HubSpot for construction companies that track every bid and win repeat work
We set up HubSpot to track bid invites, owner relationships and the handoff from estimating to the field. Estimating, scheduling and billing stay in the software you use now.
Free, 30 minutes, and you'll leave with at least one clear next step.
What goes in HubSpot, and what stays where it is
HubSpot handles
- Bid invites, go or no-go decisions and win or loss reasons
- Owners, developers, GCs and the people you know at each one
- Follow-up reminders between projects
- Marketing, recruiting ads and the leads they bring in
Stays in your current tools
- Estimating and takeoffs
- Scheduling, RFIs and submittals
- Progress billing and retainage
- Job costing and accounting
Why bids slip through the cracks
Owners, estimators and business development leads tell us about these the most.
Bid invites live in inboxes
Some get missed. The hit rate by GC or by estimator is unknown, so the team bids on everything.
The won job gets typed in three times
Once in the CRM or spreadsheet, again in the project software, and again in accounting.
Owner relationships live in one person's head
Repeat work depends on who remembers to call. When that person retires, the relationships go with them.
You can't staff the work you could win
Recruiting runs on referrals and job boards that go untracked, so you can't tell what's working.
How do you track your bid hit rate?
Start by logging every invite, including the ones you pass on. In HubSpot each invite becomes a record with the GC or owner, the project, the bid date and the estimator. Then it moves through stages that match how you bid. A typical list runs from invite received to go or no-go, takeoff, bid sent, and awarded or lost.
Two habits make the numbers useful. The go or no-go decision gets a reason, so later you can see which kinds of jobs you should stop chasing. Every loss gets a reason too, such as price, scope, relationship or no response. It takes a few seconds per bid.
Specialty subcontractors often bid the same project to several GCs. We link one project to every GC bidding it, so you see the project once and know which GC won the job. After a few months, HubSpot shows your hit rate by GC, by sector and by estimator. That's how you learn which GCs actually award you work, and which ones only use your number to check their own.
What we put in place
A bid list set up the way you bid
Invite, go or no-go, takeoff, bid sent, and awarded or lost, with a reason recorded each time.
HubSpotA handoff from signed contract to operations
When a deal is won, HubSpot creates the handoff tasks and a checklist with what estimating already collected. The project manager starts with the facts in hand.
Owners and developers as accounts
Every project, contact and referral in one history, with reminders to stay in touch between jobs.
Email marketingRecruiting you can track
Targeted ads to a short mobile application, with each applicant tracked through to hire.
Paid adsA review of where jobs lose time
We follow three recent jobs from invite to invoice and put a dollar cost on each delay.
Friction Point AnalysisWhat happens the day you win a job?
In a lot of companies, the estimator emails a folder to the project manager and hopes for the best. The project manager then calls the owner to ask questions estimating already answered. Details like site access, special materials or a promise made at the bid meeting get lost along the way.
We set it up so a won deal starts the handoff on its own. HubSpot creates tasks for the project manager, operations and accounting, plus a checklist filled in with what estimating already collected. The contacts, the scope notes and the bid documents travel with the job. The client's name gets typed once instead of into three systems.
If you run Procore, Buildertrend or another project tool, we look at how the won job gets there. Sometimes it's a ready-made connection, and sometimes it takes a small custom build. Photon Brothers is a good example of the custom route. Designs, signed contracts and order details now flow from one system to the next without anyone retyping them.
How do you keep repeat clients coming back?
For general contractors and construction managers, the best work usually comes from owners you've already worked for. Yet the history of those relationships is often scattered across a few senior people's phones.
We set up owners, developers and property managers as accounts in HubSpot, with every past project, contact and referral attached. Your business development lead gets a short list each week of clients who haven't heard from you in a while. When an owner's facilities director changes jobs, the new contact goes on the record and the old one moves with them to their new company. Over time the relationships belong to the firm, and you can plan for repeat work.
Can ads help you hire crews?
Plenty of contractors could take on more work if they could staff it. Hiring by referral still works, but it only goes so far, and you can't see what it costs.
We run targeted ads, mostly on Meta, that send people to a short application they can finish on a phone in a couple of minutes. Each applicant goes into a hiring pipeline in HubSpot along with the ad that brought them. You see cost per applicant and cost per hire by trade and by location. Then the budget goes to the ads that actually fill crews.
Different setups for different contractors
General contractors and construction managers. Owner and developer relationships, prequalification, RFPs and repeat clients. The setup centers on accounts and long relationships.
Specialty trade subcontractors. High bid volume to many GCs. The setup centers on the bid list, go or no-go discipline and hit rate by GC.
Design-build firms. Earlier conversations with owners and more marketing. Lead ads and steady follow-up matter more here.
Solar and residential installers. Design tools, permits, utilities and inventory all touch the same job. For Photon Brothers, a Colorado solar installer, we connected HubSpot to its design software, inventory system and permitting data. That saves about 10 hours a week of typing.
Building product manufacturers sell into the same projects from the other side. See HubSpot for building product manufacturers.
How we start
- 2 to 4 weeks
Follow three recent jobs
From invite to invoice, with a cost on each delay. This is the paid initial analysis in our Friction Point Analysis.
- After the review
Build
Bid list, handoff checklist, owner accounts and dashboards.
- Once tracking works
Marketing and recruiting
Ads go live once tracking reaches the signed contract or the hire.
More specific pages
Pick the page closest to your business. Each one covers the problems we see most in that part of construction.
General contractors
HubSpot for general contractors. Track RFPs, prequalification and owner relationships, see win rate by project type, and pass won jobs to Procore.
Electrical contractors
HubSpot for commercial electrical contractors. Track bids to every GC, renew service and maintenance agreements on time, and stop retyping won jobs.
CRM for contractors
A CRM for trade and specialty contractors. Follow up on every quote, stay in touch with past customers and referral partners, and keep your field software.
HubSpot and Procore
How a HubSpot Procore integration works. What moves when you win a job, what comes back at closeout, and when to use a connector tool or a custom build.
Solar installers
HubSpot for solar installers, connected to OpenSolar, inventory and permit data. Photon Brothers saves about 10 hours a week of manual data entry.
HVAC companies
HubSpot for multi-crew HVAC companies. Follow up on every unsold estimate, renew maintenance agreements on time, and see which ads turn into booked jobs.
Roofing companies
HubSpot for roofing companies with several crews. Call back every lead fast, track each inspection to a signed job, and work old storm leads again.
Construction questions
Does HubSpot connect to Procore?
Yes, through a third-party connector or a custom build. A won deal can then open a project in Procore without retyping. How much work that takes depends on what you want to pass across.
Can HubSpot replace our estimating or project management software?
No. HubSpot runs business development, relationships and marketing. Estimating, scheduling, RFIs and billing stay where they are.
Does HubSpot work with Buildertrend?
Buildertrend offers a HubSpot connection that can pass leads across as jobs, which suits residential builders. Check it against how you sell before relying on it.
How do we track our hit rate?
Log every bid invite with a go or no-go decision and a win or loss reason. HubSpot then shows your hit rate by GC, sector and estimator.
Is a CRM worth it for a subcontractor?
Yes, if you bid to several GCs a week. It's the most practical way to see which GCs actually award you work.
How do we recruit tradespeople online?
Run targeted ads to a short mobile application and track each applicant through to hire. Keep the application to a few questions, and learn the rest on the phone.
How long does it take to set up HubSpot for a contractor?
A bid pipeline for one estimating team can be running in a few weeks. Connecting Procore or bringing in old bid logs from spreadsheets adds time. You get a timeline in the written scope after the first call.
Related
Other industries we work with
Bring a recent job to the call
We'll walk through how it moved from bid to field and tell you where we'd start.