Being the first to bid on a job

[zappy]

It seems like for me anyway, when I am the first one to bid on a job, I always get under bid and lose the job I think whats going on is there using the first bid to get the next guy to beat it? I don't know, I guess it's just so cut throat out there. I try not to be that way, and look where it gets me. I see ad's that say "will beat anyone's price by 10%" Maybe I should try it?

 

[satcom]

It seems like for me anyway, when I am the first one to bid on a job, I always get under bid and lose the job I think whats going on is there using the first bid to get the next guy to beat it? I don't know, I guess it's just so cut throat out there. I try not to be that way, and look where it gets me. I see ad's that say "will beat anyone's price by 10%" Maybe I should try it?

If you are the first to bid, then you have the perfect chance to get the job, what you may need to do is learn how to close the deal, car dealers learned that years ago, and they even have a guy, that does nothing but close deals, once they leave the showroom, you lost them, and once you pull out the driveway, you lost the deal, and they are on the phone looking for someone else, who will know how to close.

The beat anyone by 10% is just a door opener, once they are in they will sell up 20% and close walking away with a contract.

 

[480sparky]

............. I see ad's that say "will beat anyone's price by 10%" Maybe I should try it?

I'll bid $1. Now you have to do the job for 90?.

 

[zappy]

If you are the first to bid, then you have the perfect chance to get the job, what you may need to do is learn how to close the deal, car dealers learned that years ago, and they even have a guy, that does nothing but close deals, once they leave the showroom, you lost them, and once you pull out the driveway, you lost the deal, and they are on the phone looking for someone else, who will know how to close.

The beat anyone by 10% is just a door opener, once they are in they will sell up 20% and close walking away with a contract.

I used to sell cars, so I know what your saying. Can you explain though about getting your foot in the door by saying " I'll beat any price by 10%", and then adding to the price they were suppose to beat? What do you mean by sell up 20%?

 

[satcom]

I used to sell cars, so I know what your saying. Can you explain though about getting your foot in the door by saying " I'll beat any price by 10%", and then adding to the price they were suppose to beat? What do you mean by sell up 20%?

When you advertise you will beat any price by 10%, you do it to get a foot in the door, not to give them a lower price, just a bag of sales tricks, once you in the door you sell your contract which could be 20% more rather then 10% less.

The only contractors that loose, are the ones that try to do a job for 10% less.

 

[sameguy]

It is called shopping, and some people think they will bid low get in there and get extras.
It could be you are taking off more accurately and the others are guessing. Try to keep building re-pour ever time you talk with people, you will find over time word of mouth gets out and things pick up. Takes time; repeat business.

 

[gadfly56]

I used to sell cars, so I know what your saying. Can you explain though about getting your foot in the door by saying " I'll beat any price by 10%", and then adding to the price they were suppose to beat? What do you mean by sell up 20%?

The 10% discount gets you the contract. Now it's upsell time.

"Hey, how about a nice chandelier in the entrance foyer instead of that plain vanilla overhead?"

"You know, recessed lighting would really punch up your kitchen."

"I think we can do better than this Home Depot junk for your front entrance exterior lighting. You do want the house to look classy from the outside, don't you?" [Especially if you've already sold them on #1 and #2! ]

"A lot of guys do some serious woodworking/metal crafting/name-a-hobby in their attached garages. How about we upgrade to 20 amps and add a few spare circuits?"

"Some nice low-voltage lighting would accent your front walk really well."

"The end of your driveway is going to be a little too dark at night. A lamp post would be just the ticket to help spot the driveway apron in the dark with a driving rain and make sure the kids haven't left anything on it they shouldn't. Can't be too safe!"

"We could put some 8' fluorescents in the attic, keep you from misstepping and dropping through the living room ceiling."

Everything of course is cheaper to do "now while the walls are open" or "as long as we're on the job now". Picking jobs that have upsell potential can be tricky, but those are the ones you go in with the 10% discount. They are also the ones were you spell out in fine detail what you are providing. For example, if it's resi work you want to go floor by floor and room by room for switches, receptacles everything. It doesn't have to be a book, an Excel spread sheet with device summaries will do nicely. And signed change orders for each upsell.

Come to think of it, contracts, work summaries and change orders are the way to go for just about any work you do.

 

[readydave8]

I try to turn in bids promptly, often days go by before the other bidders turn their's in. I try to remind the potential customer that promptness carries over to the job--how long is it going to take them to show up?

These are very little jobs that I do and probably couldn't handle bigger bids like this.

 

[ceb58]

The 10% discount gets you the contract. Now it's upsell time.

"Hey, how about a nice chandelier in the entrance foyer instead of that plain vanilla overhead?"

"You know, recessed lighting would really punch up your kitchen."

"I think we can do better than this Home Depot junk for your front entrance exterior lighting. You do want the house to look classy from the outside, don't you?" [Especially if you've already sold them on #1 and #2! ]

"A lot of guys do some serious woodworking/metal crafting/name-a-hobby in their attached garages. How about we upgrade to 20 amps and add a few spare circuits?"

"Some nice low-voltage lighting would accent your front walk really well."

"The end of your driveway is going to be a little too dark at night. A lamp post would be just the ticket to help spot the driveway apron in the dark with a driving rain and make sure the kids haven't left anything on it they shouldn't. Can't be too safe!"

"We could put some 8' fluorescents in the attic, keep you from misstepping and dropping through the living room ceiling."

Everything of course is cheaper to do "now while the walls are open" or "as long as we're on the job now". Picking jobs that have upsell potential can be tricky, but those are the ones you go in with the 10% discount. They are also the ones were you spell out in fine detail what you are providing. For example, if it's resi work you want to go floor by floor and room by room for switches, receptacles everything. It doesn't have to be a book, an Excel spread sheet with device summaries will do nicely. And signed change orders for each upsell.

Come to think of it, contracts, work summaries and change orders are the way to go for just about any work you do.

A friend of mine who has been an successful EC gave me some advice that has worked for him for years. If you are bidding commercial work and there is a time frame for having in the bids. Don't send the bid until about 30 min. before bid closing. He found that years ago he would send the bid in early giving the GC time to use his bid for shopping. Sending it in just before closing doesn't give them time to shop it out.
On residential I bid code min. Then if I get the job I request a walk through before the rough in with the home owners. I get the wife and the first place we go is the master bath. Up sell can lighting, shower lighting and such. Then the master bedroom can lighting with dimmers, extra switched recpt. Then we head to the kitchen more can lighting, under cabinet lighting. When we are through I get the husband and head to the garage. Extra recp. for his work bench, extra lighting. Then we talk network system for the TVs, Ethernet connections. I have went in with a $8700.00 bid and walked away with a $22,000.00 final bill.

 

[LarryFine]

I once started with a $15K contract, and I ended up still doing it at $15K - but with the customer buying all materials.

 

[walkerj]

We usually submit the Scope of Work the day before the bid so the GC can see what we will or will not do so he can adjust his price or whatever.

Bid goes in at the last minute or else they are on the phone with someone else trying to get them lower than us.

This is commercial work.

 

[JacksonburgFarmer]

This whole upsell on bid day thing is something new to me. I have (had) not been doing this, but noticed getting beat on bids that I KNOW could not have had all the bells and whistles I included. Then, Once the job is complete, I drive by, go in, whatever, and noticed most of the "options" I included have been installed....

I personally think that is a backhanded sales approach. I try to lay it all out on the line at first, and build on value, not price.

Guess it is time to backhand someone:grin:

 

[hardworkingstiff]

If you are selling on price, then you need to be more like WalMart. Beat every vendor down, be ruthless. Employees get paid the minimum you can get away with. No one can be spared. Everyone must deliver at the lowest price.

Now, if you don't want to be like that, you must learn to sell on relationship. The customer must like you, trust you, and believe no one else will deliver a better job. Your price can't be really high, it just won't have to be the lowest.

I've found that a customer that shops to the lowest price is not easy to work for and is mostly never satisfied.

There is much more to being an EC than passing the exam. Actually, that's the easy part.

 

[jmellc]

Customers and competitors never miss a chance to beat you down. I'm sure your customer describes your plan to the next guy and sees what he bids, then may mention your bid being lower, other guy may to down, may not. Some customers call everyone they know, see if they've had similar work done. You've done at least part of someone else's legwork.

1 guy called me 4 times to look at jobs. Had to take my shoes off in his house, put them on to check attic space, off again coming down. Answer a dozen or more what if questions, explain why wall has to be cut, why a device can't fit in a certain place, that yes, I might have to make some noise. Yes, the price is the same if it takes less time than planned. I won't fool with him any more.

Also, never give prospect a detailed material list. We once had a guy that would use it to buy mtls himself and do the job by trial and error. Should have jerked him around by listing #6 wire for a receptacle or some such.

I also wonder if it's time to charge for quotes. I remember TV techs getting $25 for quotes, credited if you bought the repair. I don't think electricians here are doing that yet, but might be a good idea. Would at least know the customer was serious.

Every drywaller I know starts their rotozips inside the box, then moves to the edge... then jumps to the outside of the box, then around.

 

[jmellc]

Charge for Quotes?

Charge for Quotes?

I mentioned this on another thread briefly. Has anyone else thought about charging for quotes? I hate the idea but sometimes we chase our tails trying to please customers and give a good price, etc. For our effort, the customer calls a number of other electricians, a brother in law, a few illegals, etc. Some TV techs in my town use to charge $25 for estimates, gave credit if you bought the job. And they didn't have to leave the shop like we do. If most EC's charged $25 to come look over the job, the HO's may not jerk us around so much. I really get sick of people cheerfully spending $1,000 or more for several TV's, then whimper to me that my install work is high. I charge a lot less than most co's I worked for. Same thing with hot tubs and chandeliers. If $ is that tight, they could do without the toys and save a fortune to start with.