The Salesforce playbook for construction.
Construction is a fragmented, project-driven business where margins live or die on operational execution. The general contractors and specialty contractors winning right now have unified pursuit, estimating, project ops, and field execution on one connected platform, with the field-to-office data flow that actually works.
- 14 chapters
- 5 Salesforce products in depth
- 14-point readiness checklist
- 10,105 words
What's inside.
Written by our Salesforce consultants for construction. Read it start to finish or go straight to the chapter you need.
Salesforce in construction: 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 Sales Cloud, Salesforce Service Cloud, Salesforce Field Service, Tableau, Salesforce Agentforce: 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
4 results from Abstrakt Solutions projects.
Where the industry is concentrated, and local guides
local guides for 23 metros.
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 →- Define a pursuit before buildingTeams disagree about when a rumor becomes an opportunity. Agree entry criteria, stage definitions and who records the go/no-go decision before configuration starts. Without that, reports mix speculative leads with active bids, and executives stop trusting the pipeline view within the first reporting cycle.
- Keep job numbering consistentThe link between a Salesforce project and the accounting system depends on a shared identifier. Decide when the job number is assigned and who enters it, then validate the format. A missing or mistyped job number breaks every report that tries to join pursuit data with financial results.
- Scope trade partner trackingFirms that self-perform some trades and subcontract others may want prequalification status and bid invitations tracked too. Decide early whether that belongs in Salesforce or stays in a dedicated prequalification tool, because the answer changes the account model and sharing rules considerably.
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 Sales Cloud for ConstructionSales Cloud helps general contractors, specialty trades and construction service firms manage business development from early market intelligence to signed contract.
- Salesforce Service Cloud for ConstructionService Cloud handles the service work that surrounds construction projects rather than the projects themselves.
- Salesforce Field Service for ConstructionField Service gives contractors a way to schedule crews, not just individual technicians, across jobs that run for days or weeks at one address.
- Tableau for ConstructionFor contractors, the business runs on bids and jobs, and Tableau lets general contractors, trade partners and construction services companies analyze both in one place.
- Salesforce Agentforce for ConstructionAgentforce lets builders and contractors put AI agents on the repetitive, document-heavy conversations that surround a project: collecting insurance certificates and licenses from trade partners, logging warranty requests from homeowners and building owners, answering bidders about due dates and addenda, and briefing preconstruction staff on an account before a pursuit meeting.
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 construction and on 4 of our own projects.
