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Case Study: GC Pipeline Rebuild with Salesforce

Unified bid calendar and estimator handoffs gave leadership reliable pipeline visibility.

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Case study: GC pipeline rebuild with Salesforce

Anonymized representative project. Client details withheld.

Client profile

A regional general contractor pursuing commercial and institutional work across multiple states. Business development, estimating, and operations teams totaling ~40 people. Pipeline tracked in spreadsheets and email; no single source of truth for bid status or estimator workload.

The problem

  • RFQs arrived via email with no consistent intake or ownership
  • Estimators received incomplete scope packages—plans attached late, due dates unclear
  • Leadership couldn't trust pipeline forecasts; "active" pursuits included dead jobs
  • Bid calendar lived in a shared spreadsheet one person maintained
  • Won work was manually re-entered into project setup tools

What Black Forge implemented

Our Salesforce implementation team delivered:

  1. Automated lead intake — Email and web RFQs captured, deduped, and assigned by service area
  2. Go/no-go qualification — Margin and bonding rules before estimating time was spent
  3. Estimator handoff workflow — Scope, attachments, contacts, and due dates routed to the right estimator
  4. Bid calendar dashboard — Real-time view of due dates, ownership, and at-risk pursuits
  5. Pipeline stages aligned to precon — Go/no-go → estimating → proposal out → negotiations → awarded
  6. Executive dashboards — Forecast, backlog, win/loss, and estimator throughput

Results

  • Faster pursuit cycles — Estimators received complete packages on day one instead of after follow-up emails
  • Reliable forecasting — Leadership reported pipeline reviews shifted from "status chasing" to decision-making
  • Reduced dropped pursuits — Automated reminders and clear ownership cut follow-up gaps
  • Foundation for integration — Phase two connected awarded work to project delivery tools

Why it worked

The implementation was designed around how the GC actually pursues work—not generic Sales Cloud defaults. Estimators and BD leaders were involved in blueprint and UAT, so adoption started at go-live.

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