Articles
Articles by Carolina Baffigo
AI Levels the Bid But You Win the Retention
AI may level a bid in 20 minutes, but it can't yet take your place…
Read the article →- Sep 25, 2026 · Sales & Go-to-Market
Your Rep Knows Every Architect But Not One Superintendent
Your rep can name every architect in the city and not one superintendent. That's a…
Read → - Sep 16, 2026 · Industry & Market Intelligence
Why Every Construction Professional Should Sit Through a Deposition
Have you ever been named in a lawsuit, or sat through a deposition? Corey Zussman…
Read → - Sep 14, 2026 · Industry & Market Intelligence
70% of Subcontractor Defaults Are Decided Before a Shovel Hits the Ground
70% of subcontractor defaults are decided before a shovel hits the ground. That number comes…
Read → - Sep 14, 2026 · Leadership & People
The Quality Manager Preps Harder Than You
The quality manager on your job site preps harder than your average rep. I asked…
Read → - Sep 8, 2026
27 Years of Career Education: Why I Started Spec to Scale
I walked onto my first job site at 24 with an engineering degree but no…
Read → - Sep 1, 2026 · Sales & Go-to-Market
Job Site Secrets: Five Weeks of Live Training for Building Products Sales
Enrollment for Job Site Secrets closes tonight at midnight. Five Thursdays, live, starting September 3.…
Read → - Aug 26, 2026 · Industry & Market Intelligence
Coca-Cola Mapped Every Square Kilometer of Earth's Water Risk, Then Gave It Away
Coca-Cola built a water risk model covering every square kilometer on Earth. Then gave it…
Read → - Jul 14, 2026 · Sales & Go-to-Market
How to Develop Sales Intuition Using the Scientific Method
My first boss in sales could tell in about ten seconds whether a project was…
Read → - Jun 30, 2026
How Category Leaders Unkowingly Defund Their Own Future
Most building products are designed to last decades. The companies that make them are rewarded…
Read → - Jun 18, 2026 · Industry & Market Intelligence
Spec vs. Street: The Product Positioning Matrix That Determines Your Pipeline Strategy
I watched a rep try to sell $400/SF façade panels to an installer at a…
Read → - May 23, 2026 · Leadership & People
The Underperformance Contagion: Why Good Teams Rot Around Strong Managers
Performance management systems were not designed to protect your team. They were designed to protect…
Read → - May 14, 2026 · Industry & Market Intelligence
6 AI Tools in 1 Day, No Developer
This past Tuesday I walked into a room and understood why the format worked before…
Read →Best Post - May 11, 2026 · Industry & Market Intelligence
The New Edge Isn’t Coding. It’s Domain Mastery.
And that is good news! I detested programming in college (what we called it back…
Read → - Apr 30, 2026 · Industry & Market Intelligence
This Construction Safety Event Saved Lives
I am convinced this event saved an untold number of lives. I am humbled at…
Read → - Apr 22, 2026 · Product & Profit Strategy
When Your Moat Becomes a Trap: What Nearly Two Decades in Building Products Taught Me About the Advantages that Quietly Become Liabilities
Every building product company I've worked for and with wanted the same thing. A moat.…
Read →Best Post - Apr 14, 2026 · Sales & Go-to-Market
The Stakeholder Most BPM Sales Teams Underestimate
There's one stakeholder most BPM sales teams underestimate. And it's the only one that can…
Read → - Mar 20, 2026 · Leadership & People
Commanding the Room: Five Women Rewriting What a “Man’s World” Looks Like
Originally published on my LinkedIn on March 8, 2026. When my daughter, Kika Drake ,…
Read →Best Post - Mar 6, 2026 · Industry & Market Intelligence
When AI Cuts Jobs But We Still Need to Build
We're laying off 40% of our workforce and trading up "for intelligence tools." What happens…
Read → - Feb 10, 2026 · Product & Profit Strategy
Coherence: The Free Leverage That Removes Friction From Growth
Coherence. If you need a word of the year to grow faster, skip the trite…
Read → - Jan 16, 2026 · Sales & Go-to-Market
Free Strategy Sessions: Unlock Revenue Growth
Most building products sales teams don’t lose deals because of price. They lose them because…
Read → - Jan 13, 2026 · Leadership & People
What Real Leadership Looks Like Beyond the Generic Advice
I was 24 when my boss gave me a project I had absolutely no idea…
Read →Best Post - Dec 1, 2025 · Industry & Market Intelligence
How Subs Get Blindsided: Contract Risk & Jobsite Secrets (with attorney Megan Shapiro)
I had a great time with Megan Shapiro on the Build Perspective Podcast talking Construction…
Read → - Nov 15, 2025 · Sales & Go-to-Market
Speed to Cash: Why Job Sites Beat Offices Every Time
“Speed to Cash” was the phrase of the day for this latest episode of Build…
Read → - Nov 8, 2025 · Sales & Go-to-Market
How a Sales Representative Made $215K With No Fancy System
$215,870. This was sent to me today and I needed to share. $215,870 is what…
Read → - Nov 2, 2025 · Sales & Go-to-Market
Why Project Fluency Matters
The gap between a good building products sales rep and a great one is not…
Read → - Nov 2, 2025 · Sales & Go-to-Market
The Scariest Email in Sales
“Can you explain how you are going to close an additional $200K in Q4, when…
Read →Best Post - Oct 22, 2025 · Industry & Market Intelligence
Reshoring vs. Global Manufacturing: A Clear-Cut Answer
Remember Long Beach in 2021? I certainly do. 97 ships sitting idle in the harbor,…
Read → - Oct 18, 2025 · Leadership & People
Are You Stuck in an Echo Chamber?
We often get stuck in our own ecosystem. We specify the same products and call…
Read → - Oct 15, 2025 · Industry & Market Intelligence
Data Center Blind Spots
In late 2023, a wave of data center projects began to flood the industry's pipeline.…
Read → - Oct 3, 2025 · Product & Profit Strategy
Your Invisible Profit Killer
What if 3mm is the only thing standing between a loss leader and a wildly…
Read → - Sep 17, 2025 · Industry & Market Intelligence
AI Job Site Referee: The Future of Construction Conflict Resolution
What if construction conflicts could be resolved as smoothly as modern co-parenting disputes? A new…
Read → - Sep 15, 2025 · Industry & Market Intelligence
Construction's Electric Revolution Just Hit Germany
The construction industry just witnessed its Tesla moment. In Erlangen, Germany, Volvo, Siemens, and Metzner…
Read → - Aug 26, 2025 · Industry & Market Intelligence
Hurricane Andrew: The Storm That Built Modern Safety Standards
33 years ago today, I was a 17-year-old kid watching windows "leak" water through solid…
Read →Best Post - Aug 23, 2025 · Leadership & People
How to Handle Job Cuts Honestly
Silicon Valley loves to rebrand harsh realities with softer language. We "sunset" ideas, projects, and…
Read → - Apr 15, 2025 · Sales & Go-to-Market
From Technical to Sales: A Lesson in Professional Kindness
Moving from technical roles into sales brought unexpected challenges, but one person's kindness made all…
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