Sales operations

By Cotney Consulting Group. 

Five steps to turn your roofing sales from a hustle into a scalable system.

Sales are the heartbeat of your roofing company, but let’s face it: most roofing sales departments run on adrenaline, not structure. One rep is closing everything through personality. Another is sending quotes but never following up. The owner is still the top seller. And somehow, even when the work gets sold, the production team doesn’t always get the same story. 

Sound familiar? 

If you’re serious about growth, you must stop relying on personalities and build an innovative, repeatable sales operation. 

What roofing sales needs 

Sales isn’t just about closing the deal. It’s about: 

• Finding the right clients 
• Setting proper expectations 
• Delivering a clear scope 
• Aligning with production 
• Preserving margin 
• Creating a great customer experience 

That’s a tall order. And without a structure to support it, even your best reps will eventually struggle to deliver consistency. 

Step 1: Know your sales model 

Before you improve your sales process, define what kind of sales operation you’re running. Different models work for different roofing businesses: 

• Owner-led selling: Works early on but isn’t scalable. Eventually, you’ll hit a ceiling. 
• Dedicated sales reps: Ideal for residential and light commercial, but requires training and structure. 
• Estimator-sellers: Common in commercial or technical projects, but can burn people out. 
• Inside/outside split: Inside handles leads, scheduling and service; outside reps focus on building relationships and closing deals. 

Pick a structure that fits your business today, but plan how it will evolve tomorrow. 

Step 2: Build a sales process you can repeat 

Great roofing companies don’t just have good salespeople. They have a consistent sales process. That means clear steps from lead to close: 

• Lead intake 
• Qualification 
• Site visit or virtual assessment 
• Scope development 
• Proposal delivery 
• Follow-up 
• Handoff to operations 

When this process is consistent, your sales team can be trained, tracked and held accountable. And your clients get a better experience every time. 

Step 3: Align sales with production 

Sales can’t live in a vacuum. One of the most significant friction points in roofing is when sales make promises that production can’t fulfill. 

Fix this by: 

• Having pre-job kickoff meetings between sales and ops 
• Standardizing how scopes and client notes are shared 
• Training sales on basic install knowledge and job site logistics 

When sales and production communicate well, jobs start smoother and finish stronger. 

Step 4: Measure what matters 

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Here are a few sales KPIs worth tracking: 

• Close rate (quotes vs. wins) 
• Average job size 
• Sales cycle time 
• Margin per job 
• Win/loss reasons 

Don’t just track numbers; use them. Review these in weekly or biweekly sales meetings. Talk about what’s working, where deals are stalling and what changes need to happen. 

Step 5: Reward the right behavior 

Salespeople respond to incentives. But make sure you’re rewarding what matters. Instead of just paying on revenue, consider tying part of your commission or bonus to: 

• Margin thresholds 
• Clean handoffs to production 
• Client satisfaction scores 
• Timely documentation 

That way, everyone wins — not just the rep but the company, the client and the field team. 

Final word: Systems beat hustle 

There’s nothing wrong with having passionate, driven salespeople. But if your entire business depends on one superstar rep — or the owner doing all the selling, you don’t have a sales operation. You have a hustle. 

The best roofing companies create systems that make selling easier, clearer and more consistent — for both the team and the client. So, take a step back. Look at your process. Clean it up. Write it down. Track the correct numbers. And make sure your sales team isn’t just working hard — but working smart. 

Because when your sales team runs on structure instead of stress, your entire company benefits from better jobs, margins and client relationships.