Tips to improve your bidding strategy

Gina Theron   |   January 24, 2016

Winning a bid can often come down to the strategy and approach you use when putting together and submitting your application. Often, factors are overlooked or areas of a bid are misunderstood. Being clear on your strategy and ensuring it's inline with what's industry approved can help increase your chances of winning work. Reading articles and asking for help could be your greatest advantage. Be aware of what people are looking for and the do's and not's of bidding. 

1. Understand what your business is worth

Often businesses don't assess their skills accurately before submitting bids and under evaluate their worth. Don't miss out on quality projects and more profit because of a dodgy evaluation. Ensure you give yourself enough time to do the evaluation and seek help if you're unsure. 

To assess the worth of the skills your business possess you should conduct:

  • A thorough staff appraisal 
  • Performance evaluations 
  • Staff interviews
  • Skill assessments 

Take these results to compare and determine what levels of expertise you can bring to a project.

2. Don't bid too low

Many business are under the impression that to be competitive in a highly saught after contract you must submit the lowest bid of the pool. This is a detrimental mistake which can sometimes indicate to the developer that your business isn't aware of how bids work or that you haven't submitted many. On the other hand, if your low bid is successful, you'll lose out on a great deal of profit which you would have earnt had you bid based on the true value of your business.

Receiving an undervalued bid tells the developer that:

  1. The contractor may not have the ability to deliver on the project.  
  2. The contractor is careless in their approach to the bidding process which could reflect on the quality of work they'll produce.

Delivering a bid that is calculated and correctly valued will increase your chances of winning work. 

3. Use the technology available for estimating 

Outdated spreadsheets or hand calculations just won't cut it these days! There is an long list of programs such as Clear Estimate, Plant Swift, Quick Bid and more which will helps you produce an accurate and well presented bid. 

Submit a competitive bid presenting your business' capabilities to it's full capacity. Following these tips will help guide you in setting the right price for your work. We have created an eBook with 10 tips to successful tendering to give you additional guidance when submitting a tender application.
Gina Theron
Gina Theron
Gina is a Marketing Coordinator at Felix. She is a business and engineering student, and relishes working for one of Australia's greatest mining and construction disrupters. Harsh critic of tomatoes and spiders that surprise her.

Related Articles

Insider
2 hidden hacks and features every tenderer should know about appendices

In the past few years, tendering for government contracts has become an ultra-monitored environment - and not just for tendering parties. The contracts awarded also have significant impacts on the State's economy, on the provision of jobs, and on the development of vital infrastructure and commercial, civic and residential assets for all citizens. With economic factors at play, awarding contracts has never been more contentious and every line of a tender is considered - even the appendices. 

Insider
Quick tips to enforce fall protection regulations on-site

Without a doubt, working in construction has increased hazards compared to other industries, making safety regulations an ever-topical discussion point among construction companies. This has never been more true than with employees working at heights. When working feet above ground, workers should comply with the fall protection regulations set by site managers as these rules will keep everyone safe from accidents and from falling off a high structure.

Insider
Lost time injury and the cost of dishonesty in the hire industry

It's a major coup for any construction firm to be able to report that they are X many hours or days lost-time injury (LTI) free. The number not only represents a significant accomplishment for the business, but also means that they have created a positive safety culture of absolute compliance which is no small feat. It requires a steadfast commitment starting with senior management and filters down from Project Managers, Superintendents and Engineers through to the entire workforce.

Imagine the vigilance and continual improvement across all aspects of the firm it takes to build this number each day. Now imagine this number being reset to zero on one of your projects because a non-compliant or irresponsible operator made their way onto site. And this is where dishonesty is crippling the construction and mining industry. 

Get the latest project news

Formerly known as the PlantMiner blog, Felix Project News is Australia's top 10 Construction blog. Join thousands of construction and mining pros getting the best content right in their inbox.
  • updates on Australia's pipeline of state and federal projects
  • fresh contract awards from major contractors and builders

If you're looking to contact us about other matters, please contact us.