The most sophisticated general contractors have a competitive advantage you’ve never heard of. Their secret is they’re using construction data to hyper-target their business development efforts. By harnessing this information, they're transforming their business and staying ahead of the competition. In this article, we’ll share with you their secrets to success.

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Why General Contractors Are Becoming Construction Data Miners

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We all know knowledge is power, but in construction, it’s also a currency. Forward-thinking general contractors are using data to achieve the following:

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1. Identify construction opportunities early
2. Maximize profit
3. Protect future revenue streams

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Let's dive deeper into each of these advantages.

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1. Identify construction opportunities early

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If your business development teams are still spending hours making calls, attending events, and buying coffee (or drinks) just to get the scoop on what's going on, they’re doing it the hard way. Data-driven contractors are taking a more efficient approach.

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By learning to harness market data, contractors identify prime opportunities before they're public. This approach can pinpoint 20 promising projects that match a contractor's expertise, eliminating wasted effort on unfit leads. By embracing construction data, businesses can move from scattered prospecting to focused outreach.

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This data-driven strategy also changes client meetings. Instead of asking basic questions, contractors arrive prepared with insights about the client's project pipeline. This allows them to jump straight into discussing how they can add value to ongoing or upcoming projects.

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2. Maximize Profit

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Data-driven contractors are slashing business development costs while boosting win rates. Traditional methods burn through budgets on endless networking events and unqualified leads. This approach wastes not just money, but valuable time from both business development and estimation teams.

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By contrast, data-equipped teams optimize their resources driving higher impact for the business:

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1. Improving efficiency - Wasting less time chasing unqualified work
2. Reducing the cost of information - Spending less budget gathering information over dinners and events
3. Driving up win rates - Giving your estimating team 5 qualified projects vs 50 potential projects

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With more revenue and less overhead, you're walking away with better margins that maximize profit.

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3. Protect future revenue streams

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The construction industry is facing a generational shift, and relying solely on traditional business development methods poses significant risks. Here's why data-driven approaches are becoming crucial:

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1. Mitigating Key Person Risk: When your network and market intelligence are tied to individual BD team members, their departure can lead to a loss of valuable connections and information pipelines. Data-driven systems preserve this knowledge independently of personnel changes.
2. Expanding Beyond Your Bubble: Your current network, while valuable, has limits. New players and opportunities constantly emerge outside your immediate circle. Data-driven approaches provide a broader market view, helping you spot opportunities you might otherwise miss.

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By leveraging comprehensive market data, contractors can future-proof their business development efforts. This approach not only safeguards against the loss of key personnel but also positions your firm to thrive in an evolving marketplace, ensuring a steady stream of qualified leads regardless of industry shifts.

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What Construction Data Are They Mining?

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Sophisticated contractors are tapping into various data sources to gain their competitive edge:

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1. News, Social Media, and Announcements: While this is a common starting point, leading contractors go beyond surface-level information.
2. Bid Board and Bidding Aggregators: Regular checks of various bid platforms provide insight into current opportunities. However, projects on bid boards can often be too late. This scenario frequently devolves into a price war, where the winning bid is determined by who can cut costs the most—not necessarily who can deliver the best value.
3. City Permitting Websites: Permits can offer early signals of upcoming projects, but aren’t always in an easy to read format, and every district looks slightly different. 
4. The Deeds Office: Land transfers, subdivisions, and amalgamations of land can be years ahead of development. However, sometimes a developer will sit on land for 10 years before the market is right. This information can be costly to access without a realtor license and challenging to access in bulk.
5. Data platforms: Platforms such as Mercator.ai aggregate land transactions, rezoning and permitting changes all into one stitched together story. This can be a time saving and cost efficient alternative to intense data mining.
6. City Council Meetings: These often hold early indicators such as budget proposals, rezoning applications, and development proposals for the newest large projects. Not everything goes through the city for approval, so you’ll typically find the more challenging projects here.
7. Municipal Bond Reports: Bond Reports can provide insights into publicly funded projects and economic development plans. They can reveal everything from new hospitals to economic hotspots and public-private partnerships.

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Joining The Construction Data-Driven Revolution

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To start leveraging construction data effectively:

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1. Expand Your Information Pipeline: Look beyond traditional channels (news, events, and word of mouth). Dedicate time to exploring city permitting portals and other data-rich resources. It might be slow going at first, but you'll already be ahead of most of your competitors who are stuck in their old ways.
2. Focus on Early-Stage Signals: Prioritize tracking updates on site plan applications and rezoning submissions, which often indicate projects that have real funding in the planning stages. 
3. Network Smarter, Not Harder: Use the data you gather to focus your networking efforts on key players with active projects. When you come to them well-informed on their projects, it makes you a more credible candidate.
4. Consider a Tech Solution: Instead of building an expensive in-house data team, consider a smart investment in Mercator.ai. This tool levels the playing field, giving you the same data advantages as sophisticated general contractors, but at a fraction of the cost. Mercator.ai offers real-time market intelligence across all project stages, automatically delivering new projects to your inbox.

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The Bottom Line

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The most successful general contractors have moved away from broad, unfocused business development strategies. Instead, they're adopting data-driven approaches that allow them to:

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• Identify new opportunities and build better relationships
• Lower overhead, increase revenue, and spend less on acquisition costs
• Protect future revenue and stay adaptable in a changing competitive landscape

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Remember, success isn't about having the largest team or the biggest budget. It's about working smarter with the right information. By developing a construction data strategy, you too will join the ranks of the most sophisticated general contractors.