You’ve been nurturing a construction tech deal for six months. The prospect loves your solution, the demos went perfectly, and everyone seems aligned. Then suddenly, radio silence. Your champion goes dark, timelines slip, and what seemed like a sure thing evaporates into procurement purgatory.

Sound familiar? If you’re selling construction technology, you’ve probably lived this nightmare more than once. The good news? There’s a science to accelerating sales cycles and maintaining momentum that can help you avoid these painful scenarios.

Scotland Foss, Head of Sales at Planera and former sales leader at PlanGrid, has mastered this art through years of selling to mid-market and enterprise construction companies. His approach combines rigorous qualification frameworks with relationship-building tactics that keep deals moving forward. Here’s how he does it.

 

In this episode, we had Scotland Foss, who helped build PlanGrid before its $1B acquisition by Autodesk. He shares his proven playbook for construction tech go-to-market success from his journey across multiple ventures.

 

The Foundation: Understanding Your Deal’s DNA

Before you can accelerate anything, you need to understand what you’re working with. Foss swears by a qualification framework called MEDPIC, which he learned during formal training at Autodesk. While the entire acronym matters, he focuses intensely on three critical elements: ICE.

Identified Pain: This isn’t just any problem – it’s a pain point that’s large, prioritized, and impacting the business in ways that others are aware of. “If you align yourself to the most strategic initiatives, you’re gonna be able to accelerate your timelines, because it’s a problem worth solving and worth solving fast,” Foss explains.

Champion: Your champion needs influence, authority, access to budget, and perhaps most importantly, a personal win attached to your solution. They need to see how your transformation will benefit them directly – maybe even earn them a promotion.

Economic Buyer: This is the person who will actually secure the funds and sign the paperwork. You can’t close deals without knowing who this is and having access to them.

The key insight here is that these elements aren’t just checkboxes – they’re the DNA of your deal. When any of these components are weak, your deal will struggle. When all three are strong and aligned, deals accelerate naturally.


The Secret Weapon: Mutual Action Plans

One of the most powerful tools Foss uses to maintain momentum is what he calls a “mutual action plan.” This isn’t just an internal document tracking your next steps – it’s a shared roadmap that both you and your customer commit to following.

“If you don’t have a plan with your customer, what are we doing?” Foss asks. “It’s not just what you’re doing, but it’s also what the customer is doing. And it should literally list out the steps through the process to bring this deal to closure.”

These plans include specific milestones like:

  • Paper processes and legal reviews
  • Security and compliance checks (SOC 2 certifications, cybersecurity reviews)
  • Business value assessments built collaboratively
  • Evaluation periods for different personas
  • Technical validation steps

The magic happens when you make this plan truly mutual. Both sides have commitments, deadlines, and accountabilities. During weekly sync meetings, you literally open the mutual action plan and review progress: “What’s changed since last time?”

This approach transforms you from a vendor chasing the customer to a strategic partner working together toward a shared goal.


Multi-Threading: Your Insurance Policy

Construction companies are complex organizations with multiple stakeholders, each with different priorities and perspectives. Foss emphasizes the critical importance of being “multi-threaded” – building relationships across different levels and departments.

You might start at the project level with superintendents and project managers, but you also need connections with:

  • Innovation teams and directors of technology
  • Operational leaders
  • Project executives
  • C-level decision makers

The key is aligning your team to match their organizational hierarchy. As a salesperson, you might handle project-level relationships. When you move up to project executives or directors, bring your manager. For C-level conversations, involve your CEO.

This multi-threading serves as insurance. If your primary champion leaves or changes roles (common in construction), you still have other relationships to lean on. It also helps you understand different perspectives on value and ROI across the organization.

 


The Art of Qualification and Pressure Testing

One of the biggest mistakes salespeople make is assuming their deals are stronger than they actually are. Foss advocates for constantly pressure testing your assumptions about pain, champions, and economic buyers.

This means asking tough questions:

  • “How much is this problem currently costing you?”
  • “What happens if you don’t solve this in the next six months?”
  • “Who else besides you is affected by this issue?”
  • “What other priorities are competing for budget this year?”

The goal isn’t to be aggressive – it’s to uncover the truth. Weak deals disguised as strong ones waste everyone’s time and kill your forecast accuracy.


Industry-Specific Acceleration Tactics

Construction has unique characteristics that can either accelerate or slow down your deals. Understanding these can help you navigate more effectively.

Project-Based Budgeting: Every project has its own P&L, which creates both opportunities and challenges. You can land a deal on one project and use that success as a proof point for enterprise expansion. But project timelines also create urgency – if they need a solution for a project starting in 30 days, they’ll move fast.

Relationship-Driven Culture: Construction is fundamentally about relationships. Face-to-face meetings, job site visits, and industry events matter more than in other sectors. As Foss notes, “Construction is very much a face to face business.”

Industry Expertise Expectations: Your team needs to understand construction. “If your sellers aren’t coming from construction tech, you need your pre-sales and post sales to be from the industry,” Foss emphasizes. Customers can spot outsiders immediately, and it impacts credibility.


Modern Tools for Momentum Management

Today’s sales teams have access to technologies that can significantly impact deal velocity. Foss uses several key tools:

CRM Systems: Essential for tracking deal progression and maintaining visibility across the team.

Call Recording and AI: Tools like Gong or Apollo capture valuable insights from customer conversations that can inform strategy across marketing, product, and sales teams.

Video Communication: Short, personalized video messages can break through email noise and re-engage stalled deals. Foss recently used a 90-second Loom video to resurrect a deal that seemed dead, ultimately securing a two-hour conversation with the CEO.

Proposal and Contract Tools: Streamlined document processes reduce friction in the final stages of deals.


Maintaining Momentum Through Relationship Building

At its core, accelerating sales cycles in construction tech is about building genuine relationships and providing real value. Foss emphasizes authenticity: “People see right through that. And so be yourself. Have some fun, know that what you’re doing matters and enjoy the ride.”

This approach has served him well throughout his career, from PlanGrid to Planera. He still maintains friendships with builders he met years ago, regardless of whether they ever bought anything from him.


The Bigger Picture: Aligning with Business Goals

Finally, successful deal acceleration requires alignment between your sales activities and broader business objectives. Every quarter, you should be checking whether your go-to-market priorities align with company goals.

This alignment helps prioritize which deals to accelerate and which to let go. Not every opportunity deserves the same level of investment, and understanding your company’s strategic direction helps you focus on the deals that matter most.


Putting It All Together

Accelerating construction technology sales cycles isn’t about applying pressure or using manipulation tactics. It’s about understanding your customer’s business, building genuine relationships, and creating shared value through collaborative processes.

The companies that master this approach – like PlanGrid’s acquisition by Autodesk for $875 million – demonstrate that when you combine rigorous qualification, strategic relationship building, and authentic value creation, deals don’t just close faster – they close better.

Remember: in construction tech sales, you’re not just selling software. You’re selling transformation, efficiency, and ultimately, the ability for people in a demanding industry to do better work and spend more time with their families. When that purpose drives your approach to deal acceleration, the tactics become more natural, and the results speak for themselves.