WORK SMART TO REMAIN COMPETITIVE

Published: Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Too many tradespeople are producing too many quotes, and these are yielding too little in return. Laurence Phillips looks at how, by using new software, some trades can reverse this trend.

In the present economic climate it seems that in order to keep their business going, tradespeople are getting as many estimates out there as possible, hoping that the law of averages will put in a steady number of new jobs.
There’s no doubting the importance to be busy, however running around quoting for every potential piece of business cannot only be counterproductive but uses up an inordinate amount of time.
There is also evidence many are lowering their prices to try and win the work, which of course means that already tight margins are being squeezed even more.
It’s something of which Anthony Botibol, marketing manager at HBXL (provider or discount building software to Guild members) is fully aware. He believes many tradespeople should assess how they go about quoting and winning new work.
He says: “By lowering prices and under-cutting means making little or no profit. In some cases it also means having to go back with revisions half way through the job. I’m not saying that getting more quotes out there is a bad idea, however the quality of the quotes is vital.”
It is good news, therefore that HBXL provides EstimatorXpress software, which not only produces a professionally laid out quote, but can do it very quickly. And because it lists precisely where all the money is going, means users can explain to their customers exactly why a job costs what it does, and frequently will not have to lower their prices as a result.
Anthony adds: “One of our users told me that on one job he was £20,000 more expensive than his competitors and although he knew this he still didn’t lower his price because he knew he would be making a loss. But because he could justify the cost, he still won the contract.
“Quoting a sensible margin could ensure that a builder makes a decent profit on one job over a 10 week period rather than making the same amount of profit on three jobs over 30 weeks.”
Historically, many trade specialists would produce an estimate based on their experience, but HBXL’s software changes that process dramatically. All users have to do it input exactly what the job entails, into easy-to-understand drawings. Once the parameters have been inputted, the user just clicks a button and sits back while the software produces a totally accurate estimate right down to the last nail, screw or bag of cement.
The reason for the software’s accuracy is because it’s linked to a price tracker, which provides the very latest national average prices on materials. In addition the software can also be linked directly to specific trade merchants, which downloads prices as they are changes via the internet.
The way Guild members present their quotes and estimates to customers is becoming more and more important. There’s nothing worse than spending time producing an estimate and not win the work. What HBXL has done is provide a means to dramatically speed up the process while, at the same time, increase the probability of winning the work.