Your Guide to Mastering the Construction Bid

The government spends $6 billion a year on residential construction alone. That translates to a lot of opportunities to take on big contracts as a construction company.

When you’re trying to win a major construction bid, you need to know what your potential client wants and how you can meet their needs. If you struggle to navigate the bidding process, you need a guide to mastering the process.

Here are the four things you need to keep in mind if you want to win your next bid.

1. Do Your Research

Before you start drawing up plans for your project, you need to do some research in advance. If you don’t know what your potential client wants, they could end up rejecting even the most well-planned project for not meeting their needs. You need to show the client that you have what it takes to hit their goals, beyond your own interests as a construction company.

If you’re looking at a major contract that requires a big investment from the client you’re bidding for, you’re going to have to prove yourself. During the research and planning phase, you can predict the questions and criticisms your potential client might have.

Your business plan can become an important resource for this plan. It can let you know the scope of projects that you can handle and whether or not you have what it takes to complete this kind of work.

Use the information provided by the bid request to guide your research. Do some additional research on the company that you’re proposing to work with. If you can understand the mission and the goals of the company you’re going to be working with, you can make sure your bid is tailored to their concerns.

Taking the time to learn more about the bid construction process before you walk through the door will ensure that you’re well prepared.

2. Carefully Plan For Costs

When you’re starting out the bid creation process you need to be sure that your business plan is customized to show off your best traits. You should be showing the company you’re going to be working with that you can give them what they need, all within a reasonable budget.

Consider all of the details that are important to this project when you’re coming up with your price. The last thing you need to do is to win a contract that you can’t afford to complete because you left yourself underfunded.

Calculate material costs down to the box of nails and a bucket of paint. Get granular but also leave yourself some room for mistakes.

Be generous about time and labor so that you don’t end up rushing your project to meet deadlines. This can not only be dangerous but it can also hurt your company’s reputation.

Bids aren’t always given to a company who can promise the lowest price but also to the company who seems to be best suited to take on the project at hand. Comb through all of your potential costs to ensure that they’re accurate before submitting. Don’t arbitrarily inflate any costs, as you’ll need to justify them before your client at some point.

If you decide to discount something or add a premium service, you need to have a good excuse, before your client raises their eyebrows.

3. Check Out The Submission Process in Advance

In several instances, you’ll be required to submit your bid online. When it comes down to getting your bid in, the process could be more complicated than you realize. If you’re trying to submit your bid a few minutes before midnight on the due date, you might ruin your bid with poor planning.

Several government agencies rely on online portals for companies looking to submit bids. If you don’t know how the portal you’re going to be using works you might want to check it out in advance so that you don’t end up unprepared. On submission day, when you’re about to send everything in, you don’t want to be missing any important documentation.

Your local SBA can help you figure out what government agencies want from a submission. If you’re confused, you might be able to skirt around the act of submitting online. For construction companies willing to make the trek out to the office looking for submissions, there could be opportunities to talk to agencies and reps in person.

The biggest thing you need to remember is that their rules are more important than your rules. If they want a file formatted a certain way, follow their lead.

4. Make Your Presentation Top Notch

If you put together a strong enough bid, you could catch the eye of the company you’ll be working with and they could ask to meet with you. If you’ve priced things in a way that’s generally acceptable and you’ve made a compelling project, they might have some questions for you. Taking the time to answer a few of their most pressing questions could help you to push them over the fence of deciding to give the bid to you.

The team that is reviewing the bid might want you to come into their office or they might want to run the meeting online. Either way, you should have a presentation that you can walk them through regardless of the medium.

When you’ve finished your presentation, they might ask whether or not this is your “best and final” proposal. This means that they’re asking if you can go any lower or add anything else to the bid. While this doesn’t belie any intentions, it might mean they’re ready to end the process.

If they want to lower the price, let them know what that entails. If you have to choose a cheaper type of window frame to make the price work they need to understand that means sacrificing a bit of quality. You can use this to caution them away from cutting corners.

Getting a Construction Bid Is Easy if You’re Clever

If you know how to present your company to your potential client, winning a construction bid should be a breeze. Instead of trying to wow your client, it’s better to be smart and predict their concerns.

If you’re working on outfitting your team with new equipment, check out our guide for finding the perfect toolbox.

More Interesting Facts, Tips, and News