I’ve had a few builders ask me about quote presentation recently so I thought I’d share some insights.

Working on tenders, producing quotes obtaining estimates from your subcontractors, it is all money spent with no guarantee of a return. It gets pretty frustrating, especially when you find out the client has punted their plans around 10 different builders. Do they think builders have nothing better to do?

You have probably heard this a hundred times before, qualify the client. But even so, you are still up against at least another two competitors. So, how do you win? Forget competing on price, if you have qualified your client we can assume they are not idiots, so the guy that forgot to add a slab into the price will not win by default.

It’s not the only factor (I always recommend a strong ‘sales process’ first), but presentation is certainly a BIG component. By presentation I mean detail, not prices (apart PC’s and PS’s) but specifications. The more you tell them about what is included in the price the MORE they think is missing from your competitors price. With margins the way they are you need to be 10% dearer than your competition and still win. It can be done.

Aim for a 30-35 page Quote Presentation. Hard work? Yes, but would you rather do a 6 page quote 5 times and still not win anything? Anyway, once you have done the first quote the subsequent ones are easy. 70% of the detail is the same; you are just tweaking the selections, PC’s, PS’s and the final amount.

This can be done in an Excel Spreadsheet quite easily, but if you want to get really clever, Co-construct will do it for you. Create a template; enter your base specifications and more importantly your exclusions (No Allowance for tree removal etc). Now add your base selections or choice of Gold/Silver/Bronze options or maybe just a PC.

Now you can use the template on every job going forward. But that’s not all, your client can’t afford it can they? So they make changes. Tweak it, print it. Tweak it print it. Tweak it print it. Finally, they push the button and you have a readymade contract addendum. The contract will take 15 minutes to fill in, the addendum is already done. What’s more, all the selections & specifications are now part of your project management system. Cloud Based Software, accessible from anywhere, every selection, every detail. Hallelujah!!