Case Study: How a Commercial Roofing Firm Leveraged HubSpot for Revenue Operations Transformation

A mid-sized commercial roofing company transformed from fragmented spreadsheets and ad-hoc processes into a data-driven operation by leveraging HubSpot CRM. In a phased implementation over six months, the firm first structured its lead management in Sales Hub, then centralized service ticketing in Service Hub, and finally integrated financial data via Make and QuickBooks. As a result, lead-to-proposal time decreased by 35 percent, SLA compliance on service tickets reached 92 percent, and real-time profitability insights improved margin accuracy from ±8 percent to ±2 percent. A first-year ROI of 260 percent demonstrated that thoughtful application of HubSpot tools—combined with governance and continuous feedback—can drive substantial efficiency and growth in a construction context.

1. Background and Challenges

For over two decades, a family-owned commercial roofing firm in the Midwest had relied on referral-driven growth. Despite a strong reputation for quality, by early 2023 the company faced two critical operational challenges. First, incoming project inquiries—whether via website forms, email referrals, or phone calls—were logged inconsistently in a shared spreadsheet, without standardized stages such as “Inquiry,” “Site Assessment,” “Proposal,” or “Contract.” Sales coordinators frequently overlooked new leads, leading to average lead-to-proposal times of roughly twenty business days. Forecasting was highly unreliable because pipeline volume and deal stages were scattered across multiple files (Smith, Marks, & Hanson 2016).

Second, post-project warranty and maintenance requests were handled entirely through informal email exchanges. Without a centralized ticketing system or defined SLAs, response times varied considerably—sometimes exceeding forty-eight hours for high-priority safety concerns—and customer satisfaction began to decline. Field teams maintained separate spreadsheets for project schedules, subcontractor assignments, and material costs, none of which integrated with sales data. Profitability analyses, when conducted at all, occurred weeks after project completion, preventing timely course corrections (Juran 1993).

The leadership team recognized that sustainable growth required a cohesive, data-driven platform bridging pre-sale and post-sale workflows. A unified system would need to capture lead details consistently, automate follow-up tasks, enforce service SLAs, and sync financials to deliver real-time visibility into profit margins (Churchill et al. 2000).

2. Selecting HubSpot and Partnering with RevOps HQ

After evaluating several CRM and help-desk solutions, the firm selected HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise and Service Hub Enterprise. HubSpot’s unified platform offered three strategic advantages: (1) the ability to design custom, multi-stage pipelines that mirrored actual roofing project lifecycles; (2) built-in SLA management features to enforce response targets on service tickets; and (3) robust integration capabilities via Make (formerly Integromat) to synchronize financial data with QuickBooks Online (Argyris & Schön 1978).

To accelerate implementation and ensure best practices, the roofing company engaged RevOps HQ—a consultancy specializing in HubSpot-based RevOps solutions for construction and professional services. Over a six-month engagement (May–October 2023), RevOps HQ led a structured rollout encompassing discovery, configuration, training, and governance establishment.

3. Phase 1: Structuring Lead Management with Sales Hub Enterprise

3.1 Discovery and Workflow Mapping

During a two-week discovery phase, RevOps HQ conducted in-depth interviews with five stakeholder groups: the CEO, VP of Operations, Sales Manager, Lead Estimator, and Field Supervisor. They reviewed existing spreadsheets, email archives, and accounting exports to map current workflows and identify pain points. Two primary requirements emerged: (1) a standardized sales pipeline reflecting key project stages, and (2) automated assignment and follow-up rules to ensure no lead went uncontacted for more than forty-eight hours (Honeycutt & Ford 2000).

3.2 Designing a Construction-Specific Pipeline

RevOps HQ configured Sales Hub Enterprise with a multi-stage pipeline mirroring the roofing project lifecycle: “Inquiry Received,” “Site Assessment Scheduled,” “Proposal Under Development,” “Proposal Sent,” “Contract Negotiation,” and “Contract Executed.” Custom deal properties—including “Roof Square Footage,” “Building Type,” “Existing Roof Age,” “Estimated Budget,” and “Desired Start Date”—ensured that critical details were captured before a deal could progress to the next stage. HubSpot workflows automatically assigned new leads to the sales coordinator and triggered a scheduling email within two hours of lead creation. Required fields (e.g., “Budget Range,” “Permit Requirements”) prevented deals from advancing until essential data was populated, eliminating inconsistent records and improving data hygiene (Smith et al. 2016).

3.3 Mobile Data Capture by Field Teams

Field supervisors and site evaluators downloaded HubSpot’s mobile app to log site assessment notes—photos of existing roof conditions, access restrictions, and permitting considerations—directly against the associated deal record. This mobile-enabled process eliminated the previous practice of handwritten notes and manual transcription, reducing errors by 87 percent (Morgan, Baxter, & Laird 2017). When a deal moved to “Proposal Under Development,” a workflow generated a task for the estimating team to produce a detailed cost estimate within three business days.

3.4 Measurable Impact on Lead-to-Proposal Time

Prior to implementation, average lead-to-proposal time stood at twenty business days. Within four months of adopting HubSpot Sales Hub, this metric shrank to thirteen business days—a 35 percent reduction. The acceleration of pipeline velocity translated into a 15 percent year-over-year increase in closed contracts, verifying the hypothesis that standardized processes yield faster conversions (Anderson & Coughlan 2002).

4. Phase 2: Centralizing Service Ticketing with Service Hub Enterprise

4.1 Defining SLA-Driven Ticket Pipelines

To resolve inconsistent post-sale service, RevOps HQ built a Service Hub Enterprise ticket pipeline with stages: “New Service Request,” “Inspection Scheduled,” “Work in Progress,” “Quality Verification,” and “Closed – Completed.” Each ticket captured properties such as “Project Address,” “Issue Type” (leak, shingle damage, ventilation), “Warranty Expiration Date,” and “Priority Level.” SLA rules mandated a first response within four hours for high-priority issues and within seventy-two hours for standard requests. Unassigned tickets older than two hours automatically escalated to the Customer Service Manager, ensuring prompt attention (Kaplan & Norton 2019).

4.2 Automated Assignment and Notifications

Geographic logic in Make automations routed service tickets to the appropriate field supervisor based on zip code. HubSpot workflows then dispatched email and in-app notifications to assigned supervisors. If a ticket remained in “New Service Request” longer than one hour, a reminder notification triggered an escalation. These guardrails eradicated tickets slipping through the cracks and established consistent accountability (Kaplan & Norton 2019).

4.3 Measuring SLA Compliance and Customer Satisfaction

Within three months of Service Hub implementation, 92 percent of service tickets met SLA targets, compared to just 60 percent under the prior email-only system. Customer satisfaction, measured via Service Hub’s feedback surveys, improved from an average of 4.1 to 4.7 out of 5. These improvements not only increased client retention but also fueled a 12 percent increase in referral-driven inquiries within six months (Churchill et al. 2000).

5. Phase 3: Integrating Financials and Visualizing Profitability

5.1 Make Integration with QuickBooks Online

To obtain real-time visibility into project profitability, RevOps HQ built a Make integration bridging HubSpot and QuickBooks Online. When a deal moved to “Contract Executed,” Make created a corresponding project in QuickBooks, populating “Estimated Contract Value,” “Budget Code,” and “Billing Terms.” As invoices were recorded and actual costs (labor, materials, subcontractors) posted in QuickBooks, Make updated HubSpot deal properties—“Invoiced to Date,” “Cost to Date,” and “Gross Margin to Date.” This bidirectional sync eliminated manual reconciliation and provided sales, operations, and finance teams with a single source of truth (Argyris & Schön 1978).

5.2 Operating a Geo-Mapped Dashboard for Resource Allocation

Using HubSpot’s integration with a mapping API, RevOps HQ plotted all active deals and service tickets on a regional map, color-coded by pipeline stage. Executives reviewed a “Geo-Mapped Profitability Dashboard” every Monday, overlaying project stage, contract value, and gross margin on the same map. This visual enabled leadership to identify project clusters and optimize crew deployment, reducing average travel time by 18 percent within two quarters. It also highlighted underserved regions, prompting targeted bids that generated $850,000 in new contracts in Q1 2024 (Morgan, Baxter, & Laird 2017).

6. Change Management and Governance

6.1 Phased Training and Role-Based Onboarding

RevOps HQ executed the rollout in three sprints, each accompanied by hands-on training and governance rituals. In Phase 1 (Sales Hub), three half-day workshops for sales coordinators, estimators, and field evaluators covered deal creation, stage progression, and mobile data capture. Each participant received a “HubSpot Quick-Start Guide” detailing data-entry standards and pipeline expectations. A dedicated internal channel provided real-time support, resulting in 100 percent of new leads logged in HubSpot within four weeks (Churchill et al. 2000).

In Phase 2 (Service Hub), customer service representatives and field supervisors attended interactive workshops to practice creating, updating, and escalating tickets within HubSpot. A daily “Service Huddle” stand-up reviewed tickets opened in the previous 24 hours, addressing pending escalations and ensuring SLAs were met.

Phase 3 (Financial Integration) brought together data stewards from sales, service, and finance for weekly “Data Health Reviews,” examining data quality issues—such as missing addresses, incomplete cost codes, and delayed invoicing. Make workflows were refined to handle edge cases, including phased projects spanning multiple addresses.

6.2 Establishing a RevOps Council

A cross-functional RevOps Council—comprising the CEO, VP of Operations, Sales Manager, Service Manager, and Finance Director—met monthly to review key performance indicators: pipeline coverage ratio, gross margin variance (target ± 2 percent), SLA compliance rates, and geo-mapped insights (Kotter & Schlesinger 2008). The Council’s charter mandated quarterly playbook and process updates, ensuring that pipelines and ticketing workflows evolved alongside market conditions and internal lessons learned (Lewin 1946).

7. Quantifiable Outcomes and Return on Investment

Nine months after launching HubSpot Sales Hub and Service Hub—augmented with Make automations—the firm realized the following improvements:

• Accelerated Lead Conversion: Lead-to-proposal time decreased from 20 to 13 business days (35 percent reduction). Proposal-to-contract conversion rates rose by 12 percent year over year, driving a 15 percent increase in closed contracts (Morgan, Baxter, & Laird 2017).
• Improved Forecast Accuracy: Enforced data-entry rules and integrated pipelines reduced forecast variance from ± 15 percent to ± 5 percent, aligning with benchmarks for forecast improvements through process standardization (Baker & Leong 2018).
• Enhanced Service Performance: Average first response time for high-priority tickets fell from 36 hours to 3 hours. SLA compliance climbed to 92 percent (from 60 percent), and customer satisfaction scores improved from 4.1 to 4.7 out of 5 (Kaplan & Norton 2019).
• Real-Time Profitability Insights: Margin reporting accuracy improved from ± 8 percent to ± 2 percent, enabling proactive cost control when subcontractor expenses exceeded estimates by more than 10 percent (Juran 1993).
• Optimized Resource Allocation: Geo-mapped dashboards reduced average crew travel time by 18 percent, saving an estimated $150,000 in fuel and labor costs over two quarters (Morgan, Baxter, & Laird 2017).
• Return on Investment: Combined first-year costs—HubSpot licenses, Make subscription, and a full-time RevOps coordinator—totaled approximately $230,000. Incremental revenue uplift ($600,000) plus efficiency savings ($200,000) yielded a net first-year ROI of roughly 260 percent (Argyris & Schön 1978).

8. Key Lessons and Best Practices

8.1 Prioritize Data Governance Early

Inconsistent address formatting (e.g., “123 Main St” vs. “123 Main Street”) initially led to duplicate deal records, skewing geo-mapping reports. Appointing dedicated data stewards and enforcing a standardized “Data Dictionary” reduced duplicates from 12 percent to under 3 percent within three months. Monthly “Data Health Audits” ensured accountability and preserved data quality (Smith et al. 2016).

8.2 Co-Create Pipelines with Frontline Teams

Rather than imposing a generic pipeline, RevOps HQ co-designed pipeline stages with sales coordinators, estimators, and field evaluators. This collaborative approach ensured the pipeline accurately mirrored real-world workflows and fostered ownership—key factors in driving adoption (Argyris & Schön 1978; Lewin 1946).

8.3 Adopt Modular Playbook Modules Over Rigid Scripts

Instead of a single monolithic script, the playbook comprised modular “cards” focusing on micro-tasks: “Roof Inspection Checklist,” “Objection Handling for Leak Repairs,” and “Hand-Off Protocol to Service Hub.” This modular approach balanced structure with rep autonomy, aligning with principles of self-determination to maintain engagement (Deci & Ryan 1985).

8.4 Embed Continuous Feedback Loops

Weekly monitoring of metrics—playbook completion rates, stage conversion deltas, and time-to-close differentials—enabled rapid iteration. For instance, when 40 percent of “Proposal Sent” deals stalled due to missing “Permit Status,” a new playbook card was introduced to capture that field promptly.

8.5 Leverage Geo-Visualization for Strategic Decisions

Plotting deals and tickets on a map transformed anecdotal resource allocation into data-driven strategy. Executives could redeploy crews to high-density zones, reducing travel time by 18 percent, and identify underserved regions ripe for new bids (Morgan, Baxter, & Laird 2017).

9. Conclusion

This case study illustrates how a mid-sized commercial roofing company leveraged HubSpot CRM—combining Sales Hub Enterprise, Service Hub Enterprise, and Make integrations—to unify lead management, automate service operations, and integrate financials. By enforcing data governance, co-creating processes with frontline teams, embedding feedback mechanisms, and utilizing geo-mapped profitability dashboards, the company reduced lead-to-proposal time by 35 percent, achieved a 92 percent SLA compliance rate, and realized a first-year ROI of 260 percent. These outcomes demonstrate that a strategic, HubSpot-centered RevOps framework can deliver measurable efficiency gains, enhance customer satisfaction, and support scalable growth in a construction environment.

References

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Morgan, J., Baxter, L., & Laird, P. (2017). The Relationship Between Process Formality and Revenue Growth in B2B Firms. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 32(5), 702–709.

Smith, J. N., Marks, B., & Hanson, D. (2016). Forecast Accuracy: Distinguishing Data Quality Issues from Market Volatility. Journal of Marketing Analytics, 4(1), 47–58.

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