Secure the Deal

Tendering for a construction job can mean a lot of unpaid groundwork. It's a fact of life. And the thing that can bloat the hours spent on the proposition can be collating materials quotes in order to estimate your own costs.

Every job is a different size and often require different types of materials, depending on environmental factors and load capacity requirements. Here's something to consider that can help you secure the deal.

Cost-Consistent Supplier Partnerships

A business relies on clear client communications bolstered by quick turnaround times on quotes. Don't let a supplier's inefficiency make you look silly. If you are spending way too much time on combining all materials quotes into one quote for your client, maybe it's time to review who you're dealing with.

In a majority of cases, suppliers in the construction industry are still traditionally, well, a traditional bunch. While they have websites and computerised ordering systems, the user experience often leaves the customer wanting. The quoting procedure on even the most trivial component of a build can go on for days; the supplier gets your quantity requirements, then puts it in a queue of other quote requests, says they'll get back to you, and then two days later, the value of the quote is underwhelming. Meanwhile, your client is shopping around for other contractors.

But some suppliers are little bit more switched on. Take the Australian company Allfasteners, for example. They have identified an opportunity to bring not just high quality products and service to the table, but also assistance to contractors with the tendering process. Their new 2016 catalogue features a ground-breaking three-tiered pricing system. This exercise in pricing transparency provides the contractor with and easy to use onsite reference featuring market-competitive—often market-beating—price breaks based on commonly-supplied volumes. All the foreman or estimator does is identify the desired product and its code in the catalogue, selects the standardised quantity and makes the purchase order. The whole to-and-fro conversation with reps is built into the structure, resulting in a quote that is on par with, if not better than, the best value deal on the market. It can save the contractor days and days of quoting legwork. Allfasteners have also launched a website that has the price break structure built into online purchases.

Tender with Confidence

With an interaction such as that with Allfasteners, your quote is your quote, time after time. And even though they don't know it, your potential clients will in turn benefit from it, as you give them confidence to commission you based on quick communications, fast quoting and in a lot of cases, savings for them, too.