Stop Bidding Everything: The 10 Roadblocks Killing Your Construction Sales
Release Date: 12/23/2025
Legacy Is Built in People, And Projects: 46 Years of Construction Leadership with Alton Tew
Construction Genius
What does success look like to your best PM right now? Do you know? Alton Tew spent 46 years in construction — 25 of them building Samet Corporation's multifamily division into a $500 million operation that turned over 3,500 units a year. In this conversation, he shares the leadership principles that drove it: the 90-day check-in that keeps high-potential talent from leaving, how to stay calm when a job site goes sideways, and what his final year looked like as he handed off a 170-person division to the next generation. Simple ideas. Hard to execute. Essential to get right. 📖...
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Flow State for Construction Leaders: Your Best Idea Is One Hour Away
Construction Genius
What if the thing holding your construction company back isn't lack of effort — it's lack of deep thinking? In this episode, I sit down with Steven Puri, former EVP at DreamWorks, former VP at 20th Century Fox, and CEO of The Sukha Company — to talk about flow state: what it is, why the best leaders in the world use it, and how construction company owners can harness it to make better decisions and leapfrog the competition. Three things you'll walk away with: Why grinding harder creates linear growth — and deep thinking creates competitive leaps How to find your chronotype and build...
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The Cost of Building: Brand Clarity, Constraint, and What Entrepreneurship Actually Requires
Construction Genius
What happens when outworking everyone stops working? In Episode 379, Justin Ricklefs — founder of Guild Collective and author of Give a Damn — gets honest about the moment things broke down: his business, his relationships, and himself. He shares the framework that rebuilt everything, why constraint became his competitive advantage, and what it actually costs to build something while keeping your family intact. The Five Fs framework for keeping your priorities in order as a business owner Why niching down felt like limitation — and turned out to be the growth engine The honest...
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How Project Executives Drive Disciplined Execution
Construction Genius
Only 2.5% of construction firms consistently complete projects on time and on budget. Not because their people lack skills. Because discipline breaks down under pressure. In this solo episode, Eric Anderton breaks down FMI's 2026 project management study (Part 2) and shows how your Project Executive drives execution discipline in three areas that directly hit your bottom line. Key takeaways: • Firms with accurate cost-to-complete forecasting hit profit targets 92% of the time. Without it, 42%. • Strong change order discipline means 87% profit reliability for specialty contractors....
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Why Your Jobs Look More Profitable Than They Are: Indirect Allocations and Overhead in Construction
Construction Genius
If your indirect costs aren't tracked—they're hiding. And what they're hiding is your true profit margin. In this episode of Construction Genius, Eric sits down with Kathe Barrington, CPA and fractional Controller/CFO with 20 years of construction experience, to break down one of the most misunderstood areas of construction accounting: indirect cost allocations, equipment costing, and overhead structure. Kathe explains the difference between indirect costs and G&A, how to think about owned equipment usage rates, what a clean chart of accounts should look like, and why your...
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From Napkin Sketch to Shovel in the Ground: The Pre-Con Process That Sets Your Field Teams Up to Win
Construction Genius
Most construction companies treat pre-construction as an estimating department. That mindset is costing them projects. In this episode, Eric sits down with Sam Potts, Director of Pre-Construction at JP Cullen—a $900M family-owned, self-performing GC out of Wisconsin. Sam explains why pre-con managers should be treated like project managers, how to align budgets around what actually matters to the owner, the power of a “yes-if” mentality when clients make unexpected requests, and what separates a good estimator from a great pre-construction leader. In this episode, you’ll learn: •...
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Only 2.5% of Contractors Finish on Time. Here's What They Do Before the Job Starts
Construction Genius
Only 2.5% of contractors finish on time and on budget. Here's what they do before the job starts. In this episode, Eric Anderton breaks down Part 1 of FMI's 2025 Project Management Study — 243 executives, 84 PMs, real contractors, real numbers. What they found isn't revolutionary. It's the same truth Vince Lombardi was teaching in 1959. Preparation before the work starts. Accountability to a consistent standard. Everyone owning their role before the first crew hits the job site. The three things separating high performers from everyone else: PM involvement in estimating, structured...
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How DPR Built the Discipline That Protects Construction Companies in Every Cycle
Construction Genius
Construction companies don’t go out of business because they lack work. They go out of business because they take on too much work and lose discipline. In this episode, Eric Anderton talks with DPR Construction leaders Camilo Garcia and Mike Humphrey about how DPR built the discipline that carried the company through multiple boom-bust cycles—from early hypergrowth to market volatility in the 2000s, the 2009 downturn, and today’s AI-driven data center surge. They explain how DPR protects its culture through disciplined hiring, empowers teams with freedom within a framework, stays...
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A Smarter Way to Comply With Apprenticeship Requirements
Construction Genius
The Inflation Reduction Act is driving massive investment into construction—but the registered apprenticeship requirements tied to those tax credits are creating confusion and risk for many contractors. In this episode, Eric Anderton talks with Andy Seth, founder of Apprentix, about a smarter approach to complying with Inflation Reduction Act apprenticeship requirements—one that reduces risk, protects margins, and supports business growth. They break down how IRA apprenticeship compliance really works, why sponsorship matters, and how contractors can get compliant quickly without...
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From Apprentice to General Superintendent: 30 Years of Construction Leadership
Construction Genius
Doug Ransom began his construction career at 18 as a union carpenter apprentice. Thirty years later, he serves as General Superintendent at JP Cullen & Sons, a fifth-generation commercial construction company. Learn more: In this episode, we discuss: Transitioning from foreman to superintendent Managing construction field teams Leadership development in commercial construction Field vs. office conflict Multi-generational construction company succession Related episodes on construction succession planning: Episode 170 Episode 186 Connect with Doug: Restaurant...
info_outlineConstruction sales feel like a grind because the root problem isn’t sales — it’s the business infrastructure underneath. In this episode, we unpack the 10 structural roadblocks that make selling construction work under $100M so difficult. These issues include unclear vision, missing strategy, weak financial visibility, poor org structure, broken incentive systems, no management rhythm, and outdated hiring and development practices.
Fix these, and sales becomes dramatically easier. Ignore them, and every bid feels like a battle.
If you're tired of grinding, guessing, and hoping for better results, this episode gives you the roadmap.
Top 10 Reasons Contractors Struggle to Scale:
1. Lack of a clear vision for the future
2. Lack of a clear, well-documented strategy
3. No critical metrics defining business performance
4. Poorly defined organizational structure and role clarity
5. Limited financial visibility and business acumen
6. Misaligned or poorly designed incentive systems
7. Undefined cultural norms, values, and beliefs
8. No management system to drive communication and accountability
9. Ineffective hiring processes
10. Lack of employee development capability
🔗 Connect with Matthew Neuberger
Website: https://go.sandler.com/neuberger/
Contrarian Contractor: https://neuberger-sandler-22152421.hs-sites.com/the-contrarian-contractor
Book an Appointment: https://meetings.hubspot.com/matthew-neuberger?uuid=57dae5c6-56fd-4c1e-bf07-d8445f7fe77
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neubergerco/
Listen to another conversation with Matthew: https://www.constructiongenius.com/the-hit-rate-revolution-achieving-35-50-win-rates-and-doubling-revenue-ep-345