He states, "Requirements from smart people are the most dangerous because people are less likely to question them. Always do so, even if the requirement came from me"

When I look at the list of roofing companies what I See is 100 Roofing Companies all paying for:  

1. A production manager for $60-90,000 per year
2. A Book keeper for $1500 per month 
3. A marketing Agency $2500-$10,000 per month, and more - but just to name a few. 

That means that collectively the cost of operating those 100 roofing companies is: 

1. $7,500,000 to review the job, build the work order, and schedule the crew and materials. 
2. $1,800,000 to count where the money is going. 
3. $9,000,000 to run ads saying "We the Best Roofer" to home owners helping them find a company that can solve the same problem, with the same shingles, installed to the same spec, by the same people, using the same tools, in the same amount of time, for more or less the same price. 

If you could get the smartest people together, the aggressively delete these requirements and reduce the cost and required companies by 90% there is $16,470,000 in net profit to be gained. Every YEAR. That could go in part back to the insured consumer, or the insurance company, in addition to a sizeable chunk of net profit back to the courageous entrepreneur who puts that team together. 

This is where the industry tends to bite my head off and tell me that I am insane. Maybe it threatens their world view and their livelihood all at once and that makes me the bad guy but this is not typically well received. I am more often met with hostility than visionaries who get excited by the prospects of that opportunity. I initially thought when private equity came into the space - that I would find myself among kindred spirits, but alas, they are just buying and flipping counting on their being a bigger sucker. In the end - I believe - the bigger sucker could be the biggest winner if they view it this way. 

Don't get me wrong, I also see that this could be hubris and arrogance, or Star-eyed dreams of grandeur from some former Army kid from Canada who didn't go to an ivy league school. With how little support I get for this idea I have gone to the google machine and the youtube university to test my assumptions. I have spent hours of my life that I SHOULD be spending with my wife and kid, collaborating with ChatGPT trying to see if I could engineer a Billion Dollar Roofing company in Texas. I have a 90 minute recording of a webinar where I invite our guests in to watch me do it live if you care to watch it. Email me, if nothing else I will know who got this far, and make a friend. 

Then the other day I found this reel on Facebook and had to send it to my wife because - as usual - someone much smarter than me was able to articulate this process much better than I could. 

Elon Musk's approach to process optimization and automation emphasizes a counterintuitive yet effective strategy. His algorithm for improving processes and cutting bureaucracy consists of five key steps, with a particular focus on deletion and simplification before automation.

Musk's 5-Step Algorithm

1. Question requirements: Musk advises to scrutinize every requirement, regardless of its source. He states, "Requirements from smart people are the most dangerous because people are less likely to question them. Always do so, even if the requirement came from me"

2. Delete aggressively: This step is crucial and often underestimated. Musk emphasizes, "You may have to add [parts or processes] back later. In fact, if you do not end up adding back at least 10% of them, then you didn't delete enough". This bold approach ensures that only truly necessary elements remain.

3. Simplify and optimize: Only after questioning and deleting should simplification occur. Musk warns, "A common mistake is to simplify and optimize a part or a process that should not exist".

4. Accelerate cycle time: Speed up processes, but only after the first three steps. Musk admits, "In the Tesla factory, I mistakenly spent a lot of time accelerating processes that I later realized should have been deleted".

5. Automate: This is the final step, not the first. Musk reflects on his past mistakes: "[Automate] comes last. The big mistake in [my factories] was that I began by trying to automate every step. We should have waited until all the requirements had been questioned, parts and processes deleted, and the bugs were shaken out".

So as of Friday January 24th, 2025 I don't really give a shit what you think. Elon Wins. Full steam ahead. 

Unbeknownst to me, this is what RBP has been doing progressively internally, on the micro-scale with our clients and in the macro overall with the industry through expanding our impact through the roofing industry.

You don't have to agree with me to Proceed

If this isn't the vision you see for yourself and the industry this blog can still be helpful to you, because I want to give you two things from here forward.

First, for the TLDR crowd I want to show you how you can make sure that no matter WHAT process your business has - you can make it easier for your employees to execute consistently.  

Second, how you can execute on Musk's algorithm yourself using some of the experience that I have gained through this passion of mine suddenly given a sense of clarity through the previously mentioned facebook reel. 

The Easy Path

Wanderers click here for the "more work" creative path to put your own unique fingerprint on your business.

Using Supered to streamline operations and improve training processes

In the video you'll find: 

1. Introduction to Supered

2. Integration with HubSpot

3. Onboarding and Training

4. Standardization Processes

5. Homepage Customization

6. In-Context Support

7. Process Rules and Filters

8. Usage Analytics

9. Updates and Notifications

10. Q&A Session

What is Supered?

In short, Supered is a Sales Enablement tool designed to take documented processes and attach them inside your software to increase adoption through creating clickable icons that guide your team through your process, where the work is done, in your systems. It's easy to use and simple to set up. 

Supered was an idea dreamed up by Matt Bolian, another business systems consultant primarily for the SaaS industry, who co-founded RevPartners. He recognized a problem in the onboarding, training and adoption of new systems they deployed to clients. 

Employees don't read the SOP's. They don't follow the guidebook. They forget everything they learned in Trainual. They don't regularly review your nicely laid out flowchart or process map and ultimately just keep clicking buttons until the deal moves forward or finding workarounds to make the system work. 

We have a saying at RBP, the Tool doesn't matter as much as the PROcess and the process doesn't matter as much as getting Adoption. You could build the best tool in the world but if the process sucks, you won't get any better, but even if the process is awesome; if you can't get your people to adopt the tools and follow it you will ultimately go nowhere. 

What does that have to do with RBP? 

RBP was the founding partner of their white label program, where we co-developed our own Roofing Specific Hubspot build and mapped processes into it delivering an ultimate use case for the software that has now permeated the entire Hubspot community as a concept that works. 

We call it Mission Control. 

Benefits of using Supered with your Roofing CRM

By putting Supered into your tech stack you allow yourself to put a lightning bolt, or other icon near beside trigger words, and attach instructions to that lightning bolt. Typically when you go into some industry group such as "Roofing Insights Private Group" and ask some variant of; 

"Whats the best CRM for roofers?"

Invariably you will get a zillion options from highly opinionated characters, and if you have been watching long enough (like I have) you'll have seen their CRM of choice change from JobNimbus, to Go High Level, to Zoho, to Servicetitan over the course of 5 years. You will also get the cheeky, obvious answer; 

"The one you use." 

There are various expansions that you will get on this, usually "and use properly". This is the "Duh" answer but buried inside it is the reason why Supered (and RBP's version Mission Control for Roofers) is the ultimate solution.  If the catch all, obvious answer is the Customer Relationship Management tool is qualified as BEST by simply using it properly. The only option is to seek out a ways and means to make that a "Truth" for your business. All other features and benefits take a back seat to that one feature. 

Supered has the power to do that for ANY cloud based software, because it is a Chrome Extension that overlays your screen with lightning bolts to your specification to provide guidance right where people need to click so you can enable your team to follow the process.

This is what that looks like:

Are there benefits to using Supered with Hubspot? 

Yes! The integration goes so much deeper than simply looking at the screen and looking for words to anchor clickable elements. 

One of the most powerful features is Process Rules, where not only can you give instructions but it can also enforce adherence by popping up warnings and guided steps telling you where to click and what to do. This is because Supered was built with a "Hubspot First" approach by a former Hubspot partner who knows what it's like to be in our shoes - selling CRM's and trying to make sure that people know how to use them to get paid. If you're in the business of selling a CRM the client only cares if when they are done - the people use it and use it properly. This enforces it. As your process changes, you can insert guided process maps that make it super easy to get maximum adoption. 

What about RBP and Hubspot together? 

Great Question! This is the best of all worlds our build specifically built for Roofers on Hubspot. Saving you all the hard boring work of developing process maps, videos, and setting up Supered. We call it mission control, and best of all. IT'S FREE WITH EVERY BUILD BY RBP! Let's dive a little deeper into RBP's Mission Control.

Mission Control by RBP, in Hubspot

When you first open your Mission Control Sidekick panel from your Chrome Browser you will be welcomed with your own personalized Home Screen. This is your home base for keeping RBP Talent on Demand, just a click or two away. What you'll find are buttons to: 

• Connect with our Marketing Services Team
• Get access to our "How to Grow a Roofing Company the Right way" 90 minute masterclass
• One click access to our upcoming live webinars to learn that "next thing" 
• Review your Inside/Outside sales resources, including your personal training sessions with RBP
• Access to our on-demand webinar recordings and courses. 
• Direct Connect with your Customer Success manager
• Register for your Private Client Tuesday and Thursday 60 Minute Q&A Sessions
• You can also easily submit us a ticket for a fix, change, upgrade or question regarding your CRM build

This is also customizable, we can add your own buttons to access your own internal resources. For example the Inside Outside sales resources links to a google drive link with various documents, calculators, pdf's and videos. So think, what templates, external resources, or other training resources have you paid for that you wish were ONE CLICK way for your entire team? 

Guided Actions...literally... follow the bouncing ball. 🏀

Imagine this, a sales rep calls you over... once again... to ask you how to "Do that thing". So you stand over their shoulder and say; 

"okay click settings" 

wait...

"Up in the top right" 

wait..

"Now click profile and preferences" 

as you guide someone who doesn't see what you see, or understand what you do, trying to tell them where to move their mouse. 

"no, over over, down -- yeah beside that" 

shoot me now

No More!!

With RBP mission control you can easily record yourself doing anything in the CRM, and it will know where you clicked and what you did. So not only can you avoid having people need to "follow the instructions"; they literally follow the little glowing highlight and do it them-Fing-selves.

Here.. watch this: 

The question you're bound to ask, Homer, is "Can't someone else do it?" (inside joke for Simpsons fans)

Yes. RBP. We can do it. The important thing to know is that if you have made it this far, you're probably the kind of person who will love to do this stuff too! Do it once and be done!

There is so much more that Mission Control can do, that is really better enjoyed by watching the video above, where our Customer Success Manager Jeanet demonstrates the entire tool. Plus Imagine all the GIF's and images in this blog post are going to decimate any SEO benefits I would have stood to gain. 

The Long Way, Mapping out Processes for Roofers

Not everyone is an RBP Customer. In fact we wrote a whole blog on picking your customers and who are not a great fit for RBP a few years ago. Sometimes you would be a great fit but you just want to build your own process, try things your own way, or put your own unique fingerprint on your business. 

If you want to learn more on how to do that yourself, I suggest starting with Business Process Model Notation,  skill that several RBP team mates can employ when working with clients to engineer a system to support their operations. 

Thank you, I hope you enjoyed reading this blog. Every word was written by me, Adam Sand, without the use of AI in any way.