Invitations To Tender Steps One To Four

So you need more tenders and want to ramp up your efforts in getting more work through the door?

 If you are a sub contractor wanting to break into new markets your aim will be to expand your reach to include higher value jobs with main building contractors. However,  if you haven’t got a track record you will need to be prepared to spend some time building relationships with estimators to develop their trust. Once you get on site with your first job for a main contractor, you are in a good position to reach your business objectives.

 Whether you are a main building contractor looking for larger tender values or a sub contractor supporting tender submissions for a main contractor, you need to watch out for the dreaded budget tender price. You will find yourself giving free quotes for others to beat. Take my advice, don’t get involved.

 So here are my seven steps to that invitation to tender.

Step One. Get your accreditations, insurances and references in place for those dreaded Pre Qualification Questionnaires!

The PQQ is often a requirement before tenders or enquiries will be offered, so it’s worth getting your paperwork in order. Health and safety is a priority in this day and age and if you can’t show you have everything covered, you won’t get the tender opportunity. In the UK, CHAS, the Contractors Health And Safety Scheme, is becoming an industry standard in terms of what clients, architects and surveyors require. The annual CHAS assessment is a rather laborious process, but once you have that certificate, the kudos of your company will go sky high. In the USA, the OSHA, Occupational Safety And Health Administration, have a major role in driving forward health and safety standards in the workplace. Make sure you have your specialist accreditations in place according to your trade. In the UK your on site operatives will all need to hold CSCS cards – Construction Skills Certificate Scheme. Have the right level of insurance for the work you are doing. As a bare minimum it’s standard these days for the smaller contractor to have £10,000,000 Employers Liability Insurance and £5,000,000 Professional Indemnity Insurance. By the way, endorsements and references for your company are like gold dust! Keep them updated and post them everywhere.

Step Two. Adopt  the right lead generation system

There are several systems that have become common in the industry, among them: Emap Glenigan, Barbour ABI and Builders Conference. I have used all three of them with mixed results. They all track planning leads coming through local authorities and compile projects in various database formats for easy access for the user. If you are a main building contractor targeting architects, developers and quantity surveyors, then Emap Glenigan or Barbour ABI would be a good choice. Be careful to record the information gleaned in an efficient way because the information you will receive could easily overwhelm and that’s when crucial contacts can be lost. Systems like these can be an excellent source of leads if you want to develop a reliable sales pipeline. It’s rare to get a quick opportunity using these systems, but with accurate monitoring and filtering, they can be very effective. If you are a sub contractor targeting work with main contractors, Builders Conference is the best system to use.

Step Three. Know how to get past the gatekeeper

I have dealt with this question quite exhaustively in another article and in my Marketing For Construction Masterclass Course, so I won’t spend time here. Just to say that you need to build up a profile of every company you are targeting for work remembering that the gatekeepers – the staff you need to convince before you can talk to the decision maker, is also very important. Often by building a rapport with this key person opens the door to further, more significant contacts within the company. Persevere and always be polite.

Step Four. Keep accurate records of every contact

You absolutely must have a CRM system. (Customer Relations Management). Getting tenders through the door is not difficult when you remember important things like the name of the person you talk to, what their interests are and what projects they are working on. Before you pick up the phone to ask for the tender, do your homework. Remind yourself about the person you are going to talk to and what was said on previous occasions. You will never remember this unless you have an efficient CRM system. There are systems which have been developed specifically for the construction industry, however, unless you have a large budget, these can be extremely expensive. If you are a small to medium sized company, something like ACT can be a good solution and it can be edited to include all the information fields you require. Once this has been done, you have an efficient and cost effective system and plenty of help is available online.

It’s not difficult to get tenders through the door for your estimators to price. But you must make sure the right strategies and plans are in place before moving forward.

 In my next article I am looking at steps five to seven.

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