BizSugar.com › Products and Services › Home Renovation Bidding

Obtaining a continuous stream of home renovation jobs can be challenging even for the best contractors and especially during a recession. The best way to get a job is to maximize the number of leads you get. You can find leads by direct referrals from satisfied customers, online through lead generation/bidding websites or through a combination of the two (websites that allow you to establish online credibility through ratings as well as references from your past clients). Once you obtain a lead that you are interested in, you will need to bid for the project. How do you ensure that your bid will position you favourably in the eyes of the prospective customer? Here are a few tips:

1. Your bid is your first communication with the customer. In the case of an online bid you will need to establish your defining features and provide evidence to support your claims. Many contractors mistakenly believe that the winning bid is based solely on price. This is the case when contractors submit a bid with just a price — leaving the customer with nothing else to base a decision upon. What you will need to do is to tap into the customers decision criteria (which in most cases is not stated, but alluded to) taking into account such factors as timing, quality, established reputation, qualifications, and price - highlighting the area(s) that sets you apart from your competition and then providing evidence to support the claim.

2. There is nothing wrong with being priced higher relative to your competition as long as you can communicate effectively as to why this is the case. Customers are willing to pay a premium for quality but they want to see what they would be paying for. To justify your price include some of the following:

i. types of materials you would use and why they are better
ii. evidence of superior workmanship via before/after photos of past projects
iii.testimonials from happy clients
iv. training you have and years of experience
v. list of references
vi. proof of licensing/insurance, etc.

This evidence does not all need to go into the bid itself - but do establish what sets you apart and encourage the customer to view your profile to get a better understanding of your capabilities.

3. If you need to request a home consult, do this only after you have established a presence with the potential customer. Most prospective customers will only invite someone for a home consult if they have a strong first impression. You can do this by using private messaging to clarify the consumer requirements before submitting a bid. If a home consult is needed, mention that your bid will be finalized based on this. In this way, if the consumers' interest is piqued by what you are showing in your bid, as well as through your communication, they will be more inclined to accept your request for a home consult rather than another bidder that simply requests a home consult without first establishing a presence.