7 CRM Features Subcontractors Need To Win More Work

November 21, 2024 | 6 min read

Let’s look at seven must-have CRM software features that every subcontractor business needs to enhance productivity, improve customer relationships, support sales teams, and drive growth.

Table of Contents

Whether you are a sales rep, estimator, marketing person, or the owner of a specialty construction business, a customer relationship management software (CRM) enables you to manage projects, relationships, and bids effectively. 

A construction-focused CRM brings all your sales, bidding, project management, estimating, and accounting data into one place, giving you easy access to customer contacts, project history, and project performance. This information is invaluable for preparing bids you can win while staying profitable. Collaboration tools help your team stay on schedule and on budget, while features like workflow alerts, reminders, and bid calendars ensure you never miss a bid due date or follow-up opportunity. New bid opportunity alerts and calendar synchronization with Outlook and Google further streamline your operations.

There are hundreds of CRM options on the market with as many features, each offering different CRM features and options to fulfill different business needs. Choosing the CRM designed for construction means you’ll get the features you need to fulfill your goals and objectives without paying for features you don’t need.

Let’s look at seven must-have CRM software features that every subcontractor business needs to enhance productivity, improve customer relationships, support sales teams, and drive growth.

1. Bid Management 

Do you get multiple bid requests for the same job?  Track all of them together with TopBuilder bid management. …. A robust bid management tool helps subcontractors organize and track bids, proposals, and estimates in one place. Often, you’ll submit multiple bids to multiple GCs for the same job — so you need software that organizes all those submittals under a single job heading to avoid a logistical mess. Centralized bidding management reduces time spent on manual tracking, ensures consistency and accuracy in proposals, and provides insights into bid statuses. 

This means you spend less time on bids, increase your chance of winning, and stay on top of follow-ups on pending proposals: 

  1. Prepare professional quotes and proposals right from the lead.
  2. Integrate pricing and takeoff information from your estimating platform, Excel, or predefined assemblies.
  3. Attach all necessary documents, including specs, cover letters, and scope of work.
  4. Email proposals directly from the platform.
  5. Track activity with alerts, such as when proposals are received, opened, or approved.
  6. Collect electronic signatures to finalize approvals quickly and efficiently.

2. Document Storage and Management 

Think about those dozen clients we mentioned — then think about the hundreds of documents each project involves — and you can see why this feature is so essential for a CRM. A centralized document storage system that allows easy access, sharing, and management of all project-related documents has some major benefits. Not only can team members access and share documents seamlessly for better collaboration, but you can stop worrying about losing papers in your office filing cabinet.  

3. Customer Relationship Management Software

You only get invited to closed and negotiated bids when you’ve built a great reputation. To do that, you need a comprehensive CRM solution designed specifically for contractors to manage and nurture client relationships effectively. Tracking and personalizing customer interactions within the CRM helps build stronger client relationships. Software that gives you access to detailed customer profiles means you can personalize communication, while tracking features let you maintain regular and meaningful contact. All this works together to build stronger client relationships, leading to repeat business and referrals.

4. Collaboration and Calendaring 

Subcontracting is not a solo job. You rely on GCs, project owners, the sales team and others to run a smooth project — so collaboration tools to manage workforce assignments and project schedules efficiently are essential. You need to be sure to assign the right personnel to the right tasks at the right times to optimize resource use, reduce downtime, and enhance accountability. CRM software should make it easy to connect with the person or group you need.

5. Analytics and Reporting/Business Intelligence

If you want your business to grow, you can’t just rely on a gut feeling to tell you what’s working and what isn’t. Powerful analytics and reporting tools are some of the most valuable features of any CRM because they provide insights into business performance and outcomes that help you shepherd your company over time. Sales forecasting, using CRM analytics to predict future sales based on historical data and trends, and sales pipeline, is crucial for making informed decisions. Beyond that, you need software that can give meaningful, data-based suggestions on day-to-day choices. With the right software, you can get a clear picture of your business’ overall health and spot trends and patterns so you can predict future opportunities and challenges.

6. Integration Capabilities 

When you enter an update about a toilet install, you don’t want to rewrite it ten times for each project management system you are using. CRM systems are just a part of the larger construction management ecosystem — and for that system to work efficiently, you need all of your software to interface. A system with good integration smooths data flow between different systems while minimizing errors and discrepancies by synchronizing data across platforms  It also streamlines operations by integrating critical business functions. 

In short, the more you can integrate systems, the less time spent on data entry, and more mistakes avoided.

7. Automated Workflows (Lead Management) Set the Foundation for Business Growth 

If you are working on multiple projects, the number of emails, updates, and check-ins you have every week is a lot to deal with — and while that content is important, it’s not very personal. Many CRMs feature automated workflows that let you outsource repetitive tasks to AI. This automation saves you time, ensures consistency, and leaves your sales and marketing teams free to focus on more strategic activities. Automating tasks within the sales process can significantly improve efficiency, streamline operations, and bring sales and marketing efforts together.

Set the Foundation for Business Growth

TopBuilder is a CRM designed specifically for the construction industry, offering a suite of tools tailored to subcontractors’ needs. TopBuilder’s comprehensive bid management tools allow you to efficiently manage and track bids, ensuring you can handle multiple projects and clients with ease. TopBuilder also integrates with other major construction tools, providing a unified system for your business. 

Choosing a CRM solution such as TopBuilder with construction-specific features can significantly enhance your business’s efficiency and effectiveness. By streamlining bid management, project tracking, customer relationship management and marketing campaigns, you can simplify you operations, build stronger client relationships, and drive business growth. The result? Win more work, faster and easier. 

Want to learn more about how TopBuilder can support your business? We’d love to show you a demo