When architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms evaluate CRM solutions, Salesforce often rises to the top of the list. As the world’s leading CRM platform, it is known for its scalability, configurability, and reliability across industries. But for AEC firms, there is a key distinction between buying Salesforce directly and adopting TrebleHook, a project pursuit platform purpose-built for AEC on the Salesforce backbone.
This distinction matters because it often determines whether your CRM investment becomes the foundation for growth and strategic insights, or whether it becomes another costly system that struggles to gain traction among users.
Why AEC Needs More Than Generic CRM
One of the most common frustrations we hear from AEC executives is that while project data exists in multiple places, meaningful insights are hard to find. Firms can easily pull up numbers on invoices, utilization, or job costs. But when leaders want forward-looking intelligence like win rates by project type or geography, the best allocation of business development resources, or lessons from past pursuits, they find themselves working with disconnected spreadsheets, manual reports, and guesswork.
This is exactly where CRM should provide answers. Yet historically, AEC firms have fallen into one of three categories. Some firms operate without any CRM at all, instead relying on Outlook, Excel, or shared drives. Others have tried industry-built solutions that, while designed for AEC, often feel clunky, lack ongoing support, and see poor adoption. And then there are those who turn to mainstream CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot. These platforms are powerful and proven in many industries, but they are not designed with AEC pursuits in mind. For those firms, success requires expensive customization projects and ongoing consulting support.
TrebleHook was created to solve this gap: what if the world’s most trusted CRM engine could be pre-configured with AEC best practices, workflows, and integrations from the start?
Two Paths to Salesforce
For firms that want the power of Salesforce, there are essentially two paths forward.
The first is the traditional route: purchase Salesforce Sales Cloud licenses, then hire an implementation partner to configure the system for your firm. This is how most Salesforce customers approach the platform. It offers maximum flexibility, but it comes with challenges. Implementations often stretch over months, consultants bill hourly, and every enhancement or integration adds new services costs. While Salesforce can be configured to do almost anything, it requires expertise, time, and budget to tailor it for AEC.
The second path is TrebleHook. Like Salesforce, TrebleHook runs on the Force.com backbone, so you still get the security, scalability, APIs, and mobility that make Salesforce the global leader in CRM. The difference is that TrebleHook is pre-built for AEC. Roughly 80 to 90 percent of what your firm needs is already in place, leaving only 10 to 20 percent of implementation work to tailor the system specifically for your business. This dramatically reduces the time and cost to go live. And instead of managing two separate relationships—one with Salesforce for licensing and another with consultants for services—you work with a single partner who handles everything: licensing, implementation, support, and ongoing innovation.
What Remains the Same
One common question from firms considering TrebleHook is whether they lose anything by choosing us instead of going directly to Salesforce. The answer is no. TrebleHook customers are still running on the Salesforce engine. That means the same enterprise-grade security, the same ability to integrate through APIs, the same mobile apps, and the same access to Salesforce’s AppExchange ecosystem of partner applications.
Scalability is identical as well. Whether you are a 20-person design firm or a global ENR 400 contractor, both Salesforce and TrebleHook scale to your needs. Choosing TrebleHook does not mean choosing a smaller, less capable system. It means starting with the Salesforce foundation and layering on AEC-specific functionality that makes adoption faster and insights more relevant.
What Gets Better with TrebleHook
The differences emerge not in the core technology, but in how it is configured, implemented, and supported.
Implementation is one of the clearest examples. With Salesforce, implementation partners are paid by the hour. The more complex your needs, the more time, and therefore the more cost, is required. For AEC firms, where the out-of-the-box Salesforce configuration does not align with pursuits, this almost always results in a lengthy and expensive setup process. TrebleHook takes the opposite approach. Because the platform is already built for AEC, most of the heavy lifting is complete before implementation even begins. Our goal is to get firms live quickly so they can start using the system and seeing value, not paying for months of customization.
Support is another area where the models diverge. In the Salesforce ecosystem, support often flows through your consulting partner, which means more billable hours. At TrebleHook, support is included in your subscription. Firms do not have to worry about whether to call Salesforce or their partner, or whether the clock is running on a support ticket. There is one partner, one point of accountability, and one clear line to solutions.
Innovation works differently too. Salesforce releases regular platform updates, but enhancements specific to AEC require new projects, scoping, and more consulting fees. TrebleHook continuously delivers updates informed by hundreds of AEC firms already using the system. That means customers benefit from industry-wide best practices and innovation without having to pay extra or wait for custom development.
Data modeling is another major differentiator. Salesforce typically uses multiple objects like Leads, Opportunities, and custom-built Project objects that consultants must link together. TrebleHook simplifies everything into a single unified Project record. For AEC teams, this reduces confusion, streamlines reporting, and makes adoption easier because the system reflects how they already track work.
Integrations are also smoother. With Salesforce alone, connecting to platforms like Procore or Deltek usually requires building or purchasing integrations separately. TrebleHook offers pre-built connectors to the most common AEC platforms, saving firms both time and money while ensuring seamless workflows across their technology stack.
The Cost Question
At first glance, the licensing costs of Salesforce and TrebleHook are similar. Where the difference becomes clear is in services. With Salesforce, firms almost always face high implementation fees and ongoing consulting costs. With TrebleHook, most of the industry-specific configuration is already built in, which dramatically reduces those services expenses.
Beyond implementation, TrebleHook includes features like document output, middleware connectors, and project lifecycle tracking as part of the platform. In the Salesforce model, firms would often need to purchase additional partner products or build custom solutions to get the same functionality. When viewed through the lens of total cost of ownership, TrebleHook consistently delivers more value for less spend.
Training and Adoption
The best system is only valuable if teams use it. Salesforce customers have access to Trailhead, Salesforce’s robust training and certification ecosystem. TrebleHook customers get all of that, plus additional training and certifications tailored to AEC pursuits. Because TrebleHook is already aligned with industry workflows, teams require less customization to become productive, and adoption is higher.
For smaller firms, this often means faster ROI because they can deploy quickly and start tracking pursuits without a heavy learning curve. For larger enterprises, it means they can build on TrebleHook’s AEC foundation while layering on additional customization as needed.
A Partnership, Not a Competition
It is important to underscore that TrebleHook does not compete with Salesforce. We exist because Salesforce gave us the tools to build on the world’s most trusted CRM engine. Our role is to extend Salesforce into AEC with a platform designed specifically for pursuits. By focusing exclusively on this industry, we reduce risk, cost, and complexity for firms while helping them unlock the full value of CRM.
In other words, you do not have to choose between Salesforce’s power and an AEC-specific solution. TrebleHook delivers both.
The Bottom Line
Winning pursuits is the lifeblood of every AEC firm. Whether you are chasing a five-million-dollar school project or a five hundred-million-dollar stadium, the difference between winning and losing often comes down to whether you have the data, insights, and workflows to act strategically.
TrebleHook delivers the Salesforce engine you can trust, the AEC expertise you need, and the simplicity, innovation, and cost savings your team deserves. With TrebleHook, firms move beyond generic CRM into true project pursuit excellence.
If your firm is evaluating CRM options, the next step is a conversation. We will show you how TrebleHook helps firms capture, track, and win more work without sacrificing the foundation of Salesforce.