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Construction Tech Sales Lessons From Exited Sales Leader
Land & expand your way to scale.
Owen Drury
April 23, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 13 minutes
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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
Construction Tech Sales Lessons From Exited Sales Leader
When Anton Marinovic joined HoloBuilder as their first sales leader in 2017, he had a secret weapon that his Silicon Valley competitors didn't: he'd grown up on construction sites.
As the son of a Croatian immigrant mason who built a respected business in the Bay Area, Anton had spent weekends on job sites and summers working in the field. When his father heard about the construction documentation platform Anton was considering joining, his reaction was immediate: "That one. Remember when we would go to construction sites and had the disposable camera? If I saw something was wrong, I was taking a picture of it... that's what this guy is doing."
This insider perspective has helped Anton build successful sales operations at HoloBuilder (acquired by FARO for $34m) and now at Joist.ai, where he's developing AI-powered proposal solutions for AEC firms.
But you don't need to have grown up in a construction family to apply these battle-tested strategies.
🛠️ TL;DR – The Construction Tech Sales Playbook (From a Field-Tested Pro):
Anton Marinovic grew up on jobsites, exited HoloBuilder and now he’s building elite sales teams in AEC tech.
Here’s what he’s learned (and what you can steal):
🔁 Only hire people who talk about their failures
→ That’s where the gold is.
📊 Build your sales process around how they buy
→ Study your last 20 deals. Patterns = power.
🧱 Be radically transparent
→ Early-stage? Say it. Trust is everything in this space.
🛠️ Hire Swiss Army Knives
→ Sales, onboarding, support — your team should do it all.
🏗️ Know the difference between project vs. enterprise sales
→ Each one’s a different game. Don’t confuse the two.
🤖 Use AI to win the top of the funnel
→ Research, cadences, call summaries, objection handling. Prompt like a pro.
Learn From Failures, Not Successes
When Anton brings on new sales talent, he has one unusual rule: "I don't want to hear about anything successful that you did in a previous company. I only want to hear about everything that went wrong or what you should have done better."
This reverse-engineering approach can transform your team's performance by:
Identifying common pitfalls before encountering them
Building processes that anticipate and prevent problems
Creating a culture that values learning over posturing
Action step: Schedule a "failure retrospective" with your team. Ask everyone to analyze their last three lost deals with these questions:
What signals did we miss early in the process?
Where did our understanding of the customer's needs break down?
What assumptions did we make that proved incorrect?
How could we have qualified better or set clearer expectations?
The insights from this exercise will likely reveal patterns that can immediately strengthen your sales approach.
Match Your Process to Their Reality
One of the biggest mistakes construction tech companies make is forcing buyers into a sales process that doesn't match how they naturally make decisions.
"I am always studying and looking for patterns," Anton explains. "When I find the pattern, I could try to build a process around it."
Instead of imposing a generic sales methodology, study how your AEC buyers actually make decisions by:
Documenting the steps in your last 15-20 deals (both won and lost)
Identifying common stages and decision points
Noting who gets involved at each stage
Recognizing where deals typically stall or accelerate
"You got to spend time and try to look at patterns," Anton advises. "Take your last 15 demos, last 20 demos, and run a piece of paper saying, 'Okay, this is call one, we had a call two, and then this and this and this,' and you start writing it all out, and you're like, 'My God, there's a pattern here.'"
Once you identify these patterns, build your CRM stages and forecasting around them – not the other way around.
Build Trust Through Transparency
The construction industry runs on trust and reputation. As Anton notes, "everyone talks to everyone in this industry."
Contrary to what many founders believe, being transparent about your startup's stage and limitations often strengthens rather than weakens your position:
"Here at Joist, we're very open. 'Hey, we're an early-stage startup. We're building this. This is what we have and this is where it's evolving. For the sake of transparency, this is where we're at.'"
This approach converts potential objections into collaborative opportunities. When buyers understand your current state, they can:
Provide valuable feedback to shape your roadmap
Feel like partners rather than just customers
Set appropriate internal expectations
Become invested in your mutual success
"People are really appreciative of that transparency," Anton confirms. "It hasn't hurt us in our sales."
The Swiss Army Knife Approach
In early-stage construction tech companies, specialized roles can be a luxury. Anton recommends building a team of versatile professionals who can handle multiple functions:
"We're taking this approach where we really see ourselves as Swiss Army Knives. Being Swiss Army Knives means that we're doing multiple other things too, like helping out with onboarding, participating in customer success, helping out in support."
This approach creates a foundational team with:
Deep product knowledge across all use cases
First-hand understanding of customer challenges
Ability to identify cross-functional improvements
Perspective to spot expansion opportunities
These versatile team members become invaluable as you grow and can eventually lead specialized teams with a holistic understanding of your business.
From Project Sales to Enterprise Deals
Construction tech sales typically falls into two distinct categories, each requiring different approaches:
Project sales: Selling your solution on a project-by-project basis
Shorter sales cycles
Often requires reaching field personnel
May involve multiple stakeholders from different companies
Pricing often tied to project size or duration
Enterprise sales: Company-wide implementation
Longer, more complex sales cycles
Multiple decision-makers within the same organization
More formal procurement processes
Usually requires executive sponsorship
Understanding which model applies to your solution is critical. "Those are two different motions with two varying aspects of it," Anton explains. The enterprise approach requires navigating committees and multiple stakeholders:
"In the end of the day, all sales decisions are happening in a committee in a group... It starts with some individual who has seen the problem or experienced a pain so much that they are open to understanding about solutions or actively looking for solutions."
Your job is to identify and empower that initial champion while mapping the decision-making ecosystem around them.
Your AI Competitive Edge
While many talk about AI, few construction tech sales teams are fully leveraging it. Anton sees AI transforming sales operations, particularly at the top of the funnel:
"I think AI is going to have more influence over the top of the funnel than maybe the execution of the deals itself... Building out cadences and managing cadences with complex groups of young salespeople like SDRs – it's a lot of work and a lot of effort. I think that could be a lot more efficient and effective."
Start implementing AI in your sales workflow by:
Using AI for lead research and personalization
Creating more relevant outreach at scale
Automating meeting summaries and follow-ups
Implementing AI-powered email response suggestions
Building a knowledge base of common objections and responses
The key to AI success?
"Prompting," Anton emphasizes. "If you master that, whatever your role is, you can figure out AI in some way."
Putting It All Together
For construction tech companies, the ultimate advantage comes from combining industry knowledge with sales discipline. The companies winning in this space aren't just those with the best technology – they're the ones who deeply understand how construction professionals make decisions and build their processes accordingly.
By focusing on learning from failures, matching your sales process to buyer reality, building trust through transparency, developing versatile team members, understanding your sales model, and leveraging AI effectively, you'll create a sales operation that resonates with the unique dynamics of the construction industry.
As Anton puts it: "Workflows are so important in this space... matching value to that workflow is what really sets it apart from others."
💥 Bottom Line
You don’t need to grow up on job sites to crush construction tech sales — but it helps.
Instead, copy Anton’s system:
Learn from your losses
Match your process to their world
Build trust through brutal honesty
Hire for versatility
Know your deal type
Use AI like a weapon
This is how real AEC startups win.
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