Stop Wasting Time Chasing Dead Ends: Simplify Construction Bidding

With dozens of specialty contractors vying for the same jobs, the construction bidding process is more competitive than ever. While the number of commercial construction projects is expected to increase due to new federal initiatives like the CHIPS Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the number of construction companies has also grown annually over the past five years, according to IBISWorld, totaling over 3.7 million.

That includes a large number of subcontractors and specialty construction companies.

With plenty of opportunities, the real challenge for you as a specialty contractor is to find the right ones for your company. The perfect bid aligns with your expertise, fits in your time frame, is a size that your company can manage, and has a healthy profit margin. Finding those projects and managing the construction bidding process can be a challenge.

Trade publications or construction bidding websites can leave you swamped with low-quality opportunities. This shotgun approach can find good leads with enough effort, but the amount of time spent sorting through them is a major resource drain. A quantity-over-quality approach also shifts the focus to price over value. Most of the time, construction bids go to the lowest price, not necessarily the most capable and qualified company. That leaves you with the choice of a paper-thin profit margin or losing out on bids. Even if you win a bid, you might find out as you learn more from the client that it’s not quite as advertised.

That’s why identifying the right construction projects and being more strategic about the bidding process can save your company time and money and reduce the headache of chasing every bid that comes across your desktop.

There is no secret formula for finding the perfect construction bid. It takes thought and planning, no matter what you do. However, some key strategies can refine your approach, leaving you with a smaller pool of high-quality projects.

Define Your Ideal Construction Project

Construction bidding can be overwhelming without a game plan for which opportunities to target.

Make a crystal-clear outline of the project details, including budgets, profit margins, customers you like to work with, industries you like to work with, and any other factors that could be deal breakers. This helps you filter out many undesirable construction bids upfront.

If you’re unsure, look back at some of the most successful construction projects your team has completed in the past year and identify common factors. They may have come from a specific general contractor or represent a particular industry. Once you have a better sense of what your successful bids have in common, you’ll have a better idea of what you need to do to attract more of those opportunities.

Use High-Quality Construction Bidding Websites

We’ve already talked about the shortcomings of generic online bid boards, but there are major benefits to websites that specialize in certain types of construction bidding. Choose your project board carefully. Find boards that fit your needs, whether they display construction jobs by project size, government vs. private projects, or location.

The cost of using construction bidding websites can vary depending on factors such as the website’s business model, company size, and required features. Different pricing models, including subscription-based, per-project, and annual subscriptions, can also affect the overall cost-effectiveness.

A high-quality project board will also give you a comprehensive overview of each project, including architectural drawings and the budget estimates. With this information, you can offer a bid with much more confidence. Many boards also include the project owner’s contact information so you can express interest and ask questions. This goes a long way toward quickly ruling out projects that would not be a good fit.

Network with Architects and Engineers

A personal connection with an architect or engineer already on a project gives you a huge advantage in the construction bidding process. Often, trust is as important as cost in deciding which contractor wins construction bids. If bidding on a board, you must build trust based on what the project owner can find out about you online. But if you have a pre-existing relationship with others working on the project, they already know about your reliability and the quality of your work. Many of these relationships come from past customers — so you want those customer relationships to be consistent. That’s why customer relationship management tools are so important. They can help nurture leads and manage the sales pipeline more effectively.

Joining construction industry associations and attending trade shows are great ways to build relationships with engineers and architects. Try to be a valuable resource for those in your network. Give them insight into what you’ve learned during projects and industry trends and best practices.

Of course, the most effective way to build trust is to do excellent work. If you’ve worked with architects and engineers in the past and they were happy with how the project turned out, contact them and see what they’re working on now. They might not have a construction project at the moment, but they probably know someone who does.

Refine Your Construction Business Website

Even if you have a strong reputation by word of mouth, your company’s website is often the first impression a general contractor will have of what it’s like to work with you. If there’s a disconnect between the types of projects you advertise and the construction jobs that have been most successful for you in the past year, consider updating it to reflect that. For instance, if you’re bidding on government contracts, make sure your website has recent examples to reflect your ability to do the work.

You can also optimize your profiles on construction bidding boards and use construction project management software to set up project alerts based on your defined criteria.

Develop a Strong Construction Marketing Strategy

The easiest way to win a bid is when a project owner comes to you. Closed bids and negotiated bids offer you the chance to deal directly with project owners who have already decided you would be a good fit. The question is, how do you get project owners to see you as a clear favorite for construction contracts?

Online content marketing helps others see you as an established expert in your area. It also gives you a chance to talk directly about successful projects you’ve already worked on and display case studies highlighting your skill set. The trick here is targeting. You want topics to be directly related to what you do best and what would provide the most value to your customers. Along the same lines, targeted social media marketing can effectively get your name in front of potential clients. Before you turn on your lead generation machine, make sure you have a clear process for capturing, tracking, and managing bids.

Streamline Bid Submission, Management, and Bid Tracking

These efforts can attract dozens of leads, but if your team doesn’t have a way to qualify them and stay on top of the construction bidding process, they’ll only become dead ends.

Bid scoring and bid management software are essential to prioritizing opportunities and staying organized. Based on your own established criteria, you can easily see which bids you’re most likely to win and set up tasks and automated reminders to ensure you’re submitting the right details in a timely manner.

The best solutions allow you to store relevant details for every construction project and integrate with estimating software so you can quickly determine if a project’s profit margin makes it worth the effort.

Make sure the bid proposals you submit are thorough and accurate, with cost estimations that break down into specific line items and rely on current market data.

Communicate clearly and regularly with your stakeholders and clients, utilizing collaboration tools for teamwork and information sharing. When you’re creating a proposal or following up on a bid, automate proposal-building tasks and attach relevant documents quickly and easily.

After you’ve submitted a bid, keep track of any feedback you receive from your team and the potential client. With TopBuilder’s bid management software, you can see all active and past bids on a single screen, create forecast reports, and track due dates and calendars, giving you a central place to manage and speed up the bidding process.

Analyze Your Win and Loss Rates

Bidding on construction projects can be an onerous process, from finding the right opportunities to estimating costs and communicating clearly with project stakeholders. Capturing and analyzing your bid results — factoring in both wins and losses — can lead to better decision-making. Looking at losses can help you manage bids more effectively in the future and also understand which types of projects you’re most likely to win. Keep track of how much time you spend sorting through bids and compare that to the number of profitable bids that you’ve won. If you have a set ratio you’re meeting, great. If not, it’s time to reevaluate.

In TopBuilder, you can track marketing key performance indicators (KPIs), conversions, and past bids in addition to managing the bidding process. By integrating with your accounting software, you can easily see your win/loss ratio for bidding, your sales pipeline, and a complete financial forecast.

Take A Strategic Approach With Construction Bidding Process Software

Finding the right construction bids for your company doesn’t have to be an overwhelming process. Take the time to find high-quality bid boards, build relationships with key partners and potential clients, and target the right audience with your marketing. Implementing these tactics can help you pursue quality over quantity in your construction projects.

TopBuilder’s customer relationship management (CRM) and bidding management software can boost your efficiency and give you more time to focus on high-level marketing strategies — because you’ll be spending less time combing through data and filling out paperwork. TopBuilder brings all your bidding data into a single platform to give your team a clear view of their best opportunities and next steps. Our proprietary ContractorBI™ consolidates data from accounting, estimating and project management software so you can see your sales pipeline, bid performance, and revenue in easy-to-understand dashboards.

And with comprehensive construction CRM, you can easily score bids, generate proposals, keep track of those construction bids, and close deals faster.

TopBuilder also integrates with popular accounting and construction management software so you can clearly see which projects are most profitable and focus on attracting more jobs like those.

Schedule a demo to see how you can simplify construction bid management and grow your business.