Scout Rep
SCOUT
AI Sales Assistant for Construction

Scout Rep

User Guide

Last updated: July 2026

Scout is your AI sales rep. It works permit data, drafts your outreach, books meetings, and keeps your pipeline current — over plain SMS or WhatsApp. You stay the human; Scout does the legwork.

This page is the complete tour. Skim it once, then come back to the prompts when you want ideas.

Getting started (30 seconds)

  1. Sign up at scoutrep.build. Drop your mobile number + work email. That's it.
  2. Scout looks you up. It reads your email domain, researches your business, and figures out your trade, cities, and sweet-spot project size.
  3. You get a text in ~30 seconds. Confirm or correct what Scout found — “I'm framing not concrete,” “add Sherwood Park,” “sweet spot is $1M-$8M.” Scout updates your profile on the fly.
  4. You're live. Tomorrow at 7:30 AM you get your first brief.

If WhatsApp is enabled on your number, Scout routes everything there automatically — interactive buttons, quick replies, richer formatting. If not, plain SMS works the same. Same Scout, same brain.

The daily rhythm

You set the pace, and Scout actually sticks to it. Need a break? Say “let's talk Monday” or “pause briefs for a week” — Scout goes quiet until then and picks back up on its own. Prefer to reach out yourself? Say “only text me when I text you” — Scout stops all scheduled texts and just answers when you message first. If the daily list is more than you need, say “fewer leads, only the good stuff” — Scout switches you to a lighter rhythm (a brief every few days instead of daily). Flip any of these back anytime with “give me the daily list again”. Whatever mode you're in, texting Scout a question always gets a full answer.

How Scout scores a lead

Every lead is rated 0–100. Tier bands:

Scoring weighs eight factors: trade-timing window (the biggest one — when a builder is likely choosing your trade), freshness, project type fit, value fit, territory, your relationship to the builder, how many other permits that builder is pulling, and how reachable they are. Scout leans early on purpose: a lead you see before the builder has picked a crew beats one where the job is already underway.

Territory is not all-or-nothing. A permit in one of your cities scores highest, but a job in the same region — the next town over — still counts. You don't have to list every suburb to see work near you. If a builder you watch in BuildMapper pulls a permit, that counts too.

Tap any lead and ask “why did this score 82?” — Scout breaks it down factor by factor.

Your pipeline

Every lead Scout surfaces lives in your pipeline. Stages:

Move stages from chat: “mark Pinewood won,” “lost the Garrison Woods one — they went in-house,” “follow up on Khera Friday at 10 AM.”

Putting a price on a job.You don't have to mark something won just to record what it's worth. Tell Scout the number and the job stays exactly where it is: “add a contract value of 60k to the Carolyn Drive job,” “that Horizon One one is about 21 grand,” “I quoted them 45k.” If your BuildMapper account is linked, the number shows up in the Contract value column on the same card. Say “we won it” when you actually win it.

View the full board anytime: “show me my pipeline” or “open the board.” Scout will send a link to a clean web view of every lead, score breakdown, and contact info.

Jobs Scout didn't find count too. A builder called you? A referral came in? Tell Scout about it and it goes on your board like any other lead — with the same reminders and follow-ups. If your BuildMapper account is linked, it lands on that board too. Try: “Got a job from a builder named Harjit — 15k exterior reno in Richmond, starts Thursday. Put it on my board.”

Nearby jobs and your driving route

Ask Scout what is around you and it searches by distance, not by city. A job ten minutes away in the next town shows up the same as one on your street. Try “what's near me?” and tell it where you are, or send your location: on WhatsApp tap the paperclip, then Location. Scout takes the pin and works from there.

You can set how wide to look. “anything within 2k of me” for walking distance, “within 15k” for the whole side of town. Five kilometres is the default.

Then ask for the route. Say “plan my run” and Scout puts the stops in the shortest driving order and sends a Google Maps link with every address already loaded. Tap it once and your phone is navigating the whole day. Ask for a round trip if you want to end up back at the shop.

It works on jobs you already have too, not just new permits: “I'm visiting the three Surrey sites this afternoon, best order?”

A handful of addresses cannot be pinned to a map, usually because the permit lists a project name instead of a street. Scout will tell you which ones rather than dropping them quietly.

The handoff (this is the magic)

Scout never messages a builder for you. Youdo — from your number. Here's how:

  1. Scout finds a permit and drafts a message in your voice.
  2. It texts you a one-tap link like /h/AB12.
  3. You tap it. Your phone opens with the text pre-filled and the builder's number ready.
  4. You hit send. Scout silently marks the lead pitched and notes the time.

Same flow for email (opens your mail app with body pre-filled) and calendar invites (opens a Google Calendar URL with the time pre-set). Scout supports SMS, email, and calendar handoffs out of the box.

Scout's email address — so it sees what happens next

You get your own Scout email address — something like mike3@hq.scoutrep.build. It does two things:

1. It rides along on your email pitches.When Scout drafts an email for you, your mail app opens with Scout's address already in the CC line. Leave it there. When you hit send, Scout knows the pitch actually went out — and when the builder hits reply-all, Scout sees the reply and texts you right away with what they said and what to do next. You don't have to report back anymore.

2. You can email it files.Quotes, building plans, spec sheets, spreadsheets — anything that's easier to send from a computer than to text. Email it to your Scout address and Scout reads it and texts you its take. Works great for “look at my quote before I send it” and “what's in these plans for me?”

Your own email templates

Already got outreach emails you like? Scout will use yours instead of writing its own.

Send it once. Email the template to your Scout address — or paste it in a text — and tell Scout what to call it and when to use it. Something like “save that as my reno intro, use it for renos and additions”. Scout will ask what to call it if you don't say.

It keeps the way it looks. If you email it, Scout keeps your layout, your logo and your sign-off — not just the words. (Paste it in a text and Scout only gets the words, so it goes out plain.)

It fills in the blanks.Tell Scout which bits change job to job — the builder's name, the address — and it swaps those in for each new lead. The rest of your wording it leaves alone.

Sending it. When Scout finds a job your template fits, it texts you a link like always. Tap Copy email, tap Open draft— already addressed, with Scout in the CC so it still sees the reply — then paste and send. Your email, your look, one job's details filled in.

Already have templates in BuildMapper?If your BuildMapper account is connected to Scout, the email templates you saved there (Settings → Email templates) show up in Scout on their own — no need to send them again. Edit or delete one in BuildMapper and Scout picks up the change within a day. Your name, company and profile link are filled in already; Scout fills the builder and project details per job.

Photos, voice notes & files — just send them

Scout's number takes more than text:

Notes and voice updates — Scout keeps the file

Scout isn't just for questions. Tell it what happened today and it writes everything down like a good assistant would — then brings it back when it matters.

Adding your network — builders you already know

Scout's superpower is your relationship graph. Builders, GCs, and developers you've worked with get flagged the second they pull a permit. This is the single most important thing you'll do in your first week.

Step 1 — Ask Scout for the link

Text Scout: “send me my network link” or “let me add my contacts.” Scout replies with a private magic link to /network — tied to your account, 14-day TTL, only you can use it.

Step 2 — Paste, type, or upload

On the network page you can:

Formats Scout will happily eat:

Names vs. companies, multiple phones, missing fields — Scout sorts it out. Just get the data in. You can edit or delete any contact later.

Step 3 — Watch tomorrow's brief change

Scout matches your contacts against every new permit. When one of yours pulls one, the brief leads with “FROM YOUR NETWORK”. Those are your warmest possible leads — someone you can actually call by name.

Your watch list gets its own line at the top of every morning brief. Builders you added by texting Scout, plus the builders you watch in BuildMapper (and the ones from jobs you won there), are named when they file a new permit — like “From builders you watch: Strand (2), Polygon.”Your full contact list still counts for warm leads; it just isn't called out by name in that line.

Adding colleagues — other trades you work with

You don't only know builders. You know other trades — the drywaller, the framer, the electrician you cross paths with on every job. Scout's colleague network lets you invite them, and when one of them loads their builder list, the overlap warms up your leads too. Wins flow both ways.

To invite a colleague:

  1. Text Scout: “invite my drywaller,” “invite Mike at Prairie Electric,” or just “invite a colleague.”
  2. Scout asks 3 quick questions: their trade, their name, their number. (Or share a contact card directly — Scout reads vCards.)
  3. Scout sends them a personalized intro from you, not a cold pitch from a robot. They sign up, load their own network, and the graph thickens.

When a colleague signs up in your city, Scout will tell you: “Mike from Prairie Electric just joined — you've got 4 builders in common.” Those overlaps are gold.

Already on BuildMapper? Link it

Signed up on BuildMapper just now? Then you have already met — Scout texts you within seconds of you adding your mobile number, says what it watches for you, and gets to work. The two accounts are already talking, so there is nothing to connect. Text back whatever you want: “I do roofing, not siding”, “add Langley”, “who owns the Fraser Heights job?” If you sign up in the middle of the night, Scout holds the hello until the morning rather than waking you.

If you use BuildMapper already, connect the two: text Scout “connect my BuildMapper”(or tap Connect inside BuildMapper). Once linked, Scout sees the leads on your BuildMapper board, and when you tell Scout you won or quoted a job, your board updates automatically. Tell one, the other knows. Pitches count too: when you open a pitch Scout drafted for you — and when your pitch email goes out — that shows up under the same lead in BuildMapper, in the lead's activity.

It works the other way now too. Email a builder from BuildMapper and Scout knows you did — who you emailed, which job, and when. So it won't tell you to pitch someone you already pitched this morning. Ask it: “have I emailed Khera Homes yet?” or “who am I still waiting to hear back from?”Scout can't read what you wrote — just that you sent it. And if BuildMapper only opened your mail app, it can't tell whether you actually hit send, so it will ask you rather than guess.

That goes for what you tell Scout, too. The Scout chat inside BuildMapper now knows what you've told Scout over text — the areas you work, the builders you chase, what you won and lost, how you like to be contacted. Say it once here and you won't have to type it again over there.

Anything you schedule against a job — a Friday delivery, a site visit, a quote deadline — lands on your BuildMapper calendar for that job as well as your own. Try: “delivery for the E 8th job is this Friday morning.”

On a team? When your manager assigns you a lead in BuildMapper, Scout knows. It won't blow up your phone about it — the assignment opens your next morning message, with who assigned it and what to do first. If your mornings start with the reply menu, the assignment is the first line and you can reply 4 to work it right away. Or just text Scout before then and it will bring it up.

Quotes & contracts by text

With the link active, Scout can build the paperwork too. Describe the job — “quote the Pinewood deck job: tear-out, 320 sq ft composite decking, glass railing, about $12k all-in” — and Scout builds a real quote in your BuildMapper account: your logo, your branding, numbered like the rest. You get a review link first; say “send it” and Scout hands you the client link to forward — your client opens a professional quote and accepts online. Contracts work the same way: say “contract it” once a quote is accepted (or describe the deal) and Scout drafts the agreement — scope, payment schedule, timeline, warranty — with a digital signing link for your client. Scout texts you the moment a client opens, accepts, declines or signs. When a quote goes out, that lead moves to your Quoted column automatically, in Scout's pipeline and on your BuildMapper board — and that works whether you tell Scout to send it or mark it sent yourself inside BuildMapper. Scout never contacts your client directly — you always send the link yourself.

Scout attaches every quote to a job on your board, so it will tell you which one it used — “that's on 2956 E 8th Ave”. If it can't work out which job you mean it asks instead of guessing, so a quote never ends up filed against nothing.

Sent Scout the drawings first? They go with the quote. Text Scout the plan set, say “quote this in BuildMapper”, and the PDFs Scout just read are attached to the quote it builds — so when you open that quote in BuildMapper and ask its estimator to “add the railing”, it is looking at the same pages you sent.

Ask about your own prices

If your price lists and spec sheets live in BuildMapper's Product Brain, you can ask Scout about them like you'd ask the person at the next desk — “what's our cost on 5/4 cedar decking?”, “do we stock the grey composite?”, “what's the warranty on the TimberTech line?”You get the real number, out of your own files, while you're still on the phone with the builder.

Two things worth knowing. Scout reads the price straight from your files and repeats it exactly — it never works one out or rounds it. And if something isn't in your files, it tells you so instead of guessing. Whatever your team has uploaded, you can ask about, even if someone else did the uploading.

Ask about your own customers

If your company has connected its ERP to BuildMapper, Scout can see your customer list and what they buy from you — so you can ask from the truck instead of going back to a desk. “Has Maple Ridge Truss bought from us before?”, “What did Delta Framing spend last year?”, “What have we got sitting in open quotes?”, “Who haven't we heard from in a while?” That last one is the win-back list — real customers who have gone quiet, biggest spenders first.

It pairs with permits in one question. Ask about a new job and Scout can tell you in the same breath whether that builder is already an account of yours and who looks after them — try “is the builder on the Sitka Blvd permit already a customer?” or “which of our customers near this job have gone quiet?”

Three things worth knowing. Money here is what a customer spent with you— it is never a product price, so keep asking about prices the way you always have. Scout won't guess: if a figure isn't in your records it says so rather than estimating, because a made-up number about a real customer is worse than no answer. And your records are read-only — nothing Scout does here ever changes anything in your ERP.

Prompts to try

Copy any of these into your chat with Scout. They're starting points — Scout's smart about variations, so phrase it however feels natural.

You don't have to memorize any of it. Ask “what else can you do?”any time and Scout will tell you the few things you aren't using yet. It also drops the odd pointer on its own — one line at the end of a message, once in a while, never a lecture.

Set up your profile

Find permits and new leads

Scout keeps about 16 months of permit history — roughly 26,000 permits — so you can ask for a past stretch, not just this week. Older permits are still worth a call: on a job that broke ground in the spring, the finishing trades often haven't been hired yet.

One thing worth knowing: a permit's date is the day the city issued it, not the day it reached Scout. Cities release their permit data in batches, and some run a week or two behind. So if you ask for “anything from the last few days”in a city that's behind, Scout gives you the newest it actually has and tells you the date — “newest I've got in Surrey is Aug 27” — instead of coming back empty.

Research a builder

You don't have to get the name exactly right. Builders are often filed under something slightly different from what everyone calls them — ask for “NewLook Developments” and Scout will still find them if the permits say Newlook Homes, and it'll tell you which name they're filed under.

Pipeline management

Nearby jobs & routes

Outreach drafting

Calendar & meetings

Network & colleagues

Quotes, files & coaching

Meta & control

SMS vs. WhatsApp

Scout auto-detects whether your number is registered on WhatsApp at signup and uses it if you have it — it's free for you and handles photos, voice notes, and files best. On plain SMS you get the same Scout and the same content as text. Either way it's fully usable.

To switch: “use SMS instead” or “move me back to WhatsApp.”

Plans & billing

You start on a free 14-day trial — full Scout, no card needed. If you run Scout hard, the trial can wrap up a little sooner; either way you get a heads-up before anything pauses, and your pipeline is always saved. After the trial there are two plans: Scout Starter at $99/month, or the Scout + BuildMapper full stack at $250/month — everything in Starter plus your own BuildMapper.ai account: the live permit map, your pipeline on one board, and branded quotes and contracts Scout can build for you from the chat. Say “upgrade me” or “what are my options” and Scout sends your personal pricing page — Starter upgrades with one tap there, and the full stack starts from the same page. Say “update my card” or “cancel” and Scout texts you a secure link to your billing portal — change your card, see invoices, or cancel in a couple of taps, no questions asked. If you cancel, you keep full service to the end of the month you paid for, and your pipeline stays saved if you ever come back.

Compliance, the short version

Full detail: Privacy · Terms · Compliance.

Quick commands

Stuck or need a human?

Most things you'd ask support, just ask Scout in chat first. It can update your profile, change your channel, pause briefs, explain a score, or escalate to a real person if it can't help.

For anything else: info@buildmapper.com. Real person, real response.

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