Masonry Magazine April 1999 Page. 27
Increasing Your Sales to Commercial General Contractors
by Steve S. Saucerman
Selling your services to commercial general contractors can be frustrating. You respond to their requests for bid and are fairly sure your prices are competitive. You also have plenty of experienced manpower to handle the larger commercial jobs, but still for some reason you just don't seem to get the work come award time. The other problem, of course, is that generating all these estimates takes time - lot's of time and running a contracting firm is tough enough without wasting hours preparing quotes that don't generate work. And yet, if you don't deliver the estimates, you're virtually guaranteed not to get the work.
So what do you do? Well, perhaps there are other reasons-not-so-noticeable reasons- that hamper your success. The goal of this article is to offer the sub-contractor a better insight and understanding of the motive forces, operations, and needs of the commercial general contractor (CGC). Armed (or re-enforced) with this new knowledge, the sub-contracting professional can more efficiently and effectively plan, strategize, and execute a marketing and sales effort geared specifically towards the CGC's. And though this information targets the residential sub who's already had some experience with commercial work, these same methods can also assist the (purely) residential sub who's considering a venture into commercial venues.
The Commercial General Contractor (CGC)
Let's first discuss the CGC. This is a relatively easy task for me because (as they say) "I is one". More precisely, I'm senior estimator and project manager for a medium-size commercial GC in the Midwest. For many years, I've evaluated, hired, and negotiated with scores of sub-contracting firms; most of them good... and some of them not. I've also received, analyzed, and deciphered thousands of sub-contractor proposals and (discernably) found that there was a tremendous chasm between the best proposal and the worst.
We'll talk about the differences between a good and bad proposal later in this piece, but for now, suffice it to say that through these trials and tribulations, I've come to realize and define many of the reasons that ultimately guide my decision to choose (or not to choose) one sub-contractor over another. And no-it's not just low price. Remarkably, it has more to do with a rather general-sounding attribute known as professionalism.
"Great," you say. "What does professionalism mean?" Well, we're about to discuss that, but before we do, it's important to understand one thing right off the bat: despite what you may believe, commercial general contractors want to employ you. We spend far more time trying to figure out how we can use than how we can't. We don't make any money wading through quotes - we make it though action. Always, lingering in the back of our minds, is the hope that the proposal we're examining right now is the one that's clear, complete, and competitive enough to meet the demands of the project thereby allowing us to move on to the next course of (profitable) action. But enough cheerleading - let's get started.
Hello Am I Out There?
First, if you haven't done this already, target the CGC's with which you want to work and make sure they know you're around. If you aren't receiving bid requests on a regular basis from a particular CGC, try the following:
Work up a 1-page introductory (or re-introductory if need be) letter telling a little about your company. Don't make if too long or it won't get read. Include your current address, phone/fax numbers, principals, key people, e-mail address (if you have one), and the types of services you offer. Be specific about what you do. If you offer other services besides your perceived specialty (such as the HVAC sub who also does architectural sheet metal and standing seam roofing), list it in your letter. Don't assume they know everything about you and your company.
Follow up with a call to the prospect. Most CGC estimators keep a file (computerized or written) of sub-contractors. These files are commonly broken down by trade and, when a job is bid, the estimator uses these to send out postcards or bidfaxes to those subs who are effected by a particular job being bid. When making the call, a good opening line is: "I just called to update my information for your sub-