Mercator AI’s Guide to Customer Discovery: Why Traditional Market Research Failed in Construction Tech

Mercator AI’s Guide to Customer Discovery: Why Traditional Market Research Failed in Construction Tech

When trying to understand the construction market, traditional methods like surveys and focus groups fall short. In a recent Category Visionaries episode, Mercator AI’s CEO Chloe Smith reveals why real customer discovery requires getting your hands dirty – sometimes literally.

The Traditional Approach Failed

“We thought we needed to build a website and build a pitch deck, and we didn’t even have a product. We didn’t even have a problem we’re solving,” Chloe admits about their early missteps. This desk-based approach led to a brutal investor meeting where she was told to “go talk to a lot more people before I ever put an idea together.”

The Event Strategy

The turning point came from unexpected advice about industry events. As Chloe recalls, an advisor “would just go to every single conference and event that he could go to that was free, and he would just sit in the back room and he would do so repeatedly until someone noticed that, hey, who is this guy?”

Breaking Into the Circle

Construction’s tight-knit community posed unique challenges. “It does kind of feel like that when you’re the new person at an event in a community that all knows each other,” Chloe shares. The solution? Persistence and authenticity.

The Diagnostic Approach

Rather than pushing solutions, Mercator AI adopted what Chloe calls “a diagnostic approach, which I personally feel is a much more authentic way of not selling, but just understanding your customers problem. That doctor patient approach has been really helpful in being able to really listen and actively listen to what the other person is saying instead of trying to be understood first.”

The Generational Challenge

This approach revealed deeper industry dynamics: “We’re moving towards a generational shift, especially industries like construction, where we’re seeing more people retire out than come into the industry.” This insight shaped their product development.

The Never-Ending Journey

Even after finding success, customer discovery remains ongoing. “We didn’t actually truly do that until last year in a really meaningful way,” Chloe reflects. “Probably next year I will look back and think I haven’t even scratched the surface.”

The Blueprint for Success

For construction tech founders, Chloe offers clear advice: “Go speak with the president of your local construction association and ask them what they commonly hear their members complain about… really seek to understand versus to be understood.”

This hands-on approach to customer discovery transformed Mercator AI from a company with a solution seeking a problem into one that deeply understands its market’s needs. The lesson? In construction tech, real insights come from boots on the ground, not market research reports.