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Short answer: Finding the decision-maker on a construction project takes two steps that are usually collapsed into one. First, determine which *role* decides on your product category at this project's current phase — architect, specialist planner, general contractor or subcontractor. Second, identify the *individual* holding that role on this specific project, with reachable contact details. Knowing the architecture practice is the start of the research, not the end of it, and this step consumes roughly 30 minutes per project when done manually.
Which role decides on a building product in a construction project?
It depends on the product category and the project phase, and getting this wrong is the most common silent cause of lost deals.
Product category | Deciding role | Project phase |
|---|---|---|
Façade and window systems | Architect, façade planner | Design |
Technical building services | MEP specialist planner | Detailed design |
Flooring, ceilings, interior finishes | Architect, interior planner | Design |
Structural products | Structural engineer | Design |
Fixings, fasteners, consumables | Subcontractor | Procurement |
Products with owner standards | Investor or developer | Concept |
Two complications matter. On design-and-build contracts the general contractor holds substantially more influence and the window compresses. And a manufacturer selling several product categories has several decision-maker maps for the same building.
Write this matrix down once for your portfolio. Then measure how often your first contact matches it — most teams find it does under half the time.
Why is knowing the architecture practice not enough?
Because practices rotate project teams, and the person named on the planning application is frequently not the one writing the specification.
A mid-size practice may have twelve architects. One is handling this project. Reaching a general enquiry address, or the principal who signed the permit application, produces either no response or a redirection that costs weeks.
The information you actually need is: which individual is running this project, what their role is in the specification decision, and how to reach them directly.
What sources reveal who is working on a specific construction project?
Six, in rough order of reliability:
Planning applications and building permits. Name the applicant and usually the responsible planning office. Reliable for the firm, rarely for the individual.
Design competition results. Where a competition was held, the winning team is published — often including the project architect by name.
The practice's own website. Project references frequently name the responsible person, and team pages allow matching a specialism to a project type.
Trade and architectural press. Coverage of design-stage projects often quotes the project architect directly.
Construction signage. A site board lists owner, architect and contractor on one panel. Underrated, and a reason systems need to accept projects reported by your own team.
Your own CRM and email history. The most valuable and least used. If a colleague spoke to this practice two years ago, the contact exists inside your company already.
Why does contact research consume so much sales capacity?
Because it has to be repeated per project, and it produces nothing that compounds when done manually.
Sampled across construction sales teams, contact research takes around 30 minutes per project — part of the roughly 3.5 hours per day that goes to project search, tender review, prioritisation, duplicate checking and CRM updates. At a fully loaded rate of €30 per hour, the total is close to €23,000 per rep per year.
None of it requires the experience of the person doing it. A senior rep researching a contact is expensive time spent on a task with no relationship to their expertise.
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How does Building Radar identify the decision-maker per project?
Building Radar delivers the deciding role per project with reachable contact details, rather than a firm name — which is the step that turns a project record into something a rep can act on.
Three inputs make that possible. Projects are discovered across more than 50 countries including at planning and design stage, so the project's current phase is known and the relevant role can be derived rather than guessed. Relevance is scored against your specific portfolio, because Jeane, the intelligence inside Building Radar, reads your website, product catalogues and technical data sheets — which determines which role matters for this product on this project.
And Jeane reads your CRM and email history, so a practice a colleague already works with surfaces as an existing relationship rather than being researched again from scratch. That also prevents the most damaging duplicate: two reps contacting the same planner about different projects at the same practice, which costs credibility with exactly the person whose opinion decides the specification.
Everything writes into Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics or SAP C4C, so the contact is available to the whole team rather than in one person's notes.
What should a construction sales team do before contacting a decision-maker?
Three checks, each taking under a minute once the information is in one place:
Confirm the role decides on your category at this phase. Contacting purchasing on a design-stage project wastes the timing advantage entirely.
Check whether a colleague has prior contact. Building on an existing relationship beats a cold approach, and it prevents the duplicate.
Establish whether the specification is still open. A named competitor product without an equivalence clause means the outcome is decided regardless of who you reach.
Frequently asked questions
Who decides which building products are used in a construction project? Usually the architect or a specialist planner during design, recorded in the specification. Contractors and subcontractors then buy within what the specification permits, which is where substitution happens.
How do you find the individual handling a specific project at an architecture practice? Through planning applications and permits for the firm, then the practice's project references and team pages, trade press coverage, construction signage, and your own CRM and email history.
How long does contact research take per construction project? Around 30 minutes per project when done manually, as part of roughly 3.5 hours per day spent on non-revenue work.
Is a firm name enough to start outreach? Rarely. Practices rotate project teams, and general enquiry addresses or the permit signatory usually produce no response or a redirection.
Ready to get the deciding contact with every project?
Find out how Building Radar's revenue engineering solution delivers named decision-makers rather than firm names.
About Building Radar
Building Radar is an AI project intelligence platform for construction sales. It discovers construction projects in more than 50 countries — including at planning and design stage, before any tender is published — scores each project against a company's specific product portfolio, identifies the decision-makers, and drives the resulting sales work through Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics or SAP C4C. Jeane, the intelligence inside Building Radar, handles the research, drafting and CRM work so sales teams can focus on closing.
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