“If you’re a VP of Sales and things go wrong, you either failed or got a bad plan. But if you’re a CRO and things go wrong, you probably shouldn’t have taken the job.”
In today’s episode of Bricks & Bytes, we had Mike Pettinella and we got to learn about scaling construction tech from zero to a $275M exit, the brutal realities of international expansion, and why targeting owners instead of contractors is the harder but smarter play… and many more!
Tune in to find out about:
✅ Why sales is only two things: volume and efficiency (and you can’t train volume)
✅ The real difference between selling to American vs British buyers
✅ How Building Connected went from zero revenue to Autodesk acquisition
✅ Why dedicated reality capture beats DIY solutions every time
Mike’s journey from forensic construction consulting to leading sales at unicorn startups reveals hard-won insights about building in the most relationship-driven industry on earth.
Listen on Spotify now to hear the full conversation.
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Our Sponsor:
Archdesk – “The #1 Construction Management Software for Growing Companies – Manage your projects from Tender to Handover” check archdesk.com
BuildVision – streamlining the construction supply chain with a unified platform – http://www.buildvision.io
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Chapters
00:00 Intro
02:49 Understanding Roles: CRO vs. VP of Sales
03:58 Building Connected: The Journey to Acquisition
06:05 Transitioning to Monetization: Challenges and Strategies
07:55 Sales Strategies: From Inside Sales to Enterprise Deals
11:49 Geographic Sales Dynamics: Where’s the Business?
14:03 Consulting to Sales: Skills and Strategies Transferred
16:22 Managing Sales Volume: Efficiency and Technology
19:14 Cultural Shift: Selling in EMEA vs. North America
24:59 Expanding Markets: Product Adaptation is Key
28:58 OnSight IQ: The Journey and Vision of a Startup
33:34 Characteristics of Great Founders: Relentlessness and Empathy
37:25 Cooking and Morning Routines
38:38 Targeting Owners in Construction
42:54 The Importance of Construction Data Ownership
46:12 Strategies for Targeting Developers
49:14 Reality Capture in Construction
53:04 Best Practices for Reality Capture
56:08 Future of Data Utilization in Construction
58:45 Speeding Up Sales Cycles
1:00:35 Managing Multiple Stakeholders
1:02:09 Closing Big Deals
1:04:04 Pricing Strategies in Construction Tech
1:05:48 Mentoring in Sales
1:09:02 The Story Behind the Art
1:11:29 Exciting Product Developments
