Can't find bid opportunities ...

Status
Not open for further replies.
Christoph

Christoph

Master Electrician, Code Official
Location
Coopersburg, PA
Occupation
Electrical Inspector
We are building a commercial department with my boss coming out of residential (works for big home builders and bangs out couple houses a week). When I got hired I had no experience estimating or getting work. So its kinda the blind leading the blind here as far as where to even get decent leads. It seems that sites like planhub are either not showing all GC's bidding a job or the jobs are far away or out of scope. We are in Reading, PA Area trying to start out commercial, offices etc. maybe retail.

Any suggestions where to look? I am even calling around construction companies to tell them and ask for projects.

Thankful for any input
 
This is one of the more difficult tasks to master. You either go to the bid and spec market, and it's a dog eat dog world. The contractor that makes the biggest mistake on his bid usually gets the job. People make a living out of bidding low and charging large for extras. I hate that kind of relationship with the customer because it's always tense.

The other way is to develop relationships. That just takes time and of course how do you work for people to develop the relationship. There is no easy shortcut to this. Someone needs to start calling on potential customers, leaving information, trying to start a relationship. Sales is a profession all in itself. Just because you can do electrical work, or estimate, doesn't mean you can get opportunities (as you are experiencing).

I am curious, are you guys abandoning the resi market or just growing?

I understand I'm being captain obvious here, but ..... that's all I got.
 
We are growing, not currently planning to abandon anything but definitely unimpressed with the way we are forced to work. Kind of the Walmart mentality here being handed down from the builders. Yo want to be a vendor to us, this is the price. It makes profit but only because he has it down to a science as far as the execution goes.

It feels good to hear what you are saying because it is beyond stressful to sit in the office and wonder if

1) The job I am bidding is real
2) The price I am giving is competitive
3) How many competitors are there? How do you even know? Mike Holt in the estimating DVD talks about competitiors and their prices and feedback he is getting from customers or prospect customers. I never even got a phone call back when trying to follow up after giving a price from people that were almost chatty before the bid came through
4) The price I am giving is completely off because I dont have any experience in pricing jobs
5) Do I know all the GCs that are even bidding this job? Sites like planhub have admitted on the phone to me that theey only ever start looking for more GCs after I hit the Button "I WILL BID" and the n will they find all of them? Bidding to not even all possible GCs for a job cuts my winning probability percentage in the single digits.


it goes on and on ... im getting real nervous here because the guy puts a lot of faith in me as well.
 
We registered with a company that had many members particularly the the sutility sectors. Water, oil, etc. We got daily updates on opportunities and RFQs. It wasn't all that expensive - about £2k a year. I don't know if you have any such organisation there. Ours was called Achilles.
 
Christoph said:
We are building a commercial department with my boss coming out of residential (works for big home builders and bangs out couple houses a week). When I got hired I had no experience estimating or getting work. So its kinda the blind leading the blind here as far as where to even get decent leads. It seems that sites like planhub are either not showing all GC's bidding a job or the jobs are far away or out of scope. We are in Reading, PA Area trying to start out commercial, offices etc. maybe retail.

Any suggestions where to look? I am even calling around construction companies to tell them and ask for projects.

Thankful for any input
Click to expand...

It's a tough road to break into commercial. You start out bidding GC's that you don't know and visa versa. Your number is only a check number and they have no intention of giving you the job.
Your competition is usually 10-20 EC's bidding if you use a plan service, and those GC's want all of the EC's numbers off the street. It's dead end road.

The best way to start out is to find one or two small GC's and get to know them and ask for a couple small jobs to bid. Even better if you actually know a GC friend that can help out.
Once you get a job to bid, do your best job, write up detailed proposals, cover all of the scope of work per plans/specs. You also let this GC know you are only bidding your number to him, and will not bid HIS competition.
This is part of building a relationship with this particular GC.
Once the job bids....follow up. A good GC will tell you where you were in the bid tab. Do not depend on them to call you for this. Maybe discus with GC where you went wrong on too high or too low.
Contrary to what a lot of people tell you, a good GC will never sign up an EC that is way low. A good GC doesn't want to look bad to the owner for doing so. And they especially don't look good when
subs bid low and try to nickle/dime the owner on change orders.
Once a GC gets confident in your numbers and proposals and your ability to meet bid deadlines, then comes the time where you have to give him confidence you can perform both financially, physically and technically, meet the schedules, have good job supervision, finish the job and finalize close out documents, not have any liens on his job...............once you have done all of that....he might give you another job to bid.

In commercial, it's all about your relationships with a few GC's you work for. Add GC's one at a time and treat them all special.

You said you were not good at estimating right now and that's a severe disadvantage. All of your competition uses the same vendors, special systems subs, estimating software and estimating procedures, and have
very experienced estimators on staff....most are Master electricians, former owners, former field foremen, etc
In commercial, estimating is king, and is an exact science. If you are continually too high/low you will hit the dead end road very quickly
 
cdslotz said:
It's a tough road to break into commercial. You start out bidding GC's that you don't know and visa versa. Your number is only a check number and they have no intention of giving you the job.
Your competition is usually 10-20 EC's bidding if you use a plan service, and those GC's want all of the EC's numbers off the street. It's dead end road.

The best way to start out is to find one or two small GC's and get to know them and ask for a couple small jobs to bid. Even better if you actually know a GC friend that can help out.
Once you get a job to bid, do your best job, write up detailed proposals, cover all of the scope of work per plans/specs. You also let this GC know you are only bidding your number to him, and will not bid HIS competition.
This is part of building a relationship with this particular GC.
Once the job bids....follow up. A good GC will tell you where you were in the bid tab. Do not depend on them to call you for this. Maybe discus with GC where you went wrong on too high or too low.
Contrary to what a lot of people tell you, a good GC will never sign up an EC that is way low. A good GC doesn't want to look bad to the owner for doing so. And they especially don't look good when
subs bid low and try to nickle/dime the owner on change orders.
Once a GC gets confident in your numbers and proposals and your ability to meet bid deadlines, then comes the time where you have to give him confidence you can perform both financially, physically and technically, meet the schedules, have good job supervision, finish the job and finalize close out documents, not have any liens on his job...............once you have done all of that....he might give you another job to bid.

In commercial, it's all about your relationships with a few GC's you work for. Add GC's one at a time and treat them all special.

You said you were not good at estimating right now and that's a severe disadvantage. All of your competition uses the same vendors, special systems subs, estimating software and estimating procedures, and have
very experienced estimators on staff....most are Master electricians, former owners, former field foremen, etc
In commercial, estimating is king, and is an exact science. If you are continually too high/low you will hit the dead end road very quickly
Click to expand...



Yesterday I made up a letter introducing the expansion of our commercial division and attached 2 business cards each and went out and drove to all the places to give them the information and introduce our company and myself.

It was a fun experience and definitely worth it. It ranged from the places being torn down to residential addresses to small or medium shops all the way up to big and fancy buildings.

The people were all nice and one lady said "oh yeah I know you guys, you are ding great work" when I asked her how she knows she said just word of mouth thats all. So thats encouraging just having started to work here. Another lady turned out to be best friends with our office manager. One place called back 15 min after I had dropped off my stuff and started asking questions about union affiliation and job sizes etc.

So not that I didnt know to do that before but thanks a lot for the nudge. It was very helpful and probably a good idea for anyone to do that maybe once a quarter or so.

We will see what happens.
 
Some of the most lucrative jobs we got was due to word of mouth no bids; didn't screw them but didn't let them off the hook.
We had an ice storm years ago that knocked the power out for ~3 days, a friend called me after the power was back on and told me he spent most of his time at the local bar/ restaurant; that the owner gave "free" low cost meals out as his stock would be rotting.
I talked to the owner after about adding real generators but he was in outer space as to cost, I then just stoped at the local businesses and many were receptive to backup power. The company I was working for didn't show interest so it dropped, less than a year later two businesses installed generators.
 
UPDATE:

I have just gotten an email from a construction manager from a company 2 streets over for a project 30 min away.

Wants to know if we are interested in a design-build project for a small supply house new construction. This is the perfect job and I love the idea of design-build. Gotta keep my cool now :cool:.

This is the winner folks. This has created more real project opportunities in 24 hours than all the internet poking-around in weeks.
 
Christoph said:
UPDATE:

I have just gotten an email from a construction manager from a company 2 streets over for a project 30 min away.

Wants to know if we are interested in a design-build project for a small supply house new construction. This is the perfect job and I love the idea of design-build. Gotta keep my cool now :cool:.

This is the winner folks. This has created more real project opportunities in 24 hours than all the internet poking-around in weeks.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you might have a new career in sales. :)
 
Good luck, don't fall for the more work coming lower your price scam!
Always keep your eyes open for an opportunity and stop in to expose your Co., even to and from work, in the rain, snow, heat,.
 
sameguy said:
don't fall for the more work coming lower your price scam!
Click to expand...

It's been my experience that if a potential client ever says "we'll have more work for you in the future", you should run away as fast as possible. You are going to regret working for them.
 
sameguy said:
Some of the most lucrative jobs we got was due to word of mouth no bids; didn't screw them but didn't let them off the hook.
We had an ice storm years ago that knocked the power out for ~3 days, a friend called me after the power was back on and told me he spent most of his time at the local bar/ restaurant; that the owner gave "free" low cost meals out as his stock would be rotting.
I talked to the owner after about adding real generators but he was in outer space as to cost, I then just stoped at the local businesses and many were receptive to backup power. The company I was working for didn't show interest so it dropped, less than a year later two businesses installed generators.
Click to expand...

That was smart. You found a good niche. No one does generators for a while, then everyone calls when a storm comes up.
 
Coppersmith said:
It's been my experience that if a potential client ever says "we'll have more work for you in the future", you should run away as fast as possible. You are going to regret working for them.
Click to expand...

Dittoes. That's usually a tactic to beat you down on price.
 
Go to every GC in town, except any with a really bad rep. Ask to get on their bid lists and have your insurance agent send proof of insurance. You need this for any chance of work with them. Also offer them temporary power setups. I've seen a few jobs where temp power is bid out separately. Small opening maybe.

Visit maintenance managers at office buildings, stores, malls, restaurants, apartment buildings & hospitals. Same with hotels. Leave cards & again, have insurance information sent to them. If you see things anywhere that are a special skill for you, bring it up. Offer night work if they need to move an office overnight.

Stop in at any business where you see a broken light on the wall, broken receptacles or conduits coming off a wall. Offer your services to repair them.

Find out who does lighting & sound for churches in your town. That is a big thing now. Get on their lists. If you get some of their work, the churches may also call you for service work.

Keep cards with you always. Every meal out, leave a good tip and a card with the manager. Same with stores where you shop.

It's a long slow process in a crazy market. Plant as many seeds as you can and a few will grow. Start a reference list and add each new customer to it. Use it for future soliciting.

Avoid phone calls for the most part. Everyone is sick and tired of telemarketers calling all day long.
 
Go to every GC in town, except any with a really bad rep. Ask to get on their bid lists and have your insurance agent send proof of insurance. You need this for any chance of work with them. Also offer them temporary power setups. I've seen a few jobs where temp power is bid out separately. Small opening maybe.

Visit maintenance managers at office buildings, stores, malls, restaurants, apartment buildings & hospitals. Same with hotels. Leave cards & again, have insurance information sent to them. If you see things anywhere that are a special skill for you, bring it up. Offer night work if they need to move an office overnight.

Stop in at any business where you see a broken light on the wall, broken receptacles or conduits coming off a wall. Offer your services to repair them.

Find out who does lighting & sound for churches in your town. That is a big thing now. Get on their lists. If you get some of their work, the :cry:churches may also call you for service work.

Keep cards with you always. Every meal out, leave a good tip and a card with the manager. Same with stores where you shop.

It's a long slow process in a crazy market. Plant as many seeds as you can and a few will grow. Start a reference list and add each new customer to it. Use it for future soliciting.

Avoid phone calls for the most part. Everyone is sick and tired of telemarketers calling all day long.
 
It’s all about building personal relationships.

And not just with the owner, but with their estimators. Take them out to lunch or just call them and ask if you can stop by the office.

You need someone within the company pushing your name. A lot of them usually have some small jobs going on; try to work your way into those to get in the running for the larger jobs.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
brantmacga said:
It’s all about building personal relationships.

And not just with the owner, but with their estimators. Take them out to lunch or just call them and ask if you can stop by the office.

You need someone within the company pushing your name. A lot of them usually have some small jobs going on; try to work your way into those to get in the running for the larger jobs.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


^^THIS
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top