The Salesforce playbook for commercial trades and field service.
Commercial trade contractors earn their margin twice: once on the install and again on the recurring service that follows. HVAC, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, roofing, and facilities firms that grow steadily treat maintenance agreements, inspection schedules, and technician time as connected data rather than separate spreadsheets. We configure Salesforce so a quote, a signed agreement, a dispatched work order, and the invoice trail all sit on one customer record, and technicians can close out a visit without calling the office.
- 13 chapters
- 4 Salesforce products in depth
- 14-point readiness checklist
- 9,457 words
What's inside.
Written by our Salesforce consultants for commercial trades and field service. Read it start to finish or go straight to the chapter you need.
Salesforce in commercial trades and field service: where it pays off
6 patterns that work, and the stack we typically deploy.
The challenges Salesforce has to solve
The 6 problems a design has to solve, plus 4 methods we use on them.
Which Salesforce products fit, and how
Salesforce Field Service, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Salesforce Revenue Cloud / CPQ, Salesforce Service Cloud: use cases, data model and buyer questions for each.
How to implement it
Who needs to be in the room, what the first release includes, and the questions to settle before kickoff.
Moving from your current system
What moves from your current system, how to plan it, and the decisions to make early.
The systems to connect
10 systems to connect and what flows between them.
Regulation and compliance
6 rules and obligations the design has to account for.
Readiness checklist
14 decisions to make before you sign a statement of work.
What to measure
6 metrics to baseline before the build, with a worksheet.
After go-live: support and health checks
What ongoing support covers and when to run a health check.
If a project has stalled
How stalled projects get back on track, and how to get more from the org you have.
Results from our projects
3 results from Abstrakt Solutions projects.
Next steps
Free assessments and how to reach a consultant.
From the readiness checklist.
Three of the 14 decisions the playbook asks you to make before you sign a statement of work. The full checklist, with the rest of the playbook, is in the PDF.
Get the full playbook →- Model assets before screensEquipment records drive maintenance schedules, warranty tracking and repair history. If assets are skipped in the first design, agreements end up as text fields and nobody can report on what is installed where. Decide the level of detail per trade, since a fire sprinkler system and a single exhaust fan need different treatment.
- Licenses and certificationsStore technician licenses, expiry dates and trade certifications as data the scheduler can use. Local rules on who may perform fire, gas or electrical work vary, so confirm the requirements with your compliance lead rather than relying on a configuration default. Expiring credentials should alert a manager ahead of time.
- Plan around your peak seasonAn HVAC contractor should not cut over during the first heat wave, and a landscaping or snow services firm has its own crunch. Schedule go-live and training for the quieter stretch, and keep a fallback so dispatch can still work if a sync issue appears on day one.
The Salesforce products it covers.
Each product chapter covers use cases, how the data is modeled and the questions buyers ask. Shorter versions are on our site.
- Salesforce Field Service for Commercial TradesField Service runs the service side of a trade contractor: taking the call, matching it to the right technician, sending that technician with the right parts, and closing the visit with signed paperwork and billable detail.
- Salesforce Sales Cloud for Commercial TradesSales Cloud gives a trade contractor one view of who it sells to and what is in play: maintenance agreement proposals, replacement quotes raised by technicians, bid invitations from general contractors and renewals coming due.
- Salesforce Revenue Cloud for Commercial TradesRevenue Cloud gives trade contractors a controlled way to price and quote their work.
- Salesforce Service Cloud for Commercial TradesService Cloud handles the customer-facing side of a trade contractor's service operation.
Who wrote it.
Abstrakt Solutions is a Salesforce Select partner based in St. Louis, with 108 Salesforce certifications, 7 Salesforce accreditations and a 4.95 out of 5 rating from 92 reviews on Salesforce AgentExchange (formerly AppExchange).
The playbook draws on the guidance we publish for commercial trades and field service and on 3 of our own projects.
