Aloft Group is a Burlington, Ontario–based residential and commercial painting company serving homeowners and business clients across Halton and the Greater Hamilton Area. With strong demand and a lean team, Aloft needed more clarity, structure, and consistency in how leads were qualified, how painting projects moved through the sales process, and how customer communication was managed from first contact to final walkthrough.

Their goals were simple: improve operational efficiency, support sustainable growth, and deliver a consistently excellent customer experience — every time.

Before partnering with Funnel Forward, Aloft Group faced several operational and sales challenges that were limiting their ability to scale:

❌ Unclear sales role expectations and accountability, leading to inconsistent follow-through
❌ Manual and inconsistent lead follow-up, resulting in slower response times and lost opportunities
❌ No early qualification process, causing the team to spend valuable time on low-fit or low-priority estimates
❌ Customer communication varied by team member, leading to an unpredictable client experience
❌ Systems weren't aligned to how customers actually buy, creating friction and duplicate work

The leadership team knew they delivered high-quality painting work — but their internal processes weren't yet set up to support repeatable, predictable, scalable growth.

Funnel Forward guided Aloft Group through the Discovery → Design → Drive stages of our operational framework, using their existing tools (Estimate Rocket and CompanyCam) rather than replacing their tech stack.

Discovery
We conducted a full operational assessment:

• Interviewed team members across sales, operations, and leadership
• Documented the actual customer journey from lead to job completion
• Mapped handoffs and identified bottlenecks in the sales and production process
• Analyzed pipeline data, workflow friction, and missed revenue opportunities
• Identified quick wins to accelerate speed-to-lead and improve communication

Design
We built a streamlined sales and operations blueprint tailored to a high-volume painting business:

• Defined clear sales role responsibilities, KPIs, and success measures
• Mapped the full customer journey from lead → qualification → estimate → production → referral
• Designed a standardized pre-estimate qualification step to prioritize fit opportunities
• Outlined system configuration requirements for Estimate Rocket, CompanyCam, and supporting tools
• Created the foundation for alignment between sales, operations, and field crews

Drive
This phase focused on enablement, automation, and execution:

• Built email templates and nurture messaging aligned to the painting customer lifecycle
• Created workflows and Zapier automations to improve speed-to-lead and handoff consistency
• Developed a library of written and video SOPs for sales, service, and process execution
• Provided advisory support for future team structure, territory planning, and commercial expansion

Aloft chose to deploy the systems internally, using the blueprints, SOPs, and handover documentation to ensure ownership, adoption, and long-term scalability.

Key systems and improvements delivered:

✅ Lead Capture → Zapier → Estimate Rocket Automations
Instant routing of form submissions into the CRM with automated follow-up messages.

✅ New Pre-Estimate Qualification Step
Protects sales and crew time by ensuring only fit opportunities receive onsite estimates.

✅ Standardized Sales Process & Clear Role Definitions
Including KPIs, activity expectations, and clean handoffs.

✅ Customer Journey–Aligned Communication Templates
A predictable, high-touch experience for painting customers from inquiry to referral.

✅ Sales & Service SOP Library
Written and video SOPs for training, consistency, and accountability.

✅ Advisory Support for Future Growth
Including field sales structure, partnership opportunities, and commercial strategy.

Though still early in implementation, Aloft Group has already seen measurable improvements:

✅ Lead response time went from hours or days to nearly instant — improving connection rates and customer perception

✅ Unfit leads are now filtered out before estimates — protecting valuable sales and crew time

✅ Consistent, professional customer experience — regardless of which team member is involved

✅ New hires ramp up immediately — thanks to documented processes and clear role expectations

✅ Smoother handoffs from sales to production — getting projects started faster with less confusion

✅ The team operates with more confidence — less manual work, clearer accountability, and a system built to scale

“Brandi brought clarity to our sales process and helped us define exactly how the role should function, what success looks like, and how to measure it. That alone was a game changer for us.”
— Jeff B., Owner, Aloft Group

“The automated lead follow-up system has made a huge difference. Leads are acknowledged instantly and can book a qualification call right in our calendar. Our speed-to-lead has improved dramatically.”
— Joel D., Owner, Aloft Group

Aloft is now entering the Develop stage with Funnel Forward — reinforcing consistency, improving adoption, and optimizing workflows as higher volumes of painting projects move through the system.

As the new operations engine stabilizes, we will:

• Refine performance levers
• Evaluate future sales and operations structure
• Identify opportunities for commercial and partnership growth

Funnel Forward will remain an ongoing operations partner to ensure continuous improvement and sustainable scaling.

✅ Clear roles and expectations create alignment and higher performance
✅ Early qualification protects team time and increases lead quality
✅ Automated communication improves customer experience and conversion
✅ Systems must reflect the real customer journey
✅ Scalability requires documented, repeatable, measurable workflows