Subcontractor Bidding Tips

Subcontractor Bidding Tips

George Hedley is owner of Hedley Construction and Development, Inc. He started his construction company in 1977 with a pick-up truck and $500 in the bank. He grew his business to $50 million in revenue in seven years. He is one of the top 10 contractors in Southern California.

He now shares his business expertise and leadership style through his writing, speaking and coaching services.

I ran across his website, Hard Hat Presentations, while doing an internet search for tips to help sub-contractors and suppliers land more work.

When I read the statement…”most contracts are awarded to the lowest qualified bidder based on price. The bidder who offers better service for more money rarely gets the contract” I knew he understood the problem, the fact that he had more to say after that intrigued me.

Here is an excerpt from his article “7 Ways Subcontractors & Suppliers Can “WOW” General Contractors”, click the link to read it in its entirety.

I am a general contractor & developer of commercial and industrial projects from $2,000,000 to $15,000,000 in size. On every project we select from our database of over 3,000 companies to eventually hire at least 35 subcontractors and buy from 5 to 10 suppliers. The bottom-line when choosing subcontractors and suppliers is all of them are almost the same except for price. Very few contracting companies do anything different than the others. They give you what you pay for, the minimum, no more and no less. Because of this, sadly, we usually award based on price.

If you don’t wish to read the entire article, at least take away these tips George shares to better your chances with being awarded a contract. Probably 95% of you will discard them thinking they are a waste of time. What if your competition is in the other 5% that will implement even just of few of these tips.

I mean seriously, how much cost and effort is involved with writing a thank-you note? How many of you have ever written one? If you would like to treat your best contractor customer to dinner, schedule it next time I’m visiting and I will treat you both!

7. More WOW ideas

–         Send me a thank-you note

–         Bring me leads

–         Get bids in on time

–         Give me value-engineering ideas

–         Don’t overcharge on change orders

–         Send me product literature

–         Keep me informed of new ideas

–         Help me make a profit

–         Give me a referral

–         Train my superintendents

–         Get an email account

–         Carry a handheld email device

–         Use email

–         Carry a digital camera

–         Use your digital camera

–         Take me to dinner

–         Ask me: “how can we improve?”

Have an awesome week!