Bid Better
As a commercial contractor, bidding jobs can often be a painful exercise in futility. You’ve been invited to countless bid opportunities, and more than likely, have won very few. As someone who is often in the middle of this process, here are 3 thoughts that I think every contractor should consider before committing to a bid opportunity.
1. Ask the questions and know the players: How many vendors will they be inviting to bid, and who are they? Competitive bidding is a numbers and relationship game. For instance, if there are more than your standard 3 bidders, you may want to walk away. The odds are not in your favor. Furthermore, if you know the other bidders, you can glean if there are established business ties. You don’t want to go up against an incumbent, or a firm who already does a lot of business with the client.
2. Does the owner entity or the property manager have a clear understanding of the job, and are there documented project requirements you can bid off? If not, then move on. If the project owners have not taken the time to properly organize the project, they are more than likely not ready to commit to getting the job done.
3. Who are you talking to within the company? At minimum, you need to have a solid rapport with a decision influencer, though obviously, the decision-maker is best. But sometimes that’s simply not possible. If you are pushed to an employee who has no purchasing authority, then move on. They are typically only in charge of scheduling site visits and procuring the required bids.
So here are a few ideas to better analyze your bidding opportunities. If you are going to bid on a project, you know this can take up to several hours of your time. Try to ensure each project you bid on is carefully vetted and you feel confident about your chances. There is absolutely nothing wrong walking away from a project where you don’t feel that it’s a good fit.