GoHighLevel business plan: solar & battery installer
This is a complete GoHighLevel implementation plan for a solar and battery installation business — the same shape I build for real installers. Copy it, change the names, ship it.
Why solar suits GHL: long consideration cycles (people research panels for months), high ticket (speed-to-lead and follow-up discipline convert directly to revenue), survey-based sales process (calendars earn their keep), and a completion event that’s perfect for review and referral engines.
1. Pipelines
Two pipelines. Not one, not five.
Pipeline A — “Domestic Installation”
| Stage | Customer state | Automation on entry |
|---|---|---|
| New Lead | Just enquired | Instant SMS reply + notify surveyor |
| Qualifying | Being qualified (area, roof, budget) | Qualifying questions (form in SMS) |
| Survey Booked | Appointment confirmed | Reminder sequence + pre-survey info |
| Quoted | Proposal received | Day 2/5/10 follow-up sequence |
| Won — Install Booked | Deposit paid | Install prep comms + calendar invite |
| Installed | Job complete | Review request + referral offer |
| Lost / Nurture | Not now | Quarterly nurture campaign |
Pipeline B — “Commercial / Repeat”
Slower, relationship-led. Stages: Lead → Site Visit → Proposal → Negotiating → Won → Installed. Commercial deals move by call, not SMS — the automations here are meeting reminders and proposal follow-ups on email, not texts.
2. Calendars
- “Survey — 60 min” — assigned to surveyors, round-robin, 15 min buffer, minimum 4 hours’ notice (surveyors drive).
- “Install visit — 3 hr” — resource: installer team, collective mode (whole team must be free), checked against roofer availability via connected calendars.
- “Commercial site visit” — individual assignment by area manager.
Every surveyor and installer’s personal calendar is connected — an unconnected calendar is how a survey gets booked over a scaffold inspection.
3. Workflows (the order to build them)
- New lead instant reply — SMS within 60 seconds: “Thanks for your enquiry about solar — quick questions, then we’ll get a survey booked.” + qualifying form link. Tag lead source.
- Survey reminders — 24 hr and 1 hr SMS with surveyor name; no-show → auto-reschedule link.
- Quote follow-up — Day 2 (questions?), Day 5 (case study of a similar install), Day 10 (payback-period explainer), Day 14 → Lost/Nurture stage + quarterly newsletter.
- Install comms — Won → “what happens on the day” email; day before install SMS with team names and parking notes fields.
- Review + referral engine — Installed + 2 days → Google review link SMS; + 7 days → referral offer ("£150 for you, £150 for them" or whatever the numbers support). One follow-up each, then stop.
- Quarterly nurture — Lost/Nurture contacts: spring “battery prices” email, autumn “winter export tariff” email. Solar buyers who said no in April often say yes in January after an energy bill.
4. Custom fields worth having
Postcode (drives area qualification), roof type, current annual bill (qualifies budget and feeds the savings pitch), system size interest, EPC rating if you do those. Resist the rest — see the guide on customisation discipline; you don’t need “sector subcategory” for domestic solar.
5. Campaigns
- Speed-to-lead is the KPI. Watch “time to first contact” in the first month; it should be minutes, not hours.
- Survey show-up rate — target 90%+ with the reminder sequence.
- Quote → Won conversion — most installers land 20-30% of quotes in 90 days. Below that: the quotes are fine, the follow-up isn’t running.
- Review rate — one review per install is the honest target; two is excellent.
6. Rollout order
- Connect team calendars (day 1)
- Build pipelines + basic stages (day 1-2)
- New-lead instant reply + survey reminders (week 1)
- Quote follow-up sequence (week 2)
- Review + referral engine (week 3, once installs flow through)
- Nurture campaigns (month 2)
The honest bit
This plan assumes one thing that no software provides: someone owns the follow-up. The workflows send the messages; a human still books the surveys from the replies and phones the quotes that go quiet. Set that expectation with the team on day one, or month six will look like every other stalled CRM rollout — full pipeline, empty diary.