the client will normally tell you where you lost the bid. Warts and all. Keep records, talk to subbies, consultants and get every piece of Intel on the winning bid.
"Don't get mad - Get even by winning the next tender".
The cost of tendering is normally an overhead, however, everything within a building can be tracked even an estimator hit rate. The problem with hit rates – the estimator is an only real impact over the bid is trade coverage and putting the preliminaries together. However, the management data & staff data, labours, duration in the program, ORs and margin that is applied can all lose you a bid. Even at the final step of signing a contract personality between client and closing team can derail a bid.
The risk can also be a symptom on region issues in the past and also how good your contracts team are in procurement plus the turn around time that the contracts team, all have an impact on the final number ( basically understanding the game and your commitments ).
So with so many things that are totally out of you control – your job is to give advice at that close out time of a bid.
There are going to be times of heated debates from time to time, however – make sure you have the best science to understand your decision at the time of tender. Just to throw one other thing at you.
If you have good science behind you – the management does not listen to your advice – that is not your problem. Sometime there may be political & other external things that is unknown to you at play. Do your job – present the information and then step away.
After the Bid is submitted
So this point is pretty simple – It is a waiting game but staying in touch so your company name is always on the client’s mind.
You will then Either get a “letter of Intent” (LOI) which is a precursor to a contract signing.
Alternatively, you get a negative decision and you have lost the job.
Now two things will happen at this stage, The first in the estimator in charge will be absolutely guttered and potentially a few choice words or some furniture may get moved abruptly.
Any Estimator who is worth his or her salt – will be feeling like killing furniture across the room. Now a good estimator will then pick themselves up and jump into action.
the client will normally tell you where you lost the bid. Warts and all. Keep records, talk to subbies, consultants and get every piece of Intel on the winning Bid.
"Don't get mad - Get even by winning the next tender".
This time is never easy for a builder and their estimator prides itself on there win /loss record. A little bit of ego is not a bad thing – but be careful. One of my mentors told me that he was a bit jealous of me winning a tender. I found out later that he hadn’t won a tender for 18 months. He was one of the best QS / Estimator in the game.
I have been in organizations where the hit rate has been as high as 50% and then I have been in companies where you a lot of love jobs and educational works where the hit rate is low as 10%. this win/loss can be a bit of a soul crusher. Scream, shout and then shake yourself off and start again.
With all the things that can go wrong for you as an estimator – remember it is a team event.
I look at the Bid process in Rounds. Round 1 is the Tender, Round 2 is getting your team to the table with the client. Round 3 is a Win. I always consider not getting to Round 2 as a team failure and I want to know why?
Me - with a clear heart I know I have done everything in my limited power to protect their jobs. Trust me - you will get drilled.
The tender bid record keeping is pretty straight forward – You want to know the following:
- Tender stats including GFA & cost/m2, Provisional sums, preliminaries costs, and ORS %.
- How much risk was placed on the bid?
- Extrapolate trades costs into cost plan ratios
- Competitors and all other intel such as client relationships, estimating team size, company size, numbers, etc.
- Was there any trades your competitors may have made an error to win the bid
- Were there any in house errors?
- What staffing did we throw at the bid?
- What other tenders were we working on at the time?
- What subbies coverage did we get?
- was it a shared bill or completed in-house?
- Late bids that would have affected your trade number.
- Did you have site-specific issues?
- Where there other issues?
- Where there any subcontractors who we did get a quote from and why?
A good postmortem is a healthy thing moving forward – historic data in procurement on the wins is also helpful as well. You need to know the wash of your budget drop as opposed to the actual number of the subcontracting contract and hybrid scope. Document control & record Keeping is the lifeblood of any estimating department.
If you wish to read more about
Tender Process – Click Here