Some companies were better pandemically prepared to operate in a digital-first, socially distanced manner than others. One of those companies was Advocate Construction, which digitally transformed its sales and marketing processes to pump up pipeline, streamline sales processes and speed time-to-revenue – building on its solid SugarCRM foundation.
A roofing and construction firm offering roof replacement, residential and commercial siding, driveway, patio and garage floor installation, as well as other cleaning and housing upgrades, Advocate Construction serves customers in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas and Colorado.
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“Sugar has helped pilot us through a period of significant growth”
Working with SugarCRM elite partner Faye Business Systems Group, Advocate has built out its SugarCRM solution over the years to orchestrate complex, multi-user and multi-system processes to simplify and streamline go-to-market operations.
“Sugar has helped pilot us through a period of significant growth,” said John Geisler, director of Information Technology at Advocate Construction. “Today, we manage all of our work through Sugar.
“Previously, everything we did was with paper and pencil; Sugar was the catalyst for us to move from analog to digital. Working from tablet devices, sales representatives are now able to support a consultative sales engagement from the moment they first engage a customer to when they secure the business via an electronically signed contract. Sales orders then automatically create jobs in the SugarCRM platform,” he added.
During the Covid pandemic, shipping and production delays have plagued the construction industry. SugarCRM ensures that up-to-date material availability is served up to sales representative’s tablets. Geisler says this has given the company a strategic advantage over its competitors, ensuring Advocate is able to meet all its customer commitments.
Since Advocate’s business is dependent on reimbursement by the homeowner’s insurance provider, SugarCRM is integrated with 225 insurance providers to coordinate authorizations and reimbursements. This has significantly improved time-to-revenue.
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Using Sugar Market, Advocate produces tailored content to support personalized push marketing campaigns that have helped the company gain more business. “The response to the customized marketing messages has been very strong and we’ve seen a very high return on this effort. It’s been a tremendous boost to our sales pipeline,” says Geisler.
Sugar also supports improved communications to both Advocate personnel and customers. Weekly sales summaries and reporting are automatically distributed to management and to sales representatives with commission summaries. A customer portal features updates and project milestones from SugarCRM to keep customers informed of progress.
“Organizations have had to make pandemic pivots over the past year. This is challenging for organizations that don’t have the right platform in place to do the work necessary to reorient their business models for success,” said Christian Wettre, general manager of Sugar Sell and Sugar Market for SugarCRM. “Advocate Construction is a brilliant example of digital transformation to enhance connections and communications to optimize sales, marketing and customer service in the post-pandemic era.”
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