Feature Spotlight: Lead Management

Show Notes

On our first “Feature Spotlight” episode of The Building Code Dan Lipari – a senior manager of customer success at Buildertrend – discusses with us lead management and how Buildertrend customers use it in their building worlds.

A lot of what Buildertrend offers is project management related – tools for once the job is won. But, what about before the job gets off the ground? There’s a gap in this part of the building industry’s process. How businesses manage their leads, how they follow up, the consistency in which they follow up, how professionally they present their business … that’s where Buildertrend lead management features get their moment to shine.

Episode 9 Dan Lipari

When it comes to any construction company ditching their past management practices for Buildertrend, Dan has heard it all: pen and paper, Excel spreadsheets, sticky notes, “it’s all in my head.” But, no matter what companies new to Buildertrend have used in the past, onboarding and training revolve around the transition from the old way to working within our software. Once this happens, Dan sees a lot of “a-ha” moments – Buildertrend offers a whole new world of features and processes. Whether or not we realize it, everyone has a “way” they do things, and when customers onboard with Buildertrend, we don’t try to change that “way” … we just make it a little more automated, streamlined and efficient.

It’s no secret that different types of businesses use Buildertrend. Maybe the client builds three high-end homes each year, or another client is into constructing multiple subdivisions. Obviously, these companies have different volumes and goals they deal with, but guess what? They still need to track their sales leads, which is exactly what our lead management features can do for you. Take the headache out of managing your leads, and let our software do the heavy lifting.

And, it wouldn’t be an episode of The Building Code without some fun facts about our guest, would it?

  • Dan is the star in one of our most popular Buildertrend marketing videos.
  • He’s a true family man. With a wife and two daughters, he spends his free time with them.
  • When he’s got time to himself, he’s all about Major League Baseball. He has two siblings who are regional scouts – one for the St. Louis Cardinals and one for the Anaheim Angels.
  • He had the chance to pitch batting practice for the Pittsburgh Pirates “back in the day,” as Dan says.

Buildertrend Lead Management
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Transcript

Tom Houghton:

You’re listening to “The Building Code.” I’m Tom Houghton.

Paul Wurth:

I’m Paul Wurth.

Tom Houghton:

For today’s episode, we’re going to kick off a new series we’re calling feature spotlight, and we’re going to take an in-depth look at a feature of Buildertrend, the details of that feature, why you should be using it, and how it will benefit your business. Joining us today, we’ve got Dan Lipari, a senior manager of Customer Success joining us.

Paul Wurth:

Hello, Dan.

Dan Lipari:

Thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it.

Tom Houghton:

We’re excited to have you on the podcast. Friend of the podcast.

Paul Wurth:

Friend of the cast. Dan’s here because he is, as his title says, a senior customer success manager, probably one of the more tenured people on the floor, has a wealth of knowledge in his head.

Tom Houghton:

Didn’t you just celebrate an anniversary?

Dan Lipari:

I did. I’ve been here a little bit. March 29th represented my sixth year at Buildertrend.

Tom Houghton:

Fantastic.

Dan Lipari:

Happy to be here, as well.

Paul Wurth:

Just keeps getting better.

Dan Lipari:

Absolutely.

Paul Wurth:

Dan does a great job of leading a team of customer success managers. Our clients might refer to them as Buildertrend coaches.

Dan Lipari:

Coaches, yeah.

Paul Wurth:

They’re one and the same. The series we’re kicking off today, which is the feature spotlight, is really intended for our listeners, if you are a client of Buildertrend, to use as almost like an introduction to the feature. I kind of see this as if you’re a business owner or a user of Buildertrend, you’re going to see all of these features, this series. And if you want to learn about what our lead management tool can do for you, what our scheduling tool can do for you, why you would use POs. We’re going to focus on one of those and just explain that.

Tom Houghton:

Fantastic. And we get to hear … Yeah, that makes sense. And we’re going to get to hear some real examples from other Buildertrend employees and how they’re interacting with their clients. We’ll get to hear stories about how they’ve seen this actually, the rubber hit the road.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. So, what are we starting with?

Tom Houghton:

So, we’re starting with lead management, and we’re going to talk about what is lead management and how you use that in Buildertrend.

Dan Lipari:

I’d say that’s a good place to start, Tom.

Tom Houghton:

Thanks.

Dan Lipari:

You know, lead management, my opinion kind of gets, it goes a little bit under the radar, because the majority of the features in Buildertrend are more project management based, once you’ve actually won the job.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, once you start the job.

Dan Lipari:

Exactly. But we have the sales portion of the program to where you can manage everything up to actually when in the job. And that’s where you can manage your lead opportunities, your lead management. And it’s exactly how it sounds. This is where you can keep track of your prospects in terms of their contact information, what they’re looking for, and most importantly, when and how you guys have reached out to them, and our contractors, if you will, they’re going to be able to keep track of that communication made between them and their leads all under one portal. And the best part about it is, is we have it built in to where these leads that you win, and hopefully, we’re winning a lot of them as contractors, they can easily be converted into an actual project in Buildertrend, and all that information that you have and you tracked on the lead side can graduate, if you will, from a lead into a job, and then take advantage of the rest of the features that Buildertrend has to offer.

Paul Wurth:

Exactly. We talked about this on a previous episode, that there is a gap in this part of the industry’s process. What I mean by that is how they manage leads, how they follow up, the consistency in which they follow up, how professional they can present their business, and how that all of those things would lead to converting more leads to jobs.

Dan Lipari:

I mean, Paul, you make great points and …

Paul Wurth:

Thank you, Dan.

Dan Lipari:

Being on the customer success side, you kind of hear it all. When we first meet with a contractor who is just starting to use Buildertrend, when it comes to their lead management, I’ve heard pen and paper, I’ve heard sticky notes, I’ve heard it’s all in my head. Just a standard Excel sheet. But the thing about Buildertrend is, if we can transition them from what they’re doing now to Buildertrend’s process, now you’re opening up new features, new things that everyone on the team can have access to. Because that’s what’s tough about using kind of status quo or Excel or whatever the case may be is. Okay, you update it. Who has access to it now, and now you got to re-send it out, or maybe you got to communicate that updated information to other members of the team. Whereas if you’re managing it in Buildertrend, anybody on the team can have access to the most up-to-date lead information at any time through the portal.

Paul Wurth:

Correct, yeah. One of the stats I’ve heard out there is two and five contractors will call a lead back, the first step. There’s probably a few reasons for that. Number one, maybe you’re so busy trying to do the jobs you’re doing that you don’t have time to. To Dan’s point, maybe you don’t have a really simple centralized place where you actually know somebody contacted you and know where to go find their number to call them back. Or three, it’s just not something you focus on. Tom, you went through this, you were looking for a home, you were in a build or buy, right?

Tom Houghton:

Build or buy. We reached out to some builders, probably about eight in the area here, and out of that eight, two of them just didn’t even respond.

Paul Wurth:

Didn’t respond.

Tom Houghton:

Didn’t even call us back.

Paul Wurth:

Don’t need the work.

Tom Houghton:

Apparently.

Dan Lipari:

Just curious, Tom, when you say reached out to these builders or contractors, how did you go about, are we talking phone calls? Did you go on their website and maybe fill out a contact us form?

Tom Houghton:

Yeah. Typically, so, yeah, it’s phone call always first. Did research online, went to their websites. Some of these guys, though, their websites were non-existent or in a very bad shape.

Paul Wurth:

Disqualified them for you.

Tom Houghton:

Exactly.

Paul Wurth:

Gotcha. That could be a whole other episode.

Tom Houghton:

It totally could be. So, yeah, I reached out to them and again, because I kind of got the contact us form on the website. As a consumer, you go, “Does this actually go to somebody?” And so, that’s why the phone call, you go, “Somebody’s theoretically got to pick up.” And in this case, again, two people just didn’t even, left messages, didn’t even call back.

Dan Lipari:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Having some sort of structure is important for a construction company. One of the neat features when you get onboard with Buildertrend is we can actually hook up your contact us page, and it goes right into Buildertrend and captures the phone numbers and emails and whatever you fill out. So, even if you are unorganized as a construction business, or you just don’t have the bodies at your company to focus one person on sales, whenever you get your head around it and get to it, at least you know within Buildertrend, here are the 15 people who contacted me that I haven’t contacted yet. I better spend an hour and call people and emailing people back, right?

Tom Houghton:

Yeah.

Dan Lipari:

Yeah. And a couple of things to add to that, too, Paul, is if you set up that contact form, say on your website, as Paul mentioned, that will feed a new lead automatically into Buildertrend, but it’s also going to send you an automated notification as well. So, it’s not something to where you have to build it into your process, to always check your new leads list in Buildertrend. We’ll notify you when new leads come in, and you’ll have all that contact information right there. Now, if you’re busy and you’re having trouble keeping up with these leads, also keep in mind our mobile app as well.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, I was going to say.

Dan Lipari:

You might be jumping around from job site to job site and not have time to sit in front of the computer and see your list of leads that way. This is all accessible right from your phone as well. And you can do reach-outs right through the mobile app in terms of calling back, sending emails to these leads. That can all be done right from your mobile device too, so.

Tom Houghton:

That’s actually one of my favorite features of the mobile app. Obviously, if you’re driving from one job site to the next, you get the notification on your phone that you got a new lead, you can go in there and you can tap on the number and it will call them.

Dan Lipari:

100%.

Tom Houghton:

Fantastic.

Dan Lipari:

Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. On that, I have a blog coming out soon, so we’ll post it on the show notes, but it talks about tips for construction companies on to how to be more efficient in their sales process. One stat I found was that the vendor that is first to contact the prospect is 40% more likely to get a deal. So, if you combine a contact us page integrated with Buildertrend’s lead management tool, set your notifications up to get notified right away on your mobile app, you tap a button, you call them, you’re already 40% ahead of the competition.

Dan Lipari:

And you know what, that phone conversation can just be, “Hey, I have your contact. I have you. I got you. Let me get back to you. Let me get some things together.” And that alone right there can, as you mentioned, Paul, set you apart from, say, your competition.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. And take that a step further. There’s a whole set of email marketing features in our system as well, which can, if you are shorthanded in your business, many of our construction companies that use Buildertrend, you’re three to five employees, you’re wearing multiple hats. So, you can get a lot out of the features and how they will automate your processes. And it makes you more than just one person. So, what I mean by that is, let’s say you get 10 leads a day or a month or a quarter. You can click one button in Buildertrend, select them all and apply a template to them, which will set off a workflow in a way, which will automatically email them the messaging you want over and over to whatever frequency you want. And if you catch one of those that you didn’t catch previous to using Buildertrend, whatever you make on a job per year, just put that into the value of ROI in Buildertrend.

Dan Lipari:

Yeah. What we find is, when we’re onboarding these new contractors, whether they realize it or not, they have a standard way that they reach out or progress with the lead. It might start with an initial phone call, and then two days later, they always try to send a follow-up email. So, there is a process there most of the times, and that process, as you mentioned, Paul, can be converted into a template so that you can easily apply it to multiple leads at once. And now the work’s kind of done for you, and you can send out those drip emails to those leads. And the best part about it is, if or when the lead replies, their reply is automatically stored back in Buildertrend, as well. So, not only are you getting those replies to your everyday email, but you also now have a log of that communication, with your leads all stored in one place.

Paul Wurth:

And so, if you’re a construction business owner listening to this, or one of the hats you wear in your business is doing sales, if you automate this process, it also allows you an easier way to bring somebody else in to do your job, right? Because it’s all been, this is how we do sales at our business. And it’s all automated. It’s not something you have to slowly download from your head to somebody else and hope they figure it out. There’s a process put in place, so if one of your goals as a business is growth, and the only way you grow is more sales, then this is a really good first step.

Dan Lipari:

Yeah. And I’m going to puff up my chest a little bit here and speak to the Customer Success department. New employees, new people coming on board, all of your support with Buildertrend is unlimited. So, not only do you have a process in place that can easily be shared with new employees, but if you need to go that extra mile and they need to sit down with somebody and actually walk through the day-to-day of how to use our leads feature, every contractor of ours has a dedicated coach and the support with that coach is unlimited. That’s part of the monthly subscription.

Paul Wurth:

That’s absolutely number one recommendation is first step, to learn more about the lead management features is call your coach. There’s a quick button access to the coach right on the app?

Dan Lipari:

100%.

Paul Wurth:

So, you go to the contact us, and you can just tap on it?

Dan Lipari:

Contact us will take them right to their coach. They’ll see a nice picture of their coach. And they’re one click away from either calling or emailing them.

Paul Wurth:

So, if you’re listening in your car right now at home, well, if you’re in a car, just pull over before you do this, so we don’t … Our legal team’s not going to …

Dan Lipari:

Safety first.

Paul Wurth:

Safety first. Tap on the button, schedule a time and discover the lead management tool. There’s some really, I mean, we’re scratching the surface on some of the features we have in there, but it delivers real results. Do you have any examples from your time as a coach?

Dan Lipari:

I do. I think if you’re using Buildertrend, you’ve maybe noticed that there are multiple areas of the program to where you can create your own custom fields. We provide a lot of information for you to track, but there may be additional information that we don’t allow you to track. Well, you have the ability to create custom fields. And what we find is the leads area of the program is one of the main areas where we see custom fields being used the most. And with that being said, those custom fields that you set up to track additional information on your leads can be added to your main dashboard. So, you can fully customize your main list of leads to just show the information that is most important to you.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. So, if you are, we have all different types of businesses that use Buildertrend.

Dan Lipari:

That’s right.

Paul Wurth:

So, if you’re building three super high-end homes a year, that’s your wheelhouse, you’re not getting a ton of volume, but it’s still important to track it and have one place because a lead that comes in in 2019 and that doesn’t buy with you may be somebody you want to market to every year afterwards, just in case. Right? So, it’s important, no matter the volume, whether it’s one a year or one a day, get it into somewhere you can access it. But some of the higher volume people, there is a level of qualification we need to do. So, if I’m getting 50 leads a week, my wheelhouse is a $60,000 kitchen. I’m not going to be talking to somebody about a $4,000 fence, right? Or whatever else, right? So, the custom fields are great for qualifications.

I’ve seen a lot of our clients, they already have a number system they use, right? Like one through five. So, when they make that first qualification phone call or email, the sales rep will say, “This is a five lead. This is a one lead. Anywhere in between.” I’ve seen a lot of people use that as a custom field. And then they show that on their filter when they look at all their leads.

Dan Lipari:

That’s right.

Paul Wurth:

So, if you’re getting 50 a week, you have thousands of leads in there, so you need some way to differentiate the different leads. And so, they can sort that way, right?

Dan Lipari:

100%. And say you’re a contractor building in multiple subdivisions, multiple neighborhoods. We see that being used a lot, as well. So, if you know you have a prospect interested in a specific subdivision or neighborhood, you can isolate all of your leads interested in specific areas or subdivisions, too.

Paul Wurth:

This is good stuff.

Dan Lipari:

It is. I think there’d be amiss if we didn’t point out one of the new, recent updates that we just applied to the program. You now on the summary page, when you first log in, can have a lead activity widget.

Paul Wurth:

That’s right.

Dan Lipari:

So, you can have all your leads kind of right there on the main dashboard. You can check them off. They’ll show up. They’re kind of red if they’re past due, if you miss something, missed a call.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. Your most important activities today, to stay on top of it. Because again, just make it a full circle. We understand that not every construction company that uses Buildertrend has the budget or the employees to focus somebody just on leads. And so, if you’re wearing a few hats, that summary screen when you log in can be customized to what is important to you every day and make sure you don’t miss anything.

Dan Lipari:

Definitely.

Paul Wurth:

But there’s a lot more, so we’ll leave it there. Again, if you are using a little bit of our lead management tool or none at all, good first step after this is pull the car over or truck, then hit the contact us button, both on our website if you’re not using Buildertrend, or contact your coach. We have a little tradition here, but we don’t want to just use Dan Lipari and throw him away.

Tom Houghton:

Exactly. No.

Paul Wurth:

We’re not like that.

Tom Houghton:

We value our guests.

Paul Wurth:

We value our guests. So, we should ask him some questions about him.

Tom Houghton:

We do, we have a mini segment called three fun facts. And this’ll be with Dan Lipari.

Paul Wurth:

By segment, he means this is literally the first time we’re trying to do this.

Tom Houghton:

We did it with Joe.

Paul Wurth:

But I think it was four.

Tom Houghton:

Well, it ended up being four. Yeah. Because it was … Maybe there’s a bonus fun fact in there. Three and a bonus.

Paul Wurth:

Proceed to the segment, and we never do.

Dan Lipari:

I feel my seat getting hotter right now. I’m on the hot seat.

Tom Houghton:

You are in the hot seat. Dan, fun fact number one, you may or may not have starred in a Buildertrend video.

Dan Lipari:

That is true. And I’m damn proud of that, as well.

Paul Wurth:

The most popular video on the website.

Tom Houghton:

It’s the most watched video. It has over a quarter of a million views. Dan Lipari stars front and center, walking out. If you haven’t seen it, go to buildertrend.com, scroll down to the bottom, click on the overview video. And you’ll see, Dan Lipari walking out with the, you got a tape measure on your tool belt there.

Dan Lipari:

Facing the wrong way, or I’m wearing it wrong. But another side note about that, too, is the International Builders’ Show once a year in either late January, early February, this was a few years ago. But after we made that video, we had that video playing on a loop at our booth.

Paul Wurth:

A little awkward for you being there.

Dan Lipari:

Well, yes. So, I’m in the middle of a demo, working with a prospective Buildertrend client, showing them the benefits of Buildertrend. And I notice he looks up at our TVs, sees me as the person in the video, and it’s like, “That’s you, isn’t it?” And I was like, “Yes, that’s not an actor. That’s just a Buildertrend employee. That’s myself.”

Tom Houghton:

That’s you.

Dan Lipari:

Little side note there.

Paul Wurth:

Did he sign up?

Dan Lipari:

Knowing me, I’m going to say yes.

Tom Houghton:

Oh, there you go.

Paul Wurth:

Self-plug. We love those here.

Tom Houghton:

We do. Number two. What do you like to do for fun?

Dan Lipari:

Well, first and foremost, I’m a family guy. Got the wife at home, got two little girls, love keeping them busy, playing with them. But if I got some time to myself, I’m enjoying some major league baseball, try to watch as much baseball as I can. Kind of grew up on it and played it coming up, so.

Paul Wurth:

Fun fact about you and major league baseball.

Dan Lipari:

I have two siblings who are regional scouts for two different organizations. One for the St. Louis Cardinals, my brother, Tom. And then my younger brother, Billy, is a regional scout for the Anaheim Angels, so.

Paul Wurth:

That’s cool. And you pitched batting practice, didn’t you?

Dan Lipari:

That’s where you’re going with that? Yeah.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah, that’s where I was going.

Dan Lipari:

I threw a little beeps for the Pittsburgh Pirates back in the day, I was a volunteer assistant for the University of Pittsburgh for one year. Got the call to the show to throw a little batting practice.

Paul Wurth:

Had a cup of coffee in the show.

Dan Lipari:

Little cup of coffee. Yeah. I was in the show.

Paul Wurth:

That’s amazing. We’ll put a picture up on the show notes for that one. There we go. Hit him with three.

Tom Houghton:

I thought that was your three. Yeah, your three was …

Paul Wurth:

Oh, that was a backup to two.

Tom Houghton:

Oh. See, this is again, where we’re like …

Paul Wurth:

Do you not have a three?

Tom Houghton:

I’ve got a three. Dan Lipari, last question for you.

Dan Lipari:

Yes.

Paul Wurth:

Very Regis Philbin.

Tom Houghton:

Remember we practiced that?

Dan Lipari:

Is this the $64,000 question?

Tom Houghton:

There’s no money at the end of the show here.

Paul Wurth:

We’ll just say there’s no lifelines left.

Dan Lipari:

Got it.

Tom Houghton:

What do you attribute your success at Buildertrend to?

Dan Lipari:

Success at Buildertrend, this was a while ago, like I said, six years, but when I started at Buildertrend, one of the first things I noticed right away, even though there was only about 45 of us at that time, is the people. The people at this company all have one common goal, to provide the best project management software out there to contractors globally. That’s the goal. And we’ve experienced a lot of success since I’ve been here, we’re growing, which is a good thing. Our customer base is growing. But even though we’ve grown with our customer base and internally from an employee standpoint, everybody is still working toward that one common goal. Nobody’s looked up and kind of seen where we’ve gotten over the last, since I’ve been here. Everybody’s still grinding, working hard, because we know there’s still a lot to gain in this whole thing. And I think that’s what separates us. And I think it shows in our product, and expecting big things in the next six years while I’m here. So, there’s that.

Paul Wurth:

Yeah. That’s exactly right. And we’re happy to have you, Dan. Well said.

Dan Lipari:

Awesome.

Paul Wurth:

This was a great first take of our new series, feature spotlight. So, we’re going to do a lot of these, because we have a lot of features.

Tom Houghton:

Dan, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today and sharing your knowledge. We really appreciate all the hard work you do around here at Buildertrend. If you want to know more about what we talked about today, go visit the show notes at buildertrend.com/podcast.

Dan Lipari:

Thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it.

Paul Wurth:

Appreciate you.

Tom Houghton:

Thanks again for joining us. Don’t forget to rate and subscribe to our podcast, “The Building Code.” We’ll see you next time.

Dan Lipari | Buildertrend


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