[drive surgeon]

hi, i gave 2 quotes out for big commercial jobs around 4/5 weeks ago, they were my forst big commercial quotes, dont know if was too dear or what, one i phoned up and the boss said it was just over what he thought but he sent it off to head office to see if they agree with the price the other i have not heard from, tried to ring the boss but he was out so left message with reception, no answer back. its been 2 weeks now or more since i called them both.  worried i might lose them both and they were good jobs, shall i ring them again or does that look desperate??  i need to stay professional as they are big companies??  any help please

[Mike_Boxall]

Hi

Give them a call and tell them you have a number of new jobs starting over the next few weeks / months and you need to consider how you will schedule all the work. If they can't give you a definitive yes or no, ask them how likely it is you'll get the work on a scale of 1 - 10?

Sometimes a no is better than a maybe as you won't waste any more time on it. And besides, the more 'no's you get, the nearer you are to getting a 'yes'.

Good luck with them

Regards

Mike

[drive surgeon]

cheers mike will try them again.  anyone else had the same problem?

[Fox]

Sometimes you will never get an answer from a potential client and you just have to let it lie, others will call you within days of recieving it and yet at other times they will sit on the quote for weeks because of other matters, I have had people call me two ot three months after submitting so I shouldn't worry.

I normally call two days after submitting the quote to ensure that they recieved it ok and ask if they have looked at it, if not do they know when they will get a chance to go over it?  I then call between one and two weeks later and ask if they have any questions about  the quotation, this is when you will usually get more feedback as to whether you are in with a chance.  If I don't hear from them after that I call usually a couple of weeks later (unless it was a very strong positive response previously then I don't leave them alone!) and check they have all my contact details if they require anything.

It is all about getting a balance, when you have a meeting ask why they chose their chose their last contractor, some say price, some quality, I have even had one say because he wasn't pushy!  This will give you a good idea on how to follow up.

Good luck
Fox

[wilclean]

Hi

 I had the same - I done a quote about 4 months ago For a firm which was moving to a brand new building across the other side of town and was asked to do the estimate from the plans and was told that the dead line was 1st october when I put it in. As it came near to the dead line I e-mail the client to find how they were getting on and was told they were still looking into it. Then about a week ago I got fed up with waiting around I decided to ring the client to find out what was happening and was told that either the end of this month or jan I will get to know. The best advice I could give is either give them another call or go back down to the business and say its just you were just passing by on the way to do another quote just to see how there getting on with the cleaning quotes.

kind regards Paul

[J. Deans]

I usually find that that the company requesting the quote always wants your tender to be submitted by a deadline, that is quite often less than a week away! But this does not mean the contract is imminent.

It is rare for them to indicate a timeframe for commencement of the contract.
For this reason. I always call them on the day of the deadline to ensure they received the quote in time. This shows professionalism, rather than desperation. Also, a couple of times they had not received it and I had to fax it to them - and still got the contracts. This shows how important it can be for at least one follow up call.

Either way, during that call you should mention that the start of the contract was not indicated in their tender request. Often they will happily give you a rough estimate there and then. That way, there is no need to 'pester' them again until nearer the time - which can often be many, many months away.

[drive surgeon]

thanks guys,    i actually went down today to see the two places to see if i could see the bosses.   what a performance! 

first place, the manager who asked me to give him aquote has left, two days after i phoned him and asked did he like my quote!  great!   the new boss did not know anything about it so i basically got fobbed off with the usual, i will see if i can find the quote and get back to you!  ok right!

on to the second place,   i asked at reception can i see boss, receptionist says ok sit down i will ring him,  30 mins later, i ask receptionist what is going on is he seeing me?  oh god she replied when i tried him he was engaged.  what a joke, she saw me sat there for half an hour!     anyway 10 mins later the boss comes out, says the company could not afford the price i gave them, he said come back with another cheaper price and we can book it in for january,   i thought jesus! the price i gave them i thought was cheap so im not gonna make much profit from it really if i do it.  i suppose i will just have to reduce it and do it and hope it helps me to get more bigger commercial jobs.   thats if they get back to me again.

i tell you what its bloody murder getting any sense out of any of these big companies, they dont even let you know anything.   if only domestic was all year round i would not bother with commercial i tell you! 

sorry for a long story but you can prob see my frustration and you prob have had the same yourselves!

[drive surgeon]

going to drop the revised quote off tomorow,  think i will send another copy of the quote to the first one too so they dont have to 'search' for it!

[steve doyle]

Hi pal,

A little tip for negotiating,

boss; Its to expensive, go cheapen the quote.

me; what price does it need to be.

boss; £xxx.........if he wont give you a price you need to hard ball til you get one, re phrase the question (what were you expecting the quote to come in at?)

Me:  And if i can do the job at this price £xxx Will you give me the contract? (get commitment)

Boss; yes- me: ok/ i can't but can meet you half way.
(Boss;maybe. Me; well when you decide give me a ring and i will see if i can do it.)( theirs no point if you wont get it, hes not serious about the job)

And if you ever need to there is nothing wrong with "what do i need to do to get your business?"

The danger you run at the moment is getting into an auction for the work. He could be doing the same to other contractors?

You really need to get commitment from people before you reduce a price, and it has to be on the understanding that "if i do it, will you give it?".

This is roughly how i approach all my negotiating, My hit rate is about 90-95% (honestly).
I personally dont like quotes which have to be left as i know i have 5x more chance of getting it if i can negotiate one to one.

So on this job,  work out the min you would do the work for. speak to the boss, tell him you have looked at the quote but their doesnt look like much money available to discount, How much did he have in mind? (if it needs to be cheaper then he must know what price he wants it to be) Then your into it as the above.

If you end up giving your bottom price with no commitment all they have to do is find a company who will beat your price by ten quid and you have lost out.

hth
steve

[drive surgeon]

cheers steve, will think carefully about my next move!

[drive surgeon]

ended up throwing a cheaper quote in and hoping,  the other one i sent in another quote so they did not have to look for it.  prob wont get any of the jobs, they are bloody awkward ba**ards these commercial places i tel you.

[glenda hollis]

they are bloody awkward ba**ards these commercial places i tel you.

You'll not be too upset if you don't get the work then. I don't understand why you are so keen to get the job when you feel like this. Commercial work of any nature is all about red tape and the right hand never knowing what the left is doing. Commercial is like plate spinning -not that I have ever tried that- but what i mean is you start one thing then go onto the next and comeback to the other. and on it goes.

[drive surgeon]

just need the money brenda, but if i could do domestic all year round i would!

[glenda hollis]

Oh well, you'll get used to the culture in time then. Brenda?

[Jet Cleanse Ltd]

Look on the bright side I have just had confirmation of acceptance for a quotation we submitted in November 2006 which had to be revised in Spetember 2007 to reflect the time passed.
Hopefully we will be starting soon so never rely on anything working out until you have that order in your hand.....

Im now planning for 2011 - best get myself up to London they probably need plenty of help..

[J. Deans]

I am having difficulty with "throwing in a cheaper quote and hoping."

You first quote must be well researched and reflect the price that you CAN do the job for - not the money you WANT for doing the job - if that makes sense.

Look at it from your clients point of view: You submitted a quote. He tells you it is a bit steep. You submit a cheaper quote. Your client wonders why your first quote was so much if you could have quoted cheaper. Then he thinks, I will try this with a few other cleaning firms to see what happens.

No wonder people think cleaning is money for nothing. Your client is not a fool, but he is money orientated, rather than having any clear view of his cleaning requirements.

If you get you first quote right, ie: realistic for the needs of your business, the budget of the client does not matter. Some contracts you will get, some you won't. But you have done yourself no favours with this one. Contracts that are given purely based on cost are often the worst contracts to have. If you get this one, which I doubt as you have already shown the client unecessary financial ineptness, I think you will have trouble with them later on.

Good luck with it anyway and keep us posted on the outcome please...

[drive surgeon]

hang on a minute!!, you got this all wrong, my first quote was what i thought a cheap quote so with him saying it is too dear made me think again, i have put a cheaper quote in as i need the money, if he does not go for that then sod him im not working for less than that!  never mind ineptness!

[J. Deans]

Lol!
Didn't mean to be rude. Just trying to point out how the client may see it.

But still, you have gone from what you thought was a cheap quote, to an even cheaper one just because he said you were too dear.

I understand about needing the money and not being sure if your first quote was to dear. But from a business point of view, a quote should reflect your costs, your earnings and your profit. When you have that pinned down accurately, the only thing left for negotiation on price, comes out of your profit.

A simple example:
If a job costs you £100 to do, you need to earn £100 to survive and you set yourself a profit margin of 30% (fairly typical) your quote would be £260. You can then negotiate with the £60 if absolutely necessary to get the contract. But before you do that, do as Steve said, try to find out what they are prepared to pay. It may only be the difference of a tenner in the above example.

I have had developers call me to say that "My £100k+ tender is 'just a bit higher' than my competition, could I possibly offer a discount in order to get this contract?"

I simply tell them "I will see what I can do." Then I write a nice polite letter thanking them for the opportunity to quote and that if I am unsucessful at this time, I cannot guarantee that my prices will remain the same if I am called in for this contract in the future.

They understand that I am basically saying: "My prices are for the entire contract. Go for the cheaper cleaning firm, but when they let you down and you call me in later, my prices will be higher because I did not get the full contract." 90% of the time it works. The other 10% I can live with.

Hope this helps...

[drive surgeon]

ok yes thanks i will keep this in mind