When I was around 19, my Uncle Bert taught me a lesson that stuck with me. A new competitor had entered our market, and I was worried. He didn’t panic - he had a plan.

“You know how you check out your competitor’s asphalt plant?” he said, cruising in his luxury SUV like a man who owned half the city. “You drive up in there like you own it.” Let’s just say his version may have included some...colorful enhancements.

It was a simple way of saying: don’t guess what your competition is doing - go find out. He believed that if you paid attention, both your competitors and folks in other geographies could become your greatest teachers. And Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, built an empire using the exact same principle.

Sam Walton: Learning His Way to the Top

Sam Walton wasn’t just the founder of Walmart; he was the world’s most relentless student of the competition. In his autobiography, Made in America, Walton described how he visited stores in countries like Japan, South Korea, Germany, and Brazil - not for fun, but to study.

He’d walk the aisles, take notes, snap pictures, and ask questions. Walton famously said, “I probably visited more stores than anyone in the world.” He studied everything: product placement, pricing, inventory systems, and customer service. Walton believed there was always something to learn, whether it was from a mom-and-pop shop in Arkansas or a bustling superstore in Tokyo.

He bought a small plane in the early 1950s and used it to fly over competitors' stores and study their parking lots. He would gauge customer traffic by counting cars and observing how different stores attracted shoppers. This aerial perspective gave him insights that most competitors never considered, helping him refine his strategies for store locations and operations.

If the world’s wealthiest retailer could spend his time learning from others, why shouldn’t we?

Applying Walton’s Lessons to Construction

Let’s take Walton’s playbook and apply it to construction and paving. You don’t need to jet off to Tokyo to study your competitors - everything you need to learn is happening right in your market. Here are some strategies and examples to guide your efforts:

1. Study Their Bid Tabulations

• What to look for: Are they pricing work strategically, moving money around to win key line items while maintaining margin? For example, if they’re underpricing dirt but overpricing traffic control, they might be confident in their ability to control quantities while banking profit elsewhere.

• How to use it: Identify patterns in their bids. Are they consistently low on mobilization? Are they targeting specific line items to win? Adjust your strategy to compete more effectively.

2. Observe Their Production Rates

• What to look for: How many tons are they laying per hour? Are they completing base prep faster than your crews? If they’re moving faster, is it due to equipment, crew size, or better scheduling?

• How to use it: Compare their production rates to your own. If they’re finishing jobs faster, figure out why. Can you streamline your processes, invest in better equipment, or improve your crew’s efficiency?

3. Check Out The Folks

• What to look for: Pay attention to the crew composition. How many people are on-site, and what crafts are represented? Are the workers experienced, or do they appear to be new hires? Observe their skill levels if possible. Do they seem engaged and efficient, or is morale low? Assess the level of activity and overall productivity - are they hitting a steady rhythm or struggling to keep pace?

• How to use it: Compare what you observe to your own crews. Are you staffed appropriately for similar tasks? Is your team as skilled and efficient? If the competitor is achieving more with fewer people or higher morale, it might signal an opportunity to optimize your labor management, training, or culture. This can inform everything from crew assignments to how you bid labor costs.

4. Study Their Scheduling

• What to look for: Are they stacking crews on certain projects to finish faster? Are they delaying less critical work to prioritize big-ticket items? How are they balancing labor and equipment across multiple jobs?

• How to use it: Look for inefficiencies in your own scheduling. Are your crews working overtime unnecessarily? Could better planning reduce downtime between tasks? Borrow their best practices to tighten your schedule.

5. Visit Their Plants & Sites

• What to look for: Where are they sourcing their aggregate, liquid, and sand? What kind of equipment are they using, and is it newer or more specialized than yours? Are they using additives, shingles, or mixes you haven’t considered? Who are their key retail customers waiting to get loaded?

• How to use it: If they’re consistently winning bids in areas where you struggle, their plant operations might hold the key. Evaluate your processes and see where you can improve.

The Challenge: Walk the Aisles, Drive the Sites

Sam Walton didn’t build Walmart by sitting in an office. He walked the aisles of stores across the world, studying the competition with the curiosity of a beginner. He wasn’t afraid to ask questions or take notes on his little yellow notepad. He didn’t let pride or complacency stop him from learning.

You can do the same. Next week, I challenge you to pick one competitor and study them like Sam Walton would. And the next time you are traveling somewhere, go get your eyes on some construction work. Whether it’s analyzing a bid result, visiting a job site, or observing their asphalt plant, go in with curiosity and confidence. Look for:

• How they’re pricing.

• Where they’re gaining efficiencies.

• What they’re doing that you aren’t.

Most importantly, remember that every competitor has something to teach you - if you’re willing to learn.

P.S. If you haven’t read Sam Walton’s Made in America, do yourself a favor. It’s packed with lessons that apply to every industry, including ours. And if you’re visiting a competitor’s site this week, drive in like you own it (Or at least wave like you know what you’re doing 😉).

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About the Author

Tristan Wilson is the CEO and Founder of Edgevanta. We make software that helps contractors win more work at the right price. He is a 4th Generation Contractor, construction enthusiast, ultra runner, and bidding nerd. He worked his way up the ladder at Allan Myers in the Mid-Atlantic and his family’s former business Barriere Construction before starting Edgevanta in Nashville, where the company is based. Reach out to him at [email protected]