Masonry Magazine December 2001 Page. 33
As a subcontractor, if you can combine a program of committed client networking with an understanding of the motive forces behind the general contractor (who owns the potential to bring you repeat work), you can greatly enhance your chances for the next job. The networking part you will need to do yourself. As far as understanding where the GC is coming from, let's take a look at a few tricks you can use to solidify your reliability, and relationship (the relationship with the GC that is).
1
Despite what you may have heard or think, most GC's do not base the decision whether to choose a sub-contractor on low price alone. The GC's philosophy goes something like this: in most cases, we generate far more revenue through action (the action of building, that is) than we do dissecting 114% and 112% differences in sub quotations that are normally "apples & oranges" anyway. Always, as we wade through our daily pile of sub-contractor and supplier quotes, we hope in the back of our minds that the proposal we're examining right now is the one that's clear, complete, and competitive (not dirty-low, just competitive) enough to meet the demands of the project... allowing us to move on to our next course of more profitable endeavors.
This isn't just rhetoric. I'm a GC and many times over the years I've chosen to go with the 2nd or 3rd highest number simply because I felt more trusting and confident in their ability to get the job done. When weighing a (for example) $80,000 sub-contract line-item, 1-2 thousand dollars is peanuts compared to the money that would be lost for non-performance or correction of faulty or non-complying work. Remember too, that it's not just the cost of the fix that we worry about. There's also the corresponding drop in (the GC's) credibility that almost always seems to spawn other "concerns" from the project owner as the job goes along.
2
If you're approaching a GC for the first time, work up a 1-page introductory (or re-
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MASONRY DECEMBER, 2001 33