Sick of Being the Lowest Bidder?
Published on September 24, 2019 by Sara Chauvette
The age old problem of every contractor – you want to get as many jobs as possible but continuously being the lowest bidder is costing your company thousands. So, how can you make sure you get the job without being the lowest bidder? Find a way to provide value to your customer outside of cost. Most customers place more value on quality, professionalism, and ethics over price so you need to find a way to show potential customers you excel in these areas.
- Quality is a two-fold measure. To a customer, quality refers to both the caliber of your work and their overall experience working with you. Thus, your approach to showing quality should be two-fold as well. Making photos of your projects readily available on your website and social media is a good way to brag about your skills before the customer ever sees your bid. Providing ample positive testimonials of your customer service is a great way to prove that your quality service goes above and beyond your construction skills. Third party reviewed testimonials are by far the most valuable. Contractors can complete the Certified Ethical Contractor Certification to have their testimonials reviewed by a third-party. These testimonials should be prominently displayed along with the third party reviewers company information.
- Maintaining an atmosphere of professionalism is the way to collecting positive references. From your first interaction with a potential client to the last, you and your team should be focusing on customer service. Excellent customer service goes above and beyond simply being polite to customers.
- Make sure the customer understands the work being done and try not to speak in terms they won’t understand.
- One of the number one complaints of construction customers is tardiness. Make sure you and your staff are on time or early for all interactions and you’ll be exceeding the average customer’s expectations.
- Ethics is the third and most important piece to your high bidding puzzle – it’s also the hardest piece to convey. Showing customers your dedication to ethical contracting practices is the best way to gain trust before even interacting with clients.
- Focusing your company on quality and professionalism will naturally improve the perception of your company’s ethics.
- The Certified Ethical Contractor Certification (CEC) provides a fast and easy way to improve and visually display the importance of ethics in your company. Certified Ethical Contractors are provided with a custom badge, a place in the Ethical Contractor Database, a Bid Statement and a Contract Statement.
- The CEC Badge provides a visual representation of your company’s commitment to ethics.
- Customers use the Ethical Contractor database to find contractors in their area that use ethical business practices. A place in our database will put you in their sights and provide a backlink to your website that will increase your Google Search rankings.
- The Bid Statement and Contract Statement will help your business stand out in a pile of bids.