Plug the leak before you build the roadmap.
A sequencing plan for the Empire Solar Solutions × Common:Denominator AI Operations & Strategy engagement — starting with the gap most likely to be costing more per month than the engagement itself.
Why this gap comes first
Eight departments are in scope. They don't leak dollars at the same rate.
The SOW commits two consultants to eight departments — strategy, marketing, sales ops, workflow automation, customer experience, field operations, service, and talent acquisition — for $15,000 a month. All eight matter. But in a solar contractor, value isn't lost evenly across them: it's created the moment a contract is signed, and it bleeds out a little every day the job sits between signature and commissioned system.
Permitting drifts. Financing windows expire. Homeowners get impatient. Crews get double-booked or show up to a site that isn't ready. None of that is a strategy problem — it's a plumbing problem, and it sits directly on scheduling, follow-up, and field communication. That's why this brief treats those three as Phase 1, ahead of the broader eight-department roadmap: it's the fastest place for this engagement to start paying for itself.
Sizing the leak
Illustrative worksheet — inputs to be replaced with Empire Solar's actuals in Week 1 discovery.
The figures below show the shape of the model using Empire Solar's own numbers where we have them, with the remaining inputs marked as placeholders. Week 1 discovery fills in the rest and produces the full per-department ROI case referenced in the SOW.
| Variable | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Installs completed per month | 15 | Placeholder — confirm against 2026 install log |
| Avg. job value (revenue) | $50,000 | As shared by Empire Solar |
| Assumed gross margin | 25% | Placeholder — solar-industry benchmark; confirm against job costing |
| Avg. gross profit per install | $12,500 | $50,000 × 25% |
| Gross profit moving through the pipeline / month | $187,500 | 15 × $12,500 |
| Installs/month lost or slipped a billing cycle to scheduling friction, slow follow-up, or a field miscommunication that sours the customer | 3 | Placeholder — 20% of volume; confirm against cancellations & reschedules |
| Estimated monthly value at risk | –$37,500 | vs. $15,000/mo engagement cost |
Widely cited lead-response research (InsideSales.com's Lead Response Management study) found that odds of qualifying a new lead drop sharply once first contact passes the five-to-ten-minute mark — the exact window Phase 1's follow-up automation targets.
This sizes the opportunity, not a formal forecast — the Day-14 roadmap and Day-30 ROI review below replace any remaining placeholders with Empire Solar's actuals.
Phase 1 — Days 0–14
Scheduling, follow-up, and field communication. Ship inside the SOW's existing 14-business-day quick-wins window.
Scheduling
- AI-assisted install & crew scheduling that checks permitting/inspection status before a slot is confirmed, cutting double-booked and premature bookings
- Automated confirmations and reminders with two-way reschedule links, replacing manual call-to-confirm
- Weather- and permit-aware contingency rules that auto-offer the next open slot instead of leaving a stalled job silent on the calendar
Follow-up
- Speed-to-lead automation: new leads routed and first-touched within minutes using AI-assisted response drafting
- Automated nurture cadences for every stage a deal can stall — signed/pre-permit, permitted/pre-install, installed/pre-PTO — so no contract goes quiet
- Automated review and referral requests triggered the moment the system is energized, when satisfaction peaks
Field communication
- Mobile job-status tool for crews (arrived / in progress / complete / blocked) that pushes updates to office and customer automatically
- On-site photo and checklist capture, removing callback trips for missing paperwork
- Automatic customer-facing status texts — crew en route, install complete, next step is inspection — replacing ad hoc calls
- An AI agent watches every open job in real time and escalates to the office the instant one goes idle or blocked, instead of surfacing at the next status meeting
What follows
The remaining seven SOW areas, sequenced after the pipeline leak is under control.
Cadence
Mapped to the milestones already in the SOW.
- KickoffPartnership kickoff & department discovery — real numbers replace every placeholder in the Section 2 worksheet.
- Day 14AI roadmap and three quick wins delivered — this brief is the working draft of that deliverable, scoped to Phase 1.
- Day 30First ROI review — Phase 1 measured against the leakage model above using Empire Solar's actual install and follow-up data.
- OngoingWeekly scrum reporting to the Co-Owners; monthly cadence with 30-day flexibility either direction.
This is where the money is moving right now — so it's where we start.
Phase 1 is scoped to ship inside the SOW's existing 14-day quick-wins window at no incremental cost — it's a sequencing decision, not a change order. Phases 2–5 proceed on the schedule above once Day-30 numbers confirm where Phase 1 actually recovered value.