You Can’t Master Marketing in Home Improvement Without the Right Contractor CRM

The One-Minute Rundown: 

• Yard signs, truck wraps, and word-of-mouth will get you started – but you can’t scale past $2M–$3M if you don’t know your numbers.
• If you don’t know which jobs make money and which ones don’t, you’re just guessing. And guessing eats into your margins.
• Too many contractors miss easy wins because they don’t follow up with unsold estimates. The real money’s in the second and third call.
• When you don’t track your marketing, you waste cash on leads that never turn into installs.
• Want to break through the plateau? Put your marketing, estimating, sales, and follow-up in one place so you can see what’s working — and what’s holding you back.
  
  

Stephen’s Marketing Transformation Story 

Many contractors think marketing is a mystery. They throw money at ads. Wrap a truck. Put up yard signs. Cross their fingers.

And unfortunately, many of them resort to slashing their prices and profit margins as a way to earn jobs.

Stephen Pisulak, owner of Lehigh Gap Exteriors, knows this all too well. He shared his story on our Build to Win podcast – from running his business on manila folders and word-of-mouth to growing an exterior remodeling company that’s starting to scale the right way.

That transformation didn’t happen overnight. It took new mindsets, the right people, and better systems.

Stephen used to rely on scrappy guerrilla marketing. He’d fill his schedule using business cards, referrals, wrapped trucks, and a few home shows. 

And he followed good advice from a mentor, “You do good work, you get more work.” So he did that. But after a few years, he hit the same ceiling so many home improvement business owners hit: stuck at the same revenue, low profit margins, and no clear view of what was working – and what wasn’t.

Let’s take a look at the marketing pitfalls that hold too many contractors back from scaling their businesses. 

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You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See 

Stephen put it well: “You have to constantly track where leads are coming from, what your costs are, how your salespeople are selling, what’s working, what’s not, and constantly tweak it.”

When you don’t know your numbers, you fly blind. Stephen’s team used to guess where their leads came from. They didn’t know which marketing channels actually booked appointments and which were just burning money.

When you can’t see your cost per lead, your close rates, or your profit margins in real time, you don’t know where the leaks are.

And when you don’t know where the leaks are, you can’t patch them.

It’s simple. Visibility changes your decisions. It changes how you spend. It changes how you price. A contractor CRM with real reporting means you don’t have to guess. You know.

And when that contractor CRM connects with your estimating software for contractors, you know if your jobs are priced correctly.

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You Can’t Grow If You Don’t Follow Up

Stephen’s old system was folders and sticky notes. No reminders. No structured follow-up. Leads went cold. Opportunities sat untouched.

That happens in thousands of home improvement companies every day. Homeowners get one estimate. They don’t say yes right away. And the contractor never calls back.

The truth is, the money is in the follow-up. When you have a CRM for remodelers that tracks your pipeline, your rehash, your unsold estimates – you stay in front of people. You build trust. You close more jobs without chasing new home improvement leads you don’t need.

Stephen didn’t just keep guessing. He added a call center, he’s starting a Brand Ambassador Program, and he gets to track every follow-up in one place.

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You Can’t Scale If You Don’t Market Profitably

This is where it all ties together.

Stephen’s story is proof: you can’t throw money at marketing and hope it works. Without the right system, half your leads slip through the cracks. You keep paying for impressions instead of appointments.

And when your business management software for contractors doesn’t tie your marketing to your profit margins, you can’t see if you’re burning cash or building real revenue.

A strong home improvement CRM brings your sales, marketing, and estimating software for contractors together. You see your ROI. You adjust spend when you need to. You grow without losing money on bad leads.

It works whether you’re looking for a roofing CRM, a siding CRM, or a CRM for remodelers who want to grow past the guessing stage.

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Implement a System That Grows With You

Stephen started out guessing – but he’s not guessing anymore. 

He knows his numbers. He tracks every lead. He follows up on every opportunity. And he markets profitably.

If you’re running your business on spreadsheets and folders, I’ve seen how that story ends.

I’ve also seen what happens when contractors get the right systems in place with an all-in-one business management software like Builder Prime that pulls everything together.

Your team gets clear. Your numbers get clear. And your business finally grows with you.

Ready to see what you’re missing? Book a demo with Builder Prime. See what’s working in your business – and what could be working better.