As a contractor, bidding on large jobs is an important part of growing the business and landing more lucrative work. Unfortunately, many contractors find that they are constantly bidding on jobs but they always get rejected. Sometimes, you might just be beaten by a more experienced company that can offer a cheaper price. However, it may also be the case that you’re making some simple mistakes with your bids. So, why do your bids keep getting rejected?
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You Didn’t Follow The Specifications
The specifications of the project are given to you for a reason. A lot of times, they give these to you so that you can come up with a solid bid within their guidelines. The specs cover things like the word count and what kind of supporting documents they want to see etc. If you don’t follow these guidelines, it makes you look amateurish and shows a lack of care and consideration. So, why would anybody want to work with you?
You Can’t Offer Up-To-Date Services
Construction practices are changing all the time. If you can’t keep up with these changes or aren’t willing to learn, then this is a bad sign when you’re bidding on jobs. There are many different things that could be updated – it could be industry standards, equipment, etc. Methods like spray applied pipe protection, for example, are in high demand on many municipal jobs. If you don’t modernize your operations so you can offer these up-to-date services, you’ll never win any bids. Investing in new equipment and training will open up a lot of great opportunities for you.
You Don’t Have The Right Experience
A lot of times, contracting agencies look for experienced contractors because they know that they can trust these companies. You don’t have much to offer if you’ve only been in the business for a short amount of time and haven’t proven yourself yet. You’re also unlikely to be considered if you don’t have experience in similar jobs. So, be realistic about whether your business is ready to start going for these big contracts. When you do bid, choose carefully and pick projects that play to your strengths.
You Don’t Have An Internal Review Procedure
An internal review procedure is crucial if you want your bid to be as good as it possibly can be. It doesn’t matter what kind of contract you’re bidding on, there will always be certain guidelines. A lot of times, companies follow the same procedure for every job they bid on. This is a good way to make sure that you don’t miss any important details or forget about anything that could be crucial in winning the job. By putting the bid through multiple reviews, you can iron out mistakes and make improvements so it’s polished when you finally send it. If you don’t do this, the level of quality and detail simply won’t be there, and you’ll lose out to somebody else.
Avoid making these mistakes and your bidding process will be improved in a big way. Hopefully, you should start landing those big contracts in no time.