Win more work
Win more work. Easy to say, not so easy to do. In today’s competitive market you have to give yourself a head start however you can. One of the simplest ways? Improve your tendering and estimation process.
Stop using Excel or Word to estimate jobs
If you’ve been using Excel or Word to pull together your quotes you’re probably dealing with the same annoying issues everyday. Double-handling, formatting problems and tedious manual entry to name a few. It’s a painful and time-consuming process.
The truth is these programs were never designed to be used as estimating tools. Their limited formatting capabilities mean your document probably looks ugly and lacks a lot of important details. With just the high-level costs and no other details to consider the client will hone-in on the final price straightaway. Any extra service or value you can add won’t even come into the picture. It’s a less than ideal way to make a good first-impression for your business.
It doesn’t have to be this way though. There’s a better, more efficient way to produce quotes and improve your odds of winning work.
Better detail = better estimates = better projects
It’s a pretty simple equation. To win more work, you don’t necessarily have to bid more often, you just have to bid better. Producing detailed estimates shouldn’t mean more work for you. With the right tools in place you can produce quick and accurate estimates every single time.
The key is choosing estimating software built specifically for the trades and construction industry. With the right software you can quickly create scopes of work and use the built-in tools to ensure you’re sending out detailed, accurate, estimates every time. Once you’ve priced a job, and entered the costs, the software does the rest of the work for you. All you need to do is click export and there you have it! A professional-looking, highly detailed, quote ready to send in much less time than it would normally take you.
Why is all this extra detail so important for winning work? People like to see exactly what their money’s getting them and how it’s being spent. This level of transparency not only builds trust it also helps put your prospective client’s mind at ease. Which could be all the incentive they need to decide in your favour.
Understanding your win-loss record
Winning more work could be as simple as knowing exactly where to focus your time and effort. For example, how many projects do you need to win each week to fill your pipeline? Of the tenders you send out, which sectors have the best win-loss ratio? Which category provides your ‘low-hanging fruit’? To find out, you need to analyse your data. For example, your overall win-loss record might be 1 out of 8. Until you can improve this ratio you need to ensure you’re submitting at least that number of tenders every week. Similarly, your data might show that you win 3 out of every 5 retail tenders you send but only 1 out of every 5 hospitality tenders. This suggests you could improve your odds of winning work simply by switching your focus to retail opportunities.
Watch your profits
There’s no point winning projects if you’re not actually making money off them. Estimates could cost you thousands if you’ve incorrectly quoted any items. If your profit margins are always tight or you know they could be better there are several things that could be at play. Specifically, issues on site or inaccurate estimates.
Some common estimation mistakes include:
- Failing to include all item costs such as labour, equipment or materials
- Inaccurate item costs
- Insufficient mark-up added
- Insufficient contingency budget
If it’s an on-site issue then you need to look at ways you can improve productivity so you’re not leaking money. If it’s quoting, then you need to find a more accurate means of producing estimates. Either way, if your profit margins aren’t great it’s important to find the root cause so all your hard work winning the project doesn’t go to waste. The right estimation or construction project management software could be just what you need to get your books looking healthy again.
Winners are grinners
Once you’ve worked out which projects to bid for and how to boost your profit margins you’ll be in the box-seat. The right estimation software can help you get there. From early cost studies, to generating budgets for tenders, you’ll be able to automate and streamline the whole tendering process. Not only will accurate quote building tools help you maximise efficiency and minimise risk, they’ll also help improve your profitability. Making it easier than ever for you to stay across your company’s projects and you guessed it – win more work!
Talk to the Nexvia team today on 1300 942 399 or Request a Demo to find out how our software’s estimation tools can help you win more work and improve your profitability.
