When you don't get the job

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samadam

Member
Location
Florida,USA
HI All!
I was curious if anyone else struggles with this. I have only been a contractor for a short time so I'm hoping some of the more experienced guys can give me some insight. I have been quoting work and landing anywhere between 50-65% of the jobs I quote. I feel confident in my process and I'm sure that we are not the low bidder in my area. I have asked some of my mentors (other contractors) about what they would price these jobs at and I'm usually real close to what they would bid. I have been leaning on Ellen Rohr stuff as how to price my work basically I don't want to do jobs that are so tight that one bad day or any problem and "poof" there goes my profit. The question I have is do you ever contact clients after you submit an estimate or you find out they decided to use someone else to see how far off you were.
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
HI All!
I was curious if anyone else struggles with this. I have only been a contractor for a short time so I'm hoping some of the more experienced guys can give me some insight. I have been quoting work and landing anywhere between 50-65% of the jobs I quote. I feel confident in my process and I'm sure that we are not the low bidder in my area. I have asked some of my mentors (other contractors) about what they would price these jobs at and I'm usually real close to what they would bid. I have been leaning on Ellen Rohr stuff as how to price my work basically I don't want to do jobs that are so tight that one bad day or any problem and "poof" there goes my profit. The question I have is do you ever contact clients after you submit an estimate or you find out they decided to use someone else to see how far off you were.

I would usually contact a client as a matter of course regarding the status of the proposal. During the call if they tell me the job went elsewhere I'd ask the reason we didn't get the job and I don't recall anyone saying it was for anything but price. I would ask if they could ball park the delta between my price and the winner and sometimes they would and sometimes they wouldn't.
 

mgookin

Senior Member
Location
Fort Myers, FL
If you ever bid through purchasing departments of cities and counties, it's public record as to what others bids were. Once the bids are opened, anyone can request to view them as a matter of public record. You can even walk in and view bids for jobs you did not bid on; this may help you see what others in the area are getting for like work.

Outside of the public sector, it's up to the customer to tell you or not tell you, and even then there's no way to know if they're being 100% honest. If you bid $8,000 and the guy next in line bids $8,200, maybe they've been using that guy for years and are happy to pay the additional $200 and just got other bids "to keep him honest". But don't be surprised if they tell you he bid $7,000 to see if you'll do it for $1k (or more) less on the next one.

If you're getting 50% or more of the jobs you are bidding, I'd say that's not bad.

Good luck with the growth and success of your company.

P.S. Welcome to the forums.
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
If you ever bid through purchasing departments of cities and counties, it's public record as to what others bids were. Once the bids are opened, anyone can request to view them as a matter of public record. You can even walk in and view bids for jobs you did not bid on; this may help you see what others in the area are getting for like work.

Outside of the public sector, it's up to the customer to tell you or not tell you, and even then there's no way to know if they're being 100% honest. If you bid $8,000 and the guy next in line bids $8,200, maybe they've been using that guy for years and are happy to pay the additional $200 and just got other bids "to keep him honest". But don't be surprised if they tell you he bid $7,000 to see if you'll do it for $1k (or more) less on the next one.

If you're getting 50% or more of the jobs you are bidding, I'd say that's not bad.

Good luck with the growth and success of your company.

P.S. Welcome to the forums.

I meant to say that as well. Whatever he's doing it's a pretty good model for his company at this time.
 

rippledipple

Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical contractor
bidding

bidding

HI All!
I was curious if anyone else struggles with this. I have only been a contractor for a short time so I'm hoping some of the more experienced guys can give me some insight. I have been quoting work and landing anywhere between 50-65% of the jobs I quote. I feel confident in my process and I'm sure that we are not the low bidder in my area. I have asked some of my mentors (other contractors) about what they would price these jobs at and I'm usually real close to what they would bid. I have been leaning on Ellen Rohr stuff as how to price my work basically I don't want to do jobs that are so tight that one bad day or any problem and "poof" there goes my profit. The question I have is do you ever contact clients after you submit an estimate or you find out they decided to use someone else to see how far off you were.
Don't over think it,you're in the ball park,if you got every job you bid on you would be too cheap,if you didn't get any jobs you're to expensive.And if you have too much work raise your prices.:happyyes:
 

James L

Senior Member
Location
Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
Occupation
Electrician
Don't over think it,you're in the ball park,if you got every job you bid on you would be too cheap,if you didn't get any jobs you're to expensive.And if you have too much work raise your prices.:happyyes:

This is good advice.

I would add that 50 closing rate is high, in general. But that depends on where you are and who's calling.

I would immediately start an intricate profit and loss log and see where you're at in 3 months. Tally your money, tally total hours, and see if your per-hour is where it needs to be.

If you're making what you need per hour while landing half your bids, sleep well and plan a nice vacation.

But I would suspect you might want to consider a 5% rate hike
 

JFletcher

Senior Member
Location
Williamsburg, VA
This is good advice.

I would add that 50 closing rate is high, in general. But that depends on where you are and who's calling.

I would immediately start an intricate profit and loss log and see where you're at in 3 months. Tally your money, tally total hours, and see if your per-hour is where it needs to be.

If you're making what you need per hour while landing half your bids, sleep well and plan a nice vacation.

But I would suspect you might want to consider a 5% rate hike

Agreed. Back in 2008, we actually had a 100+% closing rate: we turned down jobs due to manpower shortages/scheduling conflicts. We had jobs land in our laps left, right and center. Now, 50% would be very good. 65% would worry me personally; the economy doesnt bear that here, unless you are seriously low or seriously wrong in other ways. Not to sound the doomsday alarm, but check and re-check your books to see you are making money as well as building a good rep for your company. If both are good, write a book; Im sure many would buy it!
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
I have been leaning on Ellen Rohr stuff as how to price my work basically I don't want to do jobs that are so tight that one bad day or any problem and "poof" there goes my profit.

if you've done bare bones biz plan, and have your numbers,
and you are profitable, and are getting 50% of your bids,
keep doing what you are doing.

i've been told, and my research on what my competition is
charging follows it, that i could raise my flat rate 25%, and
still be good. i'm not raising it, nor do i have any intention
of doing so. i've got an excellent base of customers, a nice
mix, and they aren't price shopping me, they, to the best of
my knowledge, are giving me 100% of their work.

it means i have to work a bit harder to make my goals. so what?
hard work has never hurt me, so far.

when you have a successful model, then tune for more volume,
don't try to pull 8 pounds out of a 5 pound bag.

that's why i'm sitting in golden, colorado tonight.... adding another
product i can sell to my existing customers.
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Don't assume that everyone you're bidding against has the same ability, experience, overhead, tools, etc. as you do. If your pricing method has been working and you're comfortable with the money you make on the projects I would stick with it. You can't get every job. There are people out there looking ONLY for the best price and don't consider anything else. I recently conducted a blind pricing survey with my contractor's association. Just as an example, for a simple 200 amp service (no mast, etc.) I got prices ranging anywhere from $1800.00 to $3300.00. If you figure that everyone is going to spend somewhere in the area of $500.00 to $700.00 for material the rest is how much $$ you want to make for your efforts. The more $$ you want to make the better salesman you'll have to be IMHO.
 
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