Whether you sell post frame construction supplies or are a pole barn contractor, bringing in more business is always on your mind. Fortunately, SmartBuild Systems was created to help you do just that!
As the industry’s ONLY complete design system for post frame structures, SmartBuild cuts bid time from 3 hours to about 20 minutes and increases sales for both Suppliers and Contractors. In fact, we’re so sure that SmartBuild is the solution to streamlining your workflow and improving your bottom line that we wrote this guide to get you going.
So, stop wondering how to supercharge your post frame business in 2021 and start doing it with SmartBuild!
Automated Bids and Ordering
SmartBuild Systems was designed after interviewing companies, contractors, and suppliers about the state of the post frame industry. After learning that the tools of the trade still consisted of incomplete software, spreadsheets, price books, and a lot of manual grunt work, we created SmartBuild to create a shortcut.
Simple enough for anyone to use, SmartBuild is a web-based software that quickly generates a 3D model, material lists, pricing, proposals, and construction documents for almost any post frame building – then places the order with the push of a button.
- Meet SmartBuild Systems
- Learn why we created SmartBuild Systems: An Open Letter to the Post Frame Industry, written by SmartBuild founder and CEO, Keith Dietzen.
- Check out our demo videos to see SmartBuild in action!
For Suppliers
As a post frame supplier, you likely spend hundreds of hours per year helping with takeoffs and manually building out estimates. That’s a lot of wasted time when your contractors only win a small percentage of the bids you create.
Stop working that way!
With SmartBuild, the bid is compiled automatically – by the contractor – in about 20 minutes. And the best part is, you license your SmartBuild software to the contractor in return for purchasing commitments so you both make more sales.
- Become a SmartBuild Supplier
- 5 Reasons Suppliers Win More Contractors With SmartBuild Systems
- Check these 5 signs: How to Know When You’re Ready for SmartBuild Systems
- Learn: how your internal database works with SmartBuild
We have dreamed of this kind of automation forever and now it is a reality. The time spent doing takeoffs and preparing bids has melted away. Our contractors have freed up valuable time and close more business. This is great for them and great for us. SmartBuild is truly a game-changer.
Chad Wilson
Graber Post Buildings – General Manager
For Contractors
As a contractor, the time-consuming manual bid process not only costs business but strains your relationship with your supplier.
That added to the fact that you spend roughly 75% of your time chasing leads (instead of closing deals) probably leaves you feeling caught in an inefficient and unsuccessful cycle.
You don’t have to work this way!
With SmartBuild, you work face-to-face with potential buyers, building excitement about their project and trust in your ability complete it. Plus, with the push of a button, SmartBuild performs all the core functions of post frame – potentially increasing your deal close rate by 50%.
- Become a SmartBuild Contractor
- 5 Reasons Contractors Close More Deals with SmartBuild Systems
- Find a SmartBuild Systems Supplier Near You
- The Best Way to Determine Construction Costs
With SmartBuild, I quote on the spot when a customer comes in and I do that every day. Most quotes I generate take 10 or 15 minutes where they used to take an hour and a half. The other thing I love is showing the customer the 3D model. Pictures sell!
Kevin White
Bluegrass Metals and Lumber – Owner
Error Elimination
Prior to automating the core functions of post frame, suppliers often reported spending money and hours correcting the errors inherent to manual data entry. Errors that not only cost time and labor but frequently resulted in the delivery of wrong window sizes or incorrect color schemes. As a precaution, suppliers routinely threw an additional $400-$500 worth of product on the quote, finding it cheaper than sending missing items via hot shot delivery.
Errors cost time, money, and reputation – issues all but eliminated by SmartBuild Systems!
- Learn how SmartBuild cuts the error rate to less than 5%: SmartBuild Systems Increases Sales for Contractor and Distributor
We’ve been looking for software for years that would give us and our dealers what we need. In SmartBuild, we found what we are looking for. This technology helps us generate what we and our dealers need in a fraction of the time it used to take and it eliminates the redundancies and possible errors we have had to contend with for years.
Chad Blish
Burrow’s Post Frame Supply – CEO
Live Design Sessions
Before SmartBuild, contractors impersonally interviewed potential clients over the phone using an Excel checklist. Then, instead of getting the bid to the buyer within 48 hours, the manual takeoff process set it back about a week. Of course, this left no time to personally drop it off, so it was emailed to make up for the lost time.
With SmartBuild, contractors get leads and set face-to-face appointments with buyers. Telephone interviews and Excel spreadsheets are swapped for laptops on which they build the buyer’s structure, right before their eyes! The interactive process of watching their building come to life as a 3D graphic model – changing in real-time, automatically updating materials and pricing – drives sales.
Contractors now have the ability to sit down with their customers and build out their visions and dreams right there in front of them instead of trying to explain what they can do while drawing it on a piece of paper. It’s really user-friendly to get it on the screen and let the customer imagine their building fulfilled on their piece of property. It makes their turnaround times really fast.
Brandon Hamilton
Burrow’s Post Frame Supply – SmartBuild Administrator
E-Modeler
The SmartBuild e-Modeler embeds the pole barn industry’s only complete design system for post frame structures directly onto your website. Privately labeled to your company, the e-Modeler is an amazing marketing tool that turns everyone into a designer including the DIY crowd, building buyers, farmers, and especially contractors.
Plus, the e-Modeler makes it easy to obtain high-quality leads and increase sales. Once a user designs a building on your website, they’re required to enter their contact information to receive the system output (a feature that also prevents the competition from swooping in.) SmartBuild then saves the user’s job – and emails you – so you can contact the prospect and make the sale!
Continuous Support
As your software partner, we are committed to increasing our value all the time. We work with our SmartBuild Suppliers on every level from the database set up, training, and support to ancillary marketing through our website, social media, and content creation.
As part of our ongoing commitment, we release a new feature update – based on distributor feedback – along with a webinar every two weeks.
- Check out past feature updates and webinars
- We also keep you up to date with News, Blogs, and Events
All The Functions Of Excel
Excel has been a part of the post frame process since the beginning. Instead of taking away what you’re comfortable using, we simply added all the functions of Excel to SmartBuild. It’s the best of both worlds!
Sketchup
SketchUp is a 3D modeling program that works using a proprietary Push and Pull tool. This tool enables the user to mold flat surfaces into 3D shapes by clicking objects and pulling them into the preferred view. Additional functions include drawing layout, surface rendering, and the support of third-party plugins. Once complete, SketchUp models are viewed on smartphones, tablets, or using AR/VR devices. SketchUp is most often used by those in the architectural, construction, landscaping, and interior design industries.
SmartBuild outputs a .SKP file that opens your 3D model in Sketchup, unlocking extensive functionality, taking your business to the next level!
Compete With The Big Boys (At A Fraction Of The Cost)
SmartBuild wouldn’t be possible without continuous input from some of the biggest companies in the industry. As we add suppliers, we learn more about your needs and the needs of your contractors, allowing us to constantly improve our software. We thank our early adopters and hope you’ll consider joining our growing legion of successful, technology-driven industry leaders.
- Graber Post and SmartBuild Systems Announce Partnership
- Burrow’s Post Frame: SmartBuild System’s Increases Distributor’s Sales by 15%
- Graber Post Increases Sales (for Everyone) with SmartBuild Systems
SmartBuild for Garages, and Sheds
Making its debut at the Garage, Shed, and Carport Builder Show is SmartBuild for Garages and Sheds! Just like the original, this software features the familiar SmartBuild process of designing structures graphically on-screen while automatically generating a 3D model, material list, labor calculations, pricing, and a full set of drawings.
Adding to the standard options, SmartBuild for Garages and Sheds displays and removes multiple layers of materials for roofs and walls, displays multiple types of roofing and siding materials, and generates floor construction materials for sheds.
SmartBuild for Residential Metal Roofing and Reroofing
Soon, SmartBuild will be known as the complete design system for maximum efficiency! In the coming months, we will unveil the automated tool for post frame AND residential metal roofing and reroofing!
Bid Faster. Work Smarter. Win More Business.
Contact us for a live demo or to learn more!
