The contact form problem

A contact form asks for a name, a phone number and a message. What you usually get back is "Need a price on a 30x40 shop." No eave height. No doors. No idea whether they want a lean-to, wainscot or an insulated building. You still have to call, ask twenty questions, work up the takeoff and send the quote, and by then the customer has asked two other builders the same question.

A form is easy to fill in, so it collects tire kickers right alongside buyers. And it tells you almost nothing about the job. We wrote about this in more detail in contact form vs 3D configurator.

Configurators collect the building

A 3D configurator on your website asks the customer to design the building before they ask for a quote. With the Redline Website 3D Designer, they size the building, add lean-tos, and place doors and windows, all in real-time 3D on your site. When they send the quote request, the full design goes into your dashboard.

That changes the first call. You are not interviewing the customer. You are confirming and adjusting a building they already chose. "I see the overhead door is on the endwall facing the road. Is that for the tractor?" That is a call where you sound like you already know the job, because you do.

Better leads, not just more of them

Someone who spent time designing their building has told you they are serious before you pick up the phone. A visitor who just wants a ballpark will often leave without sending anything, and that is fine. The ones who do send a design are the ones worth calling first.

You can also see what each lead wants at a glance. A small equipment shed and a big shop with lean-tos on both sides are different jobs with different urgency. The design tells you which is which, so you decide who to call first instead of working the list top to bottom.

Your visitors are on their phones

A lot of people shop for buildings on their phone, after hours and between jobs. If the configurator on your site only works on a desktop, it is a contact form for your mobile visitors.

The Website 3D Designer works on phones, tablets and desktop, so your customers can design from any device. It runs in the browser with nothing to install. A rancher can design a weld-up equipment barn from the truck at lunch and send it to you before the afternoon is over.

Your side is mobile too. The dealer configurator runs in your phone's browser, so you can open the lead, adjust the design and quote from the field.

Make it a weld-up website

You pick which framing systems your customers see on your site, from post frame, red iron (bolt-up and weld-up), stick frame, hybrid post frame and tube frame. A weld-up shop can lead with red iron and leave the rest off, or offer post frame alongside it if that is part of the business. It runs in your branding, so the customer is designing with you, not with a software company.

Adding it is a snippet on your site, the same way you would add a YouTube video. You don't need to rebuild your website to do it.

From the lead to the quote

The design in your dashboard is the starting point for the real quote. Open it in the dealer configurator, confirm the site details, adjust what needs adjusting, and the material list comes from the design. Pricing comes from your supplier price sheet once it's loaded and your own numbers. Then send a branded quote with live 3D rendering and line-item pricing.

For a weld-up shop, that means the takeoff you would have built by hand is already done when the lead arrives. See weld-up building material list from a 3D model for what that list covers, and weld-up steel building design software for the dealer side of the design.

Why it matters more in a competitive market

In markets where weld-up is everywhere, like much of Texas and Oklahoma, a lot of builders can build the same shop. The one who gets a clear price and a picture of the building in front of the customer first usually gets the next conversation. A designer on your website gets you the building before you even make the call. More on that in weld-up steel buildings in Texas and Oklahoma.

Keep a way to just call

None of this means hiding your phone number. Some customers want to talk first, and they should be able to. The point is that the main path on your website should collect the building, not just the person. Put the designer where the contact form used to be and keep the phone number right next to it.

The Website 3D Designer plan and the bundle

There are two ways to run it:

Setup is $0, and the 10-day free trial needs no credit card. The full dealer configurator covers red iron, both bolt-up and weld-up, plus four other framing systems. See the Website 3D Designer for more on the customer side.

If you want to sell weld-up buildings online, try it against your current setup for a month. Compare the leads your contact form sends with the designs the configurator sends, and decide which ones you would rather call back.