Part 3 – Use of Technology for Lead Tracking and Selling
by Jonathan McGaha | August 30, 2012 12:00 am
When we started our company back in 1979, the standard method of learning about a project was either:
• You had been working with the architect for months on the design development of the project and writing the specification for the architect.
• A former customer called you and asked you to bid.
• You found the project at the “builders exchange” or local plan room. After learning of the project, you obtained the drawings by either:
• Purchasing the plans from a blueprint company and many times they cost $500.
• Begging for a set of the plans from a general contractor.
• Hanging out in the plan room until they were available and doing your takeoff.
• Or if the plan room was “member owned” their policy might allow you to borrow them overnight, but you had to have them back in the plan room by 7 a.m.
Then after you completed your takeoff, estimate and quotation:
• You had to mail the blank (without the price) quotation to the general contractor, which meant you had to have the quotation, with all of your scope outlined, clarifications stated and terms and conditions listed, at least three days in advance. Remember at this point in time all of this was being performed on typewriters and paper and pencil. There were very few personal computers available and those available were not very user friendly.
• On large projects, it was customary that the general contractors and subcontractors would gather at a downtown hotel in the city of the project and you would have a “walk the halls” meeting with the contractors to review your quotation.
• Then on bid day you would call in your “street price” and attempt to get feedback on where your price was in relationship to your competitors.
• Then you would attempt to “skate under” the low bid and “get low.”
With the available technology today, most of these steps have changed dramatically and make it possible for MCM fabricators/subcontractors to be much more efficient.
A typical project today goes something like this:
• You learn of a project just days before the bid day from one of your electronic lead sources on your computer.
• The contract documents (only the sheets you need) are downloaded from the customer’s FTP site.
• You make your takeoff, prepare your estimate and quotation utilizing standard templates that are housed on your computer.
• Then you email your quotation to the customer and because there are more projects to bid, you await the announcement of who was the low GC before you track down how your quotation did.
Because of these technological enhancements, MCM fabricators/subcontractors are able to bid many more projects than were possible in the past. As we explore these benefits, please feel free to drop me an email at ted.miller@millerclapperton. com to remind me of others.
Ted S. Miller is the CEO of The Miller Clapperton Partnership Inc., Austell, Ga. For more information, visit www.millerclapperton.com.
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