Work Procurement

[Rich]

This is probably better suited for the new Contractor (http://www.teamcontractor.com) site, but we'll start it here. Homeowners, GC's, Trade Contractors - feel free to reply.

Situation:
You're a General Contractor bidding on an approximately $500,000 residence against 5 other contractors. The market is decent at this time so no cutting of fees is necessary, yet is a fairly competitive market. Contract price is not a deal killer.
Client is not available to talk with bidding contractors before the bid. Time frame of 3 weeks to bid date.

What do you do to set yourself apart and above your competition?

[roger g]

I guess that if I had the money to do what I wanted I would hire a company to investigate the customer and build a profile. Find out the needs, wants, dislikes and most of all,his past history on purchases. That way you would know whether low price is relevent or whether "eye candy" is appreciated etc etc.
Sneaky way of doing it but big business and Government is doing it to us all the time . Lawyers do it when picking juries. They deal in generalities but it must work.
It scares me and I just wrote it. Why isn't it being done more often. Oh ohhh! maybe it is.

roger

[grumpydasmurf]

If I can't talk to the client I don't bid. Now I will say I have never bid a job for building a new house, but every print I have ever looked at had mistakes or I could propose improvements.

Let's say for sake of conversation that I decide to bid, I would use a very detailed scope of work and professionally written estimate as my "niche". I would try to keep it simple for the customer not using too many industry specific terms while still maintaining the level of detail.

If I really really really wanted the job I may pay an artist to render a 3d model of the proposed finished product and use that in my proposal packet. I would include various brochures. I'd also include letters of referral from past clients complete with name and phone number. All of this would be organized into a booklet with a table of contents for easy navigation.

But again if I can't at least have a verbal conversation with the customer over the phone, I wouldn't waste my time bidding since the customer is just going to end up picking the lowest bidder in this situation.

[Rich]

Like I said - price has nothing to do with it. Everything else equal - proposal wise what do you do to stand apart. You're headed right where I was hoping Grumpy.

[roger g]

Unless you can find out the personal preferrences of the customer youcan only go on what you THINK he wants. I know one Chief of police (many years ago) wanted only guys over 6 feet and blonde hair and that is who he generally hired even though the rules of employment was you had to be over 5-8. I also know guys who throw out resume's that are over 2 pages in length because they feel long resume's are bullshit. Some people love long resume's.
Dazzling them with fancy footwork/stuff might in fact work but then again.............
I've heard customers say they went with a certain company because the guy LOOKED like he knew his business when in fact the sales man was as dumb as pupshit but I admit he did look good.
Of course if I was that smart to figure what customers really want I would be anothe Gates.

This is fun.
roger


roger

[Rich]

Don't read too much into this.. you don't need to hire a profiler to bid work :) Let's just say there are excellent specifications, drawings are 110%, hell lets give you a technical design criteria also, everything being equal to all GC's.
I'll give you hints where I'm going..
What else besides fancy photos, fancy resumes, past projects and clients, or a low price, can you provide to a potential client that will set you apart from the rest?

[Tom R]

A 10 year warranty.

[roger g]

Possibly a 24 hour hotline ( rather than just 40 hours a week) for problems. Or : 21st century technology
or: top of the line interior designer on call to help them,also landscape architect for same reason. After all you want the house to look it's best .

roger

[Rich]

A 10 year warranty.

How about no warranty? What if you could market a "No Warranty"? Or how about an excellent quality control plan where you wouldn't need a warranty?
What about a safety plan? What can cause a delay in construction? Weather, material deliveries, etc. Can accidents cause a delay? You bet - accident investigations, emotional problems with witnesses, etc. Can accidents cause you to go out of business? You bet - not enough equity to cover the insurance premiums..etc..etc.
3d renderings of the project - present the project in a nice project folder (already mentioned).
How about the experience of the management team? I've had quite a few homeowners ask me if the superintendent on the job has done similar size houses and how many and how long.. etc. Include resumes of the Super, Project Manager, carpenters, etc.
A schedule would probably be helpful also. Giving some milestone dates like dry-in, drywall completed, and of course the completion date.

[Tom R]

I don't get it, Rich. As far as the warranty - - let's say you wanted to buy a new truck for say, $30,000. You ask the salesman about the warranty. He says no need for one, we've got such excellent quality control. Do you buy the truck? Believing in quality control is defined/expressed by a longer warranty.

[Rich]

Don't get me wrong.. I'm not saying to not give a warranty externally. I mean bidding as if you would never have to go back to enforce the warranty. With a good enough quality control plan up front and if the homeowner provides proper maintenance over the years - you should never have to go back to fix anything.
Externally you could offer a lifetime warranty, in theory.

[grumpydasmurf]

Like I said - price has nothing to do with it.

Quite honestly I think price has everything to do with it. Unless the customer is very educated in the process of construction, they may not understand everything in my proposal.

A large part of my sales strategy is A) being professional and B) earning the customer's trust and C) teaching the customer how to qualify their contractors so they eliminate the scam artists and low ballers.

When I was selling on simply a professional proposal I had a 33% closing ration. I haven't checked in awhile but last I checked I was in the 40's% since I made it a point to meet each and every customer.

LOL let's not get off subject on warranty's ebcause that topic can be discussed for decades.

[grumpydasmurf]

... you don't need to hire a profiler to bid work ...

Bidding and selling are two different things all together. Bidding is giving a proposal to the customer. Selling is learning what the customer wants in a series of questions then telling them how much their "Wants" will cost.

[Rich]

Still not getting the point grumpy - this is a situation not real world. Was attempting to get other ideas from people regarding proposals not price, hence the comment "price has nothing to do with it". Yes to say price has nothing to do with real world is foolhardy at best. We can talk about pricing in the estimating forum. :)

[Tom R]

Don't get me wrong.. I'm not saying to not give a warranty externally. I mean bidding as if you would never have to go back to enforce the warranty. With a good enough quality control plan up front and if the homeowner provides proper maintenance over the years - you should never have to go back to fix anything.
Externally you could offer a lifetime warranty, in theory.

This is what I do now, but I work on a small scale, myself and maybe one helper at the most. I can count my 'callbacks' on one hand for the last 10 years, no lie. But for most people working on a larger scale, the number of 'callbacks', I'm sure, is directly proportional to the number of employees/subs (squared).

[Rich]

Excellent record Tom and you are probably not far off on the proportion. We have a couple different things we do to try and minimize warranty items that some GC's probably don't do. From pre-construction design meetings to weekly subcontractor meetings to filiming and photographing the walls and ceiling after inspections - we then log the images to a sheet that states dimensions to the electrical runs and pipe runs... anyway - things like that. We have a form for just about everyting :)

[Tom R]

Highly impressive, to say the least. Definitely worth 'focusing' on.

[TJ]

If all things being equal then two things

1) a great detailed proposal as grumpy suggested

but more importantly

2) addressing the buyers top concerns...i think I read it on this site

Showing up when your supposed to

Completeing the job on time

You need to drive these to points home on how you can deliver on thismaybe a reference or testimonial

Just my 2 cents